Today we are faced with so many beauty and health tips they are often overwhelming. Everywhere we look there is information to guide us about exercise routines, diets, detoxes and even meditation therapies to help us get or stay healthy. Our looks, when it comes to hair, skin care, tanning, nails, and every other part of the external anatomy is more than covered by the mountains of advice available. Yet the one thing we often fail to focus on when it comes to maintaining our fitness and our looks is how healthy our mouths are. We may think we are taking great care of our oral health by just following the minimum hygiene routine of brushing, flossing, and regular checkups. Yet little routines such as tongue scrapping and oil pulling can make all the difference between the bare minimum and excellent oral hygiene.
If we think about how many hours in a day we spend even on basic personal hygiene such as having a shower or a bath, and then add on the time we spend performing beauty routines, such as shaving, cleansing and applying skin care products, doing our hair and putting on make-up, and then compare it to the time we spend on our teeth – something is clearly lacking!
Yet, apart from the cosmetic issues, oral care is an essential part of maintaining our overall well-being and let’s face it, most of us are not that nice to our mouths. We might dutifully brush twice a day and use a thread of floss on some occasions. Most, even if we are not self-starters, will attend our dental check-up appointment every 6 months or so when our dental professional reminds us to go! Yet, although we often give ourselves a pat on the back for our good oral hygiene routine, what we are actually doing is practising the absolute minimum when it comes to mouth care.
So, why not sit back and think about the little extra things you can do for your teeth and mouth in addition to brushing and flossing twice a day?
Tongue scraping takes less than a minute to perform yet it can significantly help the good bacteria in your mouth to maintain a healthy balance. By using a tongue scraper once or twice a day and scraping 7 times from back to front, know that you are contributing substantially to keeping your mouth and teeth healthy.
Using a mouthwash every day can be helpful but there are indications that some actually have side effects. Instead, why not think about practising Oil Pulling three or four times a week? This involves putting a tablespoon of oil, such as coconut, olive or sesame, in your mouth and pushing and pulling it through your teeth for around 15 minutes. It has been proven to be almost as beneficial as a mouthwash and more so over the long term. Although most people recommend oil pulling every day, there is nothing written in stone! Doing it three times a week is certainly better than not at all and it definitely goes a long way toward restoring the balance of your oral microbiome and gives you fresher breath too!
If you want to read more about oil pulling then read my article from the April issue, but either way, rest assured that it has very limited side-effects and a lot of benefits.
These are just two ways in which you can pamper your mouth, make it part of your beauty regimen, and give it that extra attention it deserves without taking too much time out of your busy day!
Health. Lifestyle. Laughter
