Holidays are supposed to be about family, friends, celebration, and, of course, great food. The last thing you want to do is spend any time in the dentist's chair during your holiday celebration, and you certainly don't want to deal with a toothache or another dental trauma when you should be celebrating. Take a look at a few things that you can do to protect yourself from a dental emergency during your holiday season.
Have a Checkup
If it's been awhile since your last dental checkup, make an appointment. If you're due for one right after the holidays, consider moving it up. Having a checkup can help ensure that you catch any loose fillings or budding infections and take care of them before they become serious problems and ruin your holiday celebration.
Eat with Caution
There are certain snacks and treats that make an appearance around the holidays that can be very hard on the teeth, especially if you already have fillings or crowns. For example, toffees and sticky candies can pull a filling right out of your mouth if you're not careful. Hard candy can break a tooth.
Be careful when eating foods that may contain pits, like olives or cherries, or meats that might contain a bone. Even if they're supposed to be pitted or deboned, it's possible to miss something, and it can be an unpleasant surprise to bite down on something hard unexpectedly.
Be Prepared
Make sure that you're prepared if a dental emergency does happen. Whether or not you have a checkup before the holidays, it's worth giving your dentist a call to see if they'll have emergency hours during the holiday, or if they have an emergency dentist to refer you to, just in case.
It gets trickier if you're going to be traveling for the holidays. How do you find an emergency dentist when you're out of state or even out of the country? If you're out of state and you have dental insurance, call your insurer; they may be able to direct you to an emergency dentist in the state that you're in. If you're out of the country, your travel insurance company may be able to put you in touch with a dentist in the area, or you can get in touch with your embassy in the area and they can help you find care. If you're traveling and absolutely can't find an emergency dentist to see you, a hospital emergency room is better than nothing.
Finally, make sure that you keep up with your normal oral care routine during the holidays. A holiday celebration shouldn't lead to cavities, and it won't if you remember to brush and floss like you would during the rest of the year.
