3 Thanksgiving Dishes Your Dentist Would Approve Of

Published by S&S

Thanksgiving is upon us! Which means it’s time to stuff our stomach’s with all the best food our families can cook. But eating such delectable Holiday dishes shouldn’t just have to taste good, can it also be good for you? Trying to manage good oral health is hard enough without being tempted left and right during the Holidays. So, we put together a list of 3 Thanksgiving dishes even your dentist would approve of! Here are some recipes with a more mindful approach!

Maple Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes are an amazing food in regards to oral health. These delicious little morsels contain a healthy amount of vitamins C, D, and B. These vitamins are essential to keeping your oral hygiene in check while practically making them a dental superfood. All of these benefits make sweet potatoes a great mouth-healthy addition to your Thanksgiving meal!

Ingredients :

• 4 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided

• 4 pounds red-skinned sweet potatoes (yams), peeled, cut into 3/4-inch chunks

• 1/2 cup pure maple syrup (preferably Grade B)

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

 Directions :

Preheat oven to 400°F. Oil 2 large rimmed baking sheets with 1 tablespoon oil each. Combine sweet potatoes and remaining 2 tablespoons oil in large bowl; toss. Divide sweet potatoes between baking sheets, spreading evenly. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast until almost tender, turning occasionally with metal spatula, about 35 minutes. DO AHEAD Can be prepared 2 hours ahead. Let stand uncovered at room temperature. Drizzle maple syrup over sweet potatoes and toss to coat. Roast until sweet potatoes are tender and syrup is reduced to glaze and coats sweet potatoes, about 20 minutes.

 

Classic Spinach Salad with a twist

This isn’t just any salad, this is a bowl packed full of goodness for your overall oral health. Rich in fibre which when chewed, acts like a natural toothbrush and helps dislodge food particles while also cleaning the surface of the teeth. Not to mention a classic staple at any Thanksgiving dinner, try this recipe out and rest easy knowing you made your dentist proud!

Ingredients:

• 1 medium shallot, thinly sliced

• ¼ cup white wine vinegar

• ¼ teaspoon crushed red chile flakes

• ½ teaspoon sugar, plus more

• Kosher salt

• 8 ounces thick-cut bacon, cut into ½-inch pieces

• 1 pound shiitake mushrooms, stemmed, large caps torn into 1-inch pieces, small caps left whole

• 1 garlic clove, smashed

• Freshly ground black pepper

• ½ cup light buttermilk

• ½ cup light sour cream

• ¼ cup light mayonnaise

• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

• ½ teaspoon garlic powder

• ½ teaspoon onion powder

• ¼ cup finely chopped mixed herbs, such as basil, chives, and/or dill

• 2 large bunches mature spinach, stemmed, torn into 2-inch pieces

 Directions:

•  Combine shallot, vinegar, chile flakes, ½ tsp. sugar, and ½ tsp. salt in a small nonreactive bowl; let sit at room temperature until ready to use.

• Meanwhile, cook bacon in a large skillet over medium heat, stirring often, until fat has rendered and bacon is browned and crisp, 8–10 minutes. Transfer bacon to paper towels. Pour off 1 Tbsp. fat; set aside for dressing. Return skillet to medium heat and add mushrooms and garlic to remaining bacon fat; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are golden brown, 6–8 minutes. Whisk buttermilk, sour cream, mayonnaise, lemon juice, garlic powder, onion powder, and reserved bacon fat in a medium bowl until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in herbs; cover and chill until cold, at least 30 minutes. Transfer shallot to a large bowl; discard vinegar mixture. Add spinach, dressing, bacon, and mushrooms and toss to coat. Divide salad among plates.

Apple Pie

Last, but by no means least, is dessert. Packed with sugar, apple pie is a Thanksgiving classic that is notorious for causing all kinds of dental problems. This is unfortunate as apples are great for gum health. Try this alternative apple pie recipe that taste phenomenal and is better for you too! With its flaky crust and cozy cinnamon-spiced filling, this apple pie is just as satisfying and delicious as traditional full-fat recipes! A perfect way to end a Thanksgiving meal!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 pounds mixed apples (such as Gala and Granny Smith), peeled, cored, and cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices

1/2 cup light brown sugar

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 large egg white

2 tablespoons turbinado or raw sugar

2 tablespoons apricot jam, melted

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°. Lightly flour your fingers. With one hand, bring your thumb and index finger together on the edge of the crust of prepared dough to form small peaks all the way around. Use your other hand to stabilize the pie plate. Freeze 10 minutes or until firm. Toss together apples and next 5 ingredients (through cinnamon) in a bowl. Arrange filling in dough in concentric circles. Brush top edges of dough with egg white, and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Bake in middle of oven for 40-50 minutes or until crust is golden brown and apples are tender. (If crust is becoming too brown, cover with foil.)Transfer to a wire rack, and brush filling with jam; let cool. Slice and serve slightly warm or cool.

 

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Cooking For A Happy, Healthy Sweet Tooth

MOST OF US find ourselves craving something sweet every once in a while—or perhaps more often than that! Unfortunately, as good as sweet treats taste, they can have a big impact on our dental health.

Sugar And Your Teeth

There are many ways that sugar is bad for our overall health, but it’s also specifically bad for our teeth. Our mouths are diverse microbiomes containing dozens of species of bacteria, both harmful and beneficial, that can reproduce multiple times per day. Sugar may taste good to us, but harmful bacteria love it. They eat the sugar that sticks to our teeth and excrete acid that dissolves tooth enamel, leading to tooth decay.

Brushing twice a day and flossing once a day is usually enough to keep the bacteria populations under control, but your teeth will thank your for avoiding excess sugar. So how can we satisfy a sweet tooth craving without also satisfying the cravings of millions of harmful bacteria? By cooking sugar-free desserts, of course!

Healthier Sweet Options

There are a few ways you can cut down on sugar without cutting down on sweets when you’re cooking. Some of them can be pricey, so your budget might play a role in determining which one you use.

Rebaudioside A

Rebaudioside A is a polyol or sugar alcohol produced by Stevia, a leafy South American plant. The FDA has approved rebaudioside A as a safe food additive, which means we can cook with it. But what makes it better for our teeth than sugar? Well, all those hungry bacteria in our mouths can’t digest sugar alcohols. We get to enjoy the sweet taste, but they don’t! The only downside is that it can leave a bitter aftertaste if you use too much. Since you only need one teaspoon to match the sweetness of a whole cup of sugar, it’s easy to overdo it.

Xylitol and Erythritol

Xylitol and erythritol are two more sugar alcohols that serve as excellent sweeteners. You may be familiar with xylitol, because that’s what sweetens sugar-free gum. While it’s even better for your teeth than other sugar alcohols–which is why dentists recommend it–it might not be the best to cook with, as it can cause digestive discomfort if you eat too much of it. Erythritol doesn’t have that drawback, but it can be pretty expensive.

Fruit

Fruit is another great sugar substitute. If you’d rather work with ingredients you already know, unsweetened applesauce, bananas, dates, and figs are four great replacements for table sugar that you can use in many recipes. You’ll end up with desserts that are still sweet and moist, but which contain far less sugar, which your teeth will appreciate. Fruits are sweet because they contain fructose, a type of sugar, but you’ll use less sugar overall by using pureed fruit instead of table sugar.

Need some extra inspiration for a sugar-free treat? Check out this sugar-free cheesecake recipe below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRSaK7HHp9k

Keep Up With Your Oral Health Basics

Even if you completely cut out all foods that are bad for your teeth out of your diet, it’s still crucial to maintain good oral hygiene. Brush your teeth twice a day, floss once a day, and come see us for a cleaning appointment every six months! Be sure to bring your favorite sugar-free dessert recipes the next time you come!

Your Dental Health Is Our First Priority!

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license. Image cropped and modified from original.

4 Ways Smiling Improves Our Health!

WE’VE ALL HEARD the old cliché that it takes more muscles to frown than to smile, so you should smile to conserve energy! That’s actually false. It takes a minimum of ten muscles to smile but only a minimum of six to frown, so the expression should really be “smile to burn calories!” But smiling will do much more for your health than just giving your face a workout.

Here’s four ways smiling benefits our health.

#1: Reduces Pain

Smiling releases endorphins, which are our bodies’ feel-good hormones. They serve as natural painkillers with no side-effects. What’s particularly interesting about this is that it’s the smile itself that releases the endorphins, not the attitude behind it.

Our brains are so hard-wired to associate smiling with joy that even a fake smile will get you the chemical benefits. So whenever you get injured, it really is a good idea to grin and bear it!

#2: Relieves Stress

Another thing the endorphins released by smiling do for you is help relieve stress. A study in 2012 tested how quickly subjects’ heart rates could go back to normal after performing a stressful task. One group was instructed to hold a pencil between their teeth (which forces a smile) and the other was instructed to hold the pencil between their lips (which forces a neutral expression). The subjects with the biggest smiles recovered the fastest.

This goes back to the way our brains react to smiles. We don’t just smile when we’re happy; smiling can actually make us happy, which means you really can “fake it till you make it” when it comes to smiling!

#3: Boosts Our Immune System

Relieving tension and stress by smiling can have a profound cumulative impact on your health. It can make you more resilient against illness and it can even reduce your chances of getting cancer by lowering the number of stress-induced mutations your cells go through.

#4: Increases Longevity

Smiling doesn’t just make you look younger and more attractive; it can also add years to your lifespan. Taking advantage of every opportunity to smile (and then some) could make you live up to seven years longer!

Let Those Smiles Shine!

As adults, we average a paltry 20 smiles per day, while children will light up with a smile 400 times in that same day! Imagine the health benefits we could rack up if we could start smiling like we did when we were kids? Some people keep their smiles to themselves because they aren’t happy with the way their teeth look, but we can help you get and keep a smile you’ll be proud to show off!

Our biggest reason to smile? Our patients

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license. Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Vacation Tips To Keep Your Smile Healthy!

SUMMER IS FINALLY HERE and you know what that means–family vacations, impromptu getaways and fun trips! Just like you, we couldn’t be more excited. As dental professionals, however, we want to make sure that when you leave on vacation, you don’t leave your oral hygiene behind. Follow these tips to keep your teeth healthy and bright, even when you’re traveling!

Have A Dental Checkup Before Leaving Town

Nothing can ruin a vacation quite like a toothache or other dental emergency. And depending on where you’re traveling to, it could be difficult to get the proper treatment required. It’s always best to get your teeth checked before going on a trip to make sure everything is in tip-top shape!

At your checkup, your dentist will have your teeth cleaned, check for cavities or other dental issues, and make sure that any tooth restorations you may have, such as crowns or fillings, are firmly in place. Untreated cavities or weakened dental work can cause pain on flights, so it’s best to take care of them beforehand!

Watch What You Eat When Traveling

One of the reasons that we go on vacation is for the amazing food! Unfortunately, it’s pretty easy to get carried away. Just remember when you’re traveling this summer to eat sweets and snacks in moderation, and make sure to bring some sugarless chewing gum to pop in your mouth after eating. Research shows that chewing sugar-free gum for 20 minutes after eating can help prevent cavities

Keep Up Your Oral Hygiene Routine

Vacating your normal life and responsibilities for a short time is what vacations are all about! It’s important that you don’t leave your oral hygiene at home, however. Keeping your teeth healthy is something that requires daily care, so make sure your toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss are at the top of your packing list!

Quick tip: When packing your toothbrush, make sure to store it in a case or bag that is ventilated. If you use a brush head cover or need to pack it in a bag without any ventilation, make sure it’s completely dry before storing it. This will help reduce the amount of bacteria on your toothbrush.

Having trouble packing for your trip? Check out this video for a few helpful packing tips:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrwtexpqLW8

Bon Voyage!

We hope these tips will help you protect your teeth, even when you’re on vacation. You’ll have a lot more fun knowing that your chompers are taken care of and your smile is summer-ready. Wishing safe travels and a wonderful summer to all of our amazing patients!

Thank you for the trust you place in our practice!

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

What To Expect At Your Next Dental Checkup

VISITING YOUR DENTIST every six months is an important part of maintaining your oral health. Not only does it keep your smile clean, but it can help you keep an eye on your overall health too!

For some, it may have been a while since your last visit or you or a loved one may be apprehensive about visiting the dentist. Knowing what to expect can help relieve much of this anxiety, so today we want to explain the basics of what happens during your bi-annual cleaning and how you can prepare for your next appointment!

Gather Necessary Information Beforehand

Discussing your family history may not be the first thing you think of when scheduling your dental appointment, but being familiar with your family’s medical history allows us to better care for your oral and overall health.

Like many other conditions such as heart disease and certain forms of cancer, periodontal disease has strong genetic ties that can run in your family. Knowing your family’s medical history can help your dentist keep an eye out for oral health issues such as gum disease or other conditions which present symptoms in the mouth, such as diabetes.

Aside from gathering any relevant personal or family medical information, be sure to to review your dental insurance benefits as you prepare for your appointment. Knowing your level of coverage will help you understand what costs will be associated with your care. If you have any questions about using your dental insurance in our practice or if you would like information about paying for care without insurance, give us a call!

What Happens During Your Appointment?

Although this varies from patient to patient based on their individual needs, a dental check-up generally consists of a professional cleaning, a comprehensive dental examination, and potentially X-rays.

Dental X-Rays

How frequently you need dental X-rays relies largely on your medical and dental history, your age, and your current oral health. New-patient examinations often include X-rays as well.

If required, dental X-rays are generally taken at the beginning of your dental appointment. Dental X-rays allow us to detect and diagnose tooth decay between teeth, on hard-to-reach surfaces, and under existing dental work. X-rays can even be helpful in identifying dental and orthodontic issues that exist beneath the gum line.

Dental Cleaning

Once it’s time for your cleaning, your dentist or hygienist uses a small metal instrument known as a scaler to scrape off tartar above and below the gum line and in between teeth. Next, they polish your teeth using a polishing tool and a lightly abrasive paste to deep clean your pearly whites and remove any tartar left behind after the previous step. Last but not least, they’ll finish your cleaning with a thorough flossing.

Comprehensive Exam

After your teeth are clean, your dentist will perform a comprehensive oral examination to ensure your oral health is in tip-top shape. They will:

• examine your teeth for signs of decay

• check for gum swelling and redness, and measure the depth of your gingival pockets to check for signs of periodontal disease

• test how your top and bottom teeth come together and check for signs of teeth grinding or other potential orthodontic issues

• examine your neck, lymph glands, and oral cavity for signs of oral cancer

Based on your exam, we’ll discuss any necessary treatment recommendations and offer helpful tips on how to improve your oral hygiene before your next appointment.

What Should You Do After Your Appointment?

Whether your next appointment is in 6 months or even sooner, we’re looking forward to seeing your smile! Be sure to maintain a good oral hygiene routine and follow any additional instructions provided by your dentist before your next visit. If you have any questions about what to expect from a visit in our office, let us know!

We love our patients!

Top image by Flickr user Lien De Paepe used under Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 4.0 license. Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.