Your dental health is crucial for your overall health, appearance, and even your self-confidence. People with healthy teeth smile more, and they’re more radiant and confident. The problem is that keeping your dental health at a high level takes so much effort on your part.
It’s something you have to do every day and it doesn’t matter whether you’re at home on a leave, traveling the world, or stuck at the office.
Contrary to popular belief, it takes hours for plaque to start forming on your teeth. It doesn’t take days, weeks, months, or years – we’re talking about hours. This means you don’t have the time to go home and brush your teeth; you have to act now.
With that in mind and without further ado, here are some of the quickest and easiest oral hygiene routines you should apply in the workplace.
- Water is your friend
While some of the newest offices and the most progressive employers will install a mouthwash dispenser with cups in the bathroom, most people won’t have the privilege of this amenity. Instead, they have to bring their own mouthwash.
Still, not a lot of people do.
Only a handful of people brush at work, even fewer floss, and there are so few those who actually bring their own mouthwash. This is a shame, really, since working hours are when you snack the most.
Remember that water is your friend. Even just rinsing will help you out drastically. This is especially the case when you drink a soda or grab a snack. Rinsing is really important because it reaches those spaces that even a dental floss can’t. Sure, water can’t wash off much, but any help counts.
Sure, in an ideal world, you would go to the bathroom, floss, brush your teeth, and then rinse with mouthwash. However, make no mistake: rinsing with water is infinitely better than doing nothing.
It all comes down to prioritizing. If you can, you do the full routine. If you can’t, you just go to the bathroom and rinse. Don’t use the fact that you don’t have the time for an entire routine to get lazy and skip/postpone this until you get home.
- Bring your kit
Just think about the amount of space that a toothbrush and a floss require. If you go to your local store, you’ll even find a micro package of mouthwash, but even if you don’t, you can buy a small bottle, disinfect it, and fill it with mouthwash. After all, how many times are you going to use it at work? You really don’t need much, and you can just refill it in a couple of days (or that very night).
The point that we’re trying to make is that you can pack all that you need, even in the tiniest of bags, and carry it around with you. If you have a locker of sorts, you could even keep it at work. In fact, you could even keep this kit in your workstation drawer.
If you have the kit, all you have to do is go to the bathroom and do the routine.
Now, keep in mind that you need about 2-3 minutes to floss and 2-3 minutes to brush your teeth properly. Rinsing your mouth with water and mouthwash takes several seconds.
Provided that you’re not running to the bathroom to brush your teeth 3-5 times per workday, this really isn’t that much of a hindrance. All you have to do is stick to 1-2 meals per your work day and avoid snacks and soft drinks at work.
Speaking of which…
- Watch out for snacks
When it comes to the dietary habits of working people, there’s a lot to be desired. Of course, we’re not talking about people working from home; they’re a category on their own. We’re talking about people working from an office, like in the olden times.
This is when you eat candies, chocolate bars, and nuts/seeds of all sorts. You see, while at work, you may take a break to have lunch, and snacks are much more workstation-friendly. We’re talking about the types of foods that are the worst for your dental health and the food whose leftovers you’ll have the hardest time getting out of your teeth without flossing.
The structure of the office is such that you may have a canteen or a kitchen, but you certainly have a vending machine. Sure, in places like Japan, you may have a healthy food package or a healthy snack in a vending machine, but this won’t be the case in most of the world.
You need to be more mindful of what you eat and drink while at work. Ideally, you would have one major meal and fast for the rest of your work day. Drink water and understand that you’ve had your caloric input for the time being; everything else is in your head.
While this is generally a good idea, it’s harder to control your diet at work.
- Chewing gum can be more useful than you think
Finally, while you may not have expected to find this one on the list, the truth is that chewing gym can be more useful than you think.
Look at it this way: sugarless gum is no replacement for brushing your teeth or flossing. On the other hand, it could help you get that leftover food from between your teeth.
Sure, it should never be your first choice, but if you don’t have other alternatives, it’s a great way to get some of these leftovers you would otherwise be unable to reach.
This is one of the main reasons why you’re using dental floss and mouthwash. Even for the most persistent of people, a brush cannot reach everything. This is why you use these alternative methods in order to keep your oral cavity clean and healthy.
Wrap up
You’re spending too much time at work to ignore your dental health routine while there safely. The truth is that taking care of your teeth while at work is not impossible (it doesn’t even have to be difficult). You just need to understand why it matters and how you can do it. Later on, doing the right thing every day will become a habit.
