Some everyday foods and drinks that will help to maintain your teeth and gums in tip top shape.

As great believers in holistic dental care in Epsom, we naturally want our patients to take responsibility for the health of their teeth, supported of course, by professional monitoring by one of our friendly dentists.

As a part of this care, we thought it would be useful to take a look at some food and drinks which are actually beneficial for your teeth and gums.

As you would expect, a healthy diet, low in sugars and full of useful nutrition is good, not only for supplying essential minerals such as calcium, but for your overall health too. Whilst avoiding the more esoteric foods sometimes favoured by some, today’s list looks at foods that are widely available and could be useful for your teeth and gums.

Water

Yes, we all drink water, but most of us do not drink enough of it. Staying well hydrated helps to keep the bacteria in our mouths under control. Drinking water will also help to wash away food particles that become stuck between the teeth. Doing this with a high sugar drink simply replaces the food with sticky sugar leaving things no better, and potentially worse, than before – so reserve those for treats or preferably not at all.

Leafy greens

Whilst perhaps not high on a lots of people’s favourite foods, leafy greens are very high in vitamins and minerals. They are also high in calcium which is important to help preserve healthy protective enamel and help protect against decay.

Carrots

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Food does not have to be boring whilst your implant heals!

If you have recently had dental implant surgery at The Clock Tower Clinic in Epsom, you will have been told that you must eat soft foods for a period of time to avoid damaging the implant whilst it integrates with the bone.

There is also the matter of looking after the area of surgery which may be a little sore and tender for a short while. It therefore makes sense to be careful what you eat during the healing period.

On the surface of it, a diet of soft foods, even for a short time, may seem a little boring, but it doesn’t have to be this way. In today’s blog, we look at some aspects of eating and food selection in the period following your implant placement.

What NOT to eat

Before we take a look at some of the foods that you can eat following your surgery, it may be useful to take a look at some foods that you should definitely avoid.

Spicy foods – especially in the immediate period, the heat in spicy foods may well irritate and inflame vulnerable soft tissue.

Seeds and nuts – anything that is small and hard may become trapped in the area of the surgery and cause infections.

Hard foods – avoid anything that requires pressure being put on the new implant.

Crumbly foods – avoid crisps, popcorn etc, for the same reason as seeds and nuts (see above)

What you CAN eat (with care)

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Patient safety is top priority at the Clock Tower Dental Clinic.

X-rays are routinely used by dentists to detect problems that can’t be seen with a straightforward visual check. They can be used to gauge the extent of a cavity or to see if there is an infection of the tooth root that may require root canal treatment. Patients will have noticed that, when an x-ray is taken, members of staff move to an area where they are protected from the rays. This can lead some patients to question the safety of this aspect of dental care.

What are x-rays?

X-rays involve the use of a low dosage of radiation to produce the images that we are all familiar with. Radiation is perhaps best known for sickness caused by leaks from nuclear power plants and other similar situations, but the quantity of radiation used in a dental x-ray however is very minimal, and, under normal circumstances, should be perfectly safe for most patients.

There may be certain medical conditions which mean that x-rays should only be used when absolutely essential. These are far and few between, but it is still important that you inform us of any changes in your general health and also any medications that you may be taking.

Children and x-rays

Naturally, parents always want to protect their children and some may question the safety of x-rays for younger patients. The fact is that although children are more susceptible to radiation, the levels used in our Epsom dental practice are still low enough to be perfectly safe for all members of your family.

Pregnancy

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A vegan diet may be ‘healthy’, but can pose challenges for your oral health.

Barely a day goes by without veganism appearing in the news. It is, without a doubt, a growing trend, especially amongst younger people. There are many reasons that people choose this diet, and some would say, lifestyle;  from concerns about animal welfare, to improving food supplies across the world.

These are all admirable concerns, and our Epsom patients are, of course, free to choose the lifestyle that they wish to live. From the perspective of the dental profession, there are a few issues which would-be vegans may wish to consider before embarking on this diet.

Sugars

It is a well established fact that sugar is responsible for most tooth decay. Whilst most vegans would probably claim that their diet is healthy, it should be remembered that it doesn’t have to be this way. It is unlikely but entirely possible to be a vegan and eat nothing but cakes and sweets for example. Whether you are a vegan or meat eater, you still need to watch your sugar consumption, even those of natural origin, such as honey or fruit sugars.

Citric fruits

Most of us eat fruit, but vegan diets may contain more fruit than most. This is great from a health angle as fruit is generally high in vitamins and low in fat. Caution should be exercised though as some fruits, especially citric ones such as oranges and lemons, are highly acidic. Eating large quantities of citric fruits means that your tooth enamel can become eroded, increasing the risk of toothache and decay.

Don’t you need milk?

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Are enamel protecting toothpastes enough to prevent this increasing problem?

You have probably noticed a growing trend for toothpastes that focus on one particular aspect of oral health care.

These may include gum disease, teeth whitening and now enamel erosion. Often, these seem to offer a quick solution for common dental problems, but do the claims always stand up?

Most of us probably know toothpaste as just toothpaste. Providing that it is a reliable brand and contains fluoride, it will probably do a fairly good job of keeping your teeth clean and in reasonable health. Cleaning our teeth is just a part of the solution though, and although some enamel erosion toothpastes may offer some additional protection for our Epsom patients, the reality is that tooth erosion can be caused by a combination of factors and is not so easy to protect against simply through brushing alone.

Acidic diet

The fact is that our western diet is becoming increasingly acidic. High sugar consumption plays a significant role in this, though it is hoped that the newly introduced sugar tax will help to reduce this over time. Whether sugar consumption ever falls to an acceptable level, only time will tell, but any reduction has to be a good thing.

What then, can patients of The Clock Tower Dental Clinic do to help prevent enamel erosion?

Reduce sugar consumption

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