By: Jooney Freddieson & Aalovely Lor

Introduction 

Good hygiene is essential for both your physical and mental wellbeing. It holds multiple practices, starting from handwashing to brushing your teeth. 

Hygiene helps prevent spreading harmful bacteria, infections, and viruses. That makes it the best and easiest disease prevention technique.

Without proper hygiene, people become susceptible to widespread health issues. This could be the common cold or more serious illnesses like the flu. 

Dental Hygiene

Dental hygiene is one of the key factors to keeping good hygiene. 

This begins with brushing your teeth at least twice a day, both morning and night. Along with brushing comes flossing and mouthwash to help remove plaque and prevent gum infections. 

Poor dental hygiene leads to cavities, gum infections, and in serious cases heart conditions. 

Having regular checkups and cleanings with dentists play a crucial role in your dental hygiene because even if you can’t feel it, you never truly know what’s going on in your mouth. 

Body Hygiene 

Body hygiene is keeping the body clean. 

The most important aspect of body hygiene is bathing or showering regularly. This helps remove the dirt, excess oils, and sweat you’ve built up over the previous days. 

Showering and changing into clean clothes daily help reduce the risk of skin infections, including acne or fungal infections.

Proper body hygiene also builds confidence and comfort in your wellbeing. Feeling fresh and clean positively impacts your interactions with others. 

Hand hygiene 

Hand hygiene is one of the most effective methods to prevent the spread of diseases and illnesses. 

Washing your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds already helps remove disease, dirt, and viruses that could cause illness. 

Using this method is really important after using the bathroom, handling food, or being in public areas. 

Throughout the day you touch many infected surfaces such as your phone, toilets, doorknobs, and tables. These surfaces have harmful bacteria that could be washed off with soap and water. 

Nail Hygiene 

Nail Hygiene is very important but it is an overlooked part of personal hygiene. 

It involves keeping your fingernails and toenails trimmed, clean, and strong. Nails should be free from bacteria and dirt.

Nails can easily trap germs that you pick up from everyday activities if they’re not cleaned regularly. These germs can enter your body through eating/drinking or when touching your face. They can also enter through cuts and wounds. 

Poor nail hygiene can lead to infections like, stomach aches, paronychia, and buildups of bacteria. 

Cleaning and trimming your nails regularly helps prevent issues like infections or stomach aches, and also helps your nails grow strong and healthy. 

Clothing Hygiene

Clothing hygiene means wearing, cleaning, and changing clothes regularly. After sweating from physical activities our clothes absorb our sweat and oil from our skin including dirt and dust throughout the day. 

If you continue to wear unwashed clothes regularly, not only will it give you a bad odor it will also lead to skin irritations and or bacterial infections. 

Clean clothes help prevent health problems but they also help with boosting self esteem and presenting a positive image to others. 

Ear Hygiene 

Ear hygiene focuses on cleaning, managing earwax build ups, and cleaning the outer part of our ears. 

Wiping the outside of our ears with a damp cloth or paper towel helps remove dirt and excess wax. Doing this regularly prevents itchy buildups and helps keep our ears clean. 

Inserting cotton swabs/q-tips or fingers into our ears can push the wax in further leading to an uncomfortable buildup and ear infections. It can also damage our hearing if pushed further. 

It is recommended by doctors to use an earwax remover tool to remove ear wax build ups. The tool is in the shape of a tiny spoon which helps safely remove earwax and not push the wax forward. 

Maintaining good ear hygiene prevents discomfort, infections, and hearing problems. 

Overall, good hygiene is essential for preventing the spread of illness, staying healthy, and keeping a better image. Making these habits a regular part of your daily life and routine will improve your physical and mental wellbeing.