If you finish a meal and then notice food stuck in your teeth, this can detract from a moment that would otherwise be incredibly satisfying. The food bits can stay trapped in your smile as you attempt to go about the rest of your day, which can prove quite distracting.
Trapped food between your teeth is not only annoying. The lingering particles can present a danger to your oral health. Do not ignore this phenomenon if you want to preserve your smile. Read on to learn more details about what food stuck between your teeth can mean for your overall dental health.
Will Trapped Food in My Smile Harm Oral Health?
The foreign presence of lingering food in the mouth can feel annoying, but after a while, food stuck in your teeth can start to hurt. The trapped food will apply pressure to the surrounding teeth, which can result in a constant ache.
Even if you think you can tolerate this pain, you should not ignore it. Chronic pressure on your teeth may cause them to shift out of their usual straight position. Preserve the look and feel of your smile by addressing concerns like items stuck in your teeth swiftly.
Food that remains in your smile will also start to decay, which encourages the natural bacteria in your mouth to produce more plaque. This plaque will then start to eat away at your dental structure.
The resulting weakening of the teeth leaves your smile vulnerable to cavities and many other dental dangers. And once gone, the enamel will not regrow. Avoid irreversible harm to your oral health by eradicating food trapped in your smile and other concerns.
How Do I Remove Food from Between My Teeth?
In most cases, you can remove food stuck in your teeth on your own. You may feel tempted to use fingernails to dig out these bits between your teeth. But this is not polite to do in public, and you should avoid putting germy fingers in your mouth as well as transferring oral bacteria to your hands.
Instead, dentists suggest using dental floss or your toothbrush to get rid of trapped food in your smile. Your oral hygiene routine scrubs away residues from your smile in a safe and effective way. And you can employ these tools, especially floss, to target the space between your teeth without harming the rest of your smile.
Can I Prevent Food from Getting Stuck in My Smile?
Anyone might notice a bit of pork or a small seed getting stuck in their teeth now and then. But if food in your teeth occurs on a frequent basis, you might have what dentists call a food trap.
These refer to concerns in the alignment of your teeth or your gum health that allow food to easily become stuck in your smile. Talk to your dentist about this problem if it arises so that you can find treatment to resolve this issue.