It’s December 22nd. You’re surrounded by sugar. Your oral microbiome is under siege.
When you constantly expose your teeth to sugar—through candy, treats, and grazing—the bad bacteria in your mouth produce acid.
That acid drops your oral pH below the critical threshold for enamel demineralization, creating the perfect environment for cavities and gum inflammation.
Add in dehydration from travel, alcohol from parties, and disrupted routines, and your mouth doesn’t stand a chance.
But you don’t have to white-knuckle your way through the holidays. Here are nine quick tips to protect your teeth:
1. Turn Potatoes Into Prebiotic Powerhouses
Cooked potatoes that have been cooled in the fridge become resistant starch—which your gut bacteria ferment into butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid that reduces inflammation throughout your entire system.
Butyrate strengthens your gut barrier (which directly affects oral-systemic health), reduces inflammatory markers like C-reactive protein, and feeds the beneficial bacteria in both your gut and mouth. This is a great tool for supporting your oral microbiome during the holidays when everything else is inflammatory. And who doesn’t love potatoes?
What to do:
- Boil, roast, or microwave baby potatoes
- Cool completely in the fridge for 12-24 hours
- Eat cold or gently reheated with olive oil, salt, and rosemary
My wife makes potatoes this way all the time, especially when her stomach is acting up.
Your oral and gut microbiomes are in constant communication. When you support one, you support both.
2. Understand Exposure vs. Quantity
One candy cane sucked on for 30 minutes? Your teeth are bathed in acid the entire time. Your oral pH stays below the demineralization threshold—for the full 30 minutes. Your saliva never gets a chance to buffer the acid and remineralize your enamel.
One piece of chocolate eaten in 2 minutes? Your mouth experiences a brief acid attack, but your saliva can neutralize the pH within 20-30 minutes. Your teeth get a recovery window.
It’s not about how much sugar you eat. It’s about how long your teeth are exposed to it.
Every time you eat, your mouth goes through a demineralization-remineralization cycle. The key is giving your saliva enough time to complete the remineralization phase.
High Exposure = High Damage:
- Candy canes and hard candies (prolonged acid exposure)
- Sipping sugary drinks all day (no recovery time)
- Grazing on crackers for hours (constant pH drops)
Low Exposure = Lower Damage:
- Eating dessert in one sitting (brief acid attack)
- Having treats with meals (saliva already flowing)
- Finishing drinks quickly (faster pH recovery)
3. Eat Treats With Meals (When Saliva Flow Is Highest)
Your saliva is your mouth’s natural defense system. It neutralizes acid, washes away food particles, and delivers calcium and phosphate to your enamel to help it remineralize.
When you eat, blood flow increases to your salivary glands. You produce 10 times more saliva than at rest. This elevated saliva flow continues for 20-30 minutes after your meal ends.
That’s why eating dessert with dinner is far less damaging than snacking on cookies at 3pm. During meals, your mouth is already in “digestion mode”—saliva is flowing, pH is being actively buffered, and your natural defenses are working at full capacity.
4. Choose Dark Chocolate Over Everything Else
Not all treats are created equal. Dark chocolate (85% cacao or higher) contains polyphenols—specifically epicatechin and catechin—that inhibit Streptococcus mutans, the primary cavity-causing bacteria.
Research shows dark chocolate’s theobromine content can help harden enamel (even more effectively than fluoride in some studies), and its polyphenols reduce plaque formation and gum inflammation by interfering with bacterial adhesion.
I love Dandelion Chocolate and Dick Taylor—both are clean, high-quality brands.
Eat it with dinner, let it melt in your mouth, rinse with water after, and you’ve just had a treat that’s actually supportive of your oral health.
5. Travel With Green Tea Packets
I never go anywhere without these tea packets—specifically the peony, rooibos and green tea flavors. They’re third-party tested for purity, and tea quality varies wildly.
Green tea is loaded with catechins—particularly EGCG—powerful antioxidants that reduce gum inflammation and inhibit the growth of Porphyromonas gingivalis, the bacteria most strongly associated with periodontal disease.
During the holidays, I’m often at airports or on the road. I can request a cup of hot water anywhere and just add the packet. It’s a warm, comforting treat that actually protects my teeth.
6. Hydrate Strategically (Before and During Events)
Dehydration from travel, alcohol, and dry indoor air destroys your saliva production. And your saliva production determines your cavity risk more than almost anything else.
Your saliva isn’t just water—it’s a complex fluid containing calcium, phosphate, bicarbonate (for pH buffering), and antimicrobial proteins. For saliva to function properly, it needs electrolytes: magnesium, potassium, and sodium.
When you’re dehydrated or low on electrolytes, your saliva gets sticky and loses its ionic integrity. It can no longer remineralize your teeth effectively.
What to do:
- Start every party or event well-hydrated
- Pack a clean electrolyte powder when traveling (not sugary sports drinks)
- Drink mineral-rich water throughout the day
7. If You Drink Alcohol, Follow the Recovery Protocol
Alcohol is antibacterial—it kills both good and bad bacteria indiscriminately. Multiple parties per week without recovery time disrupts your oral microbiome and affects everything from your blood pressure to your cardiovascular health.
Here’s why that matters: Your tongue hosts bacteria that convert nitrates from your diet (leafy greens, beets) into nitrites, which become nitric oxide—the molecule that keeps your blood vessels relaxed and your blood pressure healthy. Kill those bacteria with repeated alcohol exposure, and you disrupt this entire pathway.
The basics:
- Water between drinks
- Tongue scrape thoroughly the next morning
- Use oral probiotics to repopulate beneficial bacteria
- NO antibacterial mouthwash (makes it worse)
- Don’t brush immediately after drinking (alcohol softens enamel)
8. Chew Xylitol Gum After Treats
Xylitol is a five-carbon sugar alcohol that Streptococcus mutans cannot metabolize. When the bacteria try to “eat” xylitol, they waste energy on it and eventually starve themselves.
Xylitol also stimulates saliva flow (which raises pH and promotes remineralization) and has been shown to reduce cavity incidence even more effectively than just reducing sugar intake.
This is your emergency backup. Just like some people always keep a backup protein source in their purse, you should never be without xylitol gum. Stuck at the airport with no healthy options? Chew xylitol gum. Had dessert at a party with no way to rinse? Chew xylitol gum. Emergency sugar exposure? Chew xylitol gum. I keep a pack in my car, another on my desk, and one in my travel bag.
9. Pop a Fygg Nitric Oxide Mint (It’s Like a Salad in Your Pocket)
After age 40, your body’s ability to produce nitric oxide plummets. But your oral microbiome can pick up the slack—if you feed it the right fuel.
Beneficial bacteria on your tongue convert dietary nitrates into nitrites, which become nitric oxide throughout your body. This protects your cardiovascular system, supports healthy blood pressure, and keeps your oral microbiome balanced.
Each of these functional mints contains 30mg of prebiotic nitrate. While a small bowl of spinach contains about 100mg of nitrate, only about 25mg actually makes it to your saliva glands where it can feed the good bacteria.
That means one Fygg mint delivers the same bioavailable nitrate to your oral microbiome as a small bowl of spinach.
It’s like a salad in your pocket—ready to feed the nitric oxide-generating bacteria before boarding a plane, after a snack, or when you need to support your oral microbiome on the go.
One Quote to Remember
“You cannot out-brush or out-floss a bad diet.”
Your mouth is built from the inside out. Feed your microbiome, limit sugar exposure time, and you’ll make it through the holidays with your teeth intact.
– Mark
