Good oral health requires regular brushing, flossing, and dental checkups. However, your diet plays an equally important role in maintaining healthy teeth and gums. While many foods help support oral health, others can cause considerable damage.
What are some foods you could stop eating for better oral health? Eliminating these foods from your diet can help you have a healthier, brighter smile for long-term confidence and dental health.
The Mouth-Food Connection
First, it’s important to understand the connection between diet and oral health. Your mouth is the first stop in your digestive system, which means everything you eat comes into direct contact with your teeth and gums.
Some foods leave behind residues that feed harmful bacteria, create acidic environments, or physically damage tooth structures. Understanding these interactions can help you make smarter dietary choices for your oral health.
- Candy
Hard candies, caramels, gummies, and other sticky treats are particularly harmful because they linger in the mouth for extended periods, getting stuck on teeth [1].
Sticky candies adhere to teeth surfaces and get trapped between teeth, providing a sustained food source for bacteria that produce cavity-causing acids.
Hard candies pose the additional risk of tooth fractures if you bite down on them improperly. While candy may taste good, there’s nothing good about it for your oral health!
- Chips
Chips and other refined carbohydrate snacks like crackers and bread quickly break down into simple sugars in your mouth, causing the pH of your mouth to drop and causing harm to tooth enamel, leading to a higher risk of cavities [2].
In addition, chips, crackers, and bread also get stuck in the tiny spaces between teeth and in the deep grooves of molars. Here, the bacteria in your mouth continue to break them down, producing acids and damaging your teeth.
- Dried Fruit
While fruit is generally very healthy, dried fruit is a different matter. Dried fruit has had water removed, meaning the sugar from the fruit is more concentrated. Water also acts as a buffer between the acids your oral bacteria produce when breaking down sugar in the oral cavity and your tooth enamel.
Without its water content, fruit can be harmful to teeth. In addition, dried fruit can be very sticky, causing food particles to get trapped between teeth and increasing the risk of tooth enamel damage and cavities [3].
- Granola
Granola and granola bars can be healthy foods but are often packed with sugar. Some granolas can also be crunchy and contain nuts, leading to potential damage to teeth. Like chips, bread, and candy, granola can stick to teeth, especially in the crevices of molars, and be difficult to remove, leading to a higher potential of tooth enamel damage.
Take Action for Your Smile
Remember, dietary changes work best as part of a comprehensive oral health strategy that includes proper brushing and flossing and regular dental checkups. Ready to take your oral health to the next level? Schedule an appointment with your dentist to get personalized recommendations based on your specific oral health needs. Your healthier, brighter smile starts with the choices you make today!
Sources:
- https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content?contenttypeid=1&contentid=4062
- https://www.ada.org/resources/ada-library/oral-health-topics/nutrition-and-oral-health
- https://adanews.ada.org/huddles/top-three-worst-foods-for-your-teeth/
