Are you as committed to preserving your oral health as you should be? When you go without proper rest, it may become more difficult for you to protect your smile than you realize. Lacking sleep can make you unfocused throughout the day, but its toll can be heaviest during mornings and nights. These are times when you should be brushing and flossing your teeth, so those feelings of fatigue can be a concern for your smile. People who lack sleep may feel too groggy to focus on thorough smile care when they wake up, and they may fall asleep in the evening before brushing. Our Rochester, MN dentist’s office can help people who want to make sure their teeth remain safe and healthy, and we can step in to provide care if problems do arise.
Do You Consistently Provide Effective Care For Your Smile?
A short interruption in your smile care routine may be more costly than you realize. Throughout the day, bacteria and food debris can build up on your smile. While you can fight that accumulation by brushing and flossing, deposits of harmful materials you leave behind can eventually lead to the formation of plaque. Plaque deposits can be removed in the course of caring for your teeth, but when they are left behind they can harden and form tartar. Tartar puts you at risk for tooth decay as well as gum disease, and it is not something you can clear from your smile through daily care, as deposits will remain until your next professional teeth cleaning. What this means is that the “minor” intrusion of sleep deprivation on your oral health can have surprisingly long-term consequences.
Sleep Deprivation Can Affect Your Focus On Your Dental Health
When a person is sleep deprived, they may lack focus on different tasks. Not paying attention while you brush and floss your teeth can lead to mistakes you could easily avoid. For instance, you may not brush as thoroughly as normal on a morning where you feel especially weary, or you can fall asleep at night without taking time to brush and floss at all. Being tired can also affect the choices you make with your diet. If you need energy to make it through the day, you can find it through caffeinated drinks that can leave teeth stains and also increase your cavity risk!
Other Issues That Can Interfere With Your Ability To Protect Your Smile
Sleep deprivation is one of several issues that can change your relationship to your oral health. If you are struggling to deal with higher than normal stress levels, it may affect your dental health by causing you to grind your teeth, which can damage them. Feeling physically unwell may impact your oral health if you are not careful, particularly if you take medications that cause dry mouth.
Calcagno Cosmetic And Family Dentistry Helps Families In And Around Rochester, MN
Calcagno Cosmetic And Family Dentistry is prepared to help patients who want to make sure that their teeth are consistently safe from potential problems. To find out more about our practice, call our Rochester, MN dentist’s office at (507) 281-3659.
