Nutrition: What You Eat Affects Your Teeth

Below is an excerpt from an article found on MouthHealthy.org

Your mouth, teeth, and gums are more than just tools for eating. They’re essential for chewing and swallowing-the first steps in the digestion process. Your mouth is your body’s initial point of contact with the nutrients you consume. So what you put in your mouth impacts not only your general health but also that of your teeth and gums. In fact, if your nutrition is poor, the first signs often show up in your mouth. Here are a few helpful things to know about how what you eat can impact your dental health.

Diet and Tooth Decay
The foods you eat and the beverages you drink can have a direct influence on the incidence and progression of tooth decay, depending upon: 

• The form of the food-whether it’s liquid, solid, sticky or slow to dissolve makes a difference. 
• How often you eat sugary foods and beverages and how often you eat or drink acidic foods and beverages. 
• The nutritional makeup of the food. 
• The combination of the foods you eat and the order in which you eat them. 
• Medical conditions you may have, such as gastrointestinal reflux and eating disorders, which can increase risk of cavities and weaken teeth.

How Snacking Affects Your Dental Health
For dental health, it’s recommended that people limit eating and drinking between meals. Of course, sometimes eating between meals must happen. Unfortunately, most people choose foods like sweets and chips for snacks; foods that harm teeth by promoting tooth decay. If you do snack, make it a nutritious choice-such as cheese, yogurt, fruits, vegetables or nuts-for your overall health and the health of your teeth. Did you know that certain foods can put you at risk for cavities and other dental health problems? Here are some MouthHealthy tips.

To read the entire article visit MouthHealthy.org.

The remainder of the article details the following:

• Recommended Nutritional Guidelines
• Foods That Harm Your Dental Health
• Sugar and Your Dental Health
• How Sugar Substitutes Affect Your Teeth
• 4 Ways to Reduce Your Risk of Cavities

Coloman E. Kondorossy, DMD, FAGD, DICOI   
Stephen K. Kondorossy, DMD, MBS  
General Dentists  
1445 Hamilton Street  
Somerset, NJ 08873   
(732) 249-0055   
SomersetImplantDental.com

6 Ways to Reduce Your Child's Sugary Snacking (Part 2 of 3)

Skip the Soda
Call it soda, call it pop. But sugary, carbonated beverages by any name are bad news for your child’s teeth. “One can of soda is the amount of sugar recommended for three days for a child,” Dr. Hayes says.

In fact, a February 2016 study in the Journal of the American Dental Association found a strong association between sugary drinks and poor dental health in teenagers. Researchers asked teens 14-19 in Mexico about how many sugary beverages they drank, then examined their teeth. They found 31.7% had tooth erosion, which means their enamel had been eaten away. The main culprit? Soda. 

Be Picky About Sticky Snacks
If you’ve been under the impression that gummy or sticky fruit snacks are healthy alternatives, you’re not alone. Many parents are surprised to learn they are really closer to candy than fruit, especially when it comes to sugar. “Fruit rollups and other dried fruit snacks are like nature’s candy,” Dr. Shenkin says. “It is like candy, but in some respect it’s worse than candy because it sticks to teeth longer than things like milk chocolate, which is easier to wash away.”

Foods like raisins, which are often promoted as an all-natural snack option, can be troublesome. “The raisin is one of the worst foods because they’re so sticky and they actually adhere to teeth and stay there for an extended amount of time,” he says. “The sugar in that food is being consumed by the bacteria in our mouth during that time.”

To read the entire article visit MouthHealthy.org.

Coloman E. Kondorossy, DMD, FAGD, DICOI   
Stephen K. Kondorossy, DMD, MBS  
General Dentists  
1445 Hamilton Street  
Somerset, NJ 08873   
(732) 249-0055   
SomersetImplantDental.com