Traveling Soon? 5 Essentials for Your Dental Travel Kit

Long breaks from work and late summer vacations are wonderful and exciting. However, we may sometimes fail to appropriately maintain our oral hygiene while traveling or on vacation.

Luckily, building your dental travel kit can be an easy and effective way to continue brushing your teeth even when you are away from home. With your kit, you and your loved ones can maintain healthy teeth while traveling this summer or all year round.

Here are five essential items to pack in your dental travel kit for oral hygiene during your vacation:

1. Travel Toothbrush 

A toothbrush is the most basic care item for oral hygiene. When purchasing a toothbrush for your travel, look for one that has a round, soft brush head and it has an ADA Seal of Approval.

On top of that, it’s important to ensure that you and your family brush twice a day for two minutes each time. 

Keep in mind that there’s no harm in packing an extra brush. However, if you need to save space, one may be enough, or get a foldable toothbrush that easily fits your travel case.

2. Toothpaste

While some people will be comfortable using a toothbrush and a salt solution, it’s important to include toothpaste in your dental travel kit. Ideally, look for a small, travel-sized toothpaste tube that can last for long during your entire trip. If you’re bringing kids along, avoid getting them whitening toothpaste as it may contain unhealthy abrasives that can be too strong for their young teeth.

3. Braces 

When using braces to correct your subtle ‘imperfections,’ it takes a sheer level of discipline to achieve the optimal results. Simply put, you will need to wear the aligners for at least 22 hours every day, even when traveling, to ensure that your braces treatment stays on track.

As such, you need to think about how you’ll properly care for your braces while you’re away from home. Fortunately, there are different companies offering invisible braces and can help you find a protective case for your aligners or advise on what to do when traveling with braces.

4. Flossers

A flosser is another essential item to pack, especially if you are traveling with kids. Brushing cleans only a small percentage of the total teeth surface area, meaning most of your teeth are left dirty unless you floss after brushing. Ensure you floss once a day and clean between every space in your teeth. Use floss picks while flossing as they can allow you to clean between teeth even without a mirror.

5. Mouthwash

Mouthwash is vital, especially for international travel. After hours of sleep on an airplane, the bacteria in your mouth can accumulate, causing your breath to feel a little less fresh. 

A good rule of thumb is to load a small bottle of mouthwash and use the airplane washroom to freshen up before you land. Furthermore, mouthwash can act as an immediate toothpaste when you don’t have time to go back to where you’re staying during the day. This allows you to keep your breath fresh and eliminate bacteria that might have accumulated throughout the day.

6. Sugar-Free Gum

Adding bubble gum to your dental travel kit may sound a bit odd, particularly if you don’t fancy them. But the truth is that chewing gum can help you with the clogged feeling you might experience when the plane is taking off or landing.

The gum can also act as a weapon for fighting against dry mouth after spending a long time without a beverage. A piece of gum can also leave your mouth feeling tasty and fresh.

Parting Shot

Planning your travel itinerary is stressful enough, but not choosing what to pack or leave behind is even more challenging. With the dental travel kit items discussed above, you can now take the guesswork out of what to pack and maintain your dental health while enjoying your vacation.