The new year represents a fantastic opportunity to make a few changes to your lifestyle, but your teeth and gums are often neglected in the annual wish-list for the new and improved you. That’s a pity - because new years resolutions often fall by the wayside because they’re too dramatic or prove to be difficult to stick to. The best thing about dental health habits? They’re tiny!

By making just a few small changes to the way you treat your teeth, you can transform little habits into permanent fixtures in your daily routine - so by the time 2024 rolls around, you won’t even need to worry about remembering to do them, you’ll simply do them automatically. In fact - and bear with us here - you might even start to enjoy them.

If you already have a resolution to eat more healthily, you might be surprised to find that this also ties into your dental health. What you eat is really important when it comes to keeping your smile in tip-top condition. Cutting down on sugary or acidic food and drink, cutting down snacking between meals, and eating nutrient rich food like fruits and vegetables will all contribute to a healthier mouth, and move towards a healthier body while you’re at it.

If you’d like to set dental hygiene as your new year’s resolution, it could be as simple as learning the correct way to brush your teeth. This simple choice - to brush twice a day - can lead to profound changes to your oral health, and even your overall health far more than you might realise.

To brush your teeth properly, you should:

• Gently brush for two minutes, twice a day. Most electric toothbrushes will vibrate or chirp when you’ve brushed for long enough, so you’ve been doing it for long enough to reach every spot.
  
  

• Make sure you’re using the right amount of pressure and angle - the best way to brush is at a 45-degree angle to your gum line, cleaning each surface of your teeth.
  
  

• Floss once a day - you can use dental floss, an interdental brush or a water pick - whatever you feel most comfortable using.

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Perhaps your new year’s resolution is to check something off your list - that dental work you’ve been avoiding, the pain you’ve been doing your best to ignore, the damaged tooth that needs to be fixed. Find your local dentist using our nationwide search, and book an appointment for the first quarter of 2023 - your dentist will be able to give your mouth an MOT and recommend the services you might need to move forward with a smile you can be proud of.