What are some Healthy Diet Choices for your teeth? What are some bad foods for your teeth?
Many people are familiar with the idea that sugary foods can cause cavities and tooth decay. But what about other foods like White Bread or Coffee?
In this video, we will discuss some food items which can be harmful for your teeth and what you can do to prevent any damage.
Transcript:
Hello, my name is Dr. William Park with Blessed Smile and Smile On You Dentistry.
Today I will be presenting on healthy diet choices.
What do you like to eat in a normal day? Are white breads, muffins, and pastries part of your normal diet? Do you like to put sugar in your coffee?
Diet and nutritional choices have a big impact on your dental health. Many people are familiar with the idea that eating a lot of sugar can cause cavities. But what about all the other foods that we eat?
In general, any kind of foods that are high in carbohydrates like breads, pastries, rice, candies or sugary drinks will not be very good for your teeth.
Although these might not seem really sweet or sugary, bacteria can start to break down these carbohydrate-rich foods into acids and this acid will start to dissolve and break away at your tooth structure. This can eventually form a hole on the tooth which is what we call a cavity.
Any food with lots of sugar like candy, chocolate, jellies and even carbohydrate-rich foods like white bread can be broken down into acid which can eventually cause cavities.
Foods that are sticky and sugary like gummies are even worse because these stick to your teeth and the sugar can further break down your tooth because it's sitting on your tooth for a lot longer.
Acidic things like coffee, citrus, fruit, or juices, wine, soda, or even salt or water can also serve the same purpose in
dissolving your tooth structure and making it soft.
The biggest factor in whether a sugary food will cause tooth breakdown is how long the tooth is exposed to the sugar. So most of the time if it's not something really sticky it will be kind of washed away by your saliva before it can cause too much breakdown to your teeth.
But even in foods that are not sticky like fruit juices, orange juice, coffee, or tea with sugar added, or sodas: if you
sip on these throughout the day your teeth will just be sitting in that sugary and acidic solution and so this will definitely cause tooth break down over time.
So whenever you have these foods it's important that you try to eat these around your mealtime so that your teeth aren't baking in the acicidc solution multiple times per day. At least it'll be just during the meal times. In fact, it is even more important to limit the frequency of your sugar intake as opposed to limiting the amount of sugar that you're having.
It's important to rinse your mouth out with water after having any of these kind of foods or drinks. This is so that you can stay hydrated so that your saliva can fully wash off these sugars.
Next in this video series on dietary choices, we'll be talking about some healthier choices that you can opt for, which can in fact be protective for your teeth and protect against future cavities.
Thank you so much for tuning in today.