As we ease into the Christmas period, it can be easy to succumb to the dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. From humbugs and candy canes to mince pies and figgy pudding, sweet treats abound at Christmastime — and that can pose a challenge for dental hygiene.

This silly season, we’re dreaming of a white Christmas — and we’re not just talking about the fake snow we’ve seen on a few outdoor displays. While Abbotsford Dental takes some time off from the usual check-ups and cleans, here are our tips for preserving your pearly whites this December.

1. Be Sugar Smart

When you start the Christmas celebrations, it’s a marshmallow world. Whether you’re treating yourself to a chocolate Santa or taking nibbles from a gingerbread house, Christmas is a time to indulge. As you savour the sweet moments, it’s important to find a balance between a love of sugar and a healthy concern for your teeth. All it takes is a little mindfulness and moderation.

One good rule of dental thumb is to limit between-meal snacking, and this goes double if sticky or sweet treats are on the menu. To avoid accumulating sugar on tooth surfaces, try having a single sugar hit rather than topping up throughout the day. Ideally, enjoy your sweets as a dessert following your roast (or seafood) dinner, as your mouth will already have that sugar-neutralising saliva flowing. Cheers to root beer spiders rather than root canal treatment!

2. Candy Cane with Care

As dentists, we often recommend minty treatments — unfortunately, minty treats like candy canes don’t quite make the cut. Not only are they literal sugar canes, but they’re also rather hard, and biting into them can put undue pressure on your teeth. It’s the same story for similarly hard Christmas snacks, such as toffees, Christmas brittle, and candied nuts. If you go too hard with these harder snacks, you may need to paper over the cracks with a dental crown. (Or, on the flip side, you may now have the perfect excuse to get those dental veneers you’ve always wanted.)

To avoid dental emergencies during our shut-down period, our best advice is to ditch these harder foods altogether. But if you can’t resist a candy cane, we recommend savouring it slowly — it might even make for a more mindful experience. If you’re grappling with brittle or candied nuts — something that requires a bit of chewing — be sure to take careful nibbles.

3. Go Nuts with Tooth-Friendly Alternatives

Not everything about Christmas is necessarily sugar-coated. Not all nuts are candied, and you can usually find some sugar-free favourites on the charcuterie board. As dentists, our top three tooth-friendly snack picks for the Christmas period are cheese, turkey, and nuts. Cheese is calcium-rich and actually good for the teeth, assisting the mouth in resuming its natural acid balance. Similarly, turkey is rich in phosphorus, which builds and strengthens enamel almost as well as calcium does. Finally, nuts will necessitate a thorough flossing job, but they are a goldmine of bone-strengthening vitamins. Crack them open and you’ll find calcium (again), folic acid, and vitamin D, to name only a few.

You can even bring this tooth-friendly ’tude into dessert. Rather than eating traditional Christmas cake, why not opt for cheesecake instead? Sure, it contains sugar, but it’s also a slab of cream cheese, which helps neutralise acid in the mouth. Cheesecake is also less likely to stick to the teeth.

4. Go Easy on the Alcohol

Christmas is a time to eat, drink, and be merry. For many of us, that means toasting to good times with a glass of mulled wine or Christmas brandy — which can be a fantastic festive tradition, so long as you keep it to a glass or two. It’s when you take too many swigs that your teeth (and, in some cases, your general health) begin to feel it. Alcohol is high in acid, which can weaken tooth enamel, and red wine can cause dental staining.

If you do overdo the mulled wine this festive season, your first New Year’s resolution may be to get your teeth up to eight shades whiter. The good news is you can get that done in a day — nay, an hour — with a Zoom whitening procedure. Otherwise, our top tip for keeping teeth white and spirits bright is to enjoy alcohol in moderation this Christmas.

5. Cut Using Scissors — Not Incisors!

Amid the festive rush, it can be tempting to take shortcuts. Whether you’re grappling with tough packaging, clothing labels, or stubborn lids on your favourite stubbies, you may choose to use your closest available ‘tool’ — i.e. your teeth — rather than reach for the scissors or Swiss army knife. However, when you use teeth to tackle tasks beyond their undertaking, they can loosen, crack, or even dislodge. If you end up in a worst-case scenario of requiring a tooth extraction, you’ll kick yourself for having not taken a moment to locate the scissors or that darn bottle opener.

At Abbotsford Dental, we can reduce the dental crown acquisition process from a few weeks to a single hour. Thanks to our CEREC® technology, we can create and place crowns in only one appointment. However, between toothy time-saving attempts — however well-intentioned — and our clinic closure, only so much time can be saved.

Our Availability over Christmas

Abbotsford Dental will still be operating late this month — we’re just giving ourselves a bit of a Christmas break. We’re closed for all the public holidays — Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and New Year’s Day — and will be taking a half-day for Christmas Eve. As usual, our clinic will be closed on Sundays.

May Your Smile Be Merry & Bright

Over the Christmas period, you’re going to encounter more acidic or sugary treats than usual, from Christmas spirits like Irish cream to creamy Christmas nougat. Be smart with all things sweet, sticky, and hard, and you can keep that sweet tooth intact for the year ahead. If you’d like to make an appointment for late December or start off the year right, head over to the booking portal on our website. We offer all the services you may need, including children’s dentistry appointments.

From everyone at Abbotsford Dental, we wish you a very merry Christmas. Remember to take some time to unwind amid the flurry! May your time off be fulfilling (and free of the need for white fillings), your days merry and bright — and, most importantly, may all your pearly whites stay white. (If not, you can always look into teeth whitening options in the new year!)