A Bath dentist explains what foods to avoid for good dental health
Food is the fuel we need to keep our bodies working and we all have our favourites, but do we know which ones are good for our teeth. A Bath dentist has advised patients that although certain foods may be good for us, they are harmful to our teeth, on the top of the list are sugar and acid based foods and that doesn’t just mean sweets, chocolate and candy products. Literally any food that is hard to chew is not good for your teeth or gums, these foods will cause an abrasion on the gums and also at the same time scratch off the enamel that protects the surface of a tooth. Ice is a no-no and should be avoided like the plague, especially if you wear braces. Fruit is good for us and we are advised to eat five a day as apart of our diet, this will also help to keep our gums and teeth healthy through the vitamins they naturally have within them. However, fruit contains acid and it is this acid that harms our teeth. We therefore have to take counter action to avoid this rather than avoiding the fruit itself, and washing our mouths with water afterwards will go a long way to neutralising that acid. A swishing motion is needed to do this, think of it as a mouth wash, and indeed use a mouth wash after eating fruit especially citrus types and apples. Lots of so called healthy bars are also a no-no as they use sugar based chewy substances to hold the bars together. The food content may seem appealing and healthy with lots of natural seeds and nuts, but take a look at the labels to see what else they contain. It isn’t just a case of certain foods being good for our bodies; we need to be careful what they contain as our mouths are also part of our body.Tags: gums, teeth, tooth enamel