Your teeth make an appearance every time you grin, help maintain the shape of your face and are key to the first step in the digestive process. Research has even shown oral health might be linked to cardiovascular health.
Still, it's easy to overlook, neglect and even abuse our teeth. And while a broken bone can heal over time, a damaged tooth can't.
CTVNews.ca spoke with a dentist and a professor of dentistry to find out which bad dental habits to avoid for a healthy smile.
Here are some of the things these experts would never do to their teeth.
You should never try out do-it-yourself dentistry trends without first talking to your dental team, no matter how popular they are on TikTok, Instagram or YouTube, Dr. Les Kalman and Dr. Uche Odiatu agree.
Kalman is an assistant professor of dentistry at the University of Western Ontario, who also holds a doctor of dental surgery degree, and Odiatu is a practicing dentist and health lecturer based in Toronto.
Kalman and Odiatu have seen everything from DIY whitening recipes and guides to 3D printing aligners, to instructions for filling cavities at home.
"A lot of these highlights on social media can be very dangerous, and they can cause significantly more damage than you would expect," Kalman said. "The damage, if you want to correct it, can be expensive. It can take a long time to correct, and it can be dangerous to your health."
Instead, Odiatu said to leave dental procedures and diagnosis to your dentist or dental hygienist.
"You do need to visit a professional at least twice a year to have them examine it and use the appropriate, professional products to restore your teeth to optimal health," he said. "Don't do it yourself."
Kalman warns the consequences of playing contact sports without wearing a professionally fabricated sports guard over your teeth can be severe.
Team Canada's Meghan Agosta-Marciano holds up her mask to show-off her patriotic mouthguard as she walks to practice at the Sochi Winter Olympics Tuesday February 4, 2014 in Sochi, Russia. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
"I remember a young female that was playing baseball in full braces, and she took a baseball to the mouth," he said. That patient was not wearing a mouth guard, which Kalman said would have dissipated the impact of the ball and protected her teeth.
"We had broken teeth, we had displaced teeth, we had lacerations," he said. "That's significant time and investment of money to fix. So a simple, professionally fitted sports guard would prevent that."
It can be tempting to use your teeth to open packages and grip twist-off bottle caps, but Kalman and Odiatu have treated enough patients who mistook their teeth for tools to say they'll never do it themselves.
"I can't tell you how many fillings, root canals and crowns we've placed on teeth that have tried to open this, that or the other thing," Kalman said.
Odiatu recalls one patient who knew better than to tear into plastic packaging with her teeth, but did it anyway.
"One of my patients, about five years ago at age 50, she had these beautiful veneers done...and she went to open up some dog food, thinking in her mind, 'I shouldn't do it,'" he said. "And then she ended up in my office the next day, (and) I was repairing one of her beautiful veneers."
Kalman warns patients should never wear over-the-counter appliances that go in your mouth, such night guard or sports guards, without first checking with your dental team.
"We actually had a patient that was wearing a particular device and it caused their teeth to shift, and they shifted permanently," he said. "So if you wanted to undo that shift, it would be a lot of time and a lot of money in full orthodontics."
Medical tourism — travelling out of the country for cosmetic or dental procedures — is a popular option among people looking to save money on elective treatments not covered by medical insurance.
However, Kalman warns the standard of care might be different than many Canadians are used to, depending on the destination and the legitimacy of the care provider. Many dental procedures that involve cutting or drilling into the hard and soft tissues of the mouth are considered surgery, according to the Canadian Dental Association and Health Canada.
"Never have dentistry performed out of the country without knowing the standard of care," he said. "You want to understand how things are sterilized. You want to see what procedures they're doing."
Are you in the habit of brushing your teeth after every meal? You might want to hold off after consuming acidic food and drinks, Odiatu suggests. That's because the acids in certain foods have a temporary softening effect on the protective enamel layer of our teeth.
The Spicy Pickle Lemonade, left and the Mac and Cheese Lemonade from Real Fruit Drinks, photographed during the media preview event for the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto, on Wednesday, August 17, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tijana Martin
"If you go in and scrub your teeth very hard with a manual brush, or clean up with a power brush, what happens is you actually lose a couple of microns (of enamel) every day," Odiatu said, "and you could actually lose almost a millimetre in a year by scrubbing too hard."
Instead, Otiadu said you should wait at least 45 minutes after eating or drinking something acidic before you brush your teeth.
There is plenty of societal pressure to have straight, white teeth, but our teeth and gums do much more for us than just look good. For that reason, Odiatu says you should never take them for granted.
"Everything we are, everything from our liver, our brain, our heart, our muscles, our skin, our organs – it all comes in the food we eat," he said, joking that the healthiest foods are the ones that need to be "crunched and bitten down on."
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