Three Nutrition Tips for a Happier, Healthier Smile

You’ve been following the directions of your dentist in Philadelphia, brushing and flossing every day. You keep up with your routine dental check-ups and cleanings.

Still, your smile isn’t quite as healthy as it could be. What could be going wrong?

You might be surprised to find that your diet is the culprit. What you eat—and even when you eat it—has a massive impact on your dental health. When you choose foods that include vitamins and minerals necessary for building strong, healthy bones (and remember, teeth are bones!), you protect your teeth from cavities and even breakage. Eating antioxidant-filled fruits and vegetables helps boost your immune system so you can fight back against the bacteria that lead to painful and damaging gum disease. Drinking plenty of water keeps your mouth hydrated, which protects your enamel and soft tissues.

Of course, making those changes is often easier said than done. We understand how busy our patients are and how difficult it sometimes is to make big changes to daily dietary habits.

These tips will help you make incremental changes to your habits that you can build on to create a foundation for better dental health.

1. Replace one snack a day with a fresh fruit or vegetable. 

Frequent snacking throughout the day can lead to more cavities as well as increase your risk for gum disease.

This happens because each time you eat, you start the process of plaque formation on your enamel. Plaque is a sticky mixture of saliva, sugar from the food you eat, bacteria, and acid made by the bacteria as they metabolize the sugar. This acid is extremely destructive to your dental enamel, eroding it over time and creating the pits we know as cavities.

This is part of the reason why we emphasize brushing your teeth before you go to bed. Many people enjoy a snack after dinner, but if you go to bed without brushing your teeth, that plaque and acid can sit on your teeth all night while you sleep, doing a great deal of damage.

Limiting your snacking to one or two snacks a day rather than munching throughout the day helps minimize how frequently this process occurs and protects your teeth. 

For even better results, replace one of those snacks with fresh fruit or a raw crunchy vegetable. In addition to being nutritional powerhouses, packed with the vitamins and minerals your teeth need to stay strong and healthy, fresh fruits and vegetables are primarily made up of fiber and water, which help to remove plaque buildup from your teeth and reduce acid.

2. The next time you go shopping, try a food that’s high in vitamins and minerals known to strengthen teeth and boost your immune system.

Like the rest of your skeleton, your teeth need certain vitamins and minerals to form and rebuild enamel and protect against breakage. A strong immune system helps ward off bacterial infections—including gingivitis.

Including these foods in your diet will help provide your teeth and gums with the right nutrients for great oral health: 

1. Dairy—Milk, cheese, yogurt, and other dairy products include calcium and vitamin D, to strengthen and rebuild bone structure
2. Seafood—Fatty fish and other types of seafood contain a multitude of nutrients for good bone health, including phosphate, magnesium, selenium, zinc, vitamin A, and vitamin D. Getting more seafood in your diet is one of the best things you can do for your dental health!
3. Yellow and orange vegetables—Produce with a yellow or orange color contains a high amount of vitamin A, which improves the health of your mucus membranes. The yellow comes from beta carotene, a nutrient your body metabolizes into vitamin A.
4. Green leafy vegetables—Leafy vegetables such as spinach, kale, and collards are high in immune-system-boosting vitamin C as well as calcium, vitamin A, and vitamin K

Another vital nutrient for good dental health is fluoride. Fluoride is essential for strong enamel—in fact, fluoride is even able to reverse cavities. While fluoride does occur naturally in some foods, such as seafood, spinach, potatoes, grapes, and watermelon, the best source is actually fluoridated tap water.

3. Swap soda and sugary drinks for water, preferably tap water if possible. 

Sipping on a sugary drink like juice or soda throughout the day is one of the worst things you can do to your teeth. Just like frequent snacking, drinking sugary beverages promotes plaque development, leading to a more acidic mouth environment and cavities.

Switch out sugary drinks for water (this will also make a big difference in your daily caloric intake). Water helps to rinse away plaque and reduce acid to protect your enamel. Plus, your mucus membranes get a bath, which helps them stay hydrated and reduces your risk of gum disease.