What you eat affect your teeth

What you eat affect your teeth

Your mouth, teeth, and gums are more than just tools for eating. They’re essential for chewing and swallowing—the first steps in the digestion process. Your mouth is your body’s initial point of contact with the nutrients you consume. So what you put in your mouth impacts not only your general health but also that of your teeth and gums. In fact, if your nutrition is poor, the first signs often show up in your mouth.

to better understand how your diet affects your teeth, let’s review some bad choices and good choices you can make in your day-to-day life:

Bad choices:

• Sugar: It’s not the sugar itself that’s responsible for decay. Sugar acts as a food source for bacteria on your teeth & gums, which digest it & turn it into an acidic byproduct you’ve probably already heard of, called plaque. Plaque is sticky & adheres to your teeth, where its acids start to dissolve the hard outer layer of your teeth called enamel. Bacteria can then get into this hole in the enamel & start to destroy the inside of the tooth, causing toothaches & abscesses that require treatment from your dentist (root canals, tooth extractions, etc). Clearly, it’s a good idea to avoid sugar as much as possible & to brush & floss thoroughly after consuming sugary foods.

• Starchy food: The bacteria in the mouth rapidly ferment the sugars found in carb sources like white bread and chips, which produces enamel-eroding acid .

• Soft and Sticky Foods: When food lingers in the mouth, resulting in prolonged contact with the bacteria on the teeth, more and more acid is produced. For this reason, you should avoid sticky foods like caramels, honey, molasses, syrup, and jelly beans. In addition, avoid soft foods that often get stuck in the crevices of your teeth, like potato chips and raisins. When you do eat these foods, brush your teeth soon afterward.

• Acids: Acidic foods like citrus fruits and pickles can (as you might have guessed) increase your mouth’s exposure to acid. This can cause your teeth to lose minerals. Although you shouldn’t avoid oranges, lemons, tomatoes, and the like, try to eat them as a part of a larger meal to minimize the effects of the acid.

• Fermentable 

• Soft Drinks and alcoholic beverage: They are filled with sugars, empty calories, and flavor additives, and they will break down your teeth over time, especially if you drink them throughout the day.

• Snacking:When you fast between meals, you give your saliva time to wash away food particles that could cause tooth decay. If you eat often throughout the day, on the other hand, snacking between larger meals, you constantly fuel the bacteria in your mouth. Limit your snacking, choose healthy snacks (apples, carrots, nuts, etc.), and brush your teeth after eating snacks when you can.

• Staining Agents:Some foods and beverages can stain your teeth if you’re not careful. Common culprits include tea, coffee, red wine, soft drinks, berries, and food colorings (often found in brightly colored candy, popsicles, and sweetened drinks). To reduce the effects of staining agents, brush your teeth immediately after consuming them (or at least rinse your mouth with water). In addition, use a straw when drinking staining beverages and schedule regular dental cleanings.

• Good choices:

• Cheese, milk, plain yogurt, calcium-fortified tofu, leafy greens and almonds, are foods that may benefit tooth health thanks to their high amounts of calcium and other nutrients they provide. 

• Protein-rich foods like meat, poultry, fish, milk and eggs are the best sources of phosphorus. Both of these minerals play a critical role in dental health, by protecting and rebuilding tooth enamel.

• Fruits and vegetables are good choices for a healthy smile since they are high in water and fiber, which balance the sugars they contain and help to clean the teeth. These foods also help stimulate saliva production, which washes harmful acids and food particles away from teeth and helps neutralize acid, protecting teeth from decay. Plus, many contain vitamin C (important for healthy gums and quick healing of wounds) and vitamin A (another key nutrient in building tooth enamel).

Hands down, water—particularly fluoridated water—is the most tooth-friendly beverage.