Dr. Tony Cigno – Dentist in Milwaukee – Holiday Dental Care Tip 2
This holiday season our Dentist in Milwaukee, Dr. Tony Cigno, is doing a short miniseries on dental care considerations for keeping teeth healthy during this special time.
Over the holidays, you want to hang out with friends and family. You want to relax. You want to have fun and enjoy your time together.
Thus, the last thing you want to do is deal with a dental emergency over the holiday season.
Yet, there are some dental mishaps that are more common over the holidays. And since emergency dental treatment – if available – can be quite expensive, an ounce of awareness can be hugely valuable.
Here are a few cautions to keep in mind over the holidays to keep teeth safe and you from needing to seek out emergency dental care from our dentist in Milwaukee too:
Watch what you eat
We aren’t talking about your waistline here. Instead, we mean watch what goes into your mouth that must be chewed by your teeth. A lot of times, dental emergencies happen while relaxing—because your guard is down. Combine this with the prevalence of otherwise not-so-common goodies now around all the time such hard nuts, hard candies, peanut brittle, etc., and you are inviting trouble.
Don’t use your teeth as tools
Again, your guard is down because you’re having a great time and worry – and often, paying attention – goes out the window. Additionally, before celebrations, purchases are often coming in that need to be opened and wrapped. Then, they are opened later on in the holiday by others.
For some reason, there is a huge temptation to use the teeth as a tool in these situations and it’s a truly horrible idea. It’s super easy to crack a tooth – or multiple teeth – opening even the simplest of packages with your mouth. Yet, we see people needing emergency dental treatment all the time for this mistake. Don’t let this be you!
Guard your mouth during outdoor sports
It’s just a friendly game of family football, right? No one’s really going to hit or tackle you that hard. Right? That may be true but as you probably heard your parents say a lot when you were growing up, “It only takes one time.” Or, “An accident is called an accident because it wasn’t expected or intended.”
Of course, no one is saying you should sit out of family fun time or outdoor events. On the other hand, for certain activities that are just so variable, wearing a sports mouth-guard is not a bad idea. Nowadays, there are even many that are very small and hardly noticeable. A lot less noticeable, for example, than two missing front teeth on a 40-year-old.
Take it from our dentist in Milwaukee, Dr. Tony Cigno – No doubt, many dental emergencies can’t be avoided.
Just like accidents, they aren’t anticipated, often aren’t expected, and can rarely be avoided completely. However, just keeping these three tips in mind do reduce the risk of holiday dental emergencies just a little. And that’s slightly better odds for everyone!