Our favourite time of year is here… Summertime!

The season of long sunny days, BBQ’S, Picnics in the park and Holidays.

However this care-free and relaxed season, often leads us to unwittingly up our sugar intake. Whether it be an ice cream by the seaside, a cocktail by the pool or some cold refreshing fruit juice in the garden, there are some obvious repercussions on our oral and general health.

One piece of research found that children consume five times more sugar during summer than any other time of year!

Travelling abroad can also have an affect on our oral hygiene – all starting off with the journey. Even a short flight can disrupt our routine and throw us out of sync with our oral hygiene schedule.

It’s also very important to take extra care of our skin in these warmer months, especially when travelling abroad.

Here are some tips to help you through this summer;

1. Try out some healthy sugar swaps in the kitchen.

By making your own ice lollies using ingredients such as fresh fruit, coconut water and Greek yogurt, you can dramatically decrease the amount of sugar per serving and squeeze in one of your five-a-day in the process.

2. Buy a travel toothbrush for your hand luggage.

Make sure you travel with a toothbrush to hand, and feel free to come and pick up a free miniature toothpaste from us at your next appointment (perfect travel size!). Make a point to think about your journey and plan when you will get a good opportunity to at least brush your teeth. 

3. Remember to pack your floss, Inter-dentals and mouthwash.

When you’ve worked so hard to develop a good oral hygiene routine it would be such a shame to let it all go to waste when you are on holiday as these good habits are easily lost.

4. When you are in a foreign country, if the water isn’t safe to drink, it isn’t safe to brush with it either.

In this case, use bottled water to brush your teeth

5. Schedule a check-up and deep clean before you go on holiday

Getting the all clear from your dentist before you travel will not only give you peace of mind, it will drastically reduce the risk that your holiday is going to be ruined by toothache. Having a clean, fresh mouth whilst you’re relaxing on holiday is an added bonus!

6. Check your travel health insurance covers dentistry.

Should you require an emergency dental appointment whilst on  holiday, check that your insurance actually covers you for dental treatment before you travel. Did you know that all of our AV membership holders receive Worldwide Accident and Emergency Assistance? From as little as £9 per month you can have your check-up, a deep clean with the hygienist AND benefit from the Worldwide Accident and Emergency Scheme.

7. Stay hydrated.

Although it can be very tempting to grab for the ice cold fizzy drink, the refreshing fruit juice or fruity cider when the weather is warm, invest in a reusable water bottle to make sure you have water to hand at every point of the day. Having a treat now and then is of course absolutely fine, but keeping hydrated with water is so important for our health and we should be proactive to ensure we are doing everything that we can to make it always easily accessible to us.

8. Use SPF and remember to cover up.

Use a high factor, 30 or 50 SPF, remember to pack your sun hat and don’t stay out in the sun all day long. Neglecting our skin leads to premature ageing, skin damage and in the worst cases skin cancer. 

If you use a retinol in your skin care routine, or have regular chemical peels and you know that you can’t avoid being in the sun, it may be worth stopping these treatments and products during this period.

We hope that you found some of these tips helpful, and if you have any tips that you would like to share, please leave them in the comments below as we would love to hear from you.