Is this you: no matter what you do, you always seem to get cavities?

Outside of the regular brushing and flossing advice, here are 10 tips that will definitely prevent cavities regardless of your cavity history. Doing all 10 will really cut back on your potential to get cavities. If any of these are a big transition for you, just pick one to two that you can master. Small victories.

1. Cleanings Every 3-6 Months

This should logically be straightforward. Regular cleanings removes collected debris and bacteria that cause cavities, bad breath, and gum disease. Uncontrolled plaque can start causing gingival issues around 21 days so frequent cleanings are essential.

2. Cut Back on Snacking

You can still get cavities from eating regardless if the food does not contain sugar. Most American foods cause your mouth to be acidic and cavity-causing bacteria must be in an acidic environment to grow. The best routine is to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and refrain from eating outside of those intervals. This is a huge factor in preventing cavity formation.

3. Drink Water after Eating

After eating anything the best thing you can do is drink water. Water washes away debris and bacteria, improves morning breath, restores homeostasis, and quickly balances the pH in your mouth.

4. Chew Xylitol Gum

Chewing gum stimulates saliva and turns over bacteria. There is one type of gum that is the absolute best, which contains xylitol as the main ingredient. This ingredient creates an alkaline environments and prevents cavity-causing bacteria from spreading. Xylitol gum is far superior than sugar-free gum. The recommendation is to chew gum 3x/day right after a meal to be most effective.

5. Saliva is Your Friend

Many suffer from dry mouth, which may seem innocuous. Saliva is the primary factor that naturally prevents cavities by washing away bacteria and debris, but mainly by restoring a more alkaline pH in your mouth. Dry mouth creates an acidic environment to fester and that quickly leads to cavity-causing bacteria to grow rapidly. Drink a lot of water during the day. If dry mouth is a chronic challenge then use all dental cleaning products labeled for dry mouth. Those ingredients are additives and not a replacements in toothpastes and mouthwashes so you are not depriving yourself of other benefits that regular oral hygiene products have.

6. Do not Smoke or Use Chew

Think of smoking as suffocating your gums, preventing turnover and healing, introducing pathogenic bacteria and ionic radiation, and drying out your mouth allowing bacteria to cause cavities that normally would not be present.

7. Coffee Habits

Nearly all coffee is just as acidic as soda. Most know that sipping on soda throughout the day will guarantee getting cavities. The same holds true for coffee. The suggestion is to either drink coffee in one sitting only, or after each session of drinking to simply drink water right afterwards to wash the coffee acids off your teeth.

8. Drink Flavored Drinks During Meals Only

All carbonated or flavored drinks are acidic regardless of the sugar-free label. The worst time to drink juice, soda, coffee, etc is outside of mealtime. During a meal your mouth is already being bombarded with acids coating your teeth. Saliva is what washes away those acids to neutralize your mouth, which can take 30-120 minutes from eating to restore your teeth back to a healthy environment. If you are sipping on drinks outside of mealtime then your teeth because more vulnerable to cavities regardless of your oral hygiene prowess.

The Best drinks are milk or water.

9. Kiss Someone That Does Not Have Cavities

A mouth has just as much bacteria as the current world population. Your body has learned to balance all the good and bad bacteria. The same harmful bacteria that can be controlled in your mouth may not be in another's mouth. By sharing saliva through kissing this introduces new bacteria that is foreign to your mouth. Just make sure your kissing partner has great oral hygiene or think twice about your life decisions.

10. Get Braces

Aside from esthetics as a huge benefit, crowded teeth make it extremely difficult to effectively remove bacteria, plaque, and debris. Crowded teeth are open invitations to getting cavities! Completing braces creates a healthier mouth that is easier to clean, promotes less cavities, and allows for better breath.