During the holiday season, you want to spend time with family and friends, enjoy the festive events and create beautiful memories. What you definitely don’t want to happen, though, is for a dental emergency to flare-up. So you don’t suffer from any unnecessary dental trauma, your emergency dentist in Gorham provides 5 helpful, preventive tips to keep in mind and act upon.
Some Common Dental Emergencies That Can Happen
The following are some of the more common types of dental emergencies to be on the lookout for:
- Partially dislodged tooth
- Fully dislodged tooth
- Broken tooth
- Broken/lost crown or filling
- Oral bleeding
- Acute tooth pain
Your emergency dentist can help you recover from dental trauma, but it’s much easier to take the necessary steps to prevent any of these problems from happening.
#1 – Pay Attention to Pain and Monitor How You Eat
It’s not normal to have tooth or gum pain, so if you experience either, be sure to bring it to your dentist’s attention as soon as possible. Therefore, you can avoid a simple issue becoming a major problem.
As a preventive measure, you should be sure to chew carefully when eating, especially when consuming foods with bones. This will better protect you from enduring a painful laceration, or a broken or dislodged tooth.
#2 – Commit to Oral Hygiene
Brushing and flossing your teeth at least two times a day not only contributes to having fresh breath, but it also helps to remove harmful food particles and oral bacteria that could lead to cavities and gum disease.
#3 – Monitor Your Sugar Intake
In addition to keeping your teeth clean during the holidays, it’s important to set limits for how much sugar you’ll consume. That’s because it’s the food of choice of oral bacteria.
You don’t have to miss out on all the holiday deliciousness, though. Instead, you can make some modifications. For example, you can commit to only having a sweet treat after you’ve eaten a full meal. Therefore, the extra saliva production can help to flush away the leftover debris.
#4 – Drink More Water
Drinking water serves as a natural complement to your oral hygiene regimen. By consuming a glass after eating a meal, you can help to bathe the mouth and remove some of the lingering food particles before they can settle on the enamel and gums.
#5 – Visit Your Dentist
In the midst of all the holiday preparations, it’s in your best interest to pay your family dentist in Gorham a preventive care visit. While you’re there, you can receive a thorough cleaning and checkup to make sure there are no problems quietly developing.
This will allow you to enjoy this magical time of the year with the peace-of-mind of knowing that your teeth and gums are protected.
About the Author
A graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry, Dr. Ted Morgan has been helping patients enjoy excellent holiday oral health for the past 45 years. One way he accomplishes this is through providing excellent preventive dentistry at Morgan-Hill Dental Care. For more information about his services, you can visit Dr. Morgan’s website.