6 Foods to Avoid to Keep Your Dental Health in Shape

February 21, 2023

They say you are what you eat, and there’s no place to represent that statement besides your mouth. The unhealthier your food and eating habits are, your dental health will be worse. Many foods can cause plaque buildup, which spells disaster for your teeth.

Luckily, there are a lot of things that we can do to make our dental health much stronger other than regular brushing, flossing, and frequent visits to the dentist. Another thing we can do, however, is to choose our food items carefully.

As much as we like to eat, we must avoid certain food items if we want our dental health to be in shape. But what foods should we avoid? Here are some of them.

Sour Candies

As kids, we were often told not to eat a lot of candies because they’re bad for our teeth. And unsurprisingly, it’s the truth, especially with sour candies. Sour candies contain many more harmful acids than regular candies, and since they’re mostly chewable, they stick longer on our teeth, increasing their chances of causing plaque buildup, which can slowly erode our teeth.

If you crave sweets that much, opt for alternatives like a bar of chocolate. Don’t get us wrong, chocolate can also destroy your teeth, but at least they’re easier to wash away.

Hard Candies

You’re not out of the woods yet. After reading the previous paragraph, you might think that hard candies are better than chewable ones. That’s just plain wrong. They’re the same kind of harmful to your dental health as well.

Sure, they don’t cling to your teeth as chewable candies can, but they can dissolve slowly and saturate your mouth for quite a while, giving more time for bacteria to produce more acid to erode your teeth.

Not only that, constantly biting down on hard candy can eventually chip away your teeth, which no amount of brushing and flossing will repair. You can technically say that hard candies are much worse than chewable ones. You have been warned. However, if you’re only taking medicine that tastes like candy from BuzzRx, then that’s fine.

Soda

One of our pleasures in life is to drink soda after a very delicious meal. While it’s not wrong to do that, too much soda can cause dental health problems. The sugar in soda sits on your teeth for quite a while, which can lead to the erosion of your enamel. It’s not just the sugar. Soda also contains byproducts that can cause plaque buildup, which erodes your enamel, leading to teeth problems.

Finally, the more soda you drink, the more these substances stick to your teeth, which can cause more problems.

Citrus Fruits and Juices

You might think that citrus fruits and juices are a better alternative for your health, and it’s true. Fruit juices are much healthier by centimeters compared to soda. However, for your dental health, they are all the same.

You can say that fruit juices can be much worse than soda, especially when talking about citrus fruit. Why? Did you know that citrus is the number one cause of tooth decay and enamel erosion?

Pickles

You might be surprised how pickles can be on this list since they’re made from vegetables. We are saying that cucumbers are bad for your dental health? No. You see, in order for pickles to be made, they need a lot of acids, which they get from vinegar.

It gives pickles that sour and salty taste that we all love. However, experts stated that regular vinegar or its related byproducts could harm your dental health, especially your teeth, because they cause enamel erosion. Luckily, not everyone is fond of pickles, and snacking on them now and then wouldn’t affect your dental health that much.

Coffee

Ahh, coffee is the one thing that keeps us going even through rough mornings. As much as how it helps us stay awake, they cause dental problems for everyone. The number one effect of coffee is that it leaves coffee stains on your teeth. Of course, with those coffee stains, bacteria can build up, producing acids that can cause enamel erosion.

Not only that, since many of us can’t drink black coffee, we usually put sugar and other creamers on our coffee to make it more delicious. However, doing this can cause problems. This is because the more you add sugar and creamers, the faster the bacteria will build up on your teeth, leading to a much worse scenario. Not only that, but coffee can also cause bad breath since it sticks to your tongue for a while.

Final Words

One of the greatest beauties in a person is their teeth. Our pearly whites are the attraction when we smile, after all. When our dental health is in jeopardy, there may come a time when smiling can cause insecurity. If you want to keep smiling, brush and floss your teeth regularly, and avoid the food items we discussed above.

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