Dentist's Tips on How to have an Egg-cellent Easter - Are Chocolate Easter Eggs bad for you?
Easter is coming around the corner and it’s a season of giving and receiving chocolate eggs and bunnies. It is a great time of the year to see friends and family, attend an Easter church service, go on a short road trip or just have a quiet one to chill out and relax at home. When it comes to all those chocolate eggs, we all enjoy a treat. Chocolate Easter eggs aren’t necessarily bad for you but they can be if we don’t eat them wisely and don’t look after our oral hygiene. In this article, we will give you some tips to enjoy your chocolate Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies without having to feel down and guilty about it. We want you to have you chocolate and eat it too :)
Tip 1 - Practise good oral hygiene
Nothing beats brushing well and flossing well. We should brushing in the morning and before going to bed at night for 2 minutes each time. We should also be flossing in the gaps between the teeth regularly because the toothbrush bristles can’t get into the gaps between the teeth. If you can’t floss or find it hard, look for pikster sticks (interdental brushes) or flossettes which make it easier
Tip 2 - Rinse straight after eating chocolate Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies
What happens when you leave a bit of melted chocolate sitting in a bowl or plate for a few hours after dessert? It dries up, it gets harder to clean and you really need to scrub it off. But if you finished up and rinsed the bowl or plate straight away it is relatively easier to clean. On similar principles it’s always best to drink some water afterwards to rinse out any residual chocolate that’s sitting around inside the mouth.
Rinsing the chocolate out also means there’s less sugar in the mouth. This is important to understand because the bad bacteria in our mouth LOVE sugar and feed on it to create more bad bacteria. So rinsing helps to remove sugar and that helps to minimise bacteria in the mouth so we reduce the risk of cavities and tooth decay
Tip 3 - Don’t graze on lollies and chocolate eggs
Following on from Tip 2, there are always good and bad bacteria in the mouth. But if we keep grazing on lollies and chocolate eggs, we are feeding the bad bacteria lots and lots and so the bad bacteria will grow more rapidly and that’s when we are at high risk of having tooth decay and cavities on our teeth
Tip 4 - Avoid the sticky lollies and chocolate
Not all sugar is the same. Not all lollies and chocolates are the same. There IS a difference. The stickier the lolly or chocolate, the more likely the sugar from the lolly get stuck on your teeth. The less sticky it is, the less likely the sugar stays on your teeth. Less sugar in the mouth means less chance of tooth decay and cavities.
Tip 5 - Drink lots of water
H2O is the best thing for our body. It’s healthy and staying hydrated helps with a bunch of things for our body including helping maintain our blood pressure, preventing our skin/mouth/lips from drying up. It is definitely better than drinking fizzy drinks, soft drinks and cordial.
We hope these tips have been helpful. Our dental clinic is closed on the public holidays, but it will be open otherwise. We would like to take this time to wish you and your loved ones a safe and Happy Easter break!
DISCLAIMER: The information contained on this website should NOT be used as a substitute for the medical or dental advice of an appropriately qualified and licensed dentist, doctor or other health care provider. The information provided here is general in nature and should be used for informational purposes only.
If you found this article helpful, please share it with your family and friends. We firmly believe in educating our patients to help them understand how to achieve good oral health. Are you looking for modern and gentle dentist who will look after you and your family?
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