3 Holiday Drinks that can Cause Problems for your Teeth

One of the best things about the holiday season is the food, and while indulging a little bit in what the season has to offer is nice, there are some things you’re likely to run into this December that you ought to exercise a little bit of caution around for the sake of your teeth.

While you might ordinarily keep your guard up around certain foods, you may also want to think about what you’re drinking to wash down your meal. Here are a few examples of holiday drinks that could cause problems for your teeth.

Soda and Cider

It’s hard to get through the holiday season without winding up at a party or two, and most of them have some kind of sugary soda on hand. You might also be a fan of cider, particularly as temperatures start to drop.

While indulging in a little bit of sugar every once in a while isn’t necessarily the biggest problem, all those sugary drinks can start to build up and cause gum disease.

Egg Nogg

What’s worse is when you add alcohol to the picture. Egg nogg is a holiday classic that’s usually served spiked, and it’s chock full of sugar. Unfortunately, the alcohol in this drink also dries out the mouth, preventing saliva from washing these sugars away into the stomach. This increases the rate of sugar buildup and dramatically increases your odds of suffering from oral health problems later.

Red Wine

As with egg nogg, red wine is a fairly sugary drink that contains alcohol. However, it offers another unique hazard: its propensity to stain the teeth. If you aren’t careful, you could find that your smile’s much darker come January than it was before.

If you want to get through the holidays without affecting your oral health, you should be sure to balance each of these drinks with a healthy amount of water. This mitigates the dry mouth from alcohol, washes away sugar, and is overall a better choice than many of the other holiday drinks you’d get this time of year.

About Our Practice

At Advanced Dental Care of Springfield, our goal is to help as many people as possible get their dream smiles. No matter your age or current dental situation, we will go out of our way in order to ensure that you have everything you need for the duration of your stay at our practice. We do this by getting to know you as an individual and creating a treatment plan specifically tailored to your unique situation.

If you have any questions about how to keep your smile shining through the holidays we can be reached at our website or by phone at (217) 546-3333.