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Having a beautiful smile can make a huge difference in your life. It can boost your confidence, make you appear more attractive, and even improve your overall health. However, not everyone is born with a perfect smile, and knowing how to achieve one can be overwhelming.
Let’s explore 12 effective ways to get a beautiful smile that you’ll be proud to show off.
1. Practice good oral hygiene
Maintaining good oral hygiene is the first step to getting a beautiful smile. Brushing your teeth twice daily with fluoride toothpaste, flossing daily, and using mouthwash to kill bacteria are all essential. Not only do these habits help prevent cavities and gum disease, but they also keep your teeth looking clean and shiny. When you brush, be sure to use gentle circular motions, and don’t forget to brush your tongue to remove bacteria and freshen your breath.
2. Get professional dental cleanings
Even with good oral hygiene habits, you must visit the dentist for regular checkups and cleanings. If you live in California, you have the added benefit of having access to some of the top-rated cosmetic dentists in the country. According to a recent Yelp survey, Sherman Oaks ranks in the top 10 cities in the United States for cosmetic dentistry.
To improve the appearance of your smile, look for the best Orthodontist in Sherman Oaks, California, and leave the rest to them. Professional cleaning removes plaque and tartar buildup that can’t be removed with brushing and flossing alone. It can also help prevent gum disease, which can cause bad breath, bleeding, and even tooth loss.
Plus, your dentist can check for any issues that may be affecting your smiles, such as cavities, gum disease, or alignment problems. Regular cleanings are usually recommended every six months, but your dentist may suggest more frequent cleanings if you have certain risk factors, such as a history of gum disease or a weak immune system.
3. Avoid certain foods and drinks
Certain foods and drinks can stain your teeth or damage your enamel, making your smile less attractive. Sugary and acidic foods can erode your enamel and promote decay, while coffee, tea, and red wine can stain your teeth. Other culprits include dark-colored berries, tomato sauce, soy sauce, and balsamic vinegar.
It’s not necessary to completely eliminate these foods from your diet, but you should limit them and be sure to brush or rinse your mouth afterward. Drinking water or chewing sugar-free gum can help wash away stains and neutralize the acid. You can also consider using a straw when drinking beverages that can stain your teeth, as this can help minimize contact with your teeth.
4. Whiten your teeth
If your teeth are stained or discolored, whitening can help restore their natural brightness. Many options are available, from over-the-counter products like whitening strips and toothpaste to professional treatments like laser whitening. It’s important to whiten safely and avoid overuse, which can damage your enamel and cause sensitivity. Your dentist can recommend the best whitening option for you and provide instructions for safe use.
5. Fix dental problems
Dental problems such as crooked teeth, gaps, and stains can detract from your smile. Fortunately, there are many options for fixing these issues. Braces and aligners can straighten crooked teeth, close gaps, and improve your bite. Veneers and crowns can cover stains, chips, and other imperfections. Your dentist can help you determine the best treatment for your needs and budget.
It’s important to address dental problems as soon as possible, as they can lead to more serious issues if left untreated. Fixing dental problems can improve not only the appearance of your smile but also your overall oral health.
6. Use lip makeup
Lip makeup can enhance your smile by making your teeth appear whiter and brighter. Opt for lip colors with blue or purple undertones, which can counteract the yellow tones in your teeth. Bright, bold colors can also draw attention to your smile and make you feel more confident.
7. Exercise facial muscles
Your facial muscles play an important role in your smile; exercising them can help tone and strengthen them. When you smile, you activate your cheeks, lips, and jaw muscles. Exercising these muscles can improve circulation, reduce wrinkles, and enhance your smile.
One easy way to exercise your facial muscles is to smile more often simply. Smiling makes you feel good and can also help train your muscles to work more efficiently. You can also try other facial exercises, such as puckering your lips, moving your jaw in different directions, and exaggerating facial expressions. These exercises can help keep your facial muscles toned and strong, leading to a more beautiful smile.
8. Wear a mouthguard
Mouthguards are typically used for sports to protect teeth from impacts and collisions. However, if you grind your teeth at night, you might also benefit from wearing a mouthguard. Teeth grinding, also known as bruxism, can wear down the enamel of your teeth and lead to chipping, cracking, and sensitivity. Over time, it can also lead to jaw pain and headaches. A custom-made mouthguard can help cushion your teeth and reduce the damage caused by grinding. It’s an effective and affordable way to protect your smile and your overall oral health.
9. Drink plenty of water
Water is essential for good health, and it’s also important for a beautiful smile. Drinking water helps wash away bacteria and food particles that can cause bad breath and decay. It also helps keep your mouth hydrated, which is important for healthy teeth and gums. When you don’t drink enough water, your mouth can dry, leading to bad breath and an increased risk of cavities.
Aim to drink at least 8 glasses of water daily, and consider carrying a reusable water bottle to stay hydrated throughout the day.
10. Chew sugar-free gum
Chewing gum can actually be good for your teeth if you choose the right kind. Sugar-free gum can help stimulate saliva production, neutralizing acid and washing away bacteria. It can also help freshen your breath and promote a healthy mouth. However, be sure to choose gum that contains xylitol, a natural sweetener that has been shown to reduce the risk of cavities. Avoid gum containing sugar or high fructose corn syrup, which can promote decay. Chew gum for no more than 10-15 minutes at a time, and be sure to spit it out when you’re done.
11. Quit smoking
Smoking is not only harmful to your overall health, but it can also have a negative impact on your smile. Smoking can stain your teeth, damage your gums, and increase your risk of oral cancer. The nicotine in cigarettes can also constrict blood vessels, reducing blood flow to your gums and causing them to recede. Over time, this can lead to tooth loss and a less attractive smile.
Quitting smoking can be challenging, but it’s one of the best things you can do for your overall health and your smile. Talk to your dentist or doctor about resources to help you quit.
12. Smile confidently
Finally, the key to a beautiful smile is confidence. Practice good posture, maintain eye contact, and focus on positive self-talk. Smile often, even if you don’t feel like it, and soon it will become a natural habit. Remember, a beautiful smile is within reach for everyone and is an important part of your overall health and happiness.
Conclusion
By following these tips and practicing good oral hygiene habits, you can achieve a smile that you’re proud to show off. Remember to consult with your dentist if you have any questions or concerns about your oral health, and don’t hesitate to seek professional treatment if you have dental problems that are impacting your smile. With a little effort and the right guidance, you can have a beautiful smile that enhances your overall health and happiness.
Birthdays are important for various reasons. They allow us to connect with friends, reminisce about previous years, celebrate another year, and look forward to what the next few bring. However, as we celebrate more and more birthdays, the occasion becomes less unique to us and serves as an annoying reminder that we’re growing old!
Yet, deep down, we all enjoy our birthdays because they’re unique and allow us to dedicate the day to ourselves and what we like doing. Whether you would like to spend the occasion by having a day out with friends/family or prefer to celebrate in style with a glamourous birthday bash, there are many ways to celebrate your special day, but what if you want a low-fuss birthday bash?
Fortunately, if you’re the type who likes to lie low on their birthday, we’ve created this article outlining several ways to host a low-fuss adult birthday bash in 2023. From saving yourself time/money by sending out virtual invitations to opting to have the party at home – we list several of our top tips below.
Send Paperless Invites
Despite being pretty to look at, one of the most annoying aspects of party planning is sending out invitations. Not only do they eat into your party planning budget – especially if you have a sizeable guest list – but they are easily lost, increase paper consumption, dig into your free time, and much more.
Fortunately, like most things, there is a modern alternative to paper invites: virtual ones! Unlike traditional invitations, virtual ones are eco-friendly, simplify the RSVP process, are less time-consuming, and don’t eat into your party planning budget! And don’t worry; you won’t have to sacrifice aesthetics for sustainability, either!
With hundreds of designs, themes, and art styles, paperless invites are just as attractive as their paper counterparts, which can help you convey the tone of your gathering and much more. Whether you’re looking for save-the-date invites, baby shower reminders, or birthday invitations, you can find all these virtual invitations and more using sites like Greenvelope.
Set the scene for your special day with their whimsical, elegant, modern, and fun birthday invites, suitable for whether you’re celebrating a child’s birthday or a significant milestone like thirty, forty, or even the dreaded fifty! Consider visiting their website to discover more and see how they could help remove the fuss from your special day!
Ditch The Venue
Another stressful aspect of party planning is choosing where to host. Should you pick an idyllic countryside hotel that looks like it’s been plucked straight from the pages of a romance novel? Or is renting the function room at your local bar/restaurant enough for you?
Regardless of the scene you’re trying to set, venue shopping can add a lot of stress (and money!) to your birthday celebrations. So, why not press pause on all the drama, ditch the venue, and invite all your close friends and family to your house for a birthday bash?
Although it may seem stressful to host at your house, you may change your mind once you see the average cost of hiring a venue for a birthday. Depending on whom you approach, you can expect to fork out anything between $85-$145 per hour for a function room.
Compared to hosting at your house, which costs a total of nothing! Admittedly, you can spend a little more on decorations and get the house professionally cleaned before guests arrive, but this is nothing compared to what you would be paying per hour at a venue.
Keep Your Guest List Small
The more extensive the guest list, the more extravagant the event, and the more luxurious the event, the more stress that goes into ensuring it goes off without a hitch. Therefore, if you aim to keep the gathering as low-hassle as possible, it’s worth streamlining your guest list and ensuring you invite close family/friends with whom you want to share your special day.
Although inviting everyone to your celebrations can be tempting because you don’t want to make anyone feel excluded, keeping your guest list small is an excellent way to keep costs down. Especially if you intend to cater and put on entertainment, as generally, the prices of these services go up depending on how many heads are at the event.
Fortunately, there are several methods you can use to shorten your guest list, from looking at the size of your venue, determining which guests you talk to more, making it an ‘adult only’ event and many more.
In turn, the hassle and stress of party planning are halved since you’re not having to accommodate such a long list of people, so not as much planning will have to go into arranging the event. Instead, you can use the time saved to focus on what you do have in store for your guests and, the most important thing – focusing on the birthday girl/boy themselves!
Fresh Spring vegetables and greens will be sprouting up soon! What better way to enjoy them than in a delightful wrap graced by all of the colors of the rainbow! With hummus and roasted peppers, the flavors of this wrap are bold and beautiful – and the colors are pretty amazing, too.
Rainbow Lavash Roll
Ingredients
1 sheet Atoria’s Family Bakery Lavash
1/2 cup hummus
1/4 cup grated carrots
2 leaves of red cabbage
1/2 small red onion
1/2 yellow bell pepper, roasted
1 large tomato, diced
1/2 lemon, freshly squeezed
1 tsp. granulated sugar
1 1/2 tbsp. olive oil
1/4 cup capers
1 cup baby spinach
Preparation
Wash and grill the bell pepper. Once cool, wash the skin off under running water, seed, and thinly slice.
Coat the grated carrot with lemon juice, sugar, and 1 tbsp. olive oil. Let sit 15 minutes, then remove as much liquid as possible.
Spread hummus evenly on the Lavash sheet.
Place vegetables evenly along the base of the bread, starting with tomato.
Top with capers and baby spinach.
Drizzle with remaining olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste. R
oll tightly, packing ingredients as you go.
Makes 1 wrap or 10 bite-sized pieces.
Recipe: Atoria’s Family Bakery.
About Atoria’s Family Bakery
Atoria’s Family Bakery is a family-run bakery that bakes real-bread flatbreads with simple ingredients and nothing artificial. Whether you’re planning dinner for six, looking for a quick grab-and-go breakfast or a protein-packed post-workout snack, their flatbreads make any meal a snap. Non-GMO and Vegan, with two low-carb and keto-friendly options, the tasty varieties include NEW Cauliflower & Coconut and Traditional Pizza Crusts, Roasted Red Pepper Mini Lavash, Coconut & Cauliflower Mini Lavash, Flatbread, Whole Grain & Flax Mini Lavash Flatbread, Traditional Flatbread, Garlic Naan Flatbread, Pita with Whole Grain Flatbread, Traditional Pita Flatbread and more.
The living room is arguably the room in the home where most people spend their time. Whether you’re entertaining guests, watching television, playing video games, or reading a book, the living room can offer a cozy setting. The key to obtaining that welcoming feeling is décor that sets off the right mood. Here are some tips on how to establish a comfortable, welcoming vibe.
What to Keep in Mind for Wall Art in Your Living Room
When coming up with ideas for wall art for your living room, it is essential to choose art that makes you happy and gives you that “at-home feeling.” It is your home, so you would want it to feel “homey.” What does homey mean for you?
Wall art is one the simplest ways you can express yourself through your home. Play with color, materials, textures, and shapes. Let your creativity shine by utilizing more than one medium of art. Art comes in many different forms. You can explore pieces from photography, paintings, prints, and even fabrics.
Consider the Living Room Space
Wall art has a way of really bringing a room together. So when you choose your wall art, consider some guidelines:
- Do you want the room to blend or pop?
- What colors does the room already incorporate?
- How can you further highlight those colors?
- What mood are you trying to create?
- Allow for negative space. The space could push your guest’s eyes to your wall art.
Remember to Make it About You
Yes, ensuring proportions are correct and everything goes together is always vital. When making sure everything aligns, it is also crucial that you stay aware of the situation. It is your living room and your home, so make sure you are ultimately expressing who you are. At the end of the day, you want a nice room. However, you also want to feel an attachment to it.
When in Doubt, Try a Centerpiece
Going off from our last point about making the living room your own, a centerpiece could put things into perspective if you are having trouble figuring things out. You want to express yourself, and a large centerpiece with meaning to you would be the perfect way to do so. Additionally, it could inspire how to decorate the rest of the room.
Wall art for your living room can also be a great way to express your love of a specific hobby or media. The possibilities are nearly endless when choosing wall art for your living room. All it takes is a little time and effort.
I recently sat down with Dr. Anaïs Carniciu, MD of New York Eye and Face Oculoplastic Surgery. Dr, Carniciu has become my go-to for all things Botox. Upon our first session, she began “mapping” out an image of my face so I could exactly see where she was making injections. I was blown away. I had never seen this level of detail before and trust me, I have gone to many high-end offices for services. She then began explaining so many very informative things to me about the injection process> I decided to ask her a few questions and share them with you below. I highly recommend a consultation with Dr. Carniciu. You can learn more about her practice or book online here!!!
About Dr. Carniciu:
Dr. Anaïs Carniciu, M.D. is a board-certified oculofacial plastic surgeon who serves as an Associate Adjunct Surgeon and member of the teaching faculty at the world-renowned New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai. Dr. Carniciu’s area of expertise focuses exclusively on plastic surgery of the face, with special attention to the delicate tissues surrounding the eyes. Using a natural approach, Dr. Carniciu is passionate about improving her patients’ confidence and quality of life through reconstructive and cosmetic oculoplastic surgery.
Why is it important to see a doctor to do your facial injections?
Safety first! Although cosmetic injectables are a fun and relatively quick refresh, all injections are invasive medical procedures. Physicians who are board-certified in one of the 4 core aesthetic medical specialties (plastic surgery, oculoplastic surgery, dermatology, or ENT plastic surgery) have the highest level of anatomical training and technical skill to perform customized facial injections based on individual patient needs. Additionally, our years of dedicated medical residency and fellowship training in aesthetics allow us to best avoid complications from treatment
How long have you been doing facial injections? 9 years
What injectable products do you offer, and can you explain the difference between them?
Neuromodulators: Botox and Jeuveau are used to treat wrinkles that occur from active facial movement and muscle use. By relaxing the facial muscles with neuromodulators, the wrinkles soften. This treatment works particularly well for the 11’s area (between the eyebrows), the forehead, and crow’s feet.
Fillers: Restylane and RHA Collection are hyaluronic acid products that are used to treat stationary wrinkles and deeper skin folds by replacing lost facial volume. Fillers are great for rejuvenating the lower facial smile lines, and can also be used to enhance the cheeks, lips, chin, and jawline.
Sculptra: Sculptra is a “collagen builder” that helps your body naturally produce its own collagen, previously lost over time. This injectable bio stimulator is made of very small particles of “poly-L-lactic acid” that stimulate your body to reverse the aging process. It is injected under the surface of the skin to decrease the appearance of volume loss and facial lines, wrinkles, or folds.
What types of medical conditions would disqualify me as a candidate for facial injections?
Women who are pregnant or breastfeeding should avoid facial injections. Additionally, Botox and other neuromodulators should be avoided in patients with certain neurological conditions. Be sure your injector asks about your health history before performing your treatment.
What would I need to do to maintain these results over time? How often would I need to receive injections?
It depends on the type of treatment. Neuromodulators like Botox or Jeuveau typically will last approximately three months. Neuromodulators will require ongoing treatment, though benefits are seen during that time. Other treatments like fillers can last one year or longer before needing a boost. The collagen-building effect of Sculptra lasts 2 years or longer with annual maintenance treatments.
What will be expected of me to achieve the best results immediately following my treatment? For neuromodulators, like Botox or Jeuveau, the best results come with following some straightforward after-care instructions, such as not pressing on the injection sites and possibly avoiding alcohol and heavy exercise the day of the treatment. If you take blood thinners, your doctor may recommend holding that medication to reduce the chance of bruising.
How can I expect to look over time?
With neuromodulators, you can expect a reduction in facial wrinkles in the areas of treatment. Particularly, in the wrinkles that become more prominent with facial movement. The effect of neuromodulators is first seen in 3-5 days, with full effect occurring 2 weeks after the injection. With filler, you can expect an improvement in facial volume and shape in the area of injection, typically with most changes occurring immediately after injection. With Sculptra, a similar improvement in facial volume and shape is expected; this is a gradual process over several months, but longer lasting.
What results are reasonable for me to expect?
Filler: a proportional increase in facial volume in line with the amount of filler used is expected. Subtle improvement requires smaller and directed injections. A 1-milliliter syringe of filler is only one-fifth of a teaspoon! In targeted areas, a significant improvement can be seen with 1mL of filler. However, the more areas that are being treated, the more likely one syringe alone won’t fully treat your concerns.
Sculptra: expect improvement, but this will be a gradual process over months. Don’t worry if you don’t see huge results in the first week. Sculptra is a biostimulator, not a filler. So it takes longer but can give more satisfying results.
Neuromodulators: a reduction in active facial wrinkles is expected. So, wrinkles that become more prominent with movement will be reduced. However, the “static” wrinkles, those that are present even when the face is at rest, typically will not be noticeably different. They may soften with repeated treatments over years, but not in the first few injections.