🎄 The Worst Holiday Treat for Your Teeth
One of my favorite snacks. Perfect with those holiday family movie nights… What is the most frequent holiday treat source of tooth issues?
Unfortunately, it’s popcorn 🍿
Every holiday season, we see patients who cracked a tooth on an unpopped kernel or ended up with a sharp popcorn shell wedged deep under the gums. Those thin hulls are rigid, sharp, and perfectly shaped to irritate gum tissue and cause inflammation—or even infection—if they get stuck.
Popcorn feels light and harmless, but your teeth (and gums) pay the price.
Here’s a real case from last week:
Gum irritation causing the patient lots of pain over the last couple days. We got her numb and cleaned out the area.
The culprit causing the gum pain!
After we fished out this popcorn kernel, our patient felt much better!
If you love popcorn:
Avoid crunching unpopped kernels
Floss gently if a shell gets stuck (sooner than later, so it doesn’t lodge itself deeper!)
Call or text us if irritation lasts more than a day or two… we can get it out
