Dental or oral health is concerned with your teeth, gums, and mouth. The objective is to avoid problems such as tooth decay (cavities) and gum disease and to preserve the overall dental health of your mouth.

A vigorous mouth, free of infections, injuries and other problems with teeth and gums, is imperative in upholding your overall health. So, we noted down the best foods that you should eat to keep your teeth healthy and worst foods that you should avoid to prevent dental problems.

What are the 8 best foods for your teeth?

1. Chocolate

Dark chocolate (we’re talking about the 70% cacao stuff, not sugar-laden milk chocolate) is a superfood for your dental health due to a composite called CBH which was confirmed in animal tests to help toughen tooth enamel, making your teeth less vulnerable to tooth decay.

2. Cheese

Cheese is a superfood for the teeth with its ability to fight acid corrosion of the teeth. Every time you eat a meal with bread, sweets, citrus, or soda, your teeth are unprotected to tons of tooth decay-causing acid.

Eating cheese after a meal can offset the acid left after by a meal, making it an abundant choice for dessert! Stick to sheep and goats’ cheeses, which are healthier for you and calmer on the digestive system than cheese made of cow’s milk.

3. Wild Salmon

Fatty fish is a fantastic source of vitamin D, which permits your teeth and gums to get the full disease-fighting aids of calcium from the foods you eat. Taking a supplement of vitamin D (5000 IU per day) is another boundless way of getting the proper vitamin D intake into your diet.

4. Oranges

This one may be a bit of a wonder since oranges are a citrus but the vitamin C in citrus reinforces blood vessels and connective tissue and slows down the development of gum disease by dropping inflammation. Make sure not to brush right after you eat citrus fruits then and there. Take a glass of sparkling water and then brush your teeth later. Constantly delay at slightest a half hour after eating acidic food or drink before tooth brushing.

5. Water

Your saliva is important, so keep it well hydrated with half your body weight in ounces of water through the day. If you’re 150 pounds, that’s roughly 75 ounces of water every day that you need to stay hydrated. Furthermore, while water still isn’t as good as a toothbrush and floss, it can still help in decreasing plaque by cleaning away food rubble. Dousing with water after consumption of coffee or having other staining foods can help diminish staining to the teeth.

6. Fruits and Vegetables

The high fiber content substantially scrubs the teeth alike to the way your toothbrush might and stimulate saliva formation because of the extra chewing they need. The great water content in crusty, juicy fruits and vegetables assists to balance sugar content. By eating an apple every day it will make your dentist glad.

7. Xylitol

It has been proven to ward off tooth decay due to composites in it which kill tooth decay-causing bacteria. Most importantly, xylitol will properly colonize your mouth with the accurate ratio of bad to good bacteria, aiding in absorption and overall oral health.

8. Green and Black Tea

Polyphenols, which institute green and black tea, cooperate with the bacteria that cause plaque by killing or destroying them. Bacteria feed on the sugars in your mouth and, once they’ve had their feast, they expel tooth enamel destroying acids. This creates tea a great choice for during or after a meal, since it conquers the presence of these acid producing bacteria in the mouth. Polyphenols in tea also have cavity-fighting properties.

What are the 8 worst foods for your teeth?

How can you prevent plaque from wreaking chaos on your mouth? Besides brushing your teeth at least twice a day and flossing and visiting a dentist regularly, try to avoid or limit the foods further down:

1. Sour Candies

It’s not amazing that candy is bad for your mouth. But sour candy comprises more and altered kinds of acids that are harder on your teeth. And more, because they’re chewy, they stick to your teeth for a lengthier time, so they’re more likely to cause decay. If you’re yearning sweets, grab a square of chocolate as a replacement for, which you can chew quickly and wash away effortlessly.

2. Bread

Think twice as you walk down the superstore bread lane. When you chomp bread, your saliva breaks down the starches into sugar. Now altered into a gummy paste-like substance, the bread sticks to the gaps between teeth. And that can cause cavities. When you’re yearning some carbs, aim for less-refined selections like whole wheat. These comprise less added sugars and aren’t as simply broken down.

3. Alcohol

Did you realize that when you drink, you dry out your mouth? A dry mouth lacks saliva, which we need to keep our teeth well. Saliva averts food from sticking to your teeth and washes away food bits. It even aids restoration for early signs of tooth deterioration, gum infection, and other oral contaminations. To make sure your mouth is duly hydrated, consume sufficient water and make fluoride rinses or oral hydration rinse.

4. Carbonated Drinks

A recent study said that intake of great quantities of carbonated soda could be as damaging to your teeth as using methamphetamine and crack cocaine. This permit plaque to create more acid to attack your tooth enamel.

5. Ice

All it contains is water, so it’s fine to chew ice, right? Not so, according to the American Dental Association because munching on a hard element can harm enamel and make you vulnerable to dental emergencies such as chipped, cracked, or broken teeth, or slackened crowns. You can use your ice to chill beverages, but don’t chew on it.

6. Citrus

Citrus fruits family like oranges, grapefruits, and lemons are delicious as both fruits and juices and are full of vitamin C. Take note that the acid content can destroy tooth enamel, building teeth more susceptible to deterioration. Even clinching a lemon or lime into your water complements acid to a drink. Plus, acid from citrus is inconvenient to mouth sores. If you want to get a dose of their antioxidants and vitamins, eat and drink them in control at mealtime and rinse with water afterward.

7. Potato Chips

The crunch of a potato chip is even more satisfying to many of us. Inappropriately, they’re loaded with starch, which becomes sugar that can get stuck in and between the teeth and nourish the bacteria in the plaque.

8. Dried Fruits

Many dried fruits — apricots, prunes, figs, and raisins, to name a few — are sticky. They get stuck and cleave in the teeth and their crevices, leaving last lots of sugar.

Is chewing gum a best or worst food item for teeth?

The answer to the question really depends on what type of gum you’re speaking about.

For gum with sugar, it’s more cut-and-dry. Plaque bacteria nourish off of sugar, so additional sugar incomes more bad bacteria in your mouth. Even worse, certain sugars changes to a glue-like feel, creating stronger for the saliva to rinse away the sugar and plaque which normally lead to tooth decay, cavities, caries and other dental issues.

So the judgment is, no, chewing gum with sugar is not good for your dental health. But when it comes to sugar-free gum, the answer varies. It really depends on what’s in the gum.

Some tips for teeth and oral care:

Here are some tips for your dental health care and that help you look after your teeth:

• Brush your teeth at least twice a day. Do this after every meal. Select a toothbrush with a small head for better access to the back of the teeth.
• Buy and use fluoridated toothpaste. Fluoride supports tooth enamel and diminishes your risk of deterioration.
• Brush your teeth meticulously. This should take between two and three minutes for thorough cleaning.
• Keep flossing your teeth every day. Do it in a slow and gentle in-between motion.
• Moderately consume acidic drinks like soft drinks, energy drinks, and fruit juices. Food acids unstiffen tooth enamel and dissolve the minerals which eventually cause holes.
• Look out on your intake of sugary foods. Microorganisms in dental plaque alter sugars into acids.
• Guard your teeth againstGet and use a mouth guard or full-face headdress when doing sports.
• Protect a cracked out tooth. Do hold the tooth back in place while you try to find prompt dental guidance. If not possible, wrap the tooth in plastic or place it in milk and seek out dental advice straightaway.
• Elude using your teeth for anything other than chewing food. If you use them to crack nuts, eliminate bottle tops or rip open packaging, you risk fragmenting or even breaking your teeth.

At last, see your dentist for regular check-ups. Always visit your dentist if you have a dental problem to help you in your uneasiness. You can visit Aliso Niguel Dental Group, a dental health care center, located in Aliso Viejo, CA where the American board-certified dentists provide best dental treatments that are customized according to the conditions and needs of each patient.