Friday 16 December 2016

Keep a Healthy Grin this Christmas

It’s that time of year again where everyone is rushing around de-tangling the lights (a dreaded job that someone must do!), last minute present shopping, writing Christmas wish lists and stocking up on festive food. During this time we all love to relax in front of the TV, indulge in food and forget about the gym-ing or healthy eating for a week or two. And although we deserve to take it easy for the end of the year it’s important not to forget about your teeth in the magical madness that is Christmas!

Here are some tips to help you protect your teeth from ho-ho-holes this Christmas:
1. Don’t use your teeth as tools this Christmas. Many people end up cracking and chipping their teeth, as they use them to tear cellotape, open beer bottles or crack open those nuts. Have a pair of scissors handy and ask Santa for a nut-cracker instead of asking your dentist for a new set of teeth come January!
2. Try to drink acidic carbonated drinks and juice through a straw to reduce the contact with your teeth.
3. Eating at Christmas time is one way we like to celebrate but try to keep the snacking at meals times, to expose your teeth to less acid and sugar.
4. However, if you just can’t resist snacking on those Quality Street (we know the feeling!) or having a Christmas tipple (or two!) chew sugar-free gum or drink a glass of water to boost protection.
5. Don’t ditch the routine! Even though Christmas morning is very exciting and we all want to see what Santa has brought us (adults and kids alike!) brushing your teeth before you head down to the presents only takes 2 minutes!

Friday 9 December 2016

Christmas Dental Trivia.....

We thought it would be a good time for some Christmas inspired dental trivia!

Remember the song “All I want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth?” 
Did you know this novelty Christmas song was written in 1944, by Donald Yetter Gardner? A music teacher in New York, one day Mr. Gardner asked his second-grade class what they wanted for Christmas.
He noticed that almost all of the students had at least one front tooth missing as they answered in a lisp! According to Wikipedia, Gardner wrote the song in 30 minutes. In a 1995 interview, Gardner said, "I was amazed at the way that silly little song was picked up by the whole country.” The song was published in 1948 after an employee of Witmark music company heard Gardner sing it at a music teachers conference. This is the kind of missing tooth story even a dentist can delight in! 



When you picture a reindeer smiling, what do you picture?
Would it surprise you to learn that reindeer only have teeth on the bottom of their mouths? On the top, they have a hard, bony plate to help grind their food. So chances are, the big toothy grin you’re picturing isn’t really what a reindeer smile looks like — unless they’ve had some implants! And Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer probably wasn’t a regular patient for his dentist!



“All I Want For Christmas is You” — Mariah Carey has a secret for a straight-looking smile
One of our favorite Christmas songs is “All I Want for Christmas is You,” and most of us think of Mariah Carey as having a picture-perfect smile. But did you know her teeth are not perfectly aligned? Instead, she has a secret to LOOKING great in pictures! When she smiles, she lets photographers take most of her pictures from her best angle, her right. 

Check out photos online and you’ll notice that when Carey is is caught smiling from her left side, you can see that her front teeth and her front incisor stand out a little bit.