The end-of-the-year holidays in Costa Rica are great for relaxation, travel, entertainment, and spending quality time with the family, but these days are also associated with certain excesses related to meals and beverages, which means that people should pay greater attention to oral hygiene during the holidays.

Aside from the traditional tamales, the holiday season in Costa Rica also features lots of sweet and sugary treats. At the Zapote holiday fair, for example, some of the most popular chinamos (food stalls) are those that sell sugary churros, candy apples, candied peanuts, cotton candy; basically, anything that can be prepared with lots of sugar.

The holidays in Costa Rica are also known to incite more liquor consumption than usual. Rompope (a sweet rum-infused eggnog) is traditional, but just about any other alcoholic concoction becomes popular during this time of the year.

Lots of sugar and liquor are the main ingredients in a holiday recipe for disaster in terms of dental care. The Flikier Institute for Oral Rehabilitation, a prestigious dental practice that specializes in medical tourism, explains how holiday excesses affect dental health:

• First of all, there’s the excessive sugar to consider, which triggers mouth bacteria to produce acids that attack tooth enamel. The stickiness of the plaque keeps these acids in contact with teeth and over time the enamel can break down.
• Then there’s the liquor aspect to consider. Since alcohol is a drying agent, it interferes with salivation and increases the acidic process in the mouth, which leads to tooth decay.

Liquor and lots of sugar are plentiful in holiday cocktails such as Rompope or strawberry margaritas. This combination can be very harmful to the teeth and gums if oral hygiene is neglected during the holidays. If anything, the usual brushing, flossing and mouthwash rinses should be more frequently applied after meals and snacks that feature sugary foods, and also after drinking sessions.