The holidays can be a hard time to make healthy choices. Not only is it more difficult to stick to eating foods that are considered to be healthy for your weight, but it's also a challenging time to stick to dental friendly foods. Therefore, it's a good idea to arm yourself with information on how you can minimize the damage to your teeth during the holiday season to keep them healthy and looking good.
Stick with your routine
The holiday season can be a very busy time and this makes it easy for you to get thrown off of your normal oral hygiene routine. No matter how hectic things get for you around your house, you want to be sure you continue brushing your teeth a couple of times a day and flossing after each meal.
Don't misuse your teeth
Your teeth are designed specifically for biting and chewing food. You want to remember this, especially during the holidays. Do not get tempted to open nuts with your teeth or to use them to open the packaging on your gifts. Doing these types of things can lead to your teeth getting chipped or broken.
Set out healthy food choices
Along with all those sweet treats, you should also make it a point to set out a healthy tray with a mixture of fruits, veggies and cheeses. Make it a point of picking something off of both trays when you feel like having a snack.
Choose the best goodies
Even though sugary treats aren't the best thing for your teeth, some are actually better than others. The treats that are the least sticky and not hard are going to be the better option. For example, you want to choose a square of fudge over a piece of taffy and go for a cookie over a caramel candy.
Chew sugarless gum
Chewing gum will help your teeth in a couple ways. One way chewing gum helps is by controlling your craving for sweets. Another way it helps is by removing left over pieces of food that get caught in your teeth while you are snacking.
Following the tips in this article will help you to maintain the health and appearance of your teeth through the holidays. It's also a good idea to make an appointment to see your cosmetic dentistry professional for a professional tooth cleaning or whitening after the holiday season has come to a close.
Our oral surgery and general dental website offers important information on how to prevent dry socket following a tooth extraction. After getting your tooth pulled, a protective blood clot develops over the extraction site. Many of our blog posts explain how this protective clot helps promote healing after an extraction.
You'll learn that if the clot is accidentally dislodged, dry socket may occur, which can raise your risk for infection and heavy bleeding. We'll provide you with important tips on how to prevent this by avoiding smoking and drinking through a straw. You'll also learn that swishing water around your mouth should be avoided for a couple of days following your extraction because doing so creates a suction that may dislodge your clot, leading to dry socket.