Foods to Avoid This Thanksgiving – Is Your Thanksgiving Menu Truly Good for Your Teeth?

It would be nice if the bacteria that harm our teeth had days off during the holidays just as we do. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. If you want your teeth to stay healthy this Thanksgiving, you’ll find that most dentists that offer sedation dentistry Lakewood communities will already have long lists of foods and beverages that they’d recommend against.

This is one of those lists:

·       The first thing to consider is that, even though stuffing doesn’t seem too bad – after all, it doesn’t contain high amounts of sugar or anything harmful – the fact that it’s based on bread means that it will affect your teeth by supporting the growth of cavity-causing bacteria.

·       Sweet potatoes might not be too bad for your teeth, but a sweet potato casserole is actually quite unhealthy. This is primarily due to the fact that it has melted marshmallows on top along with a significant amount of added sugar.

·       Fruit cake is a seasonal favorite that most families love to introduce both during Thanksgiving and Christmas. Unfortunately, this delicious dish is packed with dried fruit, which is basically 70-80% sugar. As a result, you might want to at least limit it, if not eliminate it entirely from your Thanksgiving menu.

Naturally, we should also mention that any types of candy, chocolate and beverages with sugar or alcohol content should be discouraged.

Why Is It So Important to Be Honest with Your Dentist?

When you visit your dentist either for a checkup or because your teeth or gums hurt, they will often ask you a lot of questions, some of which might sound a little “pushy” from certain point of view – especially if the answer might sound embarrassing to the patient. As a result, a lot of patients tend to avoid being straightforward and honest about their answers, especially regarding issues like the number of times they brush or floss.

The reason why it’s important for you to be honest with your dentists in Lakewood is because dentists in Lake can’t read minds, and they can’t stay with you 24/7 to see what you’re doing. Your feedback is extremely important for them to be able to piece together what has happened to you.

Let’s say you get into the bad habit of brushing your teeth only once in a while, since you had a couple of months of depression or increased and chaotic activity in your life. The natural result is that your teeth might start to stain and you might get a couple of mild cavities.

While these problems are not difficult to correct, telling your dentist that you kept brushing twice a day will typically lead them to believe that you’re a special case and that your teeth will require a stronger toothpaste, for example, which might actually cause more harm than good. As a result, it’s always best to be honest with your dentist, even if you don’t feel too proud about it. After all, your own health is on the line.

The Most Common Areas People Miss When Brushing Their Teeth

People tend to think that, when they brush their teeth 2-3 times a day, everything will be fine. They go around expecting that their teeth will stay healthy for a long time to come, and then lo and behold – as soon as they reach their dentist’s office for their first checkup in 6 months, they discover they have 3-4 cavities that weren’t there before.

The most obvious culprit in such cases is that the patient failed to brush their teeth properly. This can happen when you brush the same area over and over again and ignore other areas that you actually, mistakenly thought you already brushed.

Probably the most obvious but least known area people miss when brushing their teeth is the tongue. That’s because most of us don’t even know we have to clean our tongues after brushing our teeth. Failure to do so, however, can lead to bad breath and a higher concentration of harmful oral bacteria.

Another area is the side and back of your teeth. Ironically, this is where a lot of the food particles end up, and flossing won’t always eliminate all of them. For that reason, it can be very important to brush these areas just as much and as often as the front of your teeth, if you really want to prevent painful cavities.  Find other dental information through http://www.drcathysmiles.com/.