All your life, you've heard what not to eat to protect your teeth.
Avoid candy.
Stay away from pop.
But you hardly ever hear about things you eat that actually help your teeth.
Cranberries. Popcorn. Even tea, often the subject of warnings about possible staining of the enamel.
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MeritCare dietitian Andrea Holter says everybody can see dental benefits from eating right and following the guidelines on brushing and flossing. But if a person is particularly prone to tooth decay because of genetics or medication, "your diet can really make an impact."
Pediatric dentist Dr. Brent Holman says diet is just one component, along with tooth structure and bacteria, that can affect teeth.
The importance of diet in the entire scheme of dental health is different for each patient, Holman says. If a person's teeth are weak because of genetics, diet is that much more important, he says. Likewise, some people have a bigger problem with plaque than others.
And dental health isn't just a matter of what you eat, but how.
Holter says mealtimes should consist of up to a half-hour of eating. After that, if you aren't able to brush - if you're away from home, for example - chew sugarless gum and drink water to flush food, which provides a growth medium for decay-causing bacteria, away from your teeth.
Noshing through the evening isn't a good idea for your teeth, nor is delaying dessert, Holter says. "You eat a meal and 30 minutes later you're introducing a new carbohydrate," she says.
-ven diet carbonated beverages shouldn't be consumed in excess, she says. While they don't contain sugar, they're highly acidic, Holter says. If you're sipping all day long, your teeth are constantly exposed to acid; that's even true of juices and sports drinks.
Still, even with sugar, it's as much a question of frequency as content.
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On Halloween, Holman says, he tells kids only half-jokingly that "from a dentist's standpoint, take your bag home and when you get home, sit down and eat the whole thing. Then brush your teeth. Unfortunately, nobody does that.
"Get it all over at once; think of it as an acid attack. Get that acid attack all over and give your teeth a chance to recover."
With candy, the kind of sweet makes a difference. "It has more to do with the retentive nature of that stuff," Holman says. "Sticky things stay on your teeth longer."
But just because a snack isn't sugary doesn't mean you shouldn't worry about sugar. The high-carb and starchy snacks that add pounds also can add to tooth problems, since carbs and starches turn to sugar.
High-fiber crackers are a good snack, Holter says, because the fiber content helps scour the less desirable stuff off teeth. In combination with that, a good snack can increase the output of saliva, which helps restore proper pH in the mouth, buffering the effect of any acidic food or drink.
That's why bedtime snacking is a bad idea. Saliva production drops during sleep, meaning any bacteria have an easier time getting a toehold on the teeth, Holter says.
A good snack mixes a protein food - meat, cheese, milk - with a relatively starchy food. An apple and cheese is a good snack, dentally as well as nutritionally, or an apple and nuts, Holter says. Even though milk contains sugars, those are offset by the calcium and phosphorus it contains, which help restore the mouth's pH.
What Holman calls "detergent foods" - fruits and vegetables - make good snacks.
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Raw vegetables and fruits are a good idea, both for their lack of tooth-harming sugar and their fiber. Dried or starchy fruits don't have as good an effect, though, Holter says, unless they're mixed with, say, nuts or high-fiber crackers.
She says that if you want to chew sugarless gum, check the label to make sure it contains xylotol or sorbitol as a sweetener. Those are sugars that bacteria can't break down. Not every sugar-free gum contains those additives, but most do, she says.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Tom Pantera at (701) 241-5541
