Ahhh, the holidays and the never-ending meals and desserts. During this festive time, we expose our teeth to A LOT of food and sugar, so it’s important we stay on top of our oral hygiene.
Eating all day means constantly exposing our teeth to sugar. This increases the chances of cavities forming. Here are five quick, but effective, tips to ensure you don’t let cavities grow.
Tip #1: Avoid frequent eating throughout the day. Confining sugar intake to a couple times a day decreases the amount of plaque that build up on your teeth. Remember, plaque contains bacteria that causes cavities to form.
Tip #2: Drink water after sugar exposure. If a toothbrush is not handy, it’s good to rinse with water to remove the residual sugar and plaque that build up on your teeth. This will reduce the likelihood of tooth decay!
Tip #3: Brush your teeth 30 minutes after eating. This removes the plaque that builds up on your teeth, thus removes the bacteria that causes cavities to form. However, it’s not advisable to brush immediately after eating because our enamel is very porous due to the low pH in our mouth right after eating. Brushing our teeth during this low pH may cause abrasion and thinning of our enamel.
Tip #4: Floss your teeth at least ONCE a day. Brushing our teeth is not enough to ensure we won’t get cavities. Food constantly get stuck between our teeth, and we must floss daily to ensure that no food is trapped. Impacted food can form interproximal cavities, which are cavities that form in between the teeth. These are harder to fix and may result in more sensitivity after a filling is placed.
Tip #5: Use fluoridated mouthwash! Fluoridated mouthwash such as ACT Mouthwash or Crest Pro-Health Advance Mouthwash may help reduce or stop cavities from forming. Acid in plaque causes loss of minerals from our enamel. This process is called demineralization. Fluoride helps reverse this by adding back minerals into these damaged areas. This process is called remineralization. Daily rinsing with fluoride can prevent small cavities from growing and/or prevent them from forming at all.
To find out more about oral hygiene care and the proper diet for an optimal oral health, visit our website at BMEDental.com!