What You Eat Has an Impact on Your Teeth

Our mouths, teeth, and gums are much more than just feeding instruments. They're required for chewing and swallowing, which are the initial steps in digestion. Your mouth is the first place your body comes into touch with the nutrients you eat. So, not only does what you consume in your mouth affect your overall health, but it also affects your gums and your teeth. In fact, the earliest indicators of insufficient nutrition typically appear in the mouth.

Tooth Decay and Diet

Foods and drinks you consume can have a direct impact on the occurrence and advancement of tooth decay, based on the following factors:

• It makes a difference if the meal is liquid, solid, sticky, or sluggish to dissolve.
• How frequently you consume sugary meals and beverages, as well as how frequently you consume acidic meals and liquids.
• The food's nutritional profile.
• The mixture of meals you consume and the sequence in which they are consumed.
• You may have medical diseases that raise your risk of cavities and weaken your teeth, such as gastric reflux and eating disorders.

What Effects Snacking Has on Your Dental Health

It is suggested that people restrict their eating and drinking between meals for the sake of their oral health. Of course, eating in between meals is unavoidable.  Unfortunately, most individual snacks on items that hurt teeth by encouraging dental decay, such as sweets and chips. If you do snack, choose something beneficial for your general health and the health of your teeth, such as cheese, yogurt, fruits, vegetables, or nuts.

Foods That are Bad for your Teeth

Candies (particularly sticky or hard candies like lollipops, caramel, mints, and taffy and sweets like cookies, muffins, and cakes, and also snack foods like chips are all sources of sugar that can attach to the teeth. The bacteria inside your mouth feed on these carbohydrates and produce acids, which causes tooth decay.

Sugary beverages, such as soda, sweetened coffee or ice or hot tea, lemonade, and juices are especially damaging because they create a continual sugar wash on the teeth, promoting tooth decay.

Tomatoes and citrus fruits, which are both nutritious and acidic, can have an acidic effect on tooth enamel, so consume them as part of a meal rather than on their own. Dried fruits, such as raisins, are very nutritious, but since they are sticky and attach to the teeth, the plaque acids they form continue to destroy teeth long after you halt from eating them. Instead, eat a slice of fresh fruits.

Foods that are Good for your Teeth

Cheese, milk, calcium-fortified tofu, plain yogurt, almonds, and leafy greens are foods that have significant quantities of calcium and also other minerals that may aid tooth health. The finest sources of phosphorus are protein-rich meals including meat, poultry, eggs, fish, and milk. Both of the said minerals are important for dental health because they protect and regenerate tooth enamel.

Fruits and vegetables have been the ideal foods for having a healthy smile because they are very high in fiber and in water too, which assist to balance the sugars and clean the teeth. These meals also increase saliva production, which washes damaging acids and food particles away from the teeth and helps neutralize acid, preventing decay. In addition, several include vitamin C (essential for healthy gums and rapid wound healing) and vitamin A. (another key nutrient in building tooth enamel). Water, especially fluoridated water, is by far the most tooth-friendly beverage.