We all want to have a healthy smile, and we do everything we can to ensure this: we see our dentist regularly, we refuse to eat sweet foods, and we maintain our diets. However, foods that seem to be safe often turn out to be very harmful to our health.
In order to help our readers,MUMY BEAR compiled a list of foods we all eat that do our teeth more harm than good.
10. Blueberries
Blueberries don’t influence the health of our teeth, but they do paint them blue. Of course, if you don’t eat blueberries very often, it won’t happen, but its true fans have to be prepared to see their teeth become a little yellow because of the juice.
9. White wine
Admirers of white wine have to make an important choice: their favorite beverage or healthy enamel. The second option should be your choice if you don’t want your teeth to be hyper sensitive or fragile.
8. Red wine
Red wine doesn’t really affect the health of our teeth, but it changes their natural color to an unsightly gray shade.
7. Chips
This is simple: chips consist of fast carbohydrates that turn into glucose under the influence of saliva. This can lead to a trivial but dangerous cavity. Another thing that chips leave is dental plaque, so don’t forget to rinse your mouth with water after you have a snack.
6. Chewing gum
Sugar-free chewing gum might seem safe for teeth. However, its biggest danger is not the sugar but its destructive influence on fillings, dental crowns, and bridges. Besides, when you chew gum, saliva production increases, leading to alkali production. Alkali erodes fillings and dental enamel.
5. Popcorn
A movie theater without popcorn? You should give it a thought because every pack contains seeds that didn’t pop. They can damage dental crowns and weak teeth. Besides, this sweet food consists of fast carbohydrates that form harmful glucose.
Just like citrus fruit, tomatoes are acidic. This is true not only for fresh tomatoes but also for different sauces and stews. The acid harms teeth a lot and increases dental sensitivity. Try not to cook dishes containing tomatoes too often.
3. Bread, macaroni, and potatoes
Foods that contain a lot of starch stick to the teeth and stay inside the mouth for a long time. The starch provokes the formation of a breeding ground for dental plaque. Besides, starch turns into sugar when it comes into contact with saliva. This may lead to cavities and other serious issues.
2. Dried fruit
Dried apples and pears are just very sweet, whereas dried apricots, sugar plums, and other “chewing” dried fruit are dangerous because of their sticky structure. They literally stick the sugar to your teeth. Sugar is known to harm teeth a lot: it leads to cavities and damages the enamel.
1. Tea
Everybody knows that tea contains caffeine, which has some negative impact on the body but not on the teeth. There is a lot less fluorine in tea than caffeine, but it does a lot of harm to your teeth. Fluorine is necessary for the human body, but when there is too much of it, it affects the health of bones and teeth. To be safe, don’t drink more than 4 cups a day, and don’t drink cheap bagged tea.
Bonus: Find out how a toothache can point to a problem with an organ.
Some doctors claim that there is a connection between a bad tooth and deterioration in the functioning of internal organs. For instance, if your canines ache, you should get tested for cholecystitis. An ache in the incisors may indicate a heart or a stomach disease. It’s quite hard to prove the connection, but if you want to memorize what every tooth means, you can use our picture.