How To Take Care of Your Teeth Over The Holidays

It is that time of year again, Christmas is just around the corner and we are scrambling to shop for gifts as we try and finish up our work before our time off. However, through all the chaos and fun that tends to surround the time leading up to Christmas, do we remember to take care of our teeth properly? Since we are so distracted, and we tend to eat more food, especially the stuff that might not be quite so good for teeth, it is important to remember these tips for dental health.

5 Dentistry Tips for Christmas

Do not brush so hard. It can seem tempting or like a good idea to brush as hard as you can, that way you get the best clean, right? Wrong. When you brush too hard, you are actually doing more harm for your teeth than helping them. When you brush too hard, you can actually be wearing down the enamel on your teeth (this can make your teeth more sensitive to cold or heat), irritate the tissue on your gums, and even cause soft spots that can be prime real estate for cavity formation.

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This one is more for the kiddos: put the brakes on thumb sucking. When children suck their thumbs, they can be affecting the way their teeth come in and their jaw structure as it grows. The reason this can be the case is because children start to develop permanent teeth around 5 years of age, and if they are sucking their thumbs, they can be impacting the growth. This can lead to misaligned teeth, increased difficulty chewing things, and even speech.

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Watch the acidity. Some food and drinks can contain acid that we do not realize or we do realize, but they are delicious so we eat and drink them anyway. Soda, citrus, and coffee are just a few examples of delicious things that have acid in them. Why is the acid bad? It can weaken the enamel on your teeth.

Watch the clenching and teeth grinding. We often clench our jaws or grind our teeth without even realizing it; these can be auto responses to various things like stress, anxiety, etc. The jaw clenching and teeth grinding can wear down your teeth and enamel; the micro fractures that can result in your teeth from the intense jaw clenching can be painful and require serious dental work. This can require your dentist to fix multiple teeth in one day.

Use your teeth to chew, and that is all. It can be tempting to use our teeth to open packages or tear something; however, our teeth are not an extra set of hands, they are what we use to chew food. Why is it bad? Using them as pliers and hooks can cause your teeth to crack or break previous dental work. This can be even more dangerous if you have dental implants. This Christmas, remember your teeth and do no take them for granted. It can seem easy to forget and say you will make it up later but try to take proper care now.

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