Top Four Destructive Oral Habits That Damage Teeth

Some of our day-to-day habits can be quite destructive to our teeth. The top four of those habits are:

Chewing on Ice: If you chew on ice, then it can cause tooth pain, cracks, fracture, or even complete breakage of a tooth to an extreme point where in worst cases, loss of teeth. If teeth are always prone to extremely low temperatures, then it will start creating micro-fractures within its enamel. These micro-fractures will let stains go deep into the enamel layer and make your teeth stain overtime. If you are someone with several dental fillings in the mouth, then there are chances of breakage as the foundation of the tooth weakens.

Sucking your Thumb: Amongst children, thumb sucking is normal, which interferes with the positioning of the upper and lower front teeth. This makes the upper teeth to splay out and the lower teeth to tip towards the back of the mouth. If the habit continues, then both the jaws won’t develop properly and so get narrow and constricted, which can lead to breathing and speech problems.

Sucking on Lemons: Teeth are bathed in saliva, and its pH is neutral. Constant consumption of lemon can change the pH levels in your mouth and turn it into an acidic environment, which could be quite destructive, as it starts demineralizing the teeth and takes away enamel layers, slowly. As a result, they begin to appear yellowish due to stripping away of enamel layers, and the dentin layer lying beneath, which is actually yellow in color, will start reflecting through this. The bleaching won’t be effective at this point, as it works on a thick layer of enamel.

Biting on a Pen or Biting your Nails: There is a tolerance limit for a tooth to withstand pressure and stay healthy. It is essential to understand that teeth are embedded in the bone, which is not so solid and can remodel and reshape when forces are applied to them. While you tend to regularly chew your pen or have the habit of biting your nail, the front teeth would slowly start to shift, then the teeth next to it start taking its position and hence, leads to crowded teeth.

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