Before you gather with friends and family to celebrate Thanksgiving, along with the other holidays that are coming up, right around the corner, make sure you are being mindful of the ways your choices can impact your dental health. Most people want to avoid cavities, gum disease and other common dental problems, yet they don’t always think about how the many choices they make, from what they’re eating to how they’re caring for their teeth on a daily basis, can impact their oral health. If you want to enter into the new year with a healthy smile, it can certainly help to make smart choices over the coming months.

Load Up On Healthy Items

One simple way to protect your oral health is by choosing foods that are good for you, like lean proteins, healthy fats, and best of all, nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables. This can also be good for your whole body, since filling up on healthy foods can help you resist less ideal options like fattening foods and those filled with sugar.

Limit Your Sugar Intake

Avoiding too much sugar is a particularly good way to protect one’s dental health, because sugar is what the bacteria in the mouth use as a source of food. More sugar can lead to rapid tartar buildup, and development of cavities. Fresh fruit is a great alternative to sugary treats, and many fruits’ high water content makes them particularly smile-friendly. Just avoid chewing on highly acidic fruits, like lemons, which can actually cause damage to the teeth’s enamel and eventually necessitate restoration.

Drink Plenty of Water

Water is one of the most essential ingredients to a healthy smile. That is because water helps the body produce saliva, which is a natural defense against tartar buildup, by helping to prevent bacteria from sticking to the surface of the teeth.