You drink coffee and eat doughnuts every morning, you drink alcohol every Friday night, you bite your nails when you’re worried and you satisfy your sweet cravings without giving much thought to your teeth. It’s no secret that we all have bad habits that we cannot seem to stop doing.
You may not notice it now, but food, beverages and your daily activities can harm your oral health. The top offender, according to recent studies, is chewing on ice. This is a seemingly harmless habit that many people do, but you should think twice before crunching on ice cubes.
Bad Dental Habit
The hard, outer layer of your teeth is called the enamel. It helps protect your teeth from the wear and tear of biting, chewing, grinding and crunching. So, when you eat ice, you are putting pressure on the enamel and dentin that makes them eventually at risk of cracks and chips. Soon, your teeth may weaken and experience sensitivity.
In addition, the habit of ice chewing can hurt your gums. Ice cubes have sharp edges, so you can wreck your gums when you chew on them.
Value of Preventative Dentistry
Ice chewing is like a wrecking ball on your teeth. Believe it or not, your habit of chewing ice can do serious damage to your teeth more than you can imagine. In fact, it may lead to excessive tooth loss.
As a leading dental practice in Perth, Sparkle Dental Joondalup, puts it: “Your dentist will do everything possible to prolong the life of your natural teeth, but sometimes teeth can be too severely damaged to be saved and will have to be extracted. This is something that might be necessary if the tooth has substantial decay, if it is fractured right down to the root or has suffered some other kind of trauma.”
Do not let your bad daily habits wreck your teeth and beautiful smile. The first step to a healthier mouth is having regular dental visits and taking the necessary dental treatments.