Apps to Help Keep Your Smile (and Health) on Track!

Some dental issues may be avoided by simple healthy lifestyle habits including brushing and flossing regularly and correctly, drinking enough water and making healthy food choices. These lifestyle factors can all affect the bacteria in our mouth and help to keep them in a healthy balance, thus preventing plaque build up which can lead to more serious dental issues. Perhaps you have already made a New Years resolution related to your health, which may inadvertently affect your dental health.

The New Year is an excellent time to tidy up some health habits that no longer serve us. Research shows that we are much more likely to stick with a resolution that we kick off after an important date, even so, we sometimes need a bit of extra help to train ourselves in our new healthy routines.

To help keep your dental health on track in 2020, and beyond, you may find an App useful in creating new patterns of behaviour. We’ve listed a few of our favourites below for you to try:

Brush DJ – Brush DJ includes a preset timer for the duration of your brush. You can connect the App to play the songs on your device, your Spotify playlists, free music by Brush DJ and various other channels. The screen displays tips to ensure you are brushing correctly, gives advice about flossing techniques and gives encouragement throughout your brush. The App includes optional reminders to brush your teeth, replace your toothbrush and set appointments to see your dentist.

Drink Water Reminder – Drink water reminder is just as the title suggests, an App to remind you to drink water – it takes into consideration your age, weight and climate to help come up with a suggested amount of water to drink per day. The App allows you to set custom reminders about when to drink water, allows you to track water consumption and lets you track the drinking of other beverages such as juice, tea and beer. It gives you badges when you meet your water drinking targets to help motivate you to keep hydrated. Keeping hydrated directly relates to your oral health as the frequent sipping of water can wash food particles from the teeth which can otherwise lead to plaque and bad breath plus staying hydrated can help to keep a healthy level of mouth bacteria.

Aloe Bud – Aloe Bud tracks virtually every aspect of your health, allowing you to set reminders and track activities like drinking water, taking medication or health supplements, taking rest, moving your body, brushing teeth and more. The great feature of this App is the inclusion of reminders and activities that boost your mental health and happiness, like, being kind to yourself, forgiving others and pursuing healthy leisure activities. The free version offers basic reminders and tracking, while the premium version allows for personalisation of reminders and more specific tracking of activity.

MyPlate – My plate is the ultimate app for tracking diet and exercise. It includes options to set diet and exercise goals, track your meals and nutritional intake, exercise and water consumption. You can sign up for a meal plan including a shopping list, to suit your dietary needs (omnivore, vegetarian, vegan and gluten free are the basic options) and workout suggestions. The free option allows for basic access to all areas of planning in the app while the paid version unlocks tools like learning where you get most fats, sodium and sugars from, a breakdown of your diet based on your personal goals and additional workouts. To learn more how diet affects your oral health read our article 'Did you know… too much dietary acid causes tooth erosion?' and 'Did you know… Honey is just as likely to cause tooth decay as sugar?'.

Before making drastic changes to diet and health it is important to consult your healthcare professionals, these Apps are meant just for a guide to keeping your health on track.

To learn more about creating healthy habits in 2020 see our video 'Fit Teeth for a Fit 2020'. To learn more about how your lifestyle can affect your oral health see our articles '3 Easy tips for a fit mouth', 'Did you know.. Around 59% of oral cancer is caused by smoking?' and 'Did you know… Diet soft drink is harmful to oral health?'

If you are concerned about how your lifestyle may be affecting your dental health book a consultation with Dr Kate Amos or Dr Sam Rosehill at Ethical Dental on 6652 3185 or book online.