10 Foods That Can Impact Your Oral Health

We know the drill when it comes to avoiding the dentist’s high-pitched drill: Brush and floss twice a day, and seek regular care and check-ups. But our overall dental health can often feel like it's just a matter of fate and mostly out of our hands. The thing is though, that our dental health isn't actually as out of our control as we might think. This is primarily because we might not know just how much our diet actually impacts our oral health. 

5 Foods That Can Harm Your Oral Health

As children, we may have learned to view candy as bad for our teeth. But not all forms of candy are equally evil. Moreover, candy isn’t the only oral health villain. Let’s take a look at 5 foods that may harm our teeth:

1. Gummy and Sticky Candy: From those gummy worms that kids love to sticky toffee, candy that ends up between our teeth gets an “avoid” alert from dentists. These treats get the “worst candy” award for giving bacteria that cause cavities time to flourish. 
2. Hard Candy: Lollipops and other hard candies are double the trouble. First, we tend to suck on these treats for long periods, bathing our teeth in sugar. Second, if we bite into one of these candies, we may break or chip a tooth. 
3. Dried Fruit: We might assume that all types of fruit benefit our body and oral health. But dried fruits, such as raisins, are actually bad for our teeth. Just like eating sticky candy, dried fruit tends to linger on our teeth and comes with concentrated sugar doses that are a definite no-no for good teeth.
4. Starchy Foods: Potato chips, bread, and other high-starch foods may seem like fine oral health choices because they are low in sugar. But when we chew starchy foods, our saliva transforms the starch into sugar. The result? A sticky substance that may result in cavities.
5. Alcohol: Beverages containing alcohol may result in a dry mouth, dehydration, and reduced saliva. In turn, that reduction may cause oral health problems like gum disease and tooth decay.

So let's ditch these and look to snack on foods that actually benefit our oral health.

5 Foods That Can Benefit Oral Health

Not every food is bad for our oral health. In fact, some can actually improve it. Here are 5 delicious foods that provide a positive impact on your oral health: 

1. Water: Water wins for the best dental health beverage. Heck, it wins for the best beverage overall in almost every case. Sipping water can act as a rinse to remove leftover food, help with saliva flow, and, if it contains fluoride, may prevent cavities.
2. Fresh Fruit: Whether you love to crunch a crisp apple or bite into a juicy orange, fresh fruit provides fiber. Chewing on fiber-rich fruits stimulates our gums, increases saliva, and helps clean our teeth.
3. Carrots and Celery: These vegetables provide our bodies with beta carotene, an essential nutrient for creating vitamin A. Munching raw vegetables, such as carrots and celery, benefits saliva flow and healthy gums. 
4. Cheese: Creamy grass-fed cheese, along with other dairy products like milk and yogurt, provide the body with vitamin K2 and calcium. Those nutrients are essential for oral health, turning dairy into an oral health green light. 

A little greek yogurt on some celery? Yes, please! So these are ways we can take control of our snacking to help combat cavities. And of course, good oral care doesn't stop there so let's make sure we take a second to review the basics while we have you here and we're all thinking about it.

General Oral Care Tips

Along with choosing foods that benefit our oral health, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends these tips to minimize the risk of cavities:

• Brush using a toothpaste containing fluoride at least two times each day.
• Use dental floss each day to clean between your teeth.
• Limit snacks.
• Talk with your dentist about specific recommendations for check-ups and professional cleaning.

By following the CDC’s tips for good oral health and eating tooth-friendly foods, we can give ourselves a new reason to say cheese and smile (just don’t forget to eat the cheese too!). 

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