Rory Mycek is a guest contributor from www.TopDentists.com, the dental resource site of Everyday Health.
Do yourself a favor every day and smile! This simple act changes your blood flow so that your brain sends out endorphins, or happy feelings, throughout your body. Even if you’re in a bad mood, sometimes smiling can trick you into changing your mood. Smiling allows you to feel more relaxed and draws in more people to you. Do you need any more reasons to smile?

Perfecting Your Best Accessory

If you’re going to start smiling all the time make sure that your smile is up to par and take extra special care of it! Brushing your teeth twice a day along with regular flossing is the basis of any oral care routine, along with regular visits to your dentist. How can we further protect and perfect our best accessory?

At-home teeth whitening systems are more than plentiful now and there seems to be one for every budget! If you would like to take the most basic approach to whitening your teeth, add some baking soda on top of your toothpaste when you brush and follow brushing with a whitening mouthwash. For ladies’ night out, apply lipstick. Pale pinks, sheer berry tints, blue undertones and intense red shades make your teeth appear whiter while nudes and shades with yellow or golden undertones make teeth appear more yellow or dull.

As we age our teeth may shift a bit from our post-braces perfect smile, but that doesn’t mean we have to go back to braces or live with it. Invisalign is an easy fix to straighten out a smile. Your dentist will make a cast of your teeth and create a custom-fitted mold of your teeth and over time as your teeth readjust themselves, your mold will change to accommodate for further straightening. What’s nice about the Invisalign is you can keep popping them back in, most likely at bedtime, to maintain the straight appearance.

For more dramatic fixes cosmetic dentistry may be the answer. Cosmetic dentists can fix:

• Chipped or cracked teeth

• Discolored enamel

• Gaps between teeth

• Uneven or too-noticeable gums

• Irregularly shaped teeth

• Crooked and misaligned teeth

Different cosmetic dental procedures include:

• Tooth whitening

• Veneers

• Cosmetic bonding

• Laser contouring

• Dental implants

• Cosmetic crowns

• Inlays and onlays

While there are so many options out there, possibly one of the most important things you can do is to watch your diet. Try to avoid foods that are high in sugar, foods and beverages that stain your teeth (coffee and red wine), hard chewy candies, etc. If you’re craving something sweet much on some fruits or raisins, you can even opt for dark chocolate! Drink plenty of water to encourage saliva production and limit alcohol, which can cause your body and mouth to become dehydrated.