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4 Ways to Protect Your Oral Health During the Holidays
The holidays are here, and so is the food!
We don’t want to be a grinch, but as great as the food and sweets are at this time of year, you also have to be careful to protect your oral health. You don’t want all your hard work throughout the year to be ruined in just a few weeks.
At Portrait Dental, we’ve seen the effects of not taking your oral health seriously during the holidays, so here are four ways you can protect your teeth and mouth this year.
Go easy on the sweets and chewy food
This one’s pretty obvious: Practice moderation when it comes to sweets, chewy foods, and hard candies. Sugar is one of the leading causes of tooth decay, and it’s everywhere you look during this time of year. You don’t have to abstain completely (because hey, we all love some holiday treats), but limit your consumption.
Hard candies can cause chips or cracks in your teeth, and sticky, chewy food can cause sugar to linger on your teeth and can even pull a filling out if you aren’t careful.
Don’t use your teeth for other purposes
Repeat after us: “My teeth are not tools.” Don’t use your teeth to open presents, packages, plastic toy packaging, bottles, etc. You also should not try to crack nuts with them.
Doing these things can weaken the enamel on your teeth and cause the fragile edges to chip, crack, or break. Even though we can fix your teeth with restorative dental procedures, we’d rather you didn’t hurt your teeth at all!
Try the cheese
Alcoholic drinks are typically quite acidic, which can wear away your tooth enamel. Since you’ll likely encounter more-than-normal opportunities to have a drink this holiday season, here’s an easy way to neutralize the acid in the drink while still allowing you to partake: try eating some cheese along with your drink. The alkaline in the cheese cancels out the acid in the drink, which helps protect your teeth.
Keep up your oral hygiene routine
Keep up your normal healthy oral hygiene practices even in the midst of the busy holiday season. Brush twice a day (plus, brushing after you eat those sugary treats is a great idea) and floss once a day.
Drink plenty of water to rinse your teeth and keep your breath fresh, and eat healthy foods to give your teeth the vitamins and minerals they need.
One of the best Christmas presents you can give yourself is maintaining great oral hygiene so that when January rolls around, you’re in good shape to start the new year. If you need a bit of guidance in that area, our Portrait Dental team is happy to help.
To schedule an appointment, call our office in Katy, Texas, at 501-381-1621, or use the online scheduler to pick your own time!
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