Your teeth’s best friends are healthy habits. Good oral hygiene and caries prevention is what really make teeth brighter and stronger. True, under one important condition – if you eat right! Yes, the foods you consume largely impact your oral health.
On the one hand, it is a source of vitamins and minerals that are essential for the healthy growth and development of teeth. But on the other hand, some products can damage teeth, stain enamel and promote the development of harmful microflora. So which foods destroy your oral health? We will name a few worst products for dental health in this article.
Foods That Are Destroying Your Teeth
To maintain good dental health, it is important to stay away from the following products:
Potato Chips
Dentist Alice Boghosian, the spokesperson for the American Dental Association, is adamant that chips are bad for dental health. The starch in potatoes gets converted to sugar, which becomes food for acid-producing bacteria. An unpleasant moment is also that small food residue sticks to the teeth and gums and remains in the interdental space. So after eating them, you must brush your teeth and use dental floss.
Alcohol
In addition to the usual risks associated with all drinks containing sugar and dyes, alcohol carries another threat. It causes dry mouth and reduced salivation is one of the major problems in dentistry. Saliva cleans the mouth, neutralizes acids, and maintains optimal balance in the mouth.
Frequent alcohol consumption reduces the body’s natural defense against caries. Thus, they leave a person exposed to several dental health problems. You need to give up alcohol addiction for good oral and overall health.
Do not worry about the expense of the treatments as several insurance companies, such as Cigna, provide insurance plans throughout the US, including Rhode Island. You can find many rehabs in Rhode Island that take Cigna insurance to cover, if not all, some cost of addiction treatment. Through such assistance, you can quit alcoholism conveniently.
Citruses
Bright citruses are part of our cheerful morning. Many prefer black tea and a slice of lemon, and even a slimming drink with lemon juice in the morning. Citruses are very rich in vitamin C, which is beneficial for our body in many ways. But for dental health, they are not the best friends! There was one study conducted in 2008 in which they soaked human teeth in various citrus juices.
Grapefruit and lemon juice were found to cause the most damage, while orange juice did the least. The experts assessed the damage in terms of the severity of enamel damage. This does not mean that you should give up juices forever. Just remember to rinse your mouth or brush your teeth after eating them.
Coffee
Unfortunately, one of the most popular drinks in the world stains your teeth and ruins your smile. The negative effect is more pronounced given that many people do not limit themselves to one cup of coffee a day.
In a 2012 study published in the Journal of the American Dental Association, scientists compared the durability of stains from smoking and brushing your teeth. It turned out that coffee stains are more persistent and more difficult to clean. In addition, coffee stains are quite sticky and tend to attract food particles and bacteria.
Gummies
Options such as toffees, caramels, jellies, and fruit candies adhere to the teeth and interdental spaces for a long time. And they thereby help the bacteria in the mouth to leisurely feast on the deposited sugar.
“Bacteria consume sugar and form acids that dissolve the protective layer of tooth enamel and cause cavities,” says dentist Matthew Messina. At the same time, sweets that give a sour taste are the most dangerous. This is because they have their own erosive acids, which additionally damage the teeth.
Hard Caramels
Hard caramels don’t stick to your teeth like gummies do, but they do have a downside. Unlike gummies, which are quick to chew and relatively easy to rinse off, hard candies dissolve slowly in the mouth. Thus, giving bacteria plenty of time to produce harmful acid. Even worse, if the sweets contain citric acid.
Refreshing breath and helping with sore throats, the throat lozenges are no better. For a good effect, they need to be absorbed for a long time but remember that the harmful microflora does not sleep. Well, if you try to bite through hard candy, it can chip a tooth, which neither a toothbrush nor hygienic floss can fix.
Homemade Pickles
To make homemade cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, and other pickles tasty and crispy, culinary specialists use vinegar when preparing them. And this is what makes pickles on the list of very unhealthy foods!
In a 2004 study published in the British Dental Journal, researchers looked at the eating habits of English teenagers. It turned out that homemade pickles were strongly associated with tooth wear. Eating pickles more than once a day increased the likelihood of tooth decay by a record 85%.
Sports Drinks
Recently, more and more alarming information about sports drinks surfaced. It turns out that many of them do not help improve athletic performance during training. Moreover, they also have a bad effect on health and even contribute to weight gain. And one 2008 study showed that sports drinks pose a serious threat to dental health.
Researchers dunked the man’s extracted teeth in Red Bull energy drink, Coca-Cola and Diet Coke, and lemon-lime sports drink Gatorade. After 25 hours of exposure, it was found that the sports drink caused the most tooth decay.
Take Away
Now that you know what foods can stain and erode your teeth, you should use them responsibly. Keep a sense of proportion and be sure to use toothpaste, brush, and floss after eating them. And then your smile will be snow-white, radiant, and beautiful.
