To Eat or Not to Eat – A dental Conundrum
Don’t you like chocolate? Of course, you like chocolate. There’s nothing wrong with liking sweet food. But keep this in mind. Eating sugary, starch-filled, sweet foods doesn’t just make you happy and healthy, it feeds the bacteria in your tooth as well. So before you go ahead eating the whole box of chocolates you bought yesterday, just give your oral hygiene a thought.
Excess of sweets can cause not just tooth decay and plaque build-up, it can also lead to adverse problems such as gum disease. Let’s take a look at the logic behind it. Once you are done eating, these sugars react with this pre-existent plaque, resulting in the formation of acids, which weaken your enamel. Once you have weak enamel, you open doors to tooth decay and gum diseases, in addition to an increase in plaque build-up as well.
This blog post will be your guide through what kind of food that you would have to avoid, and what to eat if you are planning on maintaining your oral hygiene at an optimal level.
What should I eat?
It is imperative that your diet is rich in fiber if you are planning on maintaining near-perfect oral hygiene. Fiber can stimulate your salivary glands, and get you salivating. You might remember this from your elementary biology lessons, saliva helps in breaking down food. Well get ready for a surprise, they don’t do just that.
Your saliva is also a neutralizing agent to the acid formation that happens once you eat sugary or starch-filled food. 20 minutes after you have your sweet food, your saliva starts working on the acid to make it neutral and protects your enamel. Saliva has this ability because of its composition that includes calcium and phosphate. It also replenishes your mineral deposits in the areas from which the acid eroded the minerals.
This is exactly why chocolate was touched upon in the beginning – Processed chocolate which contains artificial sweeteners might be bad for your teeth, but cocoa nibs are definitely one of the good guys when it comes to ensuring your dental and oral hygiene.
Stick with cocoa pits instead of going for full-blown processed chocolate bars with sugar and whatnot, as studies have concluded that cocoa helps in getting rid of the harmful bacteria in your mouth.
A diet filled with Vitamin K2 is ideal for healthy teeth. Vitamin K2 is an important factor that helps keep your teeth clean and your body healthy as they provide phosphorus, which strengthens your enamel and muscle mass in general.
Dairy products are an excellent source of K2, while you can also resort to foods such as eggs, chicken, and beef for a steady supply of K2.
What should I not?
Let’s get the most obvious out of the way first. If you want healthy teeth, avoid smoking and drinking. Alcohol and smoking would dry your mouth out. As you now know the benefits of saliva, think about what a dry mouth would lead to – An increase in the acid effect, resulting in weak enamel, and ultimately plaque build-up, gum disease, and decay.
Stay away from sticky sweets. As mentioned before, these sweet nourish the bad bacteria present in our mouths, ultimately leaving your mouth unprotected against bacterial invasions.
Once again, as mentioned before, too much starch isn’t good for you. Starch is hard to break up and consume, so remnants of it remain in your mouth, attracting more and more plaque as it stays. So scoot away from bread, potato chips, and rice as much as you can.
Carbonated drinks or sodas are laced to the brim with added sugar. Hence increased consumption of these drinks would leave your mouth dry and susceptible to bacterial attacks more often than not. Make sure that your encounters with soda are not frequent, while an occasional drink wouldn’t hurt as much as gorging on it.
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Conclusion
Apart from maintaining the mentioned diet and avoiding said foods, it is also imperative to note that brushing twice a day and flossing regularly would decrease your risks of total tooth decay and damage.
Apart from that, you should also be sure to have bi-yearly visits to your dentist. Dr.Latha’s DentalKraft is your go-to if you are looking for dentists near Pondicherry or Kalapet. Dr.Latha’s DentalKraft totes some of the best dentists in Pondicherry. Filled with dentists who are not only professional but also caring, you can never go wrong with Dr.Latha’s DentalKraft, be it any issue ranging from plaque clean up to treating of gum diseases.
