Pregnancy creates a whole bunch of different changes in your body, as you are quite literally growing another person. However, a major change that most people don't take into consideration is the increased sensitivity of your teeth and gums. This can cause a great deal of discomfort for pregnant individuals, but thankfully there are a couple of things that you can do to reduce the overall amount of dental sensitivity that you experience while pregnant.

Why Does This Happen?

Sensitive teeth can develop during a pregnancy for a variety of different reasons. The two major reasons why your teeth and gums may suddenly become extremely sensitive to temperature and touch: increased hormone generation and blood flow. Increased hormones in your body can cause inflammation and make your gums much more sensitive, as can increased blood flow in your mouth.

What Can Be Done?

Obviously, you can't reduce the amount of hormones that your body generates or the rate of blood flow to your mouth. However, you can proactively change a couple of your daily eating and dental habits in order to reduce the amount of discomfort that you experience in your mouth.

Soft Brushing: First and foremost, you should throw out your old toothbrush and purchase a soft-bristled one. This will create much less discomfort while brushing your teeth and gums by producing less friction and irritation. Further, you should make sure that you are brushing your teeth and gums very lightly, so as to not cause yourself any pain. If your bristles on your toothbrush normally get slowly bent flat or at an angle, you're using too much pressure while brushing.

Change Eating Habits: Obviously, you should avoid any sort of foods that cause you pain to eat, but this tends to be harder to put into practice than into words. Thankfully, you can do a few minor things to minimize the amount of pain that you experience. For acidic and cold drinks that cause discomfort, you may want to consider using a straw to drink them in order to reduce the amount of exposure that they have with your teeth and gums. You may also want to wait for hot food to cool down a bit before eating it if you notice extreme sensitivity to heat.

Regular Checkups: Finally, you should make sure that you continue to see your dentist, or Thornley Dental, throughout your pregnancy for proper cleaning and to get advice specifically tailored to your own dental health. Your dentist may have additional suggestions which can help you reduce the amount of dental discomfort that you experience over the course of your pregnancy.