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Need some gift ideas for family members and friends who seem to have absolutely everything? Who are impossible to shop for? Who tell you not to worry, it’s the thought that counts? Well, we have a few suggestions to show your loved ones that you’ve put a lot of thought into their gifts this holiday season. 

You love to see your friends and family smile, so we’ve come up with some smile-worthy ideas curated to their specific interests. And they’re braces-friendly, too!

Environmental Ally

The world is becoming a more eco-conscious place, and happily this transformation includes products designed for personal care. Put together a spa basket which is good for your friend’s dental health and the planet!

A recyclable gift box containing zero-waste, environmentally friendly bath products and organic cotton face cloths becomes even more mindful with the addition of bamboo or recycled plastic toothbrushes, bamboo interdental picks, and biodegradable floss. 

Don’t forget to include a colorful, insulated water bottle for sustainable hydration—and washing away food particles when there’s no handy place to brush after eating. Healthy planet/healthy smile.

Talented Techie

If your friend or relative is high-tech all the way, maybe it’s time for a dental upgrade. 

Water flossers are a great way to eliminate stubborn plaque around brackets and behind wires. Adjustable water pressure applies just the right amount of cleaning power. The flow can be directed to the gumline, between teeth, around brackets, or anywhere else needed. Some models even offer tapered heads with brushes designed specifically for cleaning braces. 

And for an extra thoughtful touch, include a packet of plaque disclosing tablets. Chewing one of these helpful little tablets will reveal any plaque that’s still on the teeth.

Adventure Seeker

How about a new backpack or carry-all for outdoor or travel adventures? A travel first aid kit is always a welcome addition for the person on the go.

Go the extra step and help a friend be prepared for anything with an emergency dental kit designed for braces. You can find these lightweight kits in stores or online, or you can assemble one yourself with a travel-size orthodontic toothbrush and toothpaste, floss threaders and floss, interproximal brushes, a travel mirror, and, of course, orthodontic wax in a handy kit bag. Include a pack of sugar-free gum—it helps with altitude changes and hydration. Ask Dr. Kevin Mancini or the team at Mancini Orthodontics for suggestions!

Film Buff

If your bestie likes nothing better than an evening spent in front of the home screen, consider a subscription or gift card for a streaming service tailored to his or her favorites, whether it’s classic films, sci-fi, action, rom-coms, or epic adventures. 

And don’t forget the binge-watch treats! Fill a basket with braces-friendly goodies like peanut butter cups, junior mints, soft chocolate truffles, and some sparkling water. Maybe add a gift card for healthy smoothies and ice cream. Who needs popcorn and sodas?

No matter who’s on your shopping list, tailoring your gifts to their interests and their well-being is a great way to share happy, healthy holiday smiles with family and friends in Hampstead, NC and Jacksonville, NC.

If it’s your first Thanksgiving dinner with braces, you might be a bit nervous. After all, broken brackets and wires can take the fun right out of feasting! 

Thankfully, we can help make your holiday meals more enjoyable with some menu tips for braces-friendly foods. 

#1 Be Choosy about Snacks

Thanksgiving is often more than one meal—it’s a whole day of nibbling. Just be sure to enjoy snacks which are safe for your brackets and wires while you wait for the turkey to make its appearance. Avoid foods like crunchy raw vegetables, nuts, popcorn, and chips, which can be hard on your braces. Instead, go for the softer selections on the appetizer tray:

• Sliced and cubed fruits
• Soft breads 
• Deviled eggs
• Spreadable or thinly sliced cheeses
• Meatballs
• Thinly sliced, soft deli meats

#2 Tweak Tradition as Needed

Some items on the traditional menu can be enjoyed as is, and some can be safely eaten with just a bit of tweaking. 

• Creamy mashed potatoes and gravy are good to go
• Soft-cooked vegetables are easy on braces and filled with nutrients
• Turkey and ham are safe if you cut the meat from the bone and into bite-size pieces
• Choose jellied cranberry sauce instead of crunchy versions
• Stick to the soft, non-crunchy parts of dressing or stuffing and add some gravy for moisture
• Enjoy rolls and bread without nuts or hard crusts

#3 Don’t Forget Dessert!

Luckily for us, many of our favorite Thanksgiving desserts are easy on braces. Delicious, braces-friendly choices include:

• Pumpkin pie
• Cheesecake
• Apple pie with ice cream 
• Soft cakes
• Puddings
• Soft truffles

Which desserts should wait until you’re finished with your orthodontic treatment? Nutty and chewy desserts and candies like pecan pie and caramels can cause loose or damaged braces, so it’s a “No, thank you” this year to the sticky, crunchy, and chewy items on the dessert buffet.

#4 Good Dental Hygiene Doesn’t Take Holidays Off

Holidays are busy, with shared meals and travelling and get-togethers in Hampstead, NC and Jacksonville, NC. But it’s still essential to make time for proactive dental care, especially now that you wear braces. 

Food which gets stuck in your brackets and wires isn’t just annoying, it’s also bad for your tooth enamel. When food sticks around, the bacteria in plaque use those sugars and carbs to create acids which erode teeth and lead to cavities. And since Thanksgiving day is often filled with nibbling on foods high in sugars and carbs, your teeth might need some extra TLC throughout the day.

• If you’re home, brush and floss as usual after eating. If you’re travelling, bring a kit with a travel-size toothbrush and toothpaste and some floss to keep your braces and teeth clean and your breath fresh throughout the day. 
• If you’ve been eating acidic foods, wait about 30-60 minutes to brush. Acids weaken enamel temporarily, and, until the enamel rehardens, brushing can be abrasive.
• Hydrate with water. Water helps wash away food particles from teeth and braces and helps neutralize enamel-damaging acids in foods like cranberry sauce and sodas.

The team at Mancini Orthodontics wants you to have a wonderful holiday with family and friends while you’re on your way to a beautiful, healthy smile. If you have any questions on just which foods should and shouldn’t be on your menu this Thanksgiving, talk to Dr. Kevin Mancini to discover the best ideas for stress-free holiday feasting.

Healthy teeth make you happy to share your smile with the world. But there’s more to your smile than its beauty! There’s a lot of hard work going on, too. 

Teeth Are Designed for Efficient Eating

Because humans are omnivores, we can eat both meat and plants. That’s why our teeth have different shapes—they’re meant to help us process different types of food. 

• Incisors, our front teeth, have sharpish edges to help cut through meats and other firm foods when we bite.
• Canines, the pointed teeth, help tear food into bite-size portions.
• Premolars are flat topped teeth with two cusps, raised points which help us grind food.
• Molars are the flat-topped teeth in the rear of the mouth. They have four cusps to grind and crush food into a paste-like consistency. 

So: Incisors and canines bite and tear food into smaller pieces, which molars and premolars then crush and grind into a paste. Bite, tear, crush, grind—why all this food aggression? Because that’s the key to healthy digestion. 

Successful digestion begins with chewing. Chewing:

• Starts the process of breaking food down into digestible particles.
• Increases saliva production. Saliva binds food particles so that we can swallow easily.
• Expands the surface area of food particles, which allows the digestive system to extract nutrients more efficiently. 

When biting causes you pain, it can be hard to chew food. Swallowing becomes difficult when food particles are too large, and digestion becomes uncomfortable.

Bite pain can occur when there’s a deep cavity or an injured tooth, but it can also be caused when the teeth and jaws don’t fit together the way that they should. This misalignment is called a malocclusion, or bad bite. And while a malocclusion often makes eating more difficult, it can have further damaging effects as well.

Teeth Are Designed to Be Good Partners

While eating is probably the first thing that comes to mind when we think about dental duties, our teeth also work in coordination with other parts of our bodies. A malocclusion can interfere with these normally smooth interactions, affecting:

• Tooth and Jaw Health

Biting, chewing, and clenching put hundreds of pounds of pressure on our teeth and jaws. A misaligned bite misapplies this pressure, which can lead to damaged and unevenly worn teeth, tooth grinding, headaches, jaw pain, and other problems. 

• Speech

Our teeth work with our tongues and lips to form many of the phonetic sounds which make up speech. Try saying the word “teeth,” and see how your tongue and teeth work together! Misaligned teeth and jaws can affect speech development in children and pronunciation in children and adults.

• Face Shape

Our teeth and jaws help give shape to our faces. Alignment problems can affect facial symmetry and self-confidence.

You Can Help Your Teeth Work Their Best

Daily brushing and flossing, eating a healthy diet, and regular visits to your dentist for exams and cleanings help your teeth perform their many daily duties. But if bite problems are causing troubles with eating, tooth or jaw pain, difficulty speaking, or self-consciousness, it’s time to team up with your orthodontist. 

And just like your everyday dental care, orthodontic treatment works best with your active participation. 

• Make sure your teeth are their cleanest with careful brushing and flossing. You may need to brush and floss more often while you’re in treatment.
• If you wear braces, eat a braces-friendly diet. 
• Wear aligners, bands, or appliances for the hours recommended each day.
• Keep up with your orthodontic visits to keep your treatment on schedule.

Talk to your orthodontist to learn more about how to help your teeth work their best for you—and be ready to share that beautiful, hard-working smile!

Time to brush! So, you make sure you gently brush the plaque off the outside surfaces of your teeth. You want to present a gleaming smile to the world, after all. And you make sure to brush the inside surfaces as well, because who wants to feel a fuzzy patch of plaque every time their tongue hits their teeth? And, naturally, you remember to clean the tops of your molars, because those crevices make them more cavity-prone than any other surface.

Done? Not quite!

You might be surprised to learn that no matter how well you’ve brushed all the visible surfaces of your teeth, you’ve left quite a bit of enamel untouched—the adjoining, or touching, surfaces of the teeth that sit next to each other.

You’ve probably noticed that your bristles can’t . . . quite . . . reach all the enamel between your teeth (especially between your molars!) when you’re brushing. This means that food particles and plaque have an easier time sticking around. And when the bacteria in plaque are left undisturbed, especially with a banquet of food particles available, they produce acids which gradually eat away at the enamel covering our teeth, creating a cavity.

Here’s where we work in some specific dental vocabulary. “Interproximal” means between the adjoining, or touching, surfaces of the teeth. And an interproximal cavity is a cavity that develops on one of those side surfaces of your teeth.

• Preventing Interproximal Cavities

Fortunately, prevention is about as basic as it can be—brushing and flossing effectively. Dentists recommend brushing for two minutes at least twice a day and flossing once each day. While most of us are good about keeping up with brushing, sometimes that daily flossing is more a goal than a reality.

But it’s flossing which really does the trick when it comes to interproximal cleaning. If you floss correctly, food particles and plaque are removed from between the teeth and around the gum line—places where bristles just can’t reach.

When you wear braces, though, flossing isn’t quite so basic. Getting that floss just where it needs to be in between brackets and wires and in between teeth can be a challenge!

The good news is there are many products designed just to make flossing easier while you’re in orthodontic treatment:

• Floss threaders are flexible hoops that help you thread floss behind your wires easily.
• Precut floss strands use a stiff tip at one end for threading floss through wires.
• Interproximal brushes are tiny, cone-shaped brushes which can fit between your teeth and braces for precise cleaning.
• Water flossers eliminate floss altogether, using a pulsing stream of water to clean between and around teeth and braces.

During your next visit to our Hampstead, NC and Jacksonville, NC office, Dr. Kevin Mancini can give you tips on how to use any of these tools effectively for cleaner teeth and cleaner braces.

Preventing cavities on the exterior surfaces of your teeth is probably pretty much automatic by now, but don’t forget the potential for stealth decay! If we find signs of erosion on the sides of your teeth, or if your hygienist lets you know that you’ve got a lot of interproximal plaque buildup, work with your dental team to make sure “interproximal cavity” doesn’t become a working part of your dental vocabulary.