Sometimes, the urge to fall asleep trumps the nightly routine. Most of the time, however, missing your evening must-dos can be avoided. Hopping into bed at the same time every night is the best way to achieve a full eight hours of rest. Plus, maintaining a regular routine before your head hits the pillow forces you to stick to a sleep schedule. For those times you fall asleep on the sofa watching a movie and crawl into bed in the wee hours of the morning, you may still want to head to the bathroom and at least brush your teeth.
Consider the following three benefits for brushing each night:
Scrubbing away food particles
Think about all the food you consume throughout the day. Without brushing, food particles sit in your mouth for another eight hours while you rest. Food decaying in your mouth is definitely not a pretty picture, especially since this allows bacteria that coats your teeth to build. While you don’t necessarily have to brush immediately before bed, you shouldn’t eat anything after you brush in the evening. If you’re looking to lose weight, brushing your teeth about 30 minutes after dinner can limit midnight snacks that can impede waistline slimming efforts.
Waking up with (somewhat) fresher breath
Although brushing and flossing – even rinsing with mouthwash – each night doesn’t mean you’ll wake up with minty fresh breath, breath is worse when you fail to clean your teeth properly. Waking up with rotten breath could be from bacteria building, especially from carbohydrates. Your body produces acid to break down carbohydrates in your mouth before they even reach your stomach.
Keeping bacteria at bay
While you sleep, your mouth isn’t producing saliva at the same rate as when talking, eating or drinking. Saliva is an antibacterial agent, and without it your mouth is prone to cavity-causing elements. While you sleep, the mouth doesn’t produce as much saliva to break down the copious amounts of bacteria built up throughout the day – which is why you (thankfully) don’t wake up with a soaking wet pillow. Don’t think you can undo the damage in the morning, either. If skipping nighttime brushing is a regular mishap, the wear and tear occurs over time.
Stick to your schedule and get ready for bed before you start to feel your eyes get droopy to eliminate bacteria, food particles and bad breath before they have the chance to build.
To get a thorough check up and cleaning to jumpstart your new routine, contact our office for an appointment.
