The state of your teeth depends on regular visits to your Houston dentist, good dental hygiene practices, and your diet. Everyone knows that some foods could be detrimental to their overall oral health, but they may not know what these foods are. The following will help you understand what you should be eating and what foods you should limit.
Tooth-Friendly Foods
There are many foods that you should include in your diet if you want to improve your oral health. It does not matter if you stay on top of your oral health because every little bit helps.
Consider adding some of the following:
Cheese
You might have heard that expression, ‘Say Cheese!’ when someone was taking your picture and wanted you to smile. Well, there may be an important reason why cheese is associated with a smile. Your Houston dentist would recommend cheese because it is considered one of the best foods for your oral health.
Cheese contains all sorts of ingredients that help fortify your oral health; for example, it contains calcium. This mineral makes up most of your teeth and bones. The strength of your teeth and jawbones depends on how much calcium you consume. Cheese, especially naturally aged cheese, contains vitamin K2. This vitamin is quite rare and helps your body pinpoint calcium-deficient areas, which helps ensure oral weaknesses are addressed quickly.
Raisins
Another little food that you might want to add to your diet is raisins. Raisins are great in breads, cookies, yogurts, or just on their own, and they also help kill oral pathogens. Yes, it seems that raisins contain active compounds that reduce the bacteria that could lead to issues like cavities or gum disease.
An additional benefit of raisins is they are sweet enough to replace artificial sweeteners; these fake sweeteners are bad for your teeth. Artificial sweeteners are like superfood to bacteria, which will only allow them to flourish, and you do not want that.
Vitamin Rich
Your body and your teeth need foods rich in vitamins and minerals. You already know what calcium and the other ingredients mentioned earlier can do, but there are many others. For example, potassium helps improve your saliva’s ability to kill bacteria.
The active compounds in foods like eggs, fish, lettuce, and almonds help repair micro defects in your teeth that bacteria can use to cause harm.
Tooth-Harming Foods
You want to stay away from the following as much as possible:
Cold Ice
Chewing on ice is something you do not want to do. Yes, it can feel good or help you relax, but the fact is that the cube is too hard and could crack or chip your teeth. Even if that does not happen, your tooth’s enamel is also hurting as you bite on your ice cube.
Citrus Splash
Citrus fruits are good for your health. The vitamin C makes these fruits perfect, but the problem is fruits like lemons and limes can cause some dental damage. This could include things like tooth decay or dental erosion.
Try to limit the amount of acidic fruits you consume, or make sure you eat something with a pH value that could neutralize the acidity quickly like positive pH value water.
Sticky Foods
These types of foods may have vitamins and minerals, but they are also hard to remove from your teeth. This means you could end up failing to remove some food particles, which can lead to infection or tooth decay in the long run. A few foods to limit are taffy, carmel, and BBQ sauce.
This is why it is important to rinse your mouth out after eating something sticky, and be sure to brush and floss just in case.
Hopefully, this guide helps you figure out which foods to eat and which foods to limit. Of course, you can always ask the dentists at Sinada Dental for additional help to improve your chances of success.
