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The holiday season has officially commenced. After celebrating Thanksgiving and stuffing yourself with copious amounts of turkey, cranberry sauce, and pie, it’s only a matter of time before Christmas arrives—and you’re in for another round of feasting with your loved ones!
While everyone always looks forward to eating hearty meals and receiving thoughtful presents, the holidays are also a time when you need to watch out for what you eat. Even if you can expect to shed your holiday weight come the new year, your oral health is another thing to consider.
Unfortunately, people visit their dentists more often during the holidays after experiencing various tooth problems stemming from the food they ate at Christmas. Keep reading below to find out what to do to avoid an unnecessary trip to your local dentist.
Sugary Food Can Impact Your Enamel
With Thanksgiving over, you can expect to continue the celebration and eat more food once Christmas arrives. The highlight of the holidays involves loads of eggnog, red wine, and various dishes and desserts.
As a result, you and your loved ones are bound to alternate between eating savory and sweet food that will affect your oral health if you aren’t too mindful about it. While sugar can result in tooth decay, they aren’t the real reason for the deterioration of your teeth.
When you eat food high in sugar, the microorganisms found in your mouth that promote good oral health can feed off sugar and turn it into acid. The bacteria are located on the surface of your teeth, known as the enamel.
The moment sugar forms into acid and results in a bacterial infection, you can experience tooth decay—which can be painful to nurse on your own. During severe instances, you will need to see a dentist to perform a root canal or tooth extraction.
Sticky Sweets Can Affect Your Dental Care
Christmas is known for overindulging and allowing yourself to eat whatever you want because it’s the holidays, and you deserve to treat yourself. You can expect to eat various kinds of desserts and sweets during the holiday season.
Unfortunately, eating peanut brittle, caramel candies, dried fruit, toffee, and other sweets that can get stuck between your teeth aren’t the best dessert for your oral health. As much as possible, you should grab a different dessert instead.
Sticky sweets can increase the possibility of developing oral problems, mainly because once they get stuck in your teeth and enamel, you are more susceptible to bacteria growing in your mouth. Also, they can cause an impact on your teeth and either loosen your fillings or cause your veneers to fall out.
Other dental works done to your mouth can also be damaged due to the sticky sweets you consume. Even if you finish only a piece or two of caramel candy, the results will be long-lasting and will have you visiting your dentist as early as January.
Solid Candies Can Damage Your Teeth
While it’s a well-known fact that human teeth are durable, they can still break from impact and pressure when you eat a kernel of popcorn or accidentally bite into a Jawbreaker. If you didn’t know you had underlying oral health issues, and you decide to go all out during the holidays, you can expect to face the consequences.
Issues that involve tooth decay, gum disease, and overall bad oral hygiene can weaken the state of your teeth and lead to more damage when you decide to eat rock-solid food. It includes nuts, caramel candies, and even ice cubes. While you can maintain good oral health to protect your teeth, you can never expect accidents to happen due to the snacks you plan to eat during the holidays.
Conclusion
If you want to make sure you have a peaceful and memorable Christmas, it would be best to get your teeth cleaned and undergo a dental check-up before and after the holiday season. Doing so will assure you that you can take a break from your healthy lifestyle for a bit and eat what you want, given that you remain cautious about the kinds of food you choose to eat that could significantly impact your oral health.
Are you looking for affordable dentistry in Ann Arbor to maintain your good oral health? The Dental House MI is a dental practice that offers preventive, cosmetic, and restorative dentistry services. Get in touch with us to book an appointment in time for the holiday season!
