4 Easy Steps to Improve Your Oral Health

Everything you eat and drink impacts directly on your oral health. Tooth decay that turns into nasty pain and infection is caused by acids that bacteria produce when they take up the sugars that are in the foods you eat.

The good news is you can turn it around fast with these four easy steps:

1. Drink plenty of water

Most municipal sources of water in Australia are treated with fluoride. Fluoride is one of the easiest and most beneficial ways to help prevent tooth decay. Regularly sipping tap water throughout the day will help improve your saliva quality – one of the best ways for fluoride to operate on the tooth surface to prevent the demineralisation of tooth enamel. The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention lists water fluoridation as one of the ten great public health achievements of the 20th century. Best of all, fluoride is freely available almost everywhere and contains no calories!

2. Limiting snacks between meals

One of the best ways you can improve your oral health is ensuring you have quality saliva flow. Good saliva quality has the ability to neutralise the acids that cause tooth decay. However, poor hydration and frequent snacking can undo your saliva’s good work! When you eat a meal you produce a lot of saliva to break those foods down, however spacing your food over many little snacks throughout the day doesn’t allow your saliva a chance to build up and produce at its best. Try to limit your snacking between meals, especially sugary snacks and make sure you are drinking water after eating.

3. Watch what you eat

We all know that sugars are bad for your teeth and we try to avoid high sugar foods like lollies and soft drinks. However, there are many foods with hidden sugars of which we may not be aware. Low-fat yoghurts, muesli bars, potato chips, fruit juice and even dried fruits all contain high levels of sugar. If you find yourself eating these foods, ensure you drink plenty of water after to wash the sugar off your tooth surfaces so they don’t have a chance to attack your tooth enamel!

4. Chewing Gum- (sugar free!)

Did you know that chewing sugar free gum helps produce saliva in your mouth and in turn helps neutralise acids produced by the foods we eat? Even chewing gum for as little as 20 minutes after eating can go a long way to help protect your teeth from tooth decay.

To find out more, chat with your friendly team at Parklands Dental today.