Food and Drink – Your Dental Health

Food and Drink – Your Dental Health

The food and drink you consume on a daily basis can affect your teeth and gums as well as your general health. A poor diet can cause tooth decay and can even lead to gum disease. Food and drink high in sugar, will increase the amount of plaque present on your teeth and this can cause tooth decay. Eventually, plaque causes tooth enamel to break down and this is what causes a cavity.

In this blog, we will suggest what types of food and drink should be avoided and what types of food and drink you should try and consume more of in your diet.

What types of food and drink should I try to avoid?

Any food and drink that is high in sugar should be cut out of your diet, as the more food and drink you consume with added sugar, the more plaque that will build up on your teeth.

Try to avoid foods such as sauces like BBQ sauce and tomato ketchup. These sauces tend to be very high in sugar even in small servings. It is highly recommended to avoid candy as most candies are just pure sugar.

Hard candies can do further damage to your teeth by chipping or cracking them when trying to bite down on them. There are many more foods that can be extremely high in sugar like breakfast cereals, yogurt, frozen pizzas, biscuits, cakes and chocolate and many more different foods.

The drinks that you should try and avoid the most out of any other are full-fat fizzy drinks/soda. These drinks are packed with sugar and have proven over many years to be really harmful to your oral health. Although fruit juices can be high in vitamins, these juices also tend to be very high in sugar and are also known to be bad for your teeth. There are many more drinks that can affect your oral heath such as sports drinks, iced tea, flavoured green tea and coffee, vitamin water, energy drinks and certain types of alcohol and many other different drinks.

What types of food and drink should I include in my diet?

A varied diet that is rich in vitamins, minerals, fresh fruit and vegetables can help to prevent gum disease and tooth decay, as long as you stick to brushing your teeth twice a day, two minutes each time.

Try to include foods such as apples in your diet. Apples are full of vitamins and the acidity of an apple can help to eradicate bad breath as it helps to kill bacteria that causes bad breath.

Green vegetables like spinach and lettuce come with a variety of dental benefits. As well as antioxidants and iron, they are also full of beta-carotene which helps to keep your teeth strong and healthy. There are other foods that are brilliant for your oral health such as fish, nuts, raw vegetables, cheese, milk and sugarless chewing gum.

The best liquid that you should definitely drink every single day, is of course, water! Water with fluoride is especially good as it helps to strengthen and clean your teeth.

With every sip, water cleans your teeth by removing any leftover foods or acids in your mouth. Milk is also very good for your oral health. Milk is rich in calcium, which helps to strengthen bones and teeth. Milk also contains a protein called casein, a substance that helps fight tooth decay by strengthening tooth enamel. There are other drinks that help to improve your oral health like low-sugar vegetable juice, low-sugar fruit juices, clear tea and root beer.

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