The 12 Days Of Christmas – A Festive Dental Guide
A fun dentistry guide to the holiday season ahead
As Christmas approaches, Abbey Road Dental is excited to help you keep your smile looking beautiful for all those festive selfies and family pictures in the month ahead.
There’s a lot you can do to ensure that your teeth and gums stay healthy and looking great over Christmas, so you can go into the New Year smiling, happy and free from any pain or dental disease.
To help you keep your teeth and gums looking and feeling festive and fantastic, here’s our 12 days of Christmas dental guide:
A Partridge In A Pear Tree (Keep Up With Your Routine)
Don’t forget to keep up with your routine over the Christmas period so that your teeth don’t start to feel the impact of all the indulgence, and not enough care. Just two minutes brushing, twice a day and flossing will help to keep your teeth in great condition throughout the holiday season.
Two Turtle Doves (One Sweet Is Enough)
If you can limit the amount of chocolates, puddings and other sweet things you are having you will limit the impact of sugar on your teeth. Ideally, you’ll have the sugary foods with your main meal, ensuring that the exposure of the sugar and acid is limited to a shorter time period (rather than grazing all day).
Three French Hens (Buffet? It Depends….)
Buffets are part and parcel of the holiday season, but whether or not your teeth feel the impact of the sugar and acid in them is up to you. Ideally, you will choose crudettes, hummus, fruits, cheeses and meats. Sugary treats and white stodgy foods like crackers and breadsticks should be limited, or have them as part of a mixed plate to limit their impact.
Four Calling Birds (A Meat Feast?)
Meat, and especially white meat like turkey, is excellent for your teeth because it is full of phosphorus. It’s also really lean, so it isn’t so bad on its own when it comes to calorie content either. It’s probably one of the few Christmas foods you can indulge in a little more than the rest.
Five Gold Rings (Drink Water With Everything)
Water is a great pairing for pretty much every Christmas food because it helps to rinse away food debris, sugar, acid and bacteria. It is a bit like a helping hand for the saliva that we produce. It also helps to prevent dry mouth, which can cause issues with your oral health.
Six Geese A-Laying (Wear MouthGuards When You’re Playing)
Lots of people get back to sports they enjoy over Christmas. A spot of Christmas Day football, a little bit of rugby with old friends – it’s all part of the Christmas fun for those of us who like to stay a little bit more active over the holidays. If this is you, it could be sensible to use a mouth guard. You can buy them, or Abbey Road Dental can make one bespoke to you. They help protect the teeth and gums from nasty injuries when you play sports – an accident that would truly ruin Christmas if it happened.
Seven Swans A-Swimming (Old Toothbrush Needs Flinging)
Over Christmas it is easy to forget to buy a new toothbrush. You’re focused on lots of other things and it can feel like a low priority on your list. Old toothbrushes, though, don’t do the job of cleaning your teeth all that well, and they can be loaded with bacteria. If the bristles are worn, or it has been six months since you started using it, it is time to replace it.
Eight Maids A-Milking (Keep On Flossing)
Don’t forget to keep on flossing throughout Christmas. It’s an essential part of keeping your gums healthy because it disturbs the bacteria below the gum line and in hard to reach areas in between the teeth. Once a day should suffice, or even more regularly over Christmas if you’re eating more than usual.
Nine Ladies Dancing (Keep Those Invisalign Trays In)
Don’t forget to collect any Invisalign trays or other dental devices you might need over Christmas. The enhancement of your smile doesn’t have to pause over the Christmas period, and not maintaining your tray directions with a programme like Invisalign could actually put you back a few steps.
Ten Lords A-Leaping (Keep All Your Teeth In)
Unfortunately there are some pretty common toffee-related incidents that happen over Christmas. More often than not, they fetch out dental restorations like fillings, but they can cause even more issues for natural teeth long-term.Toffees can also sit on the teeth and stick to them, leaching out sugar to feed bacteria in the mouth and contributing to a risk of decay. Where possible, avoid toffees when you’re offered the Christmas chocolate tin.
Eleven Pipers Piping (Watch What You’re Biting)
Lots of injuries happen over Christmas where patients have used their teeth as tools. They have bitten into tape, into packaging, or even used their teeth to open bottles. Doing this can be very bad for the teeth and may even cause some really nasty injuries. To keep your entire mouth healthy and safe this Christmas, avoid using the teeth as tools.
Twelve Drummers Drumming (Brush Whilst You’re Humming)
A fun thing to do over Christmas is to hum a Christmas carol whilst you brush. We should brush at least two minutes every time we brush, and sometimes we think we have done that but it is actually a lot less. Why not hum a Christmas carol whilst you are brushing so you know you’re brushing for a long period of time, all whilst being festive, too!
Smile Throughout The 12 Days Of Christmas And Beyond
We hope that you do have a safe and happy Christmas. If you do have a dental emergency over the holidays, please check our website for our Christmas opening hours and emergency dentist information.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Abbey Dental Team!