Dental care goes beyond the four corners of a dentist’s office. We have to learn to do our part in taking care of our teeth, especially in light of today’s financial troubles. Simple things like brushing our teeth our teeth and watching what and how we eat could end up saving us hundreds if not thousands of dollars in dental bills.

So without further ado, here are the basic steps you can take to help protect your mouth, teeth, jaws and other dentistry-related problems:

Brushing and flossing still works

Brushing with toothpaste and flossing after meals are still the two best methods of maintaining good oral hygiene and staying out of the dentist’s office.

Brushing is in art in and of itself. Brush with small circular motions at a 45-degree angle on the front and back sides of the teeth, while the chewing surfaces of the teeth require flat and a bit more aggressive brushing to clean them out nicely. Remember to brush the surface of your tongue a few times and to use fluoride toothpaste, and you’ll be good to go.

Flossing requires that you pull about 12 to 18 inches of floss out of the roll. Twine them around the thumbs of your hands, leaving about an inch of floss to use for your teeth, and push inside the gums. Pull the floss towards a tooth and move it up and down to grab any leftover stuff in there.

Handling sweets, candies and acids

While brushing and flossing helps provide most of the dental care you’ll need, you also need to watch out what you eat in the first place.

Sugars and acids are two of the more damaging substances to a tooth. Expect to develop a cavity or ten if sugar is left to fester in a hidden spot, while acid has the tendency to peel away the enamel of teeth. Both makes the teeth and gums vulnerable to infection, which is one thing you do not want to happen to you. The same can also happen if your mouth does not produce enough saliva, so drink plenty of water and watch out for medications that dry the mouth out.

Avoid hard crunching and biting

Physical strain causes a whole slew of dental problems if you are not careful. Broken teeth, lacerations to the gum's, and torn jaw muscles and ligaments are just some of the extremely painful consequences of physical trauma.

Cracking up bones, chewing on ice and spending an hour munching on a strip of jerky are some activities that require repetitive, heavy chewing. Avoid such activities or at least keep them to a minimum in order to prevent your mouth and jaws from coming under too much stress.

These three dental care tips may sound rudimentary and common sense to most people, but you would be surprised at how many people actually head to the dentist’s office because they didn’t bother to follow them. Save yourself a lot of pain and financial trouble, and keep these basics to heart. And remember, when you get into “teeth trouble” again, your Vancouver dentist will be there for you.