The next three months mark the biggest holiday season of the year. Most of these holidays revolve around lots of food. When you slack off, you open the door to vast vulnerabilities
Here are the top eight ways you can take care of your teeth this holiday season.
Brush And Floss Twice A Day
Brushing and flossing twice a day is the best way to preserve your teeth regardless if it’s the holidays or not. It is even more critical to be diligent about your dental habits and practices around the holidays. You are undoubtedly consuming more decadent food than normal. All these sticky sugars accumulate in your mouth and mount to your teeth, threatening to wreak long-term havoc on your dental health in no time. When you brush your teeth, make sure your brush reaches the gum line and tongue. Flossing is important to clear out food debris and hard to see residue hiding between your teeth.
Don’t Use Your Teeth As A Tool
This holiday season, you want to watch the nutcracker not become one yourself! It can be easy to think of your teeth as the best tool to open different wrapping and packages this season, but that might just cost you your smile. Your teeth are not meant to be put through that kind of stress. Even if you are careful with your toothy operations, you may still break a tooth. Surely a broken tooth in your smile is not something you want to bear on your year’s holiday card.
Take A Toothbrush With You
Travelling? Visiting friends? It is a lot easier to just forget about taking care of your teeth after a long night, but you might regret that down the line. Packing a travel toothbrush, along with some dental gauze or floss can help keep your teeth in good shape and maintain overall health. While one night of forgetting is not the end of the world, it can throw off your great habits!
Routine, Routine, Routine
During the holiday, your routine may easily be thrown off because you have more time off and your obligations change from school and work to relaxation and family time. While I encourage you to sleep in as much as you can, avoid skipping the healthy practices typically a part of your normal routine. Keeping a few of your normal routine elements can do wonders for your overall health. The easiest ones to keep are getting a full night’s rest, eating three meals a day, and of course, brushing your teeth!
Mind Your Holiday Habits
Holidays are a time to celebrate. Many celebrate with alcohol, particularly red wine. While red wine is a great way to celebrate, it can just as easily stain your teeth when you don’t take the right precautions. To avoid the all too common red wine stains on your teeth, make sure you drink water with all your wine. Drinking water with your wine will help water down the natural acidity of your wine. Further neutralize your acids by eating savoury foods with your wine. Finally, if you want to take even more precautions, brush your teeth before drinking wine to clear away any plaque and food residue that wine could stick to. In general, alcohol sugars are not great for your teeth, they linger and can contribute to tooth decay.
Watch Those Sweets
Sweet and starchy foods stick to your teeth much more than any other type of food. With an abundance of sweets and treats at Thanksgiving, Halloween, Hanukkah, Diwali, Christmas and more, avoiding them is not an option. Managing the number of sweets you eat is much more like it! Try not to snack on sweets between meals because they sit on your teeth the longest allowing them the most time to stick to your teeth. Staying hydrated and frequently drinking water can help wash away food residue and neutralize food and mouth acids. After indulging in some sweet treats, treat your teeth to a full and complete clean; floss and mouthwash included!
Eat The Good Foods
With that being said, there are a number of tooth healthy holiday foods that can actually help your teeth. Those milk, cookies, and carrots you leave out for Santa and his reindeer? Milk has a high amount of vitamin D, a fundamental nutrient in building bone and tooth health, carrots are a great way to maintain your tooth health as well. A good rule of thumb is to avoid starchy, sweet, acidic, or sticky foods. Instead opt for whole foods, like vegetables or turkey breast. But by all means, indulge a little, afterall it is the holidays, who can blame you? Just make sure you take the time to brush your teeth thoroughly afterwards, and drink plenty of water with your meals.
Book An Appointment With Your Dentist
Booking an appointment before the holiday season starts to visit your dentist after the holiday season. When you take a proactive approach to your dental health, you remain a step ahead of all your potential dental woes. At your dental appointment, your dentist can survey how you have been cleaning your teeth throughout the holidays, offer pointers for the future, and will perform a thorough cleaning with professional dental tools. Had a holiday dental disaster? A dentist can help repair cracked teeth, remove deep stains, work with tooth fillings and so much more. Call your dentist today and book your post-holiday appointment today!
