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Taking Care of Your Teeth During the Holidays
With all of the holiday excitement during this time of year, many patients let their dental care fall to the wayside. Keep reading for quick and easy tips to keep your smile merry and bright throughout the entire season!
Remember Your Dental Care Routine
So that we can enter the New Year with a healthy and bright smile, it’s important to remember to brush, floss, use mouthwash, and visit the dentist regularly for cleanings.
You can even make your child’s dental care routine festive by playing a holiday song while you brush your teeth at night!
Choose Teeth-Friendly Snacks
The holiday season is full of so many special treats — it can be easy for us to forget that some foods are bad for our teeth. Hard candies, such as candy canes, and sticky foods, such as gumdrops, can damage our teeth, get stuck in our braces, and can lead to cavities.
And who wants to start the New Year off with cavities? When you indulge in these festive sweets, make sure to take care of your teeth after. That means brushing your teeth after every meal (or snack) and flossing daily.
Here are some foods that you should avoid eating with braces:
- Hard candies
- Whole nuts
- Crunch biscuits
- Beer jerky
- Caramel
- Chewing gum
- Popcorn kernels
- Meat off the bone
Drink Plenty of Water
The treats we eat also contain high sugar levels, which then creates acids that weaken our enamel. Be sure to drink at least eight, 8-ounce glasses of water to flush your teeth of any leftover food particles. Drinking water with fluoride also helps strengthen your enamel and support a healthy immune system.
Use Tools to Open Gifts and Packaging — Not Your Teeth
Whether you’re a child or an adult, it can seem tempting to use your teeth as tools to rip open packaging or open a bottle. However, doing so can damage your teeth and can even lead to chips or cracks. Leave the gift opening to the professional tools, such as scissors, to avoid any damage to your smile.
A good rule of thumb: if you’re not snacking, your teeth are not the right tool for the job!
Whiten Your Teeth
If you feel like your smile could use some extra whitening just in time for holiday photos, consider teeth whitening. With at-home options available, you can whiten your teeth without the need for repeat visits to the dentist.
Consider Fastbraces
Looking to enter the New Year with a straight smile? If you’re looking for an even faster treatment method, Fastbraces® may be for you! While traditional braces move teeth into position in stages over about 2 years, the brackets in Fastbraces work on a different mechanical principle to correct the roots of the teeth from the outset of treatment, to realign the root and crown of each tooth simultaneously.
This means that your treatment may be completed in as little as three months to about a year, and some patients notice results in just a few weeks.
Visit Your Dentist for Regular Check-Ups
While you may be busy enjoying all this season has to offer, it’s important to make sure that you’re getting the dental care you need. Many patients also forget that their dental benefits reset at the beginning of the year, which means if you don’t use them now, you could lose them in the New Year.
At Nilda M. Woolard, DDS, we know every patient is different, which is why we recommend you come to our Valencia office for an appointment to discuss your goals and concerns with our skilled dentist, Dr. Woolard.
Contact our team today for a consultation: (661) 387-2553
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