You need your teeth. After all, your teeth are a hugely useful tooth in your everyday life, helping you to chew and eat with ease. They are also hugely important cosmetically, with the vast majority of adults here in the United States believing that the appearance of your teeth is integral not only to your social success, but to your career success and even your romantic success as well. Unfortunately, far too many people deal with a number of dental problems.

For one, crooked teeth are common, with a mere 35% of all adults in this country having front teeth that could be considered to be well aligned. For while many of us had braces for quite some time in our youth, teeth can easily fall out of alignment if not properly cared for after the braces are removed. Unfortunately for many, teenagers don’t always understand the gravity of their actions and, as a result, a great number of people have made the choice to forgo wearing their retainers almost immediately after having their braces removed. And while some people will only experience minimal shifting of their teeth after that, many will experience it to a quite more significant degree.

In addition to misaligned teeth, unhealthy teeth are also uncommon. Unfortunately, almost every single adult will have had a cavity at some point in their lives – and up to 40% of all children have already had at least one cavity by the time that they reach their kindergarten years. In fact, around one fifth of all adults have cavities that have not been treated, something that is unfortunately only likely to lead to the worsening of the cavity in the long run. And nearly half of all adults who are at or over the age of 30 (around 47% of them, to be a little more exact) have some form or stage of periodontal disease, which is incredibly commonly seen by dentists all throughout the country as a whole.

Fortunately, there are a number of ways in which you can improve the overall health and appearance of your teeth. Most effective of all is simply dental hygiene – an easy way to keep your teeth in good shape. According to dentists all around the country, it’s ideal to brush your teeth around twice a day. You should brush them more under special circumstances, such as when you have thrown up, but you don’t want to brush them too many times in a day, as this can actually contribute to the wearing down of the enamel. Of course, not brushing them enough in the first place can also have a hugely detrimental impact on your overall oral health.

In addition to brushing your teeth, you should be seeing your dentist ideally twice a year. If you only manage to get in to see a dentist once a year, this is still far better than never going at all. However, going as frequently as is recommend is still the best way to keep your teeth and overall oral health in good shape.

Sometimes, however, the damage has already been done and cosmetic changes need to be made. In the case of crooked or discolored teeth, veneers can be applied. When veneers are applied, the original teeth are shaved down to nubs and the veneers then glued over them. These veneers will function just as your original teeth did, as veneers are made to be just as as strong and as durable. In fact, some veneers in some people might be even stronger than the original teeth that existed.

Aside from the application of veneers, general dental care and dental work often includes the installation of dental implants as well. Dental implants are installed when a tooth has been lost or is beyond salvaging by the dentist at hand, and are actually far more common than most people would realize. In fact, it’s already estimated that up to 3 million people already have dental implants to some extent, and number that climbs by an additional half of a million people each and every year here in the United States alone.