We all enjoy getting a stocking full of gifts during the holiday season. But for those of us filling the stocking of a friend or family member, it can be difficult to find items that fit inside the stocking! We’re here to help with some dental focused stocking stuffers!
1) Floss
Okay, okay, okay. I’m sure this isn’t the most thrilling thing to find in your stocking, but it’s small, cheap and extremely useful. It’s important to floss regularly along with brushing! And, as silly as this may sound, gifting floss to children gets them excited about the idea of flossing and gives their parents an opportunity to show them how to do it well!
2) Gum
Sugar free gum to be exact. Gum is a great way to help freshen breath and chewing gum after a meal can help pull left over food particles off teeth so that they don’t cause any damage. And sugar free gum offers all of these benefits without any of the sugar that can cause damage to teeth.
3) A gift certificate
Many dentists offer gift certificates for certain services, like teeth whitening. While gifting teeth whitening may be a bold move, it can be a great gift idea for someone who has already been considering going to their dentist for a whitening treatment.
4) Candy
What? Candy on a dental stocking stuffer list? Well, we don’t recommend candy outright, but we know many people use it as a stocking stuffer and so we thought we’d offer some tips. Chocolate candy tends to be a great gift because it’s easy on teeth and tastes delicious. Avoid gifting chewy candy or candy with nuts, particularly to people with fillings or orthodontic work. Things like caramel and peanuts can break brackets or pull out fillings.
5) A Dental Cheek Retractor Game
For any of you who have visited the dentist, you’ve probably experienced a cheek retractor. It’s a plastic device that holds your mouth open. And if you visit your local game store, you’ll find games that make you say silly phrases while using one of these cheek retractors. It’s almost impossible to enunciate words when your mouth can’t close or change shape and the results are hilarious! They’re great games and great stocking stuffers!
Hopefully this gives you some unique ideas for stocking stuffers for your friends and families and makes holiday shopping just a little bit easier!
It’s commonly heard from many people that 
The first, is yellowing stains. This happens a lot with smokers, where it creates a yellow sort of stain on your teeth. Smoking is notorious for this, meaning that the discoloration is actually from the tar that you find in cigarettes, and also the nicotine as well. It’s very hard to whiten yellow teeth, especially with how deep the stains might be and how long they’re exposed to different chemicals that you might find in said products. If you expose your teeth to these chemicals, it will weaken the enamel, which also does cause the tooth to become vulnerable not only to the overall superficial stains, but also the stains that go deeper into the teeth.
Speaking of how deep this can go, it can also rot your teeth. Because of the chemicals within these tobacco products, it weakens your tooth enamel, which then causes it to become more susceptible to bacteria, various acids, and other substances that are destructive. If you don’t’ have a protective layer, it can eat away at the tooth and cause it to rot to the root. This is super painful and it can cause a tooth to become loose, which could require removal and falling out. Not only that, it can lead to infection, which is a much more serious issue. Along with that, smoking causes less oxygen to flow in the blood, which will make the infections harder to fight, and this can then create other major issues such as gum disease.
Gum disease, as mentioned before, can be a big problem with those that smoke. Because there is less oxygen in the blood that you have, your immune system is weakened as well. Simply put, it leaves your mouth susceptible to infection. You can get more bacteria built up, and it can go into your gums. This then can cause destruction of the gum flesh, which makes it recede and become much looser and unhealthy. Remember, the gums will anchor your teeth, and because of this, it could fall out. If gum disease gets even worse, it can also cause the bones of the teeth there to fall out. Some studies have shown that if you smoke, you’re more than likely to get gum disease compared to those that don’t.
Wilson Crowe 