Taking Care of Your Smile at Thanksgiving: 4 Crucial Tips

Between getting together with your loved ones and enjoying a delicious meal, it can be all too easy to forget about your oral health during Thanksgiving. But if you don’t want to have to make an emergency trip to the dentist’s office to deal with a cavity once the holiday is over, you should take whatever steps you can to make sure your smile is properly protected. Below are 4 tips for keeping your smile safe throughout the Thanksgiving festivities.

1. Floss Whenever You’re Done Eating

For many people, Thanksgiving can be an entire day’s worth of eating and snacking – which means there are plenty of opportunities for food to get stuck between the teeth. Said food could potentially attract harmful bacteria and lead to plaque buildup. It’s therefore recommended that you keep some dental floss with you and make a point of using it after you finish eating anything; this will help keep your smile as clean as possible throughout the day.

2. Be Careful About What You Put on Your Plate

Some Thanksgiving foods can be beneficial for your smile while others could potentially cause problems. For example, starchy foods such as stuffing or dinner rolls might increase your risk for tooth decay. On the other hand, turkey is filled with phosphorus that can promote the strength of your teeth, and green beans contain vitamin C which can help you maintain healthy gums. Make sure that your plate contains plenty of foods that will do your smile more good than harm.

3. Be Careful When It Comes to Sticky Sweets

Do you often end your Thanksgiving meal with a large slice of pecan or pumpkin pie? This type of sticky treat can be more damaging to your oral health than you might realize since it can remain on your teeth for a long time. Luckily, you can protect your smile from sticky sweets by only enjoying them in moderation and thoroughly rinsing your mouth with water afterward.

4. Put Some Cranberries on Your Plate

If you want to keep tooth decay at bay, try enjoying a few cranberries with your Thanksgiving meal. The polyphenols in cranberries can help fight off cavity-causing bacteria, thus improving your protection against a variety of oral health issues. Just be careful about how the cranberries are served; many cranberry-based dishes, such as cranberry sauce, tend to contain a lot of sugar.

The tips above can help you get through the big Thanksgiving meal while minimizing your risk for dental complications. And if you do have concerns about the health of your smile, you can always schedule a visit with your dentist.

About the Author

Dr. James T. Gray has more than three decades’ worth of dental experience and is currently putting his expertise to good use by helping Arlington patients protect their smiles. He welcomes patients of all ages, and he is proud to offer a wide variety of treatments for addressing all kinds of oral health issues. To schedule a post-Thanksgiving consultation with Dr. Gray, visit his website or call (817) 460-4131.