The foods you eat can actually have a big impact on how your mouth looks and feels. Our mouths convert sugar into acid, which then attacks our tooth enamel and this can lead to mean old tooth decay. Whenever we eat, we expose our teeth to the possibility of decay, but of course we need to eat to fuel our bodies! There are some delicious foods that are good for your teeth, so you can still enjoy your grub without compromising your teeth.
Tooth-friendly treats
Calcium is a big enamel-protector and you can find it in meats (especially chicken), cheese, milk and nuts. Crisp fruits and vegetables like apples and carrots are good for your teeth because they’re full of water, so their natural sugars aren’t as harmful. These crunchy delights also help your mouth to produce saliva, which helps to keep tooth decay at bay by washing cheeky bits of food debris from your teeth. Acidic citrus fruits are good for you, but make sure you eat them as part of a meal with other healthy foods, because their high acid content can be harmful to your teeth.
Drinks-wise, milk and water are your teeth’s best friends.
Enamel enemies
And now for the baddies. Hard sweets like lollipops and other sugary sinners like cakes and biscuits are not so good for our teeth. As well as being packed with sugar, these foods can be sticky and make a good breeding ground for bad bacteria. Be careful with cough sweets too!
When it comes to drinks, try and avoid sugary, fizzy drinks, coffee and sweetened tea. Sipping sugary drinks throughout the day is a recipe for disaster because that will just expose your teeth to potential damage all day long. Coffee and red wine can stain your teeth, so you might want to watch out there too.
In the city of Leeds, you’ll no doubt be in-undated with reminders of how you should look after your teeth, what products to buy, and once you’ve had all that thrown at you, you’ll no doubt have your dentist on your back telling you how to care for your mouth. The more flippant amongst us can, especially when we are young, can write that off as nothing to ‘worry about right now’. But dentistry is not just about the mouth, it’s about the body too and both work in unison. The aim of a doctor and a dentist is to keep you healthy, alive and try to guide you into a healthy lifestyle, though it’s important to understand that by looking after your mouth can lead to a healthy body. When you look at it, the body functions at its best when everything is working well, however, put a spanner in any part of these delicate works, and you are putting a strain on the rest of the system- and that goes for the mouth too. Looking after your teeth and gums with a regular daily program of oral hygiene will stop any chance of gum disease arising: this is one of the major contributors to organ failure occurring in the body; let alone the damage it can do psychologically when your teeth start to disappear from your mouth. Your body should be seen as a temple and what you put in your mouth and the way you look after it can be the difference between you having a healthy life or a troubled one.
