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Cough Medication And Oral Health

Cough Medication And Oral Health

Having a cold can be a struggle for anyone. It’s a miserable feeling. When you can’t stop coughing or you don’t have enough tissues to keep your nose dry, you can get to the point where you’ll do anything to curb the feeling. Some medications can help minimize a lot of the symptoms you are experiencing. Unfortunately, they can also pose a risk to your oral health.

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What’s Dangerous About Cough Medicine?

The majority of medications for managing cold symptoms taste bad. Because of this, manufacturers add all sorts of ingredients to the mix to make them more tolerable. These medicines typically contain various ingredients that can put your oral health at risk for developing cavities and tooth decay.

The primary ingredients that concern your dentist in the Sacramento River Dental Group office would be alcohol and sugar. Why are these two ingredients bad for your oral health? Read below to find out more.

Cough Medicine Contains Alcohol.

Alcohol is one of the primary ingredients found in cough and cold medicines. One of the reasons why alcohol is bad for your oral health has to do with the drying effect it can have on your mouth. Alcohol is well-known to cause dry mouth. The problem with having a dry mouth, especially at night, is that it makes it much easier for dangerous and harmful bacteria to attack your teeth.

Your mouth typically produces excess saliva throughout the day and night to neutralize the bacteria and acid in your mouth. Unfortunately, when you take cold medicine, it can mitigate saliva production, which can result in an environment that’s not conducive to optimal oral health.

Cough Medicine Contains Sugars.

As mentioned previously, the majority of medication simply doesn’t taste good. After all, the ingredients in them aren’t made to taste good. That’s why these medicines typically have added sugar for taste. Having sugar added makes the medication easier to take. While the sugar does help make the medicine more tolerable for individuals, it also can harm your teeth. Two of the more traditional medications used to treat a cough include cough drops and cough syrup. Both of these medications tend to have added sugars in them.

The problem is only heightened when you are using cough drops and sucking them throughout the entire day. After all, at that point, the cough drops turn into candy. If you are sucking on cough drops throughout the day, it’s essentially going to be exposing your teeth to harmful sugar throughout the day. Why is sugar harmful? Well, the bacteria in your mouth feed off sugar. The problem is after they feed on the sugar, they release acid as a byproduct. This acid can erode your tooth enamel and result in you being at a heightened risk of experiencing tooth decay.

How To Protect Your Teeth During Flue Season?

While this article is meant to make you aware of the dangers of these medications, it’s not to make you turn away from them either. However, there are things you can effectively do to mitigate the damage they can cause to your oral health. Here are some of the top things you can do to mitigate the danger of using cold medicine.
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– Brush your teeth after you take medicine. This will allow you to get rid of the sugar and alcohol and keep it from sitting around in your mouth all day or night.
– Take the medication while you are eating. The act of chewing inherently produces saliva. Having more saliva in your mouth is going to help wash away some of the sugar and alcohol in the medication.
– Use pills instead of cough drops and syrup. A gel-filled pill is going to help you bypass some of the dangers to your mouth.

With the cold season approaching, use these tips to keep your mouth healthy. The dangers of cough medicine are out there. Using the tips above can help you minimize your symptoms while keeping your oral health in check.

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Sacramento River Dental Group – Candidate Privacy Notice

Sacramento River Dental Group is committed to respecting your online privacy and recognizes your need for appropriate protection and management of any personally identifiable information (“Personal Information”) you share with us.

Sacramento River Dental Group is a “data controller”. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. This privacy notice makes you aware of how and why your personal data will be used, namely for the purposes of the Sacramento River Dental Group employment recruitment process, and how long it will usually be retained.

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We will comply with data protection law and principles, which means that your data will be:

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In connection with your application for work with us, we will collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you:

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We collect personal information about candidates from the following sources:

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How we will use information about you?

We will use the personal information we collect about you to:

  • Assess your skills, qualifications, and suitability for the role.
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Having received your CV, cover letter, and/or your application form, we will then process that information to decide whether you meet the basic requirements to be screened by our in-house recruitment team for the role. If you do, we will decide whether your application is strong enough to invite you for an interview, be it by telephone, in person, or by other electronic means. If we decide to engage you for an interview, we will use the information you provide to us at the interview to decide whether to offer you the role. If we decide to offer you the role, we will then take up references before confirming your appointment.

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If you fail to provide information when requested, which is necessary for us to consider your application (such as evidence of qualifications or work history), we will not be able to process your application successfully and we will not be able to take your application further.

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Data sharing With third parties

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Under certain circumstances, by law, you have the right to:

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To withdraw your consent, please contact the Recruitment Manager. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your application, and, subject to our policies, we will dispose of your personal data securely.

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We have appointed a data protection officer (DPO) to oversee compliance with this privacy notice. If you have any questions about this privacy notice or how we handle your personal information, please contact the DPO by email, at info@jstreetdentalgroup.com.