It’s the beginning of a New Year, resolutions are in full swing and you’re making great progress. Whether your plan is to lose weight, exercise more or spend more time with your family, our goal is to make sure you have a healthy smile through it all.

Maintaining a healthy smile is simple. Follow these tips to get started.

Six Tips for a Healthy Smile

1. 1. Brush twice daily for two minutes. Make sure you are using a soft toothbrush, harder bristles doesn’t mean cleaner teeth. In fact, brushing hard can damage your gums. Be gentle and go slow. Set a timer to ensure you’re doing a full two minutes. Also, it’s important to throw out your toothbrush after you’ve been sick or every three months (it helps to mark it on your calendar).

1. 1. Floss daily. While brushing gets the surface areas of your teeth clean, flossing removes the sticky bacteria and plaque from between the teeth and gums. Brushing is usually the easy part, with flossing being the more challenging to do regularly. We say, make it easy, use a waterpik while in the shower or floss picks on the go. You will be surprised at how quickly it becomes routine.

1. 1. Chew more gum! Chewing sugarless gum after meals produces saliva, keeps your mouth clean and helps prevent tooth decay. Plus, it leaves you with minty, fresh breath.

1. 1. Maintain a healthy diet. What you put in your mouth has a direct impact on your teeth. Eating calcium-rich foods builds strong bones and tooth enamel, and minimizing sugar intake reduces the risk of cavities. Bonus: a well-balanced diet may be another resolution, so you’re getting two for the price of one!

1. 1. Drink water. Drinking water helps cleanse your mouth, frees it from debris and bacteria. In fact, we suggest drinking fluoridated water, to prevent cavities.

1. Schedule routine visits to the dentist. Get your calendar out now, and call our office. This can be one of the first items to check off your list in the New Year. Then you can focus on your other resolutions.

Keeping Your New Year’s Resolutions

“According to researchers at Duke University, habits account for about 40 percent of our behaviors on any given day.”

So in order to ensure you’re staying on track with your resolutions, consider following this simple guide to creating a habit.

• • Start small, if you keep it simple you’re more likely to stick with it.

• • Repeat regularly, the more often you repeat a behavior, the easier it will become a habit.

• • Don’t let slip ups detour you, if you miss a day get right back on track.

• Be patient with yourself, the more you make something fun and light the easier it will be to stick with it.

Dr. Espinosa and the Bonita Del Rey team are here to assist you with any questions you may have about your oral health care. Our goal is to make you smile – and we know you smile more when you’re healthy! Contact our office with questions, dental check-up appointments, free dental consultations and/or second opinions. We are here for you!

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Five Stars from Melissa – “I always have a very good experience with this dental office. The office is very clean and organized. The dentist and staff are all very nice and courteous to me and other patients. They are awesome!”

Five Stars from Sandra – “I have been coming here since September 2016 and have been nothing buy pleased with the service I have received from Dr. Espinosa and the entire staff. Of all of the dentists that I have seen over the last 50 plus years, Bonita Del Rey is my favorite and best!!”

Five Stars from Jeffrey- “I can honestly say this is by far the best dental care I’ve ever received! The staff makes you feel at home, they are just really nice to everyone. Everyone here is very professional and the Dentists are very nice and careful when working with patients. I totally recommend this place!”