5 Tips For Healthy Smiles and Great Dental Hygiene: Try This Smile Workout Plan!

I'm Dr. Catrise Austin, cosmetic dentist to the stars and I've helped some of your favorite celebrities with their smiles, like Cardi B, Wendy Williams, Common, Anthony Anderson, and so many more! Today, I'm going to share a five-step smile workout plan that will help you have beautiful, healthy smiles just like your favorite celebs!

Consider your smile as a workout, just like you do a workout for your entire body, it's super important that you also have a great dental hygiene workout as well. I'm going to tell you why you need a smile workout routine and how you can achieve great results in no time!

The Importance of Healthy Smiles and Good Dental Hygiene

A lot of people ask me, "Dr. Austin, can I really have a smile like the celebrities?" And my answer is, "yes you can!" It's much easier than you think. If you really think about it, the secret to having a celebrity smile is having clean, healthy teeth. And you can achieve that if you follow a routine.

Now, a lot of people ask, "why is it important to have good oral health?" I'm here to tell you that when you feel good about your teeth and your smile, it's just going to make you feel good about yourself overall. Take it from me, I just recently got my smile transformed. And of course, I take care of my teeth, but when you feel good about your teeth, you're going to have a boost of confidence and you're going to just feel happier overall. And that's what we want.

So today we're going to go through the five-step smile workout plan. I'm going to get you to work out that smile like you're working out your body, it's just as important.

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Step 1: Teeth Brushing Routine

Now, when you're brushing, I need you to brush for two whole minutes and brush with a soft manual toothbrush, or you can even use an electric toothbrush. Now I personally love electric toothbrushes because many of them have timers and different brushing modes. But most importantly, the timer is usually set for two minutes and every 30 seconds it is going to beep to let you know that you need to move to the next section. So this is what I want you to do. I need you to divide your mouth into four sections.

And you're going to brush each section for 30 seconds. And that toothbrush is going to tell you when it's time to move to the next section. Now, while you're in each section it's super important that you clean each and every surface of your tooth. You want to clean the front surface, the biting surface, and the tongue surface. You've got to get all three. And then you're going to move to the next section after 30 seconds. So 30 seconds, 30 seconds, 30 seconds, 30 seconds, to total two whole minutes.

This is not something that you want to rush through. The name of the game is to remove those plaque germs that are responsible for gum disease and cavities. You also want to get rid of the sugars, acids and keep the foundation of your mouth healthy.

Step 2: Floss Like A Boss with Dental Floss Picks!

Now I know a lot of you guys skip this part, but this is a very, very important step in your healthy smiles workout plan. Regularly flossing your teeth will help you remove bacteria that are hidden below the gums, where that toothbrush can't reach. You've got to get those hidden areas that have food and bacteria. If the food and bacteria sit there too long, it's gonna start to smell like garbage, and it's gonna cause bad breath.

You're networking. You're out on a hot date, or maybe even trying to close some business deals and some sales. Bad breath can really ruin your interaction with people. So, you want to be confident, right? That's why flossing your teeth is super important. Don't skip this step.

One of my favorite things is dental floss picks. They are very easy to use and they are also really affordable and even come in packs of 50 or 100. What I love about these dental floss picks is that you're not going to get all tangled up with using string floss. It's super easy, you just grab and go.

Now, what you want to do is while you're flossing, is to go in an up and down vertical motion. The name of the game is to clean the sides of your teeth. We don't want the sugar sticking to your teeth. We don't want the plaque sticking to your teeth. You want to keep that surface nice and clean.

Now, underneath the gums, you also have fibers and bone, and the fibers are holding your teeth to the bone to stabilize you. And that's what we want. We want to have strong teeth and healthy gums, and solid bone so that you don't lose your teeth. So regularly flossing is gonna be super key!

You want to do this twice a day as well. If you could do all brushing and flossing three times, I'd be super happy, but I'll take two.  In the morning, and at night before you go to bed.  You don't want to go to bed with sugars and bacteria on your teeth.

Step 3: Use Mouthwash To Rinse Your Mouth

Did you know that when you're just brushing alone, you're only reaching about twenty-five percent of the mouth? That's not good enough.  So, we want to rinse with an effective mouthwash. I personally recommend Listerine Cool Mint, Antiseptic Mouthwash. When you use it twice a day for 30 seconds, you're going to virtually clean almost one hundred percent of your mouth. And you're going to get 24-hour germ protection and kill 99.9% of those germs that can lead to plaque build-up, bad breath, and gingivitis.

When you use mouthwash to rinse your mouth every day, I promise you you're going to get a full mouth clean, and that's what we want. Now there are different versions of Listerine, but the Listerine Cool Mint, Antiseptic Mouthwash is clinically proven to have oral health benefits. So this is my favorite.

Step 4: Use A Tongue Scraper

Now step four in my healthy smiles workout plan is cleaning your tongue. The tongue holds a lot of hidden bacteria. You have crevices in your tongue, plaque gets into those grooves, and it's a source of bad breath. We don't want you to have bad breath. We want you to have fresh, confident, kissable breath.

One of the best ways to clean your tongue is by using a tongue scraper. They are very easy to use.  What you're going to do is you're going to take this tongue scraper, and you're going to stick your tongue out as far as you can and use this tongue scraper and go back as far as you can without gagging. Stick your tongue out and scrape.

Now, if you haven't been doing this regularly, you may see a brown or a white film of bacteria right here on the tongue scraper, it's disgusting, but we have to do it. We've got to get that bacteria off your tongue so that you can have good dental hygiene.

Step 5: Stay Consistent

The final step in my five-step smile workout plan is making sure that you're super consistent. I want you to do this smile workout plan every single day. I want you to work out your smile like you're working out your body. Get in the rhythm of doing it. And when you find that you're doing this every single day, you're going to see that it will get easier and easier. And it's not going to seem like so much of a burden.

You'll also find that you're going to actually start to kind of like it, and you'll even feel empty if you're not following these five steps every day. So brush, floss, rinse your mouth, clean your tongue, and be consistent, and you're on your way to a much healthier smile.

Now you may be asking why is it important to get rid of these germs? Well, it's so important to get rid of these germs because we don't want you to get gum disease. That's the last thing that you want. If you don't know what gum disease is, or what it looks like, it's when you have bleeding gums, or your gums may turn from being pink to red.

You may find that they're a little tender or even swollen. And if you don't get it under control, over time, your substructure, the fibers, and the bone is going to start to deteriorate. Your teeth are going to get loose and you might lose your teeth. And we don't want that. We want you to have your teeth for a lifetime. So again, following this five-step smile workout plan is going to help you get rid of the bacteria, and have healthier gums.

I also want you to pair this with going to your dentist. You should be seeing your dentist at least two times a year, or every six months. And sometimes your dentist may recommend that you see them every three to four months. Especially if you have a history of advanced gum disease or if you have diabetes where you're more susceptible to advanced gum disease.

We want to catch problems before they get big, expensive, and painful. I hope that you have enjoyed my five-step smile workout plan. Again, think of your mouth as just as important as your overall body.

Your mouth is connected to your body, and there are links to poor oral health and major health issues. Your oral health can also affect your brain, vital organs, and we don't want that bacteria to travel and just do harmful things to your health.

So let's get into it. Let's get to working out those smiles. Try this smile workout plan for healthy smiles and great dental hygiene!