Health Benefits of Your Smile and How To Achieve It
By Luke Douglas
While smiling might seem like the simplest, most intuitive action we can perform, it is actually much more powerful than we might initially think. Smiling has a great impact on our physical and mental well-being, allowing us to become healthier and happier with just a single action.
For that reason, we should aim to maintain a perfect smile as best as we possibly can, and here are some ways you could achieve just that, as well as few health benefits you might enjoy as a result:
The importance of oral hygiene
It’s a well-known fact that practicing good oral hygiene is essential for achieving optimal oral health. Apart from allowing you to maintain a clean and bright smile throughout your entire life, good oral hygiene will also help to prevent common tooth and gum diseases, while ensuring your pearly whites stay strong and healthy even in old age.
However, what many of us don’t realize is that our oral health is directly related to our overall health as well. Research has shown that an unhealthy mouth could be connected to a variety of illnesses and conditions such as Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. Evidently, a good smile is also a reflection of good health, and not merely a result of positive habits.
The health benefits of smiling
While oral hygiene might be an indicator of good health, the act of smiling itself can be quite beneficial for your mental health and overall well-being as well. Smiling can instantly lift our spirits, allow us to be more positive, help with relieving stress, make us appear more attractive, and even have a ripple effect on other people.
What’s more, smiling can also have a great impact on our overall health. Helping us to relieve pain, lower blood pressure, and even improve the immune system, smiling is evidently one of the best things we could do for our overall well-being, which is why it pays to invest in our oral hygiene and maintain a beautiful smile.
Achieving a perfectly straight smile
Even though we might want to smile more often, whether due to the health benefits or simply in an effort to enjoy life more, some of us might feel too insecure and self-conscious about the appearance of our smile to laugh more frequently. And one of the main reasons for this occurrence is crooked, overlapping, or otherwise misaligned teeth.
Thankfully, the solution to these conditions is quite simple. In case you are suffering from such malocclusion as well, braces for adults can offer the best and most lasting results. Made to efficiently treat your specific condition without attracting any unwanted attention, cosmetic braces can be a wonderful option for misaligned teeth and jaws, as well as a number of other dental complaints.
Improving the brightness of teeth
In case stained, discolored, or otherwise imperfect teeth are what’s stopping you from smiling more frequently, modern dentistry has a great solution for improving the brightness of your smile as well. Although flossing at least once, and brushing your teeth at least twice a day can be of great help, discolored teeth might require some additional assistance.
To remove any surface stains and improve discoloration to a certain extent, whitening toothpastes and at-home teeth-whitening kits can deliver quite beneficial and noticeable results. However, if you’re looking for a way to achieve perfectly white and bright teeth, getting a professional procedure done by a dentist might be the best solution.
Deciding on cosmetic procedures
Braces and teeth whitening aren’t the only available options; there are many other cosmetic dental procedures that will allow you to achieve a perfect smile you won’t have to hide any longer. Dental bonding, for instance, is a great choice for chipped, cracked, misshapen, or discolored teeth, instantly improving your smile with a subtle and natural look.
On the other hand, if you have severely discolored, damaged, or even missing teeth, procedures such as dental crowns, veneers, and dental implants can all help to revive your smile and lead to healthier, straighter, and brighter teeth.
Evidently, smiling has a number of important health benefits, which is why you should attempt to practice it more often. In case a cosmetic or health issue is stopping you from smiling, use the tips mentioned above to achieve the perfect smile you’ll never have to hide.
Luke is a lifestyle blogger. He is editor in chief at blog Ripped.me and one of the contributors at blog Trans4Mind. He follows the trends in fitness, gym and healthy life and loves to share his knowledge through useful and informative articles.
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Chinese Medicine Now Used To Treat Common Oral Health Issues
By Sally Perkins
Chinese medicine - particularly the use of traditional herbs - has been used for centuries in various Asian countries (including Korea, Japan, and the Philippines). However, a study on Chinese parental units with children aged under 12 in Houston and Boston has found that 45.6% of parents and 19.1% of children use Chinese medicine to treat specific oral conditions. These include bad breath, gingivitis, canker sores, herpes labialis, and tooth pain or sensitivity. The most commonly used medication, researchers at the University of Texas School of Dentistry found, were watermelon frost, niuhuang jiedu pian, and honey/propolis. What are these substances used for, and how can they help preserve better oral health as a whole?
Rebalancing Energy To Battle Halitosis
Traditional Chinese medicine recommended that people adopt a healthy lifestyle so as to keep energy balanced. Halitosis can arise from a wide array of causes, however - including digestive issues, tooth decay and gum disease. Inflamed gums caused by plaque build-up (gingivitis) are often characterized by an unpleasant smell. This is because the bacteria that irritates the gums can proliferate and cause bad breath. Left unchecked, gingivitis can cause loss of bone and teeth, severely harming your oral health and wellbeing. To battle gingivitis, daily brushing of the teeth and gumline and flossing are important. Chinese medicine commonly utilizes herbs such as danpi, huanglian, and huang qin to dispel heat. Doing so can also help reduce mouth ulcers and battle constipation. When halitosis is caused by a yin deficiency in the lungs, meanwhile, liquorice, ophiopogon root, and almonds are often recommended. There are other causes for halitosis - including deficient energy in the kidney and other systematic problems. It is important to determine the cause prior to taking a specific herb or set of herbs.
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Tooth Sensitivity And Chinese Herbs
When a patient has tooth sensitivity or pain, it is important to find the cause. This can originate from the stomach, kidney, mouth (for instance, owing to a tooth infection), amongst other areas. Usually, the type of pain or sensitivity will be determined by the situation. For instance, if tooth pain is acute and aggravated by eating hot food (but alleviated by eating cold foods) then the problem may be an ‘invasion of wind-heat, which can be dispelled by clearing heat and removing toxins. Herbs used to achieve this aim can include jin yin hua, lian qiao, and jing jie sui. Recommendations are usually amended depending on the presence or absence of symptoms such as swollen gums, a headache or a cough.
Acupuncture For Dental Pain, Dental Anxiety, And Dry Mouth
Acupuncture is used in both traditional Chinese medicine and modern western medicine to treat a host of dental disorders. These include dental pain, dental anxiety and gag reflex, TMJ, facial spasms, headache, dry mouth, nerve pain, and a burning or numb sensation in the mouth. Study after study has shown that acupuncture can help reduce pain and other symptoms. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Consensus Statement on Acupuncture of November of 1998, for instance, reports that acupuncture can successfully help quell postoperative dental pain. Another study (Ernst and Pittler) showed that acupuncture can help treat acute dental pain. Additional research by Johnstone and Furness showed that acupuncture could help relieve dry mouth in patients who had received radiotherapy for head and neck cancers.
Chinese medicine is increasingly being used across the globe to treat a variety of issues - everything from bad breath to dry mouth. Specific lifestyle recommendations and herbs can help deal with issues such as excess heat, which can result in gum inflammation, pain, and other problems. Acupuncture, meanwhile, is used widely to treat everything from dry mouth post-radiotherapy to dental anxiety.
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