“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.” – Thich Nhat Hanh
This is a brilliant quote. It describes the importance of a smile so beautifully. But, it also tells us how important a smile can be for us, and the people near us too. It can brighten everyone’s day. A smile is also very important in a professional setting and can play a big role in confidence, performance, and communication as well. People often judge you by first impressions, and a wide, bright smile is a big part of a good first impression.
Ok, so now you know why there is so much emphasis on your smile. But what can you do to make sure that you always are ready to flash a large, wide, and hearty smile?
Keeping all the psychological factors aside, the number one step you must take to ensure you are always smile-ready is to take good care of your dental hygiene. The state of your dental hygiene has a very significant role in your smile. And that is the reason why dentists and other doctors recommend drinking water as a standard practice to keep your smile healthy.
Before we tackle the relation between drinking water and a smile, let us take a quick walk through the importance of dental hygiene and your smile?
How your dental hygiene affects your smile?
You may be thinking why should we discuss dental hygiene for a smile? Well, you need your teeth, gums, and overall mouth structure to be in splendid shape to be able to flash a gorgeous smile whenever you want. Find out how they play a bigger role than you think in your smile :
Enamel Protection
Smiling is the best when you can confidently flash your whites and smile as you mean it. A lot of times, we hesitate to smile or even talk well, because our teeth aren’t that perfect shade of white. One of the most common reasons for this is the erosion of our tooth enamel. When you consume food with high sugar or acidic content, it slowly eats away our enamel and reduces the shine of our teeth. Irregular flossing, brushing with a hard bristle, and intake of the wrong food can play a severe role in enamel loss. Over a period of time, the enamel erodes completely, passing on the impact to the tooth structure. That can lead to breakage, gum diseases, and other such dental issues. Regular visits to the dentists can prevent this situation so that you don’t have to be embarrassed to smile anywhere.
Staining
While enamel protection is necessary for the protection of our tooth structures, there is another factor that inhibits us from smiling freely, and that is staining. Caffeine rich drinks, sugary foods, candies, gummies, citrus-rich fruits, and some sticky foods can stick to our teeth for a longer time and cause staining. These stains, being extremely harmful to your dental hygiene, can also be quite embarrassing. Regular brushing, flossing, and avoiding such food types can save you from having stained teeth for life. If the staining is an old issue, even hard dental treatments may not be successful in rectifying them. So, it is indeed true here that prevention is better than care.
Jawline
Even if it is a shallow thought, it is a thought that many of us have. We like to have defined jawlines, and a lack of one makes us conscious about how we look when we talk, when we smile, or when we laugh. A healthier and stronger jawline also supports our teeth and overall mouth structure, making our smile more attractive. So, what’s the connection between the jawline and dental hygiene. The jawline and our teeth structure are inherently connected. If we neglect dental hygiene and let our gums and teeth get attacked by germs, we compromise the integrity of the base structure leading to an undefined jawline. The entire structure of our smile depends on this jawline, so we must pay attention to our dental hygiene and keep it intact.
How does drinking water help improve dental hygiene and your smile?
So, you must be wondering that the headline spoke about how drinking water can help us have a beautiful smile. But, we have been hearing only about the importance of dental hygiene and the relation it has to our smile. So, how exactly does water figure into this whole conversation? Well, surprised or not, water plays a much more significant role in your oral or dental hygiene than you imagine it to be.
Tooth strength/ Fluoride content
Drinking water that comes from public water supplies has a built-in fluoride content in it. Drinking fluoride-rich water helps you nourish your teeth without taking any external supplements. We have discussed in the previous sections how the base strength of your teeth play an important role in keeping the teeth beautiful and white while maintaining the basic structure of your mouth/ jawline. Fluoride is called a natural cavity fighter. Today, most of the foods we consume have high sugar, acid, and starch content. These can be really detrimental to the strength of our teeth. Regular consumption and accumulation of such food particles can form cavities in our teeth. Fluoride content strengthens our teeth by sticking to the enamel and fighting off the attack from such food particles. Dental cavities can reduce the structure of our teeth, weaken our gums, and erode the enamel making smiling regularly with ease, a very difficult task. Consuming fluoride-rich water regularly in adequate quantities can prevent all of these.
Natural Cleanser/ Prevents staining
So, we know that all of us will feel awkward to smile if our teeth aren’t the right color or riddled with pigmentation issues. A lot of the food we consume today is riddled with chemicals and artificial colors. These chemicals and colors can be quite unforgiving on your teeth. Also, the fast-food culture has opened our mouths to an assault from the sugar, acid, and starch trio. These food compounds can stick to your teeth and gums leading to enamel erosion, gum diseases, and cavities. Enamel erosion is a very serious issue as it can lead to stained and pigmented teeth. Continuous consumption of artificially colored foods can be harmful too. Drinking water is the easiest and most natural way to deal with all of these issues. Water is a natural cleanser, so it helps you wash away all the remaining food particles and also quickly remove any food pigments clinging to your teeth. A sip of water regularly keeps your mouth clean and free from any staining issues.
Fresh Breath
Ok, you may not realize this, but your breath too plays an important role in keeping your smile beautiful and attractive. And, of course, a fresh and minty clean breath is bound to make you feel more confident in giving a bigger smile. So, drink water regularly and especially after every meal to make sure that the remaining and lingering food particles get washed away. If not, they will remain in your mouth and fester as germs and bacteria. These germs only lead to foul-smelling breath. Drinking water regularly always makes sure you don’t have a dry mouth and stop the growth of bacteria. Finally, everything boils down to dental hygiene and keeping your mouth clean at all times. Regular consumption of water after meals or even after you have had a light snack, chocolate bite, or a drink can make a huge difference in your breath and smile quality.
Neutralize your mouth
Our mouth is a very sensitive place. The gums, teeth, and enamel are not built to handle harsher conditions. At the same time, we cannot avoid everything that has acids, sugars, or starch for the sake of our teeth alone. We need them in some proportions, at least as per our dietary needs. So, we need to figure out a way to safely consume such food compounds. Water, in addition to being a natural cleanser, is also a great neutralizer. Water holds the capacity to neutralize the presence of acids and sugar residue present in our mouth after every meal. Water is a very effective tool in making sure the pH of our mouth does not get too acidic and that our teeth and gums remain protected from harsh conditions. You must regularly drink water to hydrate yourself and your mouth so that you can safeguard your tooth enamel and dental hygiene for a brighter smile.
Summary
A smile is not just something that comes from your lips. It comes from your confidence in flashing a toothy grin that can light up a whole room if you want it to. Ensuring proper dental hygiene so that your smile remains intact for years to come is an important step for your self-care. And, when it can be done, so easily just by consuming water regularly, how hard can it be?
So chug a glass of water, knowing that it is going to make you smile better in the days to come. And then flash that brilliant smile we know you can.
