Summer Vacations are here!

This is the time to enjoy yourself to the fullest and have fun in this short break.

Albeit the fun should be in accordance with the oral hygiene.

Your kids may want to eat all the sweets, ice cream, and chocolates and drink cold drinks but as a parent, it is your responsibility to regulate the sweets for children.

After all, they do not want cavities or decay when school starts again.

This article is your guide on how to maintain good oral care during your summer vacations.

Keep reading to return to school with a healthier smile.

child flossing teeth

Why Are There Specific Oral Care Tips for Summer Vacations?

Did you know that dental visits and emergencies spike during this time of the year?

It is the time to have fun, enjoy and relax, hence, you may give up on several important routines that you have established.

One of these is the dental hygiene routine and caring for what you are eating.

For instance, you may eat more sugary and acidic foods because you dine outside and do not keep a tab on what you are consuming.

Hence, holiday time can throw off your routine.

Besides that, there are also more dental injuries during the holiday time.

Hence, certain practices during this time can wreak havoc on your teeth.

These include:

  • Eating holiday snacks that contain nuts and hard and chewy candies. These are difficult to chew, can stick to teeth and also cause them to crack. Plus, they are harder to clean, causing tooth decay.
  • Consuming more sugary foods and drinks can accumulate plaque and cause cavities. Plus on vacation, you may not be able to clean your teeth in between the mealtimes leading to an increased risk of cavities.
  • Holidays are not always fun for everyone. Some go through the anxieties and stress of spending and interacting with people or feeling lonely. This can lead to dental damage and habits that harm teeth such as teeth grinding and nail-biting.
  • Teeth cleaning regimens and oral hygiene routines are disturbed due to busy schedules, constant traveling and changes to your routine such as sleeping and waking up timings. Hence, that impacts how you are following your oral hygiene routine.

These situations and things during your holidays can impact how you take care of your oral hygiene.

However, you can easily avoid these issues as long as you take care of your dental health.

oral care in holidays

 

How To Protect Teeth During Holidays?

Carry Your Dental and Oral Care Products 

It will be difficult to carry all your oral care products when you are on the go.

Traveling means you have a busy and packed schedule and not enough time.

Therefore, you will require a small dental kit that you can use on the go.

This will prevent you from skipping flossing while your routine is all over the place.

Plus, you should also store your toothbrush properly.

Putting it in a damp and dark place such as your bag will promote bacterial growth on it.

Hence, keep it in a dry place and not in a closed container for a longer time than needed.

Also, keep reminding yourself that you have to take care of oral hygiene using alarms.

drinking water to protect teeth during summer vacations

Keep Yourself Hydrated 

You may refrain from drinking lots of water when you are on the go but it is actually good for your oral health.

Drinking water will clear the food particles that stick to your teeth such as sugars.

Hence, if you do not have any dental care products to use on the go, you can always drink water to clear away the food particles.

It also increases the production of saliva that washes away the food particles in your mouth.

Besides water, you can also chew gum to stimulate more saliva in order to wash away the stuck food particles.

Other than that, drinking water regularly is important to prevent a dry mouth.

A dry mouth can result from activities such as swimming.

That causes bacteria to flourish inside your mouth and cause decay.

In order to prevent that from happening, keep drinking water.

This will regulate the saliva in your mouth and keep it from drying.

There are other things to remember too such as…

no snacking

Snacking and Drinking Carefully

During summers, it is normal to snack and drink sweet and cold drinks.

However, you always have the opportunity to snack smarter.

If the kids are at home during their summer vacation, then you can take the opportunity to offer them snacks when they ask for them and not all the time.

Give them healthy snacks rather than sugary drinks and sweets.

Snacks you can try instead:

  • Cheese plate
  • Savory bites like sausage sliders, and skewed prawns
  • A Charcuterie board with different cheeses, vegetables and slices of meat
  • Crunchy foods such as apples and pears as well as crunchy vegetables like celery and carrots to get your kid’s teeth munching on them and producing saliva
  • Savory bakes items like pies, cheese muffins, scones and vegemite
  • Pita bread and dips like hummus, sugar-free nut butter, jams without sugar and cheese spread

When it comes to drinks, you have to avoid sugary and carbonated drinks.

Skip the fruit juices and soda, or only give them to the kids in moderation.

Rather, encourage them to drink more water with their meals and eat healthy as well.

Do not let kids drink sugary drinks all the time and neither should you.

In fact, to neutralize the effect of the acids and sugars, drink water afterward.

Don’t give your children sticky and sweet treats all the time.

They can carry their habits of healthy snacking to school in their lunches.

Hence, summer is the time when you instill good habits in your children.

child and dad brushing teeth

Summer Vacations Self Care

During your holidays, do not only take care of your oral health but also your mental well-being.

Holiday management can be very stressful, this is your time to relax and you should be doing that.

The stress can otherwise lead to nail-biting and teeth grinding that will cause dental problems such as cracks in teeth.

Hence, do not let everything collect, rather keep taking breaks in between so that you do not reach the tipping point.

Make space for yourself to breathe deeply and relax so that you are calm and collected.

Hence, give yourself and your loved ones a break as self-care in itself is worth celebrating during the holiday season.

One way to do that is to also quit on smoking and drinking.

This can lead to better ways to manage stress and will also protect your oral health from damage.

Smoking leads to gum tissue and bone loss, gum disease, dry mouth and bad breath.

Hence, these two cause several oral health problems.

In fact, their combination is even more dangerous, it can result in oral cancer.

As alcohol dehydrates the mouth, it results in the wall cells becoming more permeable to the carcinogens from the tobacco present in cigarettes.

Beyond that, there is something you can do for your kids.

This includes setting up brushing calendars so that they do not miss out on their toothbrushing and flossing routines.

No matter how busy and exciting things get n the next few months of summer, make sure that your kids brush twice a day.

In fact, you can use it as an opportunity to stay together so that children can brush their teeth diligently twice a day as far as their parents are doing it with them.

dental visit in summer vacations

Paying a Dental Visit Before Summer Vacations Ends

It’s a good idea to have children make a back-to-school dental visit.

However, if you have been vacationing, then it is better to consult your dentist even before school starts.

Holidays are the busiest times for dentists.

Hence, if you want to avoid the rush that happens right before August, it is better to take your child to the dentist as they return from their vacations.

This way they can quickly tackle all the problems that may emerge after careless snacking and drinking during your child’s holidays.

Detecting the problems beforehand will prevent them from worsening and leading to expensive treatments.

What else matters is that your child will not have to miss school.

Some schools require a back-to-school dental checkup.

If you do not get it done timely then your child may have to miss out on several classes.

So get it done early and keep protecting your child’s oral health even afterward.

As your child gets a dental checkup, you should get your regular checkup too.

They are not the only ones who may have decay and cavities after the vacation, you could have also been careless with your oral hygiene.

Hence, make this an opportunity to get a thorough dental checkup before you return to your daily grind.

Finally, 

Summer vacations are a fun time, use them to feel better, explore new places, relax and enjoy.

However, during all of these, caring for your oral hygiene should remain a priority.

Do not let that slip through your or your child’s hands in between all the fun and affect oral health in the long run.