A hard habit to break

Smoking, nose picking, forgetting to brush our teeth - bad habits can be hard to kick but sometimes the inability to replace bad habits with good ones can cause serious problems.

For instance, while personal vanity dictates that we habitually maintain our hair, make-up, clothes and skin, we often fail to form good habits in other areas like eye care and oral hygiene.

Bad habits regarding the latter in particular can be more problematic than you might think. Nine in ten people experience gum disease in their lives - which is the main cause of lost teeth - and the thought of losing one or more teeth would distress most of us....

It's clearly important that we get into good oral care habits - and by this we mean looking after our gums as well as our teeth - so how can we start to get into good habits? The answer lies in training our brains to form different habit pathways.

According to Dr Maxwell Maltz's '21 Day Theory', it only takes 21 days to replace old habits with new ones by repeating certain actions to strengthen the correct brain pathways. So if we start today, by the end of the month we could have eradicated our bad habits once and for all.

Join in for a live and interactive web TV show to find out how you can establish and maintain a regime that will help you keep on track. There's expert advice on offer from GP Dr Pixie McKenna, Professor of Flavour Technology Andy Taylor and Dr James Russell of the British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, who will also be answering your questions live online.

Dr Pixie McKenna, Professor of Flavour Technology Andy Taylor and Dr James Russell of the British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry will be live online at webchats.tv/chat/a_hard_habit_to_break on 2nd June to discuss oral health care for women.

Visit webchats.tv now to submit your questions before the chat.

For more information visit gumsmart.co.uk.