While sugar may seem harmless and beneficial to your body, it can potentially have detrimental health implications on your health, particularly on your teeth. And this shouldn’t surprise anyone, bearing in mind that sugar-triggered oral issues are arguably the most common causes of poor dental health as well as diseases.
Apparently, minimizing your sugar intake is key to reducing the potential damage it can potentially cause to your pearly whites. What’s more, reducing your sugar intake can help improve your waistline.
And with sugar-related dental issues being one of the most common complaints during routine dental visits, we have decided to share a few top tips with you to help with the ever-increasing sugar addiction.
Sugar will always remain sugar:
When you talk about sugar, what actually comes to most people’s minds is the white substance you put in your cup of coffee. However, it’s worth noting that there are numerous types of hidden sugars in different types of foods. Sugar can have many names, and knowing how to identify them is usually the first step to avoiding them. And while the list can be quite long, some of the most common sources of sugar include fructose, glucose, sucrose, hydrolyzed starch as well as molasses.
Don’t be a fan of snacks:
Most people usually find it tough to fend off nighttime snacking. And for some of us, consuming a few snacks before lunchtime is just irresistible. Don’t grab that biscuit barrel. Instead, a few nuts will not only guarantee that amount of energy you crave, but will also boost your overall health.
It’s worth noting that when it comes to sugar intake and oral health, it’s not always about how much sugar you consume. It’s also about how frequently you take it. As a result, you should try to limit your sugar consumption frequency as much as possible, opting for sugarless alternatives when necessary.
Fat-free is not safe either!
Today, most products are marketed as a healthy alternative. However, those claims on the packaging can be misleading, to say the least. Usually, products such as cholesterol-free yogurts still feature high amounts of sugar in the form of either refined sugar or fructose. A rule of the thumb is to look out for the traffic light system while shopping!
Watch out for what you take for breakfast:
Recently, a popular celebrity chef disclosed how some breakfast cereals contain high amounts of sugar, with a few of them featuring nearly 33% of sugar. In this regard, switching to a bowl of breakfast cereal with relatively lower amounts of sugar, or one free of added sugar can have a significant impact not only on your oral health, but your overall health as well.
Create a few rules:
We all know that you don’t practically need a sweet dessert on a daily basis. So, creating a few rules to help adjust your lifestyle can potentially have a great impact on your life. Simple things such as not consuming anything before you retire to bed, ensuring you don’t take dessert a couple of times per week, and avoiding adding sugar to any type of food can be highly beneficial.
Go whole!
When it comes to maintaining the health of your teeth, whole foods are always preferred. And stickiness plays a crucial role in this. When you prepare a smoothie of strawberry and banana or any other fruit, it will inevitably release sugars that will coat your teeth. But by consuming them whole, you can hopefully prevent this from occurring.
Also, dried fruits are highly prone to stickiness and should be avoided at all costs for the sake of your teeth’s health. They can create a conducive environment for bacteria to thrive, ultimately causing a host of problems in your mouth.
Set a quota!
As already mentioned, it’s also important to keep a close eye on the frequency of your daily sugar intake. On average, it takes about 60 minutes for your mouth to return to a neutral state after consuming sugar. And this process will begin once you eat or drink sugar! So, it’s vital to give your mouth a break from sugar, by reducing the frequency of your sugar consumption.
Minimize your alcohol consumption:
Research has shown that alcoholic beverages account for at least eleven percent of the UK population’s added sugar daily consumption. Any sugary drink can have a detrimental impact on the health of your teeth. You should make an effort to moderate the number of alcoholic beverages in your diet, and also drink lots of water to help neutralize or rather wash down any traces of alcohol and sugar from your mouth.
Don’t skip your breakfast:
Every time you skip breakfast, you’ll always crave that sugary fix to keep you going, which can have serious consequences for the health of your mouth. To prevent this, make sure you take a filling and highly nutritious breakfast.
Reduce your coffee intake:
While coffee is generally healthy and comes packed with a few health benefits, but it can have an effect on your teeth, especially if you don’t keep an eye on your choice of coffee. If you are to take coffee loaded with sugar, it’s best to do it during meal times. But the best option would be to stick to sugar-free coffee drinks!
Retire to bed early!
Research has proven that those who stay up late are increasingly more likely to skip routine brushing and flossing before sleeping. What’s more, you are likely to eat a few snacks during this period, and all this can cause lots of damage to your teeth. Thankfully, you can handle this particular problem by retiring to your bed earlier enough!
If you are looking for a dentist, HPS Advanced Dental Care would love to see you. Dr. Heather is gladly accepting new patients.
We are located at 4741 24 Mile Rd. Shelby Township, MI 48316, and we can be reached at (248) 652-0024. We look forward to meeting you!
