When the new year rolls around, the most popular resolutions tend to be the most drastic and challenging to accomplish. The best (and most realistic) changes to make are small ones that will still make a significant impact on your life. Keeping a better dental routine is a simple resolution to gain big health achievements in 2017.
Here are a few ways to achieve your new year’s resolution for a better smile.
Schedule Your Dental Appointment
With a new year coming, you’ll likely be buying yourself a new calendar or planner. An easy way to commit to regular dental appointments is to schedule them out in advance. Look at your calendar and decide how often you can commit to dental appointments for you and your family (be sure everyone visits the dentist at least twice a year!). Doing this preparation will make it easier when you’re scheduling appointments on the phone with us or your dentist.
Regular dental visits usually means twice per year. Depending on your risk factors for gum disease, you might choose to schedule appointments more often.
Kick a Bad Habit
A small change can make an enormous impact over a the course of an entire year. Is your weakness sugar? Drinking too much soda? Smoking? Are you sizing up the challenge of cutting coffee out of your diet? Stopping any of these habits will mean healthier and possibly whiter teeth.
There’s no strict rule for how long it takes to make a new habit, but start with January, and simply try to develop the habit into February—then switch the goal to March, and so on until you’ve made a true change.
Restorative Dentistry
The new year is also a good reason to get some long overdue dental procedures completed. Do you have any existing problems with your teeth, like a chipped tooth or a molar that needs a filling? Dater Dentistry even offers Same-Day Crowns, meaning you could have a fixed tooth by the end of a two hour appointment. Make a to-do list for the new year and try to check off any procedures early on in the year.
Diet for a Healthy Smile
We’ve posted blogs in the past about what kind of foods or drinks can stain your teeth. As a general guideline, water is the healthiest drink. Milk also has many vitamins and low acidity. You should also avoid sugary foods and eat more fibrous foods, since they scrub plaque away from your teeth.
If you’re trying a new diet for 2017, you’ll most likely be drinking more water and eating less sugar anyway. Good luck on your new years resolutions for a better smile. We hope that any new habit you try for your teeth sticks for the new year, and we’re looking forward to seeing you in 2017!