Six Festive Hazards For Your Teeth & Gums
Christmas and New Year celebrations can be fun, but they also pose additional risks to your oral health
Christmas is nearly upon us and many of you will have noticed the Christmas decorations in the town and in the streets where you live. As we get ready for the festive season, some of us will be getting excited whilst others will be more concerned with getting the preparations right. There is no doubt about it, and especially after last year, that a lot of people are really looking forward to a family Chrstmas gathering once more.
This festive period can be great fun, but it is also a time when we can let down our guard and let some things slide a little. One of these is the way that we look after our teeth at this time of the year. Sadly, dental problems can happen at Christmas and the new year as at any other time of the year, and indeed, there are additional hazards which can happen too. Whilst we are always happy to see our Burton patients, we would rather it not be early in the new year due to ‘Christmas tooth damage’. With that in mind, we offer some seasonal oral health tips from Mike Allen’s Dental Practice.
Alcohol consumption
Let’s start with the most obvious potential hazard and that is consumption of too much alcohol. We are not saying that you shouldn’t have a good time and alcohol can play a part in that for many people. What we do say though is that too much alcohol can affect your teeth in a number of ways. As we have mentioned before, alcohol consumption often leads to a dry mouth in the morning (and possibly a hangover). This dryness of the mouth creates perfect conditions for potentially gum disease causing bacteria to thrive.
This isn’t the only damage that alcohol can do of course and consuming too much can easily cause us to lose balance and fall, or collide with something. A collision with a lamp post or falling against a table can easily break or knock out a tooth. By all means have a drink where appropriate, but please be sensible.
Sugar overload
Again, no one expects you to have a sugar free Christmas and even the healthiest eater may let themselves go a little at this time of the year. Having said that, as with alcohol, do try to consume sweet and sugary items in moderation. Make sure too, to brush your teeth, and a good way to help protect your mouth at the end of a meal is to eat a little cheese as this helps to neutralise acids in the mouth, thereby helping to prevent tooth decay.
Sticky foods
A special word should go to some of those popular Christmad foods that many of us enjoy. Foods such as Christmas puddings and mince pies are not only high in sugar but very sticky too. This means that eating these may well result in sugars sticking to your teeth for a long period of time. Whilst you obviously can’t (and shouldn’t) brush your teeth every time you eat something sticky like this, do try drinking water and swilling it around your mouth before swallowing (or spitting out if appropriate). This will help to flush at least some of the sugars and food particles from your teeth.
Celebratory cigars
As we have mentioned numerous times before, smoking is a real ‘no no’ when it comes to your oral health. Gum disease and oral cancers are often caused by smoking and quitting smoking is one of the best things that you can do for your oral health, and your wallet! This even applies to your annual Christmas cigar. Whilst one of these may not be too harmful in itself, for some of our Burton patients it could trigger a desire to start smoking again on a regular basis. Our view is that it is simply not worth the risk.
Party ‘tricks’
Showing off to friends and relatives is something that we all may have done at some point in our life and this is often fueled by alcohol. There will, no doubt, be some who spend some time at the A&E department of their local hospital because of this. If it happens this year, it won’t be the first year that our Burton dentists see patients early in the new year who have cracked or broken their teeth either by trying to open a bottle with their teeth or even cracking nuts with them. Please don’t do this! Our teeth are made for chewing food and not for things like this.
Tiredness
Finally, great fun though it might be, seasonal festivities can be very tiring, whether or not you have been drinking. One of the biggest threats to your teeth when this happens is that you decide to ‘skip’ brushing your teeth, especially at night, leaving them covered in sticky sugar whilst we sleep. Over the space of a week or so, this can cause significant damage and may lead to you requiring invasive dental procedures such as fillings, root canals or even extractions.
We hope that you all have a great Christmas and that, with a little care, you enter 2022 with healthy teeth. Remember too, to make sure that you have a check up booked in the new year. If you don’t, you can book one by calling Mike Allen’s Dental Practice on 01283 845345 and we look forward to seeing you in 2022!