How Food Choice Affect Our Oral Health

Nutrition and Your Oral Health

Dentists have become more and more concerned with their patients consuming a record number of sugar filled foods, including sugary sodas, cookies, candies, and cakes. While we are often concerned with how these kinds of foods will affect our waistlines, dentists are concerned with what the sugars in these and many other foods can do to a person’s oral health. Many of the foods dentists are concerned about have no nutritional value and can cause major damage to the teeth.

The eating patterns and choices in food being made by children and teenagers are important to how quickly these young people will develop tooth decay. When the bacteria in the mouth comes in contact with the sugars in many of the foods this age group eats, it creates an acid that can quickly lead to tooth decay and cavities. Any food that contains sugar can be responsible for tooth decay, but there are some foods that are also part of a healthy diet and contribute nutritional value to our bodies.

Foods like some vegetables, fruit, and milk all contain sugar to some degree, but since they also provide necessary nutrients for a healthy body, the sugar they contain is often not of concern. Other foods like the ones mentioned earlier contain a large amount of sugar and very little nutritional value otherwise. Because of this, dentists and nutritionists alike encourage consumers to read the labels of the food items they are reaching for and make sure the sugar they contain is offset by other nutrients.

In addition to sugar foods causing tooth decay, lacking a balance if the necessary nutrients can also make it more difficult for the tissues in the mouth to resist infections, which can cause additional oral health problems. Lacking the right nutrients to keep the body healthy can leave the mouth more vulnerable to periodontal disease, which is one of the major causes of tooth loss in adults. While a lack of nutrients is not the direct cause of this condition, the disease has been believed to progress more quickly and severely in those patients that have nutrient-poor diets.

In order to avoid these types of problems with oral health, it is important to have a balanced diet that pulls foods from all of the major food groups and limit the number of sugary snacks and nutrition-less food that is being consumed. For those who crave foods between meals, opt for a healthier snack instead of something laced with unhealthy sugars – foods like fruit, plain yogurt, vegetables, and cheeses are a much healthier choice that will provide the body with the nutrients its needs to perform.

Your dentist can help you with developed a better oral health plan. If you don’t have insurance to consult your dentist, consider using a discount dental plan like Wellness Dental Plan. This plan can save you as much as 20 percent off your dental bills! For more information on available plans, click here.

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