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There are many reasons why people love autumn in Kingston, ON. Crisp air. Jeweled leaf tones. Fall sports. Halloween and Thanksgiving.

But there’s one thing about autumn which never appears on anyone’s favorites list: it’s the start of cold and flu season. If you’ve fallen ill, we have some ideas for taking care of yourself—and your dental health—as you recover.

• Stay Hydrated

Proper hydration is vital for healthy skin, temperature, digestion, and other bodily functions. Sweating, fever, diarrhea, and vomiting—common symptoms of colds and flu—cause dehydration.

Dehydration also creates problems for your oral health. Hydration ensures healthy levels of saliva, and saliva helps prevent cavities by washing away bacteria and food particles and neutralizing oral acidity. Saliva bathes the teeth in minerals which keep tooth enamel strong. Hydration also supports healthy bone and connective tissue, which anchor our teeth.

Even if you don’t feel like eating when you’re ill, be sure to drink the liquids you need to stay hydrated. For your dental health, try to avoid overdoing sugary beverages and acidic drinks.

• Eat Healthy Foods

It’s always a good idea to eat nutritious foods, but it’s especially important when you’re not feeling well. Fatty and greasy foods are hard to digest. Processed, sugary, and fast foods filled with empty calories don’t provide the protein and nutrients which can encourage a speedier recovery. And studies suggest that sugar-filled foods can suppress your immune system, the network of cells and organs working together to prevent and fight infection.

A diet rich in proteins, vitamins, and minerals will help you recover when you feel up to regular meals again. Fruits and vegetables which contain vitamins A, C, and D and minerals including calcium and phosphorus are essential for tooth and gum health.

• Minimize Exposure to Germs—For Yourself and Others!

To help prevent catching colds and flu, be mindful that viruses and bacteria can live for hours and even days on non-porous surfaces like phones, keyboards, and doorknobs. Washing your hands with soap and water before touching your mouth, nose, or eyes, before brushing and flossing, and before you cook and eat will help you eliminate most of the germs which cause colds and flu.

If you do catch something, be mindful of your interactions with others. You can help stop the spread of germs by limiting contact with other people, masking, and covering your mouth and nose when you sneeze or cough.

Protect yourself and those around you by being careful with dental hygiene. Never share your toothbrush with others. Don’t let toothbrushes touch in a common container. Always let your toothbrush air-dry since germs prefer moist environments.

And, while it’s unlikely that you’ll re-catch a cold from your toothbrush, brushes are only at their best for three to four months. If yours is past its prime, post-illness is a perfect time to replace your old brush with a clean new one.

• Be Choosy with OTC Medicine

Many cough syrups and cough drops are filled with sugar. Consider sugar-free syrups, or, if you use cough or cold medications which include sugar, rinse or brush afterward.

Look for sugar-free cough drops, which won’t bathe your enamel in sugar as they dissolve. And never crunch down on cough drops. A chipped tooth or cracked enamel certainly won’t make you feel better!

• Keep Up with Your Brushing and Flossing

Even when you feel weak and tired, it’s important to brush and floss as usual—with one exception.

Vomiting brings up harsh stomach acids which weaken the mineral bonds keeping tooth enamel strong. Brushing right away can spread these acids around your mouth and your enamel. If you vomit, rinse your mouth with water and wait 30 minutes before brushing to allow your enamel to come back to full strength.

• Stay Home When You’re Sick

You’ll get better faster when you take care of yourself, which includes getting the rest you need to recover. And beyond doing something for your own health, you won’t be risking the health of the people around you.

If you have an appointment scheduled with Dr. Cosman, Dr. McDonough, Dr. Levac and Dr. Korcok, reschedule as necessary. Your dental team at Cataraqui Dental Centre will be happy to accommodate you to prevent the spread of colds and flu and to make your appointment a more comfortable one.

Don’t let cold and flu season ruin one of the most beautiful times of the year! Follow your doctor’s advice, take good care of yourself when you’re ill, and visit Dr. Cosman, Dr. McDonough, Dr. Levac and Dr. Korcok again once you’re feeling better for proactive and restorative dental care.

Want to make Halloween a bit less frightening? Just a bit less, mind you! After all, Halloween wouldn’t be Halloween without ghosts, witches, skeletons, and the whole ghoulish crew.

But while the eerily unexpected is half the fun of Halloween in Kingston, ON, unexpected dental problems are no fun at all. That’s why we’ve come up with some fiendishly clever ideas to help you enjoy Halloween treats without tricky consequences.

Beware These Bites

You don’t need a crystal ball to decide which treats are the most sinister for your dental health—hard, sticky, and sour candies are frightful choices for good reasons.

• Hard candies, jawbreakers, lollipops, candied apples, and other candies with hard surfaces take a long time to dissolve in your mouth, exposing your teeth to sugar over a longer period. Even worse, you may be tempted to bite down on them, which can lead to chipped and cracked teeth.
• Sticky and chewy candies like gummies, candy corn, jellybeans, caramels, and fruit chews stick to your enamel and between your teeth, again exposing your teeth to more sugar over a longer period.
• Sour candies, whether they take the form of hard candy, gummies, chews, or straws, are especially bad for your enamel. Candies are sour because of their acidity, and acids erode enamel strength. Weak spots on the tooth surface are the first stage of cavity development.

Avoid Unnerving Orthodontic Events

If you wear braces, eating the wrong treats can come back to haunt you. Chewy foods can pull a bracket right off your tooth. Hard and crunchy foods break wires and brackets. Sticky foods pull on your braces and can be hard to brush away.

Damaged braces mean extra trips to the orthodontist for repair, and can even delay your treatment if the damage is significant and you can’t see your orthodontist right away. Eek!

Instead, talk to Dr. Cosman, Dr. McDonough, Dr. Levac and Dr. Korcok about which foods are safe options. Treats like peanut butter cups, mint patties, soft chocolate bars without nuts, and other braces-friendly options will let you enjoy a sweet Halloween night without braces-frightful consequences.

If you wear aligners, always remove your aligners whenever you eat to protect them from warping, cracking, bending, and staining. If you go out, remember to bring your protective case. The night’s no fun if your aligners have *disappeared* at the end of the evening.

And don’t let the time get away from you! Most aligners need to be worn 20-22 hours each day. While you won’t turn into a pumpkin if you party too long without your aligners, you could delay your orthodontic progress if you don’t get your scheduled hours in regularly.

Timely Treating

We can’t wave a wand to vanish cavities, so prevention is key. When you enjoy holiday treats (or any desserts), it’s good idea to eat them in moderation and with a meal. This way, your teeth are exposed to sugars and acids over a limited period. And, as you eat, saliva production increases, which helps neutralize destructive acids and wash away food particles before they can harm your enamel.

Water Works Like Magic!

Water has many bewitching qualities.

• Healthy hydration supports healthy oral tissues and saliva production.
• Water contains no sugars or acids which can damage enamel.
• Drinking water is a great choice if you wear braces, because water helps wash food particles from brackets and wires when you can’t brush.
• Water is the only good beverage choice if you’re wearing aligners. Sugary and acidic beverages which collect in your trays bathe your teeth in those sugars and acids. Some darker drinks can stain your aligners—and your teeth!

Vanishing Food Particles and Plaque

Halloween is meant to be extra. And brushing and flossing are extra important this time of year to make sticky, sugary food particles and plaque disappear ASAP.

Make sure you brush for two minutes at least twice each day and floss once a day to prevent extra Halloween sugars from lurking around your teeth and gums. In fact, it’s a good idea to brush soon after any sugary treat to deprive cavity-causing bacteria of their favorite source of nourishment.

Proactive dental care isn’t magic. Communication and effort are all it takes! Talk to your dental team at Cataraqui Dental Centre about the best way to celebrate Halloween without conjuring up problems for your teeth and gums. And when you’re out sharing your holiday spirit, don’t forget to treat your friends to your boo-tiful, healthy smile!

Orthodontic treatment traditionally begins somewhere between the ages of 10 and 14—but there’s no need to stand on tradition where your family’s dental health is concerned! An orthodontic evaluation will let you know each family member’s best options for healthier, more confident smiles even before the tween years and even after reaching adulthood.

First Visit—By Age 7

The team at Cataraqui Dental Centre recommends that you schedule a first orthodontic evaluation for your child by age seven (or earlier if any bite problems or jaw asymmetry are apparent). By this age, most children have a mix of both adult and baby teeth, and orthodontists can determine whether the position and development of the teeth and jaws are on track.

During this visit, your orthodontist will also carefully assess how your child’s teeth and jaws fit together when biting down. Healthy occlusion, or bite, means that the teeth and jaws are aligned and work together comfortably. A malocclusion, or bad bite, means that there is a problem with this alignment.

Your orthodontist might discover:

• No issues for concern.
• A possibility for future orthodontic problems. In this case, follow-up appointments might be scheduled to determine whether and when treatment should occur.
• Orthodontic problems which are already evident, with a recommendation for early intervention.

Early Orthodontic Intervention—Ages 6-9

Some children can benefit from “interceptive orthodontics,” first stage orthodontic treatment begun around the ages of six to nine.

Early intervention can help prevent crowded teeth, protect protruding teeth, and correct jaw alignment problems.

• If a child has a small upper dental arch, palatal expanders can gently enlarge the arch to make room for the adult teeth to arrive without crowding.
• When a baby tooth is lost too soon, space maintainers save room for the adult tooth beneath it to erupt in just the right spot.
• Protruding front teeth have a higher risk of injury from falls or collisions, and treatment will help protect them.
• Treatment for malocclusions like overbites, underbites, and open bites helps create a more comfortable, symmetrical, and healthy bite while young bones are growing, and may prevent the necessity for more complicated treatment in the teen years.

Tween and Teen Years—Ages 10-14

It’s common to treat malocclusions during the tween/teen years. During this stage of development, it’s easier for teeth to move to their ideal positions, because most of the adult teeth have arrived and the jawbones haven’t completed their growth.

Today’s orthodontics offers teens a number of treatment options:

• Braces are smaller and more comfortable, and brackets come in a variety of colors and materials to blend in or stand out.
• Clear aligners are almost invisible, and can treat many types of mild to moderate malocclusions.
• Functional appliances like the Herbst® appliance, the Forsus™ device, the twin-block appliance, and headgear work with braces or aligners to help correct more complex malocclusions.

And there’s more—modern orthodontic options are more effective, taking less time to create a beautiful, healthy smile.

Older Patients of Any Age

As you’ve grown older, you may have noticed that your once-straight teeth are becoming a bit crowded. You may be suffering dental pain and injured teeth because of a long-term bite problem. You may have always wanted a more attractive, comfortable smile, but weren’t able to access treatment when you were younger.

Good news! As long as your teeth and gums are healthy, orthodontic treatment can be a great way to keep them healthy. And today’s orthodontics offer a much wider and less noticeable variety of treatment options than the larger metal braces you might remember from decades ago. Depending on your needs, your orthodontist could recommend:

• Traditional braces—brackets are smaller than ever and come in a choice of several materials and colors, including ceramic, tooth-colored, and clear brackets.
• Clear aligners—an almost invisible way to straighten teeth, and removeable when necessary (as long as they’re worn 20-22 hours each day).
• Lingual braces—the least visible treatment, because brackets and wires are attached behind the teeth.

Crowded teeth and malocclusions often lead to lifelong problems, including worn or cracked enamel, headaches, jaw problems, increased risk of tooth decay and periodontal disease, and decreased self-confidence. Whether you’re graduating high school or getting ready for your golden reunion, it’s not too late for an orthodontic assessment. Talk to Dr. Cosman, Dr. McDonough, Dr. Levac and Dr. Korcok to discover whether your smile could benefit from treatment.

If you’re concerned about your own or your child’s orthodontic health, problems with alignment and bite are best treated as early as possible to prevent dental damage, improve self-confidence, and avoid more complicated treatment in the future. So, when’s the best time to schedule an orthodontic assessment in Kingston, ON? There’s no better time than today!

Did you know that the most common oral health diseases are tooth decay and gum disease? Not so coincidentally, they are also the easiest to prevent. As much as we would like for the brushing and flossing to do all the work for us, in reality, we really are what we eat — and a healthy diet is just as important for dental health as it is for the rest of the body.

Eating well boosts your immune system, and makes you less susceptible to gum disease and tooth decay. When you maintain a balanced diet, you provide your body with all the nutrients it needs to succeed. So what does a healthy, balanced diet entail? It’s really quite simple. Here are some tips:

1. Focus on lean meats, veggies, whole grains, and healthy fats.
2. Limit your intake of sugary drinks like energy drinks and soda.
3. Keep your sweet tooth in check.
4. Beware of acidic meals and snacks that are high in salt and sodium.
5. Drink lots of water.

Unfortunately, there’s no “one size fits all,” magic diet that will automatically improve your oral health, but following the five guidelines above as best you can is a great way to start. Food and drinks that are high in sugar or acidity weaken your enamel, stain your teeth, and make you more likely to develop a cavity or gum disease.

At Cataraqui Dental Centre, we like to encourage our patients to drink a lot of water during the day. Doing so not only keeps you hydrated, but also helps rinse out the sugar and acid from various things you’ve consumed during the day.

If you think your diet might be affecting your smile, come pay Dr. Cosman, Dr. McDonough, Dr. Levac and Dr. Korcok a visit or give our Kingston, ON office a call! We’re always happy to answer your questions.