I’m no stranger to candy. I love it so much I’ve been known to eat it for breakfast. Not sure why I admitted that, but hey. I’ve got a valid point to make later on in this post.

I’m not as quick to eat sugary foods anymore. Doing the Paleo challenge for 30 days, I’ve learned so much about food than I had in my entire life time. If anything, it changed my way of eating, and thinking of the consequences that food has on your body. Healthy food like eggs for breakfast is way better, than eating a mars bar. Who knew.

Treats are just that. Treats, reserved for a special time. It’s not a meal replacement or even a snack. It’s just a treat to have. Once in a while NANCY. Not for breakfast!

Upon moving from Newfoundland to Ontario in 2006, I had two main purchases I wanted to make. First up was fixing my crooked teeth, then I wanted to buy my very first car. Flashback time!

Since then I’ve gotten my braces off and now I have beautiful teeth that I like to take care of, as they cost about half of what my car did.

Luckily I can use my new Philips Sonicare PowerUp toothbrush to make them extra sparkly. I received this brush from the PR company to review about a month ago, shortly after the BlissDom Canada conference. I had a chat with one of the PR girls at BlissDom, and asked to review this particular product.

My boyfriend is a huge advocate of dental health. He was the person who pushed me to care more about my teeth. If he wasn’t around, I’d probably have dentures by now. One thing that always sticks with me that he suggested was that: always drink water after drinking/eating sugary treats — especially if you don’t have a tooth brush around. It sloshes away all the grim and gunk on your teeth and doesn’t just sit and chill out there making holes in your enamel. Kind of makes sense to us. Again, he nor I aren’t dentists nor do we want to be. But we like to think it works.

Don’t say bye bye to those beautiful chompers of yours. You don’t want dentures do you? Take care of them. Floss more (errr…note to self) and if you hate flossing, get those fancy tooth pick flossers instead of the dirty string that I HATE holding onto when he gets tooth-goo all on your fingers. So nasty.

Also. Please remember to brush your tongue. That’s where your stank breath comes from.

Fun facts about my mouth:

• I never started caring about my teeth until I met my Boyfriend, over 8 years ago. He’s a huge dental hygiene fan.
• I have a lot of fillings. I’m embarrassed to say how many. Actually scratch that. I have no idea how many I have. They’re all white now because I got the silver ones dug out and replaced with shiny new white fillings.
• I get complimented a few times a week on how white my teeth are.
• I don’t white my teeth.
• I brush my teeth 3-4x/day (morning, after work, sometimes right after supper and again before bed)
• I still wear my retainer after getting braces off in 2008. My teeth most definitely shift and move, especially if I don’t wear my retainer for a week. It’s painful putting those suckers back on for the night when I don’t wear them.
• I drink through a straw. Always. Mainly to avoid stainage. At least that’s my philosophy behind it all. I have no idea if it works.

Philips Sonicare has surveyed Canadians asking their opinion on beauty related questions concerning their smile and beauty. Here are some interesting facts I pulled from the PDF they sent me.

My boyfriend bought a sonicare toothbrush at walmart a while ago and only uses it at night. Now I have one and they can be BFFs! Here’s a photo of our toothbrushes chillin out. It’s a his and her’s station. Twinsies, even. Except mine is way newer and cooler. I enjoy that the base of my toothbrush doesn’t take up as much space. It’s only a tad smaller, but with an itty bitty bathroom like ours, every inch truly matters.

What can I truly say about a battery operated toothbrush besides that I love using it before be when I’m already tired and don’t feel like doing anything but besides laying down in our comfy bed.

Are electric toothbrushes better than manual?
Well, that’s a personal preference really. My Boyfriend and I both have two toothbrushes each. A manual and electric that we use on a daily basis (no, we don’t share. Gross). I’ve been told by my dentist that proper and diligent brushing with a manual brush is just as effective as electric ones. The key is to be consistent and brush regularly.

The bottom line? If you’re concerned about your oral health, grab a sonicare toothbrush and use it. The benefits from using an electric toothbrush is that it takes less time to do a throughout job than you would do manually. Good for people who are sleepy and just want to head to bed quickly.

How often do you brush your teeth?
I said this above but I usually brush my teeth 3x a day, sometimes 4. I use an “extra soft” tooth brush and change the brushes every 5-6 months and at night use the Sonicare.

Do you floss every day?
I don’t. I’m a hypocrite.

When was the last time you had a dental check up?
I am covered with insurance with work and go every 9 months. It’s funny, every time the dentist calls I question her if it’s really been 9mths since I’ve been. Feels like only 3mths ago. Hate going, in fact I’d rather go to the gynecologist than the Dentist. Probably because for years — every time i went to the dentist I needed something fixed.

Philips Sonicare PowerUp is available for $39.99 at major retailers.