Tag: Health

Tips for a Healthier Smile

A healthy smile is more than white teeth. The gums, bones, salivary glands, and soft tissue in your mouth are all essential components to a healthy smile. To ensure you keep your smile in good form, we offer these tips to keep your teeth looking and feeling great.

Schedule an Appointment Before Pain

At Hill Country Oral Surgery, we often see patients who wait too long to schedule a visit. They postpone coming in until they are in a great deal of pain. Our goal is to ensure our patients have the best oral health with preventative care. This includes routine cleanings, screenings, and treatment to prevent painful problems from ever happening.

Scheduling regular visits prevent future oral health problems. If there is a problem, it’s best to act quickly before the issue intensifies. Whether it includes wisdom tooth extraction, jaw surgery, or impacted canines. If these concerns are not addressed in the early stages, pain and more extensive surgery may ensue.

Clean the Entire Mouth

Cavities start between the teeth, and gum disease is beneath the gums. A quick brush daily will not reach enough surface to remove bacteria in these problem areas. Flossing will remove tartar and plaque between the teeth. Using an antiseptic mouth rinse daily will prevent bacteria buildup in your mouth.

Have a Daily Routine

Brushing twice daily using the correct method and flossing at least once per day will drastically prevent oral problems in the future. It will also help keep the bacteria that could build up at bay. Being faithful to this routine will combat cavities, bad breath, and gum disease.

Drink Plenty of Water

Avoid sugary, acidic drinks like sodas and too much coffee, and increase your water intake. Not only will your teeth thank you, but your overall health will improve. Water serves as a mouth rinse to clean food particles, reduce bacteria, and improve bad breath. You can neutralize the staining caused by soda, coffee, or wine by upping your water intake.

Address Dry Mouth

Dry mouth is a risk factor for cavities. The saliva naturally rinses your teeth and destroys bacterial colonies that live on your teeth. There are treatment plans available for dry mouth. Not only is it uncomfortable, but it can cause health problems to your teeth as well.

Get Started

If you have dental issues or need to see a dental surgeon, we are here for you. Simply pick up the phone and dial  512-327-7233 or request a consultation today!

How Smiling Affects Your Health


A smile may seem simple, but it is more powerful than you might think. It has an impact on your happiness, self-esteem, and overall health. So, let’s review how a smile can bring joy into your life during these uncertain times.

Benefits of Smiling

Everybody knows what it’s like to have a bad day. You sleep late, the car gives you trouble, or you spill coffee in your lap. But if you run into someone who is smiling, before you know it, you’re smiling, too. Then that bad day doesn’t seem so bad. A simple smile can change the tone and course of your day.

Here’s something you might not know—smiling has been proven scientifically to make you happy. And it can do more than that.

Elevates Your Mood

A smile not only makes you look happy, but it can also make you feel happy, as well. When you’re smiling, facial muscles trigger neurotransmitters into your system that make you feel great. These include endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine.  Endorphins make you relax and feel happy and act as a suppressant for discomfort or stress. Serotonin and dopamine are the natural antidepressant molecules of the brain, and we now know that smiling makes you create more of these.

Decreases Stress

We’ve all been under stress. But perhaps we don’t know that smiling can help relieve stressors by causing serotonin release. Smiling will increase serotonin levels, decrease anxiety, and lower the heart rate. So, the next time you feel stress come on, try smiling or watching a short video that will make you laugh. You may be surprised how much of a difference this can make.

Boosts Your Immune System

Smiling can leave us feeling less depressed and more positive whether the act is fake or real. This has been proven through scientific studies. Other tests have determined that smiling makes our bodies more resilient to the flu or common cold. Participants in these studies report that they feel more positive and happier and have a lower risk of becoming sick. One research study even suggests that smiling will help us live longer.

It’s Contagious

We’ve all heard the axiom, “When you’re smiling, the whole world smiles with you.” And we know it’s true because we see it in our lives. When someone smiles at us, we return the smile. The reaction is called facial mimicry. When we see someone smile, our brain registers the expression, and we’re likely to return it.

So, a smile can boost your mood and help others’ moods as well. Your smile could start a chain reaction that can influence an entire room.

Smiling Impacts Your Appearance and Confidence

Now let’s get to something we all would like to experience. Did you know that smiling can affect your appearance? It makes you look approachable, relaxed, and friendly. And get this, it makes you look younger, too. Now, if that’s not a selling point to smile more—what is?

Smiling makes you seem more open to others. This will have people wanting to spend time with you. And having more friends will increase your confidence and elevate your self-esteem.

Oral Health is Good for Your Overall Health

At Hill Country Oral Surgery in Austin, we understand that a healthy mouth helps you with a healthy body. That’s why we tell our patients to get regular oral check-ups to maintain overall health. If you would like to learn more about attaining a confident smile, we would love to talk to you.

Call us at 512-327-7233 or Request a Consultation.

5 Chiropractors We’d Recommend in Austin

Feeling stressed due to the holidays or hurt your back putting up Christmas lights? It’s probably time to see a Chiropractor! Chiropractors can help with stress relief, pain and tension relief and can realign your body. If you’re looking for a new Chiropractor in the Austin area, check out this list put together by Hill Country Oral Surgery! These doctors are experienced and prioritize their patient’s safety and wellness, contact them below:

Dr. Daniel P. Bockmann, DC

Dr. Daniel P. Bockmann focuses on finding out why you’re hurting, fixing the problem, and equipping you with the proper tools.

Discover Chiropractic

Dr. Brian Clark & Dr. John McClelland work to provide gentle and effective care for total health and wellness.

Hausman Chiropractic & Acupuncture

Dr. Robert Hausman practices an integrated, whole-person approach to improve health and prevent diseases.

Rosewood Wellness

Dr. Michelle Andrade addresses the sources of her patients’ pain and tension using contemporary methods.

Austin Preferred Integrative Medicine

Dr. Jeff Fluitt and his team create personalized treatment plans that help patients restore health and functionality.