The best and worst food for your teeth and gum

Best food choices

Cheeses (especially aged cheeses like cheddar, Monterey Jack, and Swiss), chicken or other lean meats, and nuts are the best food options for maintaining the health of your mouth. Because they contain the minerals calcium and phosphorus necessary to remineralize teeth, these foods are believed to protect tooth enamel (a natural process by which minerals are redeposited in tooth enamel after being removed by acids). Green vegetables like broccoli and spinach are high in calcium if you have lactose intolerance and are unable to consume milk products.

Firm/crunchy fruits and vegetables are another food option (like apples, pears, melons, celery, and cucumbers). Due to their high water content, these foods tame the effects of the sugars they contain and promote salivation (which helps protect against decay by washing away food particles and buffering acid). To reduce the amount of acid they contain, acidic foods like citrus fruits, tomatoes, and lemons should be consumed as part of a larger meal.

Worst food choices

Candy, such as lollipops, hard candies, jellybeans, and mints, as well as cookies, cakes, pies, breads, muffins, potato chips, pretzels, french fries, bananas, granola bars, caramel, honey, molasses, syrup are among the foods that are bad for your teeth. These foods contain a lot of sugar, and some of them may stick to teeth, providing bacteria with a food source. Cough drops should only be used when necessary because they coat the teeth in sugar like sugary candy. If you're going to give your kid any treats, serve them as dessert right after the meal. Around mealtimes, saliva production typically increases, making it simpler to wash food from teeth. The beverage consumed during meals aids in cleaning off food residue from the teeth.

The best beverage options is water, especially fluoridated water. Drinks with added sugar should be consumed in moderation, including soft drinks, lemonade, coffee, and tea. Avoid drinking sugar-containing beverages all day long as this exposes your teeth to continuous sugar and, in turn, continuous acids that cause tooth decay.