1. Avoid eating these foods:
Sour candies: these specific sweets have different and more acid principles attached to them. According to Healthline.com, these acids are tougher on your teeth. “Because they are chewy, they stick to your teeth for a longer period of time, so they’re more likely to cause decay.”
Bread: there is a chemical reaction when you consume bread products. Your saliva breaks down the starch in it and turns it into sugar, which leaves a chewy and paste-like conglomeration that gets stuck in between your teeth and causes decay if not taken care of quickly or left for long periods of time.
Dried fruit: besides being a healthy-conscious snack for many, if you’ve ever had dried fruit you know that it’s sticky. Therefore, like bread and sour candies, this food can get stuck to your teeth for periods of time and cause decay or erode your tooth enamel.
The main factor when considering the health of your teeth is what the food is made of. Break it down and find foods that don’t leave behind residue long after you eat it and make sure you always rinse your mouth out after meals and snacks.
2. Avoid chewing on ice:
Ice can chip and crack your teeth. If you chew hard enough it can cause irritations and toothaches. It can also cause your teeth to lose their hardness and make them more sensitive to hot and cold tempered foods and drinks. Chewing on ice can lead to more problems down the line. It will wear down your enamel and make your teeth thinner. According to an article on WebMD, chewing on ice can cause really small and microscopic fractures in the surface of your tooth enamel, which will lead to minor and severe problems over time.
3. Using your teeth to do something besides chew
Have you ever used your teeth to open a soda bottle or tear open a wrapper? That actually damages your teeth.
Using your teeth to aid in everyday activities, outside of eating food, is harmful. It can weaken your teeth and eventually cause them to fracture and eventually chip off. No one likes the way a chipped tooth looks. If you don’t care about how your teeth feel then at least care about how they look.
4. Using a hard-bristled toothbrush
When you use a hard-bristle brush it scrapes and rubs away at the cementum of your teeth. A decrease in cementum leads to sensitive teeth. Sensitive teeth lead to pain and trauma that could have been prevented. Using a hard-bristled toothbrush also gives the opportunity for your gums to be irritated and cause a whole others slew of problems for your mouth.
5. Drinking too much soda
According to a uccifedvip.com article, drinking soda will cause your mouth to become acidic. An acidic mouth is a prime target for the sugars from the drink to harm your teeth and strip away the enamel. Without enamel, your teeth are thin and soft and cause irritations that need to be professionally fixed.
6. Eat cheese after meals
This is a strange request but upon further research, it is actually a good practice to keep. Eating cheese, any kind of cheese, at the end of a meal will not only cleanse your palate but it will neutralize the acids in your mouth that were left behind from the meal and the drinks you consumed. Neutralizing the acids will prevent sugars from attacking your tooth enamel which prevents a lot of the negative impacts that would happen if you let your mouth remain acidic.
7. Prevent tooth grinding
Ask your dentist or find out for yourself if you grind your teeth. It could be a subconscious stressor or it could be in your sleep. No one is perfect at catching themselves before they start grinding their teeth, it’s usually when they start feeling that pain or a headache come on that they realize they have been grinding their teeth.
Grinding your teeth can cause various other health problems:
- Rundown and sensitive teeth
- Disrupted sleep (temporomandibular disorder)
- Jaw stiffness
- Earaches
Not all teeth are created equal nor will they have the same problem and outcomes. Some people may have increased tooth sensitivity and others may even have tooth loss. As long as you take preventative action, you should witness minimal dental pain.
8. Drinking coffee
Coffee drinkers will roll their eyes but coffee isn’t the best thing for your mouth. It can lead to losing enamel and dry mouth. Caffeine from the coffee can also inhibit saliva and cause dry mouth. Dry mouth can cause you to have trouble, eating, drinking and even speaking. Be sure to drink a glass of water to rinse your mouth out after your morning cup(s) of coffee and then chew of stick of gum to help stimulate saliva flow.
9. Drinking wine
Red wine can discolor teeth and sink into the natural cracks of tooth enamel. There are different components of red wine. Chromogens give the red color. Acids erode your tooth enamel. Tannins aid red pigments in binding and also promote discoloring your teeth.
According to medicinenet.com, white wine has the potential to cause more enamel erosion than red wine. White wine also strips your teeth of calcium more than red wine. Wine also helps your teeth pick up the color pigments of the foods you’re about to consume.
10. Using cough drops
Cough drops have a lot of sugar in them. Sugar leads to tooth decay and the eroding of enamel. It’s easy to keep using the same cough drops as long as they help your throat. Try and look at the ingredient labels of the lozenges and go for low sugar or even sugar-free recipe to spare your teeth.
Following this list will not only keep your smile intact but it will also save you on medical bills and a world of pain later in life.