A smile goes a long way. A smile, especially those involuntary, spur of the moment ones that make you keenly aware of your cheek muscles, can brighten up any room. Those are the smiles that we remember. But many of us, for some reason or another, have some sort of reservation about our teeth. There are a ton of things that can keep us from expressing our smile the way we want to. Luckily today, all of it is fixable. If you’ve dreamed about having that perfect smile—the kind you see on the big screen, there are things that you can do right now to achieve it. Some options are more permanent and constitute a larger overall effort and investment. But there’s absolutely nothing stopping you from moving in the right direction. Here are some tips to start today. 

Go See A Doctor

If you haven’t gone to see a doctor, you probably should. We tend to ignore going to the doctor because, well, we don’t really like what they’re going to tell us. For a routine checkup and all your general needs, you should see a family dentist. They’re going to point you in the right direction as well as help you take care of any underlying oral health issues that they may find. That’s your step one. If you’re looking to get braces or re-align your teeth, a specialist called an orthodontist is the way to go. The doctors at Dunn Orthodontics, profess that up to 45% of people need some sort of realignment. If we’re going for perfection, 75% of the population of the United States could use an orthodontist to bring out that superstar smile. Chances are, you fall into that category. No matter where you are in your smile journey, seeing a doctor should be your next step. 

Hygiene Routine 

Next, you need a home hygiene routine. When it comes to teeth, we always put in the bare minimum effort. We work out for hours on end, we wear masks and disinfect everything, we get our annual physical, yet, we put in the least amount of effort on teeth. What did we think would happen? Did we think that putting in the bare minimum would yield optimal results? That’s never the case. Fortunately, Pareto’s Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, does apply. It states that 80% of the results come from 20% of the causes. So instead of going all out with our teeth, we can employ a simple home routine. Include brushing, flossing, tongue scraping, and consider mouthwash. A water pick is nice, but it’s not necessary. A lot of these products out now are not necessary. Stick to the fundamentals, but do them every single day. 

Food Choices

Our teeth are a reflection of our everyday choices. Outside of alignment, which can only be corrected by a licensed orthodontist, what we do and eat has a tremendous impact on how our teeth look. For instance, most Americans are coffee drinkers. That’s a known teeth stain. Another large percentage is a fan of soft drinks. The acidity in constant consumption has been known to eat away at a tooth’s outer protective covering. Even sugary, sweet food has some sort of negative impact on our teeth if we eat them often enough. That’s because we tend to forget to brush our teeth and the carb-heavy morsels in our teeth get eaten up but carb-loving bacteria. When they eat, they take a bit of tooth along with them. This can cause cavities. 

Health Hacks

When we put it all together, we kind of already know how to achieve a good smile. The problem is actually applying it in our daily lives. Little productivity hacks have been used to get us on the right track in terms of work and scheduling. We can definitely apply them to our oral hygiene plan.

• Always drink water with a meal. It may be great to kick back a flavored beverage, but finishing it off with a glass of water lets us wash down any leftover acidic and sweet remnants in our mouth.
• Fan of veggies like carrots and celery? Get to munching on them! Working the muscles around your teeth and jaw make for a healthier and functional set of choppers.
• Use technology if you have to. Setting timers and reminders on your phone is a great way to keep up with a new routine.

Getting that perfect smile is a lot more attainable than you think. Professionals can launch you to that stratosphere you want to get to, sure. But the initial moves—the first steps to getting that bright set of pearly whites, are all up to you.