Everyone develops different bad habits at some point in their lives, and some of them can be anything from choosing to eat unhealthy foods over better options or drinking beers and smoking. The worse part about bad habits is that they can become part of who we are and can hurt us. When our bad habits affect our oral health, it can lead to a painful result on our bodies and pockets.

With this in mind we have listed below a list of the worst habits which can harm your mouth:

1. Using Teeth as Tools

Dentist in Seattle reports that many people have relied on their teeth for different odd jobs like pulling out a watch stem, straighten a bent fork tine, to open a bag of potato chips, uncap a bottle of nail polish, or rip a price tag off and many more. This can be hard on your teeth and can cause the edge of a weakened tooth to chip off or worse fracture. So, you have to stop this habit and think about what you’re putting in your mouth.

2. Brushing too hard

Well, many people do not know they are guilty of this act. All you have to do is to brush your teeth gently to remove debris and plaque and not to scrub your teeth. Many people are overly aggressive when brushing and this can lead to root and tooth damage.

3. Teeth grinding

Just like the last point, this habit occurs during the night and can become a fairly serious problem as people don’t even know they do this. This habit can lead to fractured or broken teeth over time.

4. Smoking

This worse habit can not only cause you a life-threatening illness like oral cancer, emphysema, heart disease, lung cancer, and painful lesions it can also lead to mouth odor. The threat of a missing tooth and mouth odor should be another reason for you to quit this habit.

5. Biting Nails

You are exposing your mouth to the bacteria that live under nails and risk of damaging your teeth and dental work when you always bite your nails. Biting anything other than food increases the risk of cracking and chipping teeth, and getting sick due to bacteria invited into the mouth.

6. You Put Protective Caps Over Your Brush

Air-dry your brushes after use. Enclosing them in caps keep in moisture and allows bacteria to grow and multiply.