Thanksgiving is a time for seeing family, giving thanks, and eating! While you’re preparing your family’s big feast, please remember your dental health. We all like to indulge in our favorite delicious dishes once a year, but many Thanksgiving foods can hurt and damage our teeth. Here are some popular Thanksgiving dishes that you should be wary of and others that you can fully enjoy without guilt!
Thanksgiving foods that can hurt your teeth:
Cranberry Sauce
As turkey’s tasty sidekick, cranberry sauce is definitely a Thanksgiving staple. However, it comes as no surprise that cranberry sauce is packed with sugars that encourage bad oral bacteria to thrive. If you do want to include cranberry sauce at your dinner table, try to make it using fresh cranberries, instead of canned.
Pies and Desserts
No Thanksgiving dinner is complete without dessert, but pecan and apple pies can all do serious damage to your teeth. While they may taste delicious, they’re full of starch and sugars that cause bacteria to chip away at the tooth enamel.
Stuffing
From apple and walnut to sausage and herb, people like to take their stuffing seriously! But unfortunately for our teeth, most stuffing recipes revolve around starchy bread that can create cavities and decay if left on our teeth.
Alcohol and sugary drinks
There’s nothing wrong with a glass or two of your favorite drink over the Thanksgiving weekend, but you should try to consume in moderation. Too much wine, beer and sugary drinks can wreak havoc on your teeth. Not only can they lead to staining and discoloration, but drinks high in alcohol also dry the mouth and reduce your saliva production which removes plaque and bacteria from the tooth’s surface.
