Brushing and flossing are super important for your oral health. But your diet may play more of a part in it than you even realize. Certain foods are great for your teeth, but others are very detrimental to your oral health. Try to avoid the following to keep your smile in its best health.
Hard Candy
Chewy candy is usually what people are warned about when it comes to your teeth. But hard candy isn’t a better solution for your sweet tooth. Hard candy releases sugar into your mouth over a long period of time. Harmful bacteria feed on this sugar and emit an acidic byproduct that causes tooth decay. The longer the candy is there, the more sugar that’s released.
Chewing your hard candy doesn’t help, though. If you’re biting down on the candy before it’s broken down enough, you risk a dental emergency. Hard candy can chip or crack your tooth. Even when the hard candy is dissolved more, chewing it keeps the hard candy stuck in the nooks and crannies of your mouth. It takes longer for hard candy to completely dissolve in these areas.
Dried Fruit
Fresh fruit is one of the best things you can eat for your oral health. But the dried variety should be avoided. During the dehydration process, the fruit becomes more concentrated with sugar. It also loses a lot of the nutrients that make fruit such a good snack option.
The consistency of dried fruit is a problem as well. It’s chewy and sticky, easily stuck in the crevices of your teeth. When you combine the higher sugar of dried fruit with this consistency, it makes dried fruit almost as bad for your teeth as chewy candy.
Coffee and Tea
Coffee and tea alone aren’t too bad for your teeth. They’re both dark beverages, so they will cause staining over time. But usually, people don’t drink coffee and tea plain. At a minimum, you put sugar in your drink. But over the top Starbucks drinks you get are packed with sugar and syrups. They’re extremely bad for your teeth and are a magnet for tooth decay.
Chips and Crackers
Because they’re salty, you might not think of these snacks as things that can cause tooth decay. But when you’re chewing these and they’re breaking down, they break down into sugar. Both of them are starches, which break down into sugars as they are chewed and digested.
Chip fragments break off and are easily stuck in between your teeth. When you’re chewing up crackers, they form a thick paste. The paste lays in the crevices of your teeth and can be hard to get out. When you’re eating these snacks, rinse your mouth out with water after you’re done.
Schedule a checkup at your Frederick, MD, dental office. Make sure your diet isn’t wreaking havoc on your smile. Call us to schedule an appointment today.