Everyone understands the importance of cleaning one’s teeth properly. Your diet, what you eat, and how frequently you eat can all have a significant influence on your oral health. Eating a lot of sweets, acids, and snacks is bad for your teeth and can lead to caries, inflamed gums, and tooth erosion. Sugars, acids, and starches we all obtain via our food and beverages. However, at high enough concentrations, these substances are harmful to the health of your teeth. Bacteria in your mouth convert sugars and carbohydrates into an acid that damages your tooth enamel, resulting in cavities.
Special note: For teens going through Invisalign or metal braces treatment, special care should be followed when it comes to their diet. A soft diet is recommended while avoiding sticky foods. Talk to your orthodontist about the type of food your child should or shouldn’t eat.
Sugars
All foods, including vegetables, dairy, and pasta, contain sugars and starch. Now, these foods are very important for you because your body needs vitamins, proteins, and carbohydrates to function properly. Manufacturers of, for example, soft drinks, sweets, and pastries, on the other hand, add extra sugars to food and drinks. It is therefore important to avoid these foods as much as possible and in any case to be aware of what you eat and drink.
Acids
No matter how healthy glass of orange juice is, fruit juices are full of acids. These acids damage your tooth enamel. Soft drinks and wine also contain a lot of sugar and acid. Sometimes these are hidden acids: due to a large amount of sugar in the product, it is not immediately apparent how many acids it contains and how sour it tastes. The fruit itself also contains a lot of sugars and acids.
Your eating habits
The number of meals you eat per day has a major impact on the health of your teeth. Between meals, your saliva gets time to neutralize the acids from the plaque on your teeth. When you snack often, your mouth simply doesn’t get the time to recover. Therefore, keep the number of eating moments to a maximum of seven per day, divided over three main meals and four snacks. What also matters is how long you keep food or drink in your mouth. Many people swish soda through their mouths until the sting disappears before swallowing. In this way, you have sugars in your mouth for far too long and they come into contact with your teeth for a long time. So they have more time to do damage.
The influence of food and drink on teeth
Bacteria in your mouth turn sugars and carbohydrates in your diet into an acid that destroys tooth enamel. Cavities and caries can result as a result of this. Dental erosion is a sneaky process that might produce difficulties years later. The tooth enamel and exposed dentin degrade in dental erosion. Tooth enamel that has been worn away does not regrow. Your dental hygienist can help you prevent this and provide you with information on the appropriate diet for good teeth.