Winter in the Chicago area isn’t exactly subtle.
Cold temperatures, biting wind, dry indoor heat and plenty of snow come with the territory. You probably adjust your skincare routine once winter arrives. Maybe the humidifier comes out. Lip balm suddenly lives in every coat pocket.
Your mouth can feel the effects of the season too.
Dry mouth, chapped lips, tooth sensitivity and winter sports injuries can all become more noticeable this time of year. Then add holiday sweets, hot drinks and the occasional day when staying under a blanket sounds much better than doing anything productive.
Your teeth still need you.
Here are some practical dental tips for winter to help keep your teeth, gums and the rest of your mouth healthy until spring finally decides to show up.
1. Drink Water Even When You Aren’t Thirsty
It’s easy to remember water during a 90-degree Chicago summer. In January? Not so much.
Cold weather can make you less inclined to reach for a glass of water, while heated indoor air can contribute to a dry mouth. Some medications, mouth breathing and other factors can make dryness even more noticeable.
Saliva does quite a bit for your oral health. It helps wash food particles away, neutralize acids and protect your teeth throughout the day. So keep the water bottle around even if you aren’t feeling particularly thirsty.
If you wake up with a dry mouth, keeping water near your bed and using a humidifier may help make the environment more comfortable. Persistent dry mouth, however, is worth mentioning at your next dental visit.
2. Don’t Let Winter Become an All-Day Snack
Winter seems to come with an endless supply of food. Halloween candy disappears and suddenly there are Thanksgiving desserts. Then Christmas cookies. New Year’s parties. Valentine’s Day candy.
And somewhere in between all of that, we’re spending more time indoors with the pantry approximately twelve steps away.
You don’t have to avoid every sweet until April. Frequency matters, though.
Repeatedly snacking on sugary or carbohydrate-rich foods throughout the day gives oral bacteria more opportunities to produce acids that attack tooth enamel.
Have the cookie. Just don’t turn one cookie into six hours of walking past the kitchen and grabbing another bite every time you do. Drink water afterward and give your mouth some time between snacks.
3. Watch What You’re Sipping All Day
Winter drinks deserve their own category.
Hot chocolate. Sweetened coffee. Flavored lattes. Tea with honey or sugar.
There’s nothing wrong with enjoying them, but slowly sipping a sugary beverage throughout the morning continually exposes your teeth. Try to enjoy sweetened drinks over a shorter period rather than nursing one for hours.
Then have some water.
One caution with hot beverages: if your teeth suddenly hurt every time you drink something hot, or react strongly to cold temperatures, that’s worth paying attention to.
Which brings us to…
4. Don’t Ignore Winter Tooth Sensitivity
Walking outside on a freezing day and breathing cold air through your mouth can make sensitive teeth announce themselves pretty quickly. Cold weather doesn’t necessarily cause the underlying problem.
Sensitivity can be associated with worn enamel, exposed tooth roots, gum recession, cavities, cracked teeth or other dental conditions. Sometimes people simply notice an existing problem more because they’re encountering extreme temperatures.
Occasional mild sensitivity may respond to toothpaste formulated for sensitive teeth.
But if one particular tooth suddenly becomes sensitive, the discomfort is significant or the pain lingers after the cold is gone, don’t automatically blame winter.
Have it checked.
5. Protect Your Lips From Cold, Wind and Sun
Your teeth aren’t the only part of your mouth dealing with winter weather. Lips can become dry, cracked and painful when they’re repeatedly exposed to cold air, wind and dry indoor conditions.
Use a moisturizing lip balm and consider one with SPF when you’ll be spending time outdoors.
And try not to lick dry lips. It seems like you’re adding moisture, but once the saliva evaporates, your lips can end up feeling even drier.
If you’re already dealing with the problem, we have more advice for treating chapped lips in our winter lip-care guide.
6. Protect Your Teeth During Winter Sports
Sledding is fun. So are skiing, snowboarding, hockey and ice skating.
Meeting the ground face-first? Not so much.
Falls and collisions during winter activities can chip, crack, loosen or completely knock out a tooth. Our existing advice to consider mouth protection during higher-risk winter activities is worth keeping.
A properly fitting athletic mouthguard can help protect your teeth when you’re participating in activities where falls or contact are reasonably likely.
Kids need protection too. If your child participates in hockey or another contact sport, make the mouthguard part of the equipment checklist just like the helmet.
And if an accident does happen, don’t wait several days hoping a damaged tooth fixes itself. Significant dental trauma should be evaluated promptly. Our Shorewood emergency dentists can help if you chip, break or otherwise injure a tooth.
7. Don’t Use Your Teeth as Winter Tools
This isn’t technically a seasonal dental problem. Winter just gives people some interesting opportunities to do it.
Don’t use your teeth to tear open stubborn packaging, remove tags from new clothes, crack something open or perform whatever other job the scissors sitting five feet away were designed to handle.
And don’t chew ice. Your teeth are built for eating. They are not bottle openers, scissors or nutcrackers. One bad bite can turn an ordinary afternoon into a broken tooth.
8. Replace a Worn Toothbrush
Take a look at your toothbrush.
Are the bristles still straight and in good condition? If they’re bent, frayed and pointing in six different directions, it’s time for a new one.
You generally don’t need to throw away your toothbrush every time you get a minor cold. Instead, replace a toothbrush (manual or electric head) regularly and sooner when the bristles become visibly worn. A toothbrush with badly frayed bristles isn’t going to clean as effectively.
Winter can actually be a useful reminder: if you can’t remember the last time you replaced yours, you may already have your answer.
9. Keep Brushing When You’re Sick
Winter is also cold-and-flu season. When you’re congested, exhausted and feeling miserable, your normal routine can slip.
Keep brushing.
Being sick can create some additional challenges for your mouth. Mouth breathing may contribute to dryness, cough drops can contain sugar and some medications can also affect saliva production.
If you’ve been vomiting, however, don’t immediately scrub your teeth afterward.
Stomach acid temporarily creates an acidic environment in the mouth. Rinse first with water and give your mouth some time before brushing.
10. Keep Your Normal Dental Routine
Winter doesn’t require an entirely new oral-hygiene routine. Most of what protects your teeth in July protects them in January too.
- Brush twice a day with fluoride toothpaste.
- Clean between your teeth daily.
- Drink water.
- Pay attention when something hurts.
- And keep up with regular dental exams and professional cleanings.
Our Daily Dental Care guide has more information about maintaining your teeth and gums between visits. The basics aren’t exciting. They work.
Don’t Put Off a Dental Problem Until Spring
It’s tempting. A tooth starts bothering you in December and you think, I’ll deal with that after the holidays.
Then January arrives. Maybe next month.
Dental problems generally don’t care what season it is, and a reversible cavity is nothing more than wishful thinking. If you are just waiting around for warmer weather, a cracked or infected tooth can become considerably more complicated if it’s ignored.
If something hurts, feels different or simply doesn’t seem right, give us a call. Finding out that it’s nothing serious is much better than finding out six months later that it wasn’t.
Keep Your Smile Healthy All Winter
You don’t need to spend the entire winter worrying about your teeth.
Most of these dental tips for winter are pretty simple:
- Drink enough water.
- Don’t graze on sugar all day.
- Protect your teeth during sports.
- Take care of dry lips and keep doing the same brushing.
- Flossing and preventive care that matters throughout the rest of the year.
And when Chicago gives us one of those days when stepping outside hurts your face? Stay warm.
At Shorewood Family Dental Care, we provide preventive, restorative and emergency dental care for individuals and families from Shorewood, Joliet and surrounding communities.
If you’re looking for a dentist near Joliet, call us at 815-725-5991 or contact us online to schedule your next visit.
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Originally published December 10, 2021. Updated August 21, 2026.
