The winter months, while filled with snow days and holidays, are also full of illness. However, a few particular things can help protect your dental health while recuperating.
Regular tooth brushing your teeth when our are sick – no matter how lethargic you feel, no matter how inviting going right to bed seems – is especially important when you are sick. Removing bacteria from your mouth will only serve to assist the recovery process. Additionally, dry mouth, caused by breathing through the mouth when nasal passages are blocked, will only help bacteria do their dirty work, so keeping the mouth clean is key.
You may want to consider discarding your toothbrush after recovering from illness, as a toothbrush used during an illness may harbor the pathogens that caused the illness to begin with.
Finally, while your doctor (and your mother) will have already told you to drink plenty of fluids; xerostomia, caused by the aforementioned mouth-breathing, is aggravated by cold medicines, which adds to the risk of dental cavities.