Taking care of our teeth is a lifelong process.  Certain habits we develop or certain food preferences can cause havoc on our teeth and its wellbeing. Even though it looks like our teeth can take everything there is still a threshold beyond which there can be trouble causing chipping, discolouration, sensitiveness and pain in our teeth. It is an awareness about things that can harm our teeth that will guide us towards healthy teeth and a gleaming smile.

Here are a few things we should stop doing to keep our teeth in good shape:

Chewing on ice

Unlike ice-creams, ice is natural and sugar free or you may think so. You may think that it is just harmless. On the contarary munching on frozen ice cubes can very often result in a chip or crack in your teeth.

If it goes further and irritates the soft tissue inside the tooth, this will give rise to toothaches. The result is hot foods and cold drinks may trigger sharp pain and nagging toothache. So, whenever you feel like chomping on some ice-cubes, just chew on some sugarless gum instead.

Without guard

Lot of times a young person engaging in a game or sports meet with unexpected injuries on the field and it can been something to do with their dental health. The norm is to use a tooth guard whenever you play games like football, hockey or any other contact sport.

Without a mouth guard you can be the victim of a painful dental injury including teeth getting chipped or even knocked off completely.

Grinding teeth

Many people have the habit of grinding their teeth even when they are not angry. Grinding teeth can result in wearing down of the teeth. The habit can happen when one is asleep and due to some stress and sleeping habits. It is then quite hard to control. Avoiding hard foods during daytime to reduce the damage and wearing a mouth guard at night are advisable.

Taking cough drops

Just because cough drops are sold in the medicine aisle doesn't mean they’re healthy. Most are loaded with sugar. So after soothing your throat with a lozenge, be sure to brush well. Whether the sugar comes from a cough drop or a hard candy, it reacts with the sticky plaque that coats your teeth. Then bacteria in the plaque convert the sugar into an acid that eats away at tooth enamel. Hello, cavities.