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Dental hygienist service at Halloween - trick or treat?

Dental hygienist service at Halloween - trick or treat?

Our Dental Hygienist service will prescribe the best treatment for your optimum oral health. At your first appointment at New Life Teeth, your oral and gum health will be reviewed using several assessments and questionnaires.

Apart from scary costumes, Halloween is most commonly associated with sweets. Every child returns from trick-or-treating with a bag full of sweets. Without precautions, these can easily wreak havoc on your dental hygiene.

Dental Hygienist Service

REMOVE HARMFUL SWEETS

One way of limiting the damage is by removing the most harmful sweets. According to Colgate, hard candy and sticky treats are two of the biggest sweet villains. Both of these are more likely to linger on your teeth, which increases acid build-up. Removing these sweets or limiting their consumption can go a long way towards ultimately preventing tooth decay.

ALTERNATIVE SWEET OPTIONS

Instead, we recommend promoting your children to eat sweets that don't linger as long such as chewing gum. Chewing gum actually has the least impact on your dental hygiene as it produces extra saliva. The extra saliva naturally cleans your mouth limiting the build-up of dental bacteria.

Other sweets that don't linger as long include chocolate and powdery candy. Both sweets dissolve relatively quickly, which limits their impact.

OTHER WAYS TO LIMIT THE IMPACT

We get that removing sweets is not always possible, but there are still ways to limit the impact of Halloween sweets. One of the best ways is to establish boundaries about when it is and isn't allowed. For example, only allowing one sweet after dinner, no sweets in front of the TV to prevent automatic eating, or only allowing sweets for a set period of time before donating the rest.

PROPER DENTAL HYGIENE

While dental hygienist services are always essential, it becomes even more important during the Halloween season. To counter the damage of excess sweet consumption, it's essential that your little ones brush their teeth properly.

It may be tempting to have them brush immediately after eating sweets, but this can actually cause harm. Some sweets soften tooth enamel and brushing immediately after eating these sweets can cause more harm than good.

Instead, it's recommended that children drink water while eating them and then brush their teeth and floss 30 minutes after (this is another reason why it's important to not allow sweets immediately before bed). Flossing is especially important as it can help to remove any stuck sweets that would otherwise cause tooth decay.

Periodontal maintenance cleanings are recommended every three months, or may depend on what is suggested by the dental hygienist service.

ARRANGE A FREE CONSULTATION  or give our Edinburgh clinic a call on 0131 564 1822 or our Belfast clinic on 0289 521 7533.

New Life Teeth

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