While brushing and flossing are key to maintaining good oral health, the food you eat plays a significant role in keeping your smile healthy. Here, we at Smile Town North Delta propose 5 ideas for making your dinners more oral health-friendly.
Include Oral Health-Friendly Foods
When it comes to oral health-friendly food, avoiding processed sugar should only be the beginning of your consideration.
There are countless delicious foods which encourage healthy teeth just as much as they avoid damaging teeth.
Dairy products strengthen your teeth with calcium and wash away bacteria by promoting salivation. Garlic has strong anti-microbial properties which can fight bacteria in your mouth. And fatty fish like salmon contains phosphorus, which helps maintain your teeth's enamel.
Worth changing things up a bit at the dinner table for? We think so!
Finish With Salad
Raw vegetables are excellent for your oral health. Leafy greens like kale, spinach, or lettuce are often high in Vitamin C and other oral health-friendly nutrients. Carrots and celery clean your teeth as you eat them as well.
But what you eat isn't the only thing that matters, the order you eat it in can also help promote oral health at dinner.
Eating foods that clean your teeth and promote salivation like raw vegetables is most effective at cleaning your mouth after you've eaten the rest of your meal.
So, next dinnertime, consider saving the salad until last. Your mouth will thank you.
Avoid Sticky Deserts
When it comes to dessert, natural sugars are better than processed sugars. Oranges, apples, and pears can all be sweet treats and eaten either raw or prepared in all sorts of exciting ways.
If you are going to have a sweet treat with processed sugars, it is better to avoid ones that remain in your mouth for a long time like hard candies.
You should always have some water alongside it to help wash the sugars out of your mouth too.
Drink Water With Your Meal
Soda is a major culprit in encouraging tooth decay. If your family often has soda during or around dinner-time, consider replacing it with water.
Not only will your teeth thank you for the reduced sugar and acidity, but water is excellent at washing away food bits and bacteria which build up in your mouth as your eat.
If your water is fluoridated, drinking water with dinner will also help prevent tooth decay and strengthen your teeth beyond washing out your mouth.
A Little Cup Of Tea Goes A Long Way
If you and your family are the kind of people to have tea or coffee after dinner, your teeth might be thanking you!
Not only do coffee and tea help to washout your mouth as non-sugary drinks, they contain polyphenols which can help reduce inflammation in your mouth.