Your body is like a complex machine. The foods you choose as fuel and how often you “fill up” affect your general health and that of your teeth and gums. Many dentists are concerned that their patients are consuming record numbers of sugar-filled sodas, sweetened fruit drinks, and non-nutritious snacks that affect their teeth. These items generally have little if any nutritional value and over time they can take a toll on teeth.

Food choices and dietary patterns - along with many other factors - influence dental health. The development of dental caries (tooth decay) involves the interaction of saliva, oral bacteria, fermentable carbohydrates, and the tooth. Each plays an important role in the process.

Many of the foods we eat, including some of the most valuable foods from the standpoint of human nutrition, provide nourishment for the bacteria in the mouth. These bacteria act on the sugar in the diet and secrete acids, that can erode enamel, and lead to cavities. We feed the bacteria in our mouth everytime we eat carbohydrates.

These come in two types:

1. Sugars

2. Cooked starch - like bread and biscuits, which are broken down to sugars by an enzyme in the saliva. The bacteria in the mouth then treat them as though you had eaten plain sugar. Sweets like cake and candy are not much worse for your teeth than bread, biscuits, potato chips, fruit salad, and a glass of milk.

To the bacteria in your mouth, sugar is sugar, no matter what package it comes in. So candy is as bad as, or as good as, apples for the teeth.

Researches show that some candy is potentially less destructive to the teeth than bread, biscuits and some fruits (apples, bananas) which were previously considered safe or even protective against cavities, may actually promote tooth decay.

Two important factors affecting tooth decay are:

How often you eat: The mouth normally contains a wide variety of bacteria. These bacteria take advantage of food whenever it is available. So they become active whether you eat a full meal or just a small snack, and they remain active - producing acids that can cause cavities - for about 30 minutes after you eat. This is how frequent eating contributes to tooth decay, and can be easily modified by exerting a bit of self-control.

How long a particular food stays in the mouth after you eat it: The most commonly thought of sticky foods are chocolates. The chocolate is mostly sugar that dissolves in saliva and is cleared from the mouth fairly quickly. However, foods like biscuits and potato chips stay longer in the mouth than chocolates. This is because these do not dissolve in saliva and clear the mouth until they have been broken down into simpler sugars by the enzymes in the saliva. This process is likely to take hours, and in the meantime, the bacteria have a feast and secrete acids, which destroy the enamel of your teeth.

About Products and Effect on Dental Health

Milk is an excellent source of calcium and children need milk daily as long as they are growing. It definitely helps during the stage when teeth are being formed. But once the teeth are fully formed, calcium intake ceases to have much effect. Hence, milk is harmful if retained in the mouth for long periods, and it does not help in preventing tooth decay.

Snacks like bread, biscuits and potato chips are harmful if not brushed-off soon after eating.

Cheese can be considered to be an anti-cavity food. It stimulates flow of saliva, which may help to repair early cavity formation. This food item has universal appeal. You may serve cheese as a snack, or at the end of a meal.

Like most sugars, chocolates play a role in tooth decay. But they have been unfairly singled out as a major cause of cavities. All foods containing sugar or cooked starch have the potential to promote tooth decay. Thus, chocolate is no more harmful than a snack of potato chips or an areated drink.

Areated drinks are acidic in nature. They have the capacity to destroy the enamel of the tooth. We see a lot of youngsters having extensive decay caused by excessive consumption of areated drinks.

Fruits and vegetables are natural cleansers of the biting surfaces of the teeth, due to the high fibre content in them. However, most of them also contain sugar and they do not get cleared from the mouth very fast.

As long as children are not eating all day long and are brushing properly with a fluoride toothpaste, we can stop nagging them about snack selection.

For those of us who are now using a fluoride toothpaste, even the issue of frequency of eating has become less significant than it was in the past. Concepts concerning diet and cavities have changed dramatically. Today there is decreasing emphasis on dietary counselling as the most effective strategy to prevent cavities in children. The traditional advice to avoid sticky sweets and between-meal snacks is being relaxed for most cavity-free children who are exposed to fluoride and comprehensive dental care. Many children need snacks daily to help meet their nutritional needs, and parents should choose and offer snack-foods accordingly.

Dietary Patterns

The frequency of meals and snacks and the way foods are combined within meals and snacks greatly influence the risk for developing dental caries. Frequent eating occasions promote caries development, especially if they involve constant nibbling or sipping of foods and beverages that are sources of fermentable carbohydrates. A frequent intake of cariogenic food between meals, as opposed to with meals, also increases the risk for caries. When cariogenic foods are consumed with a meal, the protein and fat in the meal can help prevent caries development.

Here are five dietary messages that promote both good oral health and general health.

• Eat a balanced diet representing moderation and variety as depicted by the Food Guide Pyramid and the U.S. Dietary Guidelines.

• Combine and sequence foods to promote saliva production and oral clearance. For example, combine sweet or starchy foods with protein rich foods.

• Plan eating occasions that allow time for the plaque pH to increase after exposure to fermentable carbohydrate. Chewing sugarless gum after meals and snacks can help.

• Consume sweetened and acidic beverages with meals and snacks that contain other foods that can buffer their cariogenic and acidogenic effects.

• When trying to reduce an excessive dietary intake of fermentable carbohydrates, identify food choices and meal patterns that sustain energy requirements, provide nutrient density, and promote oral and general health.