It is my most favorite time of the year.  The Fall has come and the seasonal fun is beginning.  I know I am going to spend lots of time with my family and also hanging out with my friends for all kinds of gatherings and parties.  This is a time to enjoy my favorite snacks, desserts, and wonderful holiday drinks.  The pumpkin spice latte is now available at Starbucks and I know it is time to indulge.  But this is also the time of year that my teeth take the worst pounding.  I know that the health of my dental routine is probably not good enough to get past my indulgence in this holiday season.  So I wanted to make myself a list of tips to personally follow to help me stay healthy and safe for this season.  With COVID-19 all around I know that being healthy is really important right now and staying away from medical situations is key.

Really the one thing that I love about the Holiday is the thing I should avoid the most.  But really avoiding won’t be an option for me.  If I give up sugar and sweet drinks then I will most likely just binge later on and ruin the whole plan. So really trying to limit the amount of sugary and highly acidic food and drinks is a good idea.  When it comes to sugary coffees I am going to limit those to times after I have brushed my teeth and when a new brushing is coming.  I am also planning on not going nuts on eating sugary foods.  These are really bad on your teeth and can eat away at your enamel.  That can really become a problem if you constantly are putting sugar on your teeth.  Plaque is a big issue and when all of these things combine they get worse.  So my goal is to cut back and eat and drink sparingly, but not stop it altogether. 

I am also planning on keeping my mouth clean after eating and drinking bad things for the season.  Water is a great way to rinse the bacteria causing and enamel eroding things off your teeth and out of your mouth.  So carrying a bottle of water with me is going to be a staple of my holiday. I have several nice mugs and stainless steel water bottles that fit all times of the day where I would need one.  At a party, just make sure to switch out every other drink from cider to water.  Or an adult beverage to a water after each one.  This will help you clean your mouth and also help you stay hydrated enough to produce saliva. 

Saliva is a great way to help your teeth during this season because it is a natural cleaner.  So by drinking water you are not only rinsing your teeth but also creating a cleaner in your mouth to act as a nice mouthwash.  This is important to keep up on and a great idea to work on staying healthy.  Just keep water in mind and many good things will come from it.

It is also good to keep some disposable brushes with you too. I like the mini ones you can use quickly and toss after you eat dessert.  It is a great way to keep your health up and still enjoy that seasonal snack. 

I seem to always think about health in the long run.  When it comes to my body I am always considering what my day to day tasks will end up producing for the long haul.  If I am eating poorly daily that will most likely have more of an effect on my body and my dental hygiene than almost anything else I do.  But there are also little things that you should be keeping an eye on to make sure that you are staying healthy.  With the COVID-19 Pandemic going on, I have never thought it was more important than to work on my health.  The last thing I want to do is to go into a hospital with an emergency when it could have been prevented with a good protective routine.  So that is what I am focusing on this year and that is setting good routines.  Especially, now that the holidays have come, I know that my teeth will be in for a hard time.  So making sure my mouth is safe is possibly going to be a life-saving ordeal this year. So I wanted to go over a few things I am doing to keep my mouth protected.

https://youtu.be/D-YCtw-9kOo

Really the first thing I am going to work on is drinking more water.  It sounds silly, but I know that staying hydrated actually has more to do with your dental health than you might think.  By rinsing off your teeth consistently you have more of a chance to get rid of all that plaque-causing food and sugar that may end up sticking to your teeth.  Water also has the wonderful task of helping you to create more saliva.  This is like the body’s natural mouth rinse.  So by simply drinking more water each day, and helping to rinse my teeth, I can keep the bad bacteria from eating away at my enamel and causing major issues.  This is why I am incorporating a water bottle into my daily life.  I think that it is important to continue to drink water more and to have a nice bottle that doesn’t interfere with my daily life.

Now another routine I am working on is brushing right after lunch.  I want to make sure I am keeping a protective layer on my teeth throughout the day and also keeping excess food off of my teeth.  The last thing I want is to go the entire day with extra sugar attached and eating away at a part of my mouth.  That seems like a bad idea and now that I am working from home in the pandemic I can easily brush my teeth for lunch.  It has taken me some work to create the habit of doing this, but with my cell phone alarm, I am have hammered down on myself to do it.  Because of this, I feel that my teeth are in better shape and that my teeth are actually getting a bit whiter.  That certainly is a nice addition to the extra work and a nice pat on my own back.

The last habit that I have tried to incorporate is to floss once a day.  I use these little floss sticks that keep my fingers out of my mouth and away from the floss string.  That stuff grosses me out, but these have made it pretty easy for me to ensure my mouth is clean. If you get a chance to incorporate these ideas into your routine, give it a try!