How to Reverse Tooth Decay and Dental Caries with Diet?

Many times we take all the preventive measures for our dental health, still feel the pain and need to go to Dentist.

Do you or your kids brush and floss your mouth regularly and still get dental caries? or Is your child using braces or has signs of tooth decay?

What is Dental Caries?

Dental caries is a diet related disease. To be more simpler, Dental caries is like tug of war between Tooth (Host) and bacteria (Guest, but not desirable). Bacteria uses the food we eat to multiply and grow and try to win the match by making tooth carious. So, the diet you take and the beverages you drink can have a direct influence on the incidence and progression of tooth decay.

Tips for Baby Bottle Caries

Whether it’s liquid, solid, sticky or slow to dissolve makes a difference. Solid and sticky food  have lower oral clearance are worst food to have. Gluey nature of food can increase the availability of food on teeth.

The amount of sugar you eat acts as substrate for bacterias to multiple and grow, so cutting back on your sugars can actually make bacterias to starve.

Beyond Tooth Decay-Importance of Good Oral Hygiene

Highly acidogenic snack foods should be consumed at mealtimes to reduce the risk, and between-meal snacks should be either nonacidogenic (such as xylitol products) or hypoacidogenic (such as sorbitol and HSH products).

How often you eat sugary foods and beverages, and how often you eat or drink acidic foods and beverages determines caries risk. Frequent consumption of fermentable carbohydrates that have low oral clearance rates increases the risk for caries.

Frequent snacking can actually make pH of saliva to drop intermittently for longer duration and can make teeth prone to caries. So, if you feel hungry after short duration of time, choose something that is healthy like fruit or vegetables or a piece of cheese.

How much sugar is too much to much?

Eliminating sugary beverages from our diets would be best, but reducing the number of sugary beverages you consume and substituting healthier options with less sugar is already a step in the right direction.

In 2002, the World Health Organization (WHO) provided guidelines on restricting the consumption of sugar to less than 10% of energy intake. In 2015, WHO presented new guidelines to reduce the intake of free sugars throughout life.

Nutritional makeup of the Food

Empty calories with no other nutritional benefits are harmful for body and for teeth as well. Follow a balanced diet which should include food from each of the five major food groups, including:

• Whole grains or cereals
• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Lean sources of protein such as lean beef, skinless poultry and fish; dry beans, peas and other legumes
• Low-fat and fat-free dairy foods. Milk, cheese and yogurt contain minerals such as calcium, casein and phosphorus that help protect tooth enamel.