So the world smiles with you!
Dental Health Week runs from 3–9 August this year, and the ADA has chosen a specific focus: 18 to 25 year olds. This is an age where independence arrives all at once — moving out of home, starting tertiary education or a first job, managing money for the first time. Looking after their teeth is rarely top of the list when everything else is competing for attention. The result is a generation that often only sees a dentist once a problem has already become hard to ignore.
There’s a second factor at play too. Compared to previous generations, young Australians are more likely to source health information from social media and online personalities than from a dentist or doctor. This year’s ‘My Smile’ campaign is built around addressing both issues at once: equipping young people with dependable information and everyday habits, while making the case that a small dental issue is far easier to manage than the same issue left untreated.
For most people, wisdom teeth make their appearance somewhere between 18 and 25, right as everything else in life is also in motion. When there isn’t enough room for them to come through properly, the result can be pain, swelling, infection, or teeth shifting out of position to make space. The instinct is often to wait it out until the discomfort becomes impossible to ignore, but that’s usually the wrong call. Seeing a dentist earlier means any developing issues can be identified and managed well before they turn into something urgent. Understanding what to watch for with, the symptoms, the timing, the risks of leaving it untreated, is exactly what this year’s Dental Health Week is encouraging young Australians to do.
More people than ever are exploring cosmetic dentistry, whether that’s a brighter smile or straighter teeth. The challenge is that the internet now promotes almost as many options as there are opinions, whitening kits, veneers, at-home aligners, and it’s not always obvious which of them are genuinely safe versus which could cause lasting damage. Decisions made without the full picture can end up costing more than they save, for both teeth and gums. It’s worth remembering that even when a treatment is cosmetic in nature, it’s still a dental procedure, one that needs proper assessment and planning from a qualified dentist, not a set of instructions from a video. Whether the goal is whitening, straightening, or reshaping, going in with accurate information is what actually protects your smile, both for right now and for years down the track.
Stepping onto the field without a mouthguard is a bigger gamble than most people realise — the injuries that follow can include chipped or broken teeth, nerve damage, jaw trauma, or losing a tooth outright. Unlike a lot of sporting injuries, these don’t tend to resolve quickly; the dental treatment that follows can stretch on for years, sometimes a lifetime. The good news is that most of it is avoidable, and a custom-fit mouthguard from your dentist is the simplest way to avoid it. It’s tempting to reach for a sports or energy drink during exercise, but most are loaded with sugar and acid in equal measure — a combination that erodes enamel and drives up your risk of decay. Being dehydrated doesn’t help either, since a dry mouth is more susceptible to gum disease, decay and general wear. Water remains the one option that does no damage at all, which makes it the better choice by a clear margin.
Every smilestone is a chance to build lifelong oral health. By following expert-backed advice and making dental care a positive experience, you’re setting your child up for a lifetime of healthy, happy smiles. To maintain good oral health, we encourage everyone to do the following:
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At Smile Hawthorn, we see the beauty in every smile, and we aim to provide the highest levels of care to our patients, so they always smile their biggest and brightest.
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