Quarantine Teeth Brushing

The year is 2020, the Month is April and the day is now unknown.  That is how most of us feel who have been subjected to stay at home orders in our states.  The COVID-19 Pandemic has changed our entire lifestyle.  We now are more homebodies than ever before, the term staycation has become normal life.  Although many of us have to work from home, we all find ourselves in similar situations.  We are eating out less generally now for fear of the Coronavirus, but we are somehow eating more.  There are many consequences to increased eating which have lots of health effects tied to them.  One such issue is the health of your teeth. 

In general Americans are going to each more sugar when they are stuck at home.  One because they like it but more to the fact that it is very addictive.  Hence, once you find yourself eating a cookie or two you simply want more.  The simple nature of the beast is the more trips you make to the refrigerator the more likely you are going to need to see your dentist. 

Unfortunately, with the COVID-19 Pandemic in place, many Americans have lost their jobs or are severely under worked due to stay at home orders.  Unemployment has spike to roughly 6 million applicants per month and in general Americnas have less money to spend.  When Americans feel strapped for cash dentist visits go down dramatically.

The other troubling area is that now many dentists are not able to work.  They have been labeled in many states as unessential.  This label means they are now unable to go to work.  Which means that unless its an emergency situation, the patient will not be able to go see a dentist.  Combine lack of income and an emergency situation being need and you simply have less people going to the dentists to take care of their teeth.

There are some precautions you can take to help eliminate the need to go to the dentists to start with.  First, cut down on the sugar intake you are currently taking.  This means don’t buy cookies or sugary items at the grocery store when you take your essential trip ever week or in some cases three weeks.  Focus on more healthy foods and drink lots of water.  Water can help clean your teeth and keep the decaying effects of sugar from happening so rapidly. So stay safe, and take care of your teeth this quarantine!

Reward your Kids for Dental Hygiene

This year has been different from any other in the history of the United States of America.  We have spent more time at home with our children than ever before as mandated by our local governments.  Our Federal Government put our regulations on how we should be living and dealing with the COVID-19 Pandemic.  This in turn has left many Americans without a job or working from home.  What also came home with us is our children. 

Most local government and private schools were dismissed due to the fear of spreading COVID-19.  The corona virus has changed many of our lives and it has left our children at home with us.  They are eating more and may be consuming too much sugar with no way to see a dentist.  So reward them for keeping up with their dental hygiene and you may be regarding your pocketbook later in the year.

Keeping a healthy daily routine is a great way to make rewarding your children easy.  Don’t get convoluted by making a crazy chart of doing this gets you that.  Quid pro quo should not be instigated in teeth hygiene.  Instead be positive and supportive for sticking to the routine.  What ever you do, don’t reward teeth  brushing with sugar.  Yes, this is the most prominent way we trick out children into doing the right thing. But try to change the rules a bit.  

If they are motivated by being with you or quality time.  Then reward them with a few minutes of doing something together right after they brush their teeth.  Yes, this may be twice a day, but if its reading  a quick story to them after they brush their teeth, then it's worth it.  10 minutes a day of reading can save you thousands of dollars each year for cavities or pulling teeth.

Another great way to reward children for keeping their pearly whites clean is to play games.  Making a sticker chart and making it a competition can be a bonus for some kids in the family. Not everyone is motivated by personal time, but some kids love a competition and will in turn keep the rest of the bunch in the game by themselves.  That is the best way in my opinion to keep your kids healthy and keep you safe and a little less light in the wallet. So stay safe this COVID-19 pandemic and keep washing your hands!

Is Your Diet Hurting Your Teeth?

The fact is that our looks are very important to us.  If it is not directly important underlying psychology is always that judging how you look and how you view others.  This year a focus has been brought to your teeth because it has been a hyperfocused.  The mask mandates that have been brought to the country have somehow made people focus on their breath and teeth much more than normal.  The reality is that many of us have noticed that our dental health is something that we need to focus on even more.  The average person simply works on brushing their teeth more and maybe adding in some whitening products.  But it is not the thing that may be hurting or helping your teeth the most.  It may actually come down to what you are eating and drinking that are impacting your body and dental health the most over time.  This is because we are ingesting food and drinks consistently and the looks of our teeth can be impacted constantly by this.

 

So what are some of the foods that may be hurting our dental health and also the look of our teeth?  These foods are usually part of our daily routines and that is not entirely a bad thing.  The goal may simply be to cut down on some of these foods to keep our teeth brighter longer. The shocking food that may be leaving behind that yellowish huge is berries.  Indeed some of our favorite breakfast additions that we think are healthy can be leaving a bad look and feel in your mouth.  The blueberry or blackberries many of us add to our cereal in the morning may be staining your teeth and causing the yellowing effects that can lead to other tooth decay issues over time.  This is something that many of us do every single day and maybe we should cut back a little on the staining berries that we like to eat.

 

Surprisingly the food that ends up sneaking into many foods that we like is tomatoes.  This is actually a fruit and not a vegetable and we use it in tons of foods.  We have sauces that are made of this and is found in most pizzas.  It is all throughout the food world from soups, tacos, to most sandwiches.  It is an item to keep an eye on because it can cause your teeth to yellow as well. This is not the only food that can stain teeth, but it is one to keep on your radar for possible tooth yellwing issues. But there are also other items and drinks that may be causing you some issues as well.

 

The drinks that are known to stain the most are red wines.  We can easily see this in a mirror of most red wines that may end up really causing consistent yellowing of teeth. Since we are told the older we get that a glass of red wine is good for us each day it is something to know that it may be harming your teeth. In order to fight the yellowing issues that may occur it is good to see your dentist twice a year for a cleaning.  They can help clean those yellowing stains and give advice on whitening products to help in between.