Four habits that protect your teeth more than anything else
Most oral health advice is a long list. In practice four things account for the majority of the outcome, and two of them have nothing to do with brushing.
Most advice about looking after your teeth arrives as a list of fifteen things, and a list of fifteen things is a list nobody follows.
In practice four habits account for most of the outcome. Two of them are about brushing. The other two are not, and they are the ones people underestimate.
1. Cut how often you eat sugar, not how much
This is the most useful idea on the page.
Sugar does not attack teeth directly. Bacteria eat it and produce acid, and it takes your saliva a while to wash that acid away and put minerals back. So what matters is not the total amount of sugar, it is how many separate times a day your teeth go under attack.
One biscuit with a cup of tea is one episode. Picking at a packet across an afternoon is many, with no recovery in between. The nutrition label looks similar. The effect on your teeth is not.
That reframing changes what you would actually do:
- Keep sweet things to mealtimes rather than between them
- Drink water between meals instead of anything sweet
- Never nurse a soft drink, sports drink or sweetened coffee across an hour
- If you snack, choose cheese, plain yoghurt, nuts or crunchy vegetables
On sugar substitutes: for decay purposes they are genuinely better, since the bacteria involved cannot use them. That is a real advantage. It does not make a product healthy, and plenty of sugar-free drinks are still acidic, which wears enamel by a separate mechanism entirely.
2. Understand what alcohol does
Alcohol affects teeth three ways, and the third is the one nobody thinks about.
Staining. Red wine and dark spirits colour teeth over time. Mixers and dark soft drinks add to it.
Sugar and acid. Many drinks are high in both. Wine is acidic on its own. Cocktails frequently combine acid, sugar and slow sipping, which is the worst possible arrangement.
A dry mouth. Alcohol reduces saliva, and saliva is your main natural defence. It washes acid away, carries minerals back to the enamel and keeps bacteria in check. A dry mouth loses all of that at exactly the moment there is more acid than usual to deal with.
You do not have to give it up. Alternate with water, which handles the dryness and the acid at once. Use a straw for dark cold drinks. And do not brush straight afterwards, because acid softens enamel temporarily and brushing it in that state wears it away. Rinse with water, brush an hour later.
3. Do not smoke
There is no gentle version of this one.
Smoking stains teeth quickly and deeply, and it causes bad breath that mouthwash covers rather than fixes. More seriously, it is a major cause of gum disease, which is the leading cause of tooth loss in adults, ahead of decay. It also slows healing, which makes extractions, implants and gum treatment harder and less predictable.
The cruellest part is what it does to the warning system. Smoking constricts the blood vessels in the gums, so they bleed less. Bleeding gums are the main early signal that something is wrong. Smokers often lose that signal while the disease underneath continues, which is why gum disease in smokers is frequently found later and further along.
Smoking is also a risk factor for oral cancer, which is one of the things we look for at every check-up.
If you are trying to quit, your GP and Quitline are better placed to help than we are. What we can say is that gums often improve noticeably within weeks of stopping.
4. The home routine, in full
Everything you need to do at home fits in a short list.
Brush twice a day, two minutes. Soft brush, angled about forty-five degrees into the gum line, small circles. Gently. If your brush splays within a month or two, you are pressing far too hard, and hard brushing wears enamel and pushes gums back.
Never skip the night one. Saliva drops while you sleep, so whatever you go to bed with sits there for eight hours undefended.
Spit, do not rinse. Rinsing with water straight after brushing washes off the fluoride you just applied. This costs nothing to change.
Clean between your teeth once a day. Floss, interdental brushes or a water flosser. A toothbrush physically cannot reach between two touching teeth, and those contact points are where a large share of decay and gum disease begins.
Do not forget the tongue. A gentle brush along it removes a surprising amount, and it is the most common cause of ordinary bad breath.
That is the whole routine. There is nothing missing from it.
And the one thing that is not a habit
Somebody looking properly, twice a year.
Not because your brushing is inadequate, but because two things in this article cannot be managed at home at all. Tartar, once it has hardened, only comes off with an instrument. And decay between teeth is invisible until it is large, which is what the x-rays are for.
Six months suits most people. Some need three or four, usually because of gum disease or fast tartar build-up. Some can safely go longer. We will suggest a rhythm that fits your mouth.
A full check-up and clean is a fixed $249, covering the exam, the scale and clean, fluoride and any bitewing x-rays you need. We claim your health fund on the spot, and many funds cover it in full.
Read more: How to brush and floss properly
Preventive care FAQ
What is the single most useful change I could make?
For most people, cutting the number of times a day they eat or drink something sweet. Not the total amount, the number of separate occasions. Every one starts an acid attack that takes time to settle, so grazing keeps your teeth under attack all day while the same food eaten at meals does far less.
Are sugar substitutes better for teeth?
For decay purposes, yes, because the bacteria that cause it cannot use them. That is a genuine advantage. It does not make a product good for you generally, and many sugar-free drinks are still acidic, which erodes enamel by a completely separate mechanism.
Does alcohol really affect teeth?
In three ways. Red wine and dark spirits stain. Many drinks and mixers are high in sugar and acid. And alcohol dries the mouth, which removes the saliva that normally washes acid away and puts minerals back. The dryness is the one people never think about and it may be the most important.
Is mouthwash necessary?
No. It is an addition, not a replacement for brushing or flossing. A fluoride rinse helps if you are prone to decay, used at a different time from brushing. If an alcohol-based rinse leaves your mouth dry, switch to alcohol-free, because dry mouths get more decay rather than less.
How often do I really need a check-up?
Six months suits most people. Some need three or four months, usually because of gum disease, a high decay rate or fast tartar build-up, and some can safely go longer. We will recommend a rhythm that fits your mouth rather than applying one rule to everybody.
