To adjust to our ever-busy lifestyles, many of us have become snackers or grazers to help tide us over in the time between our standard three meals a day. However, this can have a lasting impact on our dental health. The dentist-recommended interval for brushing your teeth is twice a day after major mealtimes to help reduce acidic damage to your teeth and to help clear away plaque build up. However, if you find yourself snacking on any kind of food throughout the day, ranging in healthiness anywhere from an apple to a more sugary snack, such as a doughnut or a can of soda, your teeth may find themselves under an abnormal amount of exposure to damaging elements than they would normally be exposed to be on a three meals a day eating cycle.
One of the easiest ways to protect your teeth from long-term sugar and acid damage is to limit the amount of snacks that you have between meals. The occasional healthy snack will not do any damage to your oral health, and can be good for your overall health in the long run. However, making sure to cut down on foods that can cause long-term stains and damages to your teeth, such as colas, or other sweet beverages and foods, can help preserve the structural integrity of your enamel, and prevent future cavities.
Monitoring the amount of acidic substances that you consume on a daily basis can have a lasting positive impact on your dental health. Everyday beverages like coffee, tea, and even some forms of fruit juice can cause an inordinate amount of strain to be placed on the enamel of your teeth. This, in turn, can cause small pockmarks to appear in the surface of the enamel, leaving a larger surface for bacteria to latch onto. This can leave you more susceptible to cavities, and lead to other issues down the road, such as tooth sensitivity.
An easy way to help reduce the amount of acid and sugar to build up on your teeth between periods of normal brushing is to chew sugar-free gum. Sugar-free gum can help remove trapped particles of food and acidic residue from the surface of your teeth. It can also help whiten your teeth, as the gum can drastically reduce surface stains over time. Making sure that the gum you pick is sugar-free is key to preventing additional sugar exposure, which in turn could have a negative impact on your dental health. Making sure to chew sugar-free gum after a midday snack, or after drinking an acidic beverage like coffee, can help prevent long-term damage to your teeth, and can work to prevent any stains that might accrue due to these substances. Bear in mind, sugar-free gum is not a substitute for twice-daily brushings and regular dental cleaning visits, as they will not remove long-term build-up, but will merely act as a preventative measure to help preserve your teeth.
In your busy day-to-day life, it can be hard to find time to sit down for a full meal between activities. However, don’t let your dental health get caught in the lurch! Making sure to take good care of your teeth can save you time and money in the long run, and is sure to leave a smile on your face.
Schedule a visit with Crossland Dental Associates in Mt. Pleasant today, so that we can help keep you smiling!
