When you invest in cosmetic dentistry, you should want to do everything possible to protect and maintain your new smile. Halloween, however, can be a temptation for even the strongest resolve. Candy is everywhere, and sometimes it’s hard to say no. If you want to avoid dental problems and a damaged smile makeover, follow these dos and don’ts.
1. Do Avoid the Chewy Stuff
For people with a certain kind of sweet tooth, the most hard-to-resist candies are the chewy kind – gummy worms, licorice, taffy, and the like. Unfortunately, these are some of the absolute worst sweets for your teeth.
Chewy candies create multiple problems. First, the candy sticks to your teeth and, especially, in between your teeth. If you’re not flossing anytime soon, that stuff is hanging in there for the long haul. Second, chewy, gummy, sticky candy can take your dental work with it when you bite down. Even though porcelain crowns and tooth-colored fillings are firmly bonded in place, certain sweets have enough sticking power to destroy dental work.
2. Don’t Eat Hard Candy
How bad can hard candy be? It’s just hanging out in your mouth, waiting to dissolve, delivering a delicious candy punch the whole way through. That is exactly one of the problems with hard candy – it hangs around, sometimes for hours at a time, bathing your teeth in a dangerous sugar bath that can cause tooth decay.
Then there’s the other problem with hard candy – you get bored with it after a while and want it to go away. So you bite down to break it into smaller parts and so you can chew it or have it dissolve faster. Unfortunately, if you bite just the wrong way, a tooth could crack or break or a porcelain veneer could get chipped.
3. Don’t Dabble, Binge Instead
You may think, for the sake of your waistline, that it’s better to have one little piece of candy here and another piece of candy there. Unfortunately, for your oral health, this is the worst kind of methodology to adopt. It’s better to chow down on multiple candies at once and get your sugar rush out of the way and then brush your teeth. Snacking throughout the day keeps your mouth constantly mired in waves of sugar, and that is not ideal.
4. Do Stick to Chocolate
Sticky candy is a no-no, hard candy too… what’s left? Chocolate! This is, by far, the safest kind of candy for your teeth and the least threatening to your cosmetic dentistry. As long as you stick to soft, smooth, pure chocolate and avoid candy bars or sweets that are filled with nuts or caramel or other dangerous middles, your smile should remain undamaged.
5. Do Brush, Brush, Brush
It should go without saying how critical it is to brush and floss your teeth even more often than usual at Halloween-time, especially if you love candy. At the very least, you want to drink water after every indulgence to rinse off your teeth, followed as soon as possible by your typical oral health care routine.
6. Do Visit Your Hampton Dentist
If you have a toothache or a problem with your cosmetic dentistry as the result of a Halloween candy indulgence, you’re not alone. Don’t try to wait it out or hope the issue will resolve on its own – it won’t. Contact Smiles by the Sea in Hampton, NH to schedule a dental appointment with Dr. Harbpinder Shevchenko and her team.