Your diet has a significant influence on your dental health, not just your overall health. Every time you eat plaque and the natural bacteria in your mouth reacts with the sugar and starch found in foods. Causing a chemical reaction which results in an acid, this will demineralise your tooth’s natural enamel.
A balanced and nutritious diet consisting of the basic food groups, high in fresh fruit, vegetables, and low in sugar and starch, as well as eliminating or significantly reducing snacking between meals or substituting vegetable sticks and nuts over sweet treats, will |
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decrease your chances of developing tooth decay.
Some of our favourite snacks such as cakes, doughnuts, lollies, chocolate, biscuits, dried fruit and soft drinks are very sticky, high in sugar and tend to cling to the enamel of your teeth, the longer they adhere to your teeth the longer your teeth are exposed to decay causing acid.
Saliva is your natural neutraliser for combating the acid produced during eating and snacking and contains natural antibacterial properties, however, snacking constantly throughout the day on sweet foods, sipping on soft drinks and sweetened tea, coffee or hot chocolate produces a constant acidic presence that your saliva cannot neutralise completely.
The
Half Moon Dental team highly recommend that you only eat sweet foods and snack at normal meal times to limit the amount of exposure your teeth receive to sugar producing acids.
Chewing sugarless gum or snacking on sugarless lollies will increase saliva flow and reduce the amount of bacteria in your mouth. We also advise patients to rinse their mouths with water after eating if you are unable to brush your teeth.
Look as sugar as the fuel that drives the bacteria. EVERY time you eat some sugar the bacteria eat it and poo out acid –which in turn dissolves your teeth. After each time you have some sugar bacteria will produce acid for around 45minutes to an hour. This is where sugar FREQUENCY can be devastating. For example if you were to have ane cup of tea a day with TEN TEASPOONS of sugar your teeth would be fine! If you were to have 10 cups of tea a day with only one sugar in it your teeth will be destroyed quickly.
So, even small amounts of sugar frequently cause all the problems. Tic Tacs are a great example. “only 2 calories’ as the advert says, but they still cause 45-60 minutes of acid production per Tic Tac……..
Sugar is 100% natural, so packaging can be very tricky. Even 100% natural, 100% fat free products will contain sugar…..Tomato sauce for example is 30% sugar by weight. So as you can see there are many hidden sugars. Frequency is the key to successful teeth!!
