It’s the most celebrated time of the year, lighting all around, people in happy and festive mood and always ready to celebrate even the smallest of occasions.

And how do you greet and celebrate? By offering each other sweets and chocolates. Diwali season is a time where we lose control over our eating habits. The consumption of sweets increases by many folds which also increases the amount of carbohydrate or in simple words sugar that comes and remains in contact with your teeth. This increased contact of sugar with the teeth can lead to cavities.

So how to prevent cavities and eat all the sweets that you want. Here are a few tips:

1. Eat sweets during the meals only.

Try to eat sweets during your regular meal time, avoid the sweets at times which are in between the meals. This prevents a sudden increase in the glucose level which deprives the cavity-causing bacteria of its food.

2. Rinse your mouth thoroughly.

Rinsing your mouth with just plain water after eating anything helps remove the food debris especially the sweets which are sticky and stay there on the tooth surface for long leading to increased bacterial count and then cavities. Rinsing the mouth is a simple yet very effective measure to prevent cavities and gum problems.

3. Don’t hit the bed without brushing.

We take pride in saying that we brush just once daily and there are still no cavities. Formation of cavities is a very slow process and when they are finally at an advanced stage patients are surprised that how did they get cavities when they had none earlier. What happens is when you do not clean the teeth at night bacteria gets 24 hours to eat away the glucose present in the food which is stuck on the teeth. This leads to an increased incidence of cavities.

By brushing the teeth in the night you reduce the bacteria from the tooth surface as well as remove any food particle that is stuck on to the teeth. This simple exercise removes the glucose from the mouth which is the food on which cavity-causing bacteria live.

4. Visit your dentist.

A visit to your Dentist is a must. A basic clean-up is required after the festival is over. This visit will also involve screening for cavities and this simple step prevents any major dental treatment which might be needed in the future.