Very few people can resist a sweet treat. So, it’s only fair that you take the precautions necessary to take care of yourself and your dental hygiene after indulging in one of your favorite desserts. Here are some of the first things that you can do after eating something sweet to prevent problems from occurring.
Drink Water
Sugar (especially in the form of breads, creams, frostings, candies, and the like) has a nasty habit of sticking to the walls and inside the crevasses of your mouth. Thus, it only makes sense that the first thing you should do after eating a sweet treat is rinse your mouth with water, or just go ahead and drink some! Not only will you be washing down a good amount of that excess sugar, but you will be getting some much-needed hydration after taking in an unnecessary amount of processed, sugary food. In the context of the average person’s modern processed diet, after all, there’s really no such thing as too much hydration.
Clean Your Teeth
The habit of cleaning your teeth after eating – particularly after eating sweets – carries many well-known advantages. While a quick brush may seem inconvenient, there are no better habits that you can develop for your dental hygiene. If you brush quickly after eating or snacking, you really shouldn’t be brushing more than three or fours times a day – maximum. But even a good brushing will not solve everything; sugar has a nasty habit of hiding in between teeth as well. Flossing helps you get hard-to-reach places, so make sure to do that as well at least twice a day.
Eat Something Healthy
You need to make sure that you keep a balanced diet, with the nutritional foods in abundance and the desserts in moderation. One way you can make sure to maintain such habits is to always pair a sugary snack with a fruit or vegetable afterwards. It doesn’t have to be a lot – just a few carrots, celery sticks, or an apple will do nicely – but it helps to create habits of balance. It will also put you on the path towards eventually eliminating the sugary snacks entirely. The cherry on top is that eating fresh produce even helps to clean your teeth in a lot of cases!
There’s nothing wrong with a little bit of sweetness in life. But you need to be responsible, and make sure that you maintain the level of dental hygiene and physical health that you deserve. If you pay attention to your habits and have the self-control to change them when you need to, you will have nothing to worry about.
Check out this article on how to prevent cavities after eating sugary foods!
