Enamel is the hard outer layer of teeth designed to keep teeth naturally strong. Protecting your tooth enamel is your best defense against enamel erosion, which can weaken teeth. If your teeth are yellowing, have white spots, are more sensitive, or feel rough, these are all signs of enamel erosion. The good news is that you can help strengthen teeth naturally to prevent enamel erosion using the following tips.
Top 10 Healthy Diet Tips To Strengthen Teeth Naturally
When wondering how to make your teeth stronger naturally through diet, in a nutshell you need to increase healthy foods and decrease unhealthy foods. The top 10 food and drink tips for stronger teeth include:
- Choose more cheese and yogurt snacks: Dairy is high in calcium for bone density. Cheese contains casein to strengthen tooth enamel, and phosphate to help keep pH levels in your mouth balanced. It also improves saliva production to wash bacteria away. Yogurt has the added benefit of probiotics to help prevent decay, bad breath, and gum disease.
- Drink water and milk: Drinking fluoridated tap water is recommended over bottled water as it contains tooth-strengthening fluoride to help prevent cavities and distribute nutrients to your teeth. Water flushes out food debris and improves saliva production. You can also drink milk as it contains elements that help reduce acids in your mouth, and calcium that strengthens enamel, reducing the risk of tooth decay.
- Eat more raw vegetables: Hard raw vegetables such as carrots and celery work as natural toothbrushes, helping to scrub your tooth surfaces. Their high water content also helps remove debris and bacteria by stimulating saliva production. Raw veggies also contain vitamin C, calcium, and keratins, along with tons of essential minerals that contribute to tooth strength.
- Add dark leafy greens to meals: Dark leafy greens such as spinach, lettuce, and kale are high in teeth-strengthening calcium, folic acid, vitamins, and minerals.
- Enjoy more hard fruit: Hard fruits like apples and pears have plenty of fibre to help scrub teeth clean while neutralizing citric and malic acids in your mouth that can cause tooth decay.
- Chomp on nuts: Nuts are the perfect snack with a wide variety of flavours to choose from. Almonds have calcium and phosphorus while Brazil nuts and cashews help fight bacteria. You’ll also get a good dose of fiber in hand with a long list of minerals to help strengthen your teeth.
- Sip tea and coffee: Enjoying tea and coffee provides a boost of an antioxidant called polyphenols, which fight gum inflammation to support your teeth.
- Avoid too much sugar and acids: These foods create the ideal environment for damaging bacteria that break down tooth enamel. Avoid snacking too often or eating sugary, acidic foods and drinks, including soda, soft drinks, citrus and sports drinks, candies, pastries, other desserts, and alcohol.
- Only chew food: Chewing things like your fingernails, ice, and pens is very damaging to your teeth.
- Avoid hard, sticky foods: Hard candies and foods like peanut brittle are also very damaging to your teeth and will stick to your enamel, allowing sugar, bacteria, and acids to cause erosion.
Improve Your Oral Health Care Regime
If you often ask yourself, how do I strengthen my tooth enamel to make my teeth stronger, the answer is simple: You need to improve your oral health care routine. Follow these basic rules:
- Choose fluoride products for your toothpaste and mouthwash
- Brush your teeth twice a day
- Floss every night
- Schedule your professional cleanings and checkups twice a year
- Follow your hygienist’s instructions on proper brushing and flossing techniques
- Brush your teeth gently using a soft-bristled toothbrush
- Rinse your mouth with water or mouthwash after eating unhealthy foods
- Wait about 60 minutes to brush your teeth after a meal or snack
It’s also important to mention changes to your dentist at each appointment, such as increasing tooth sensitivity, concerns about teeth discolouration, visible white spots on your teeth, and any other changes you’ve noticed, such as having a dry mouth all the time. Your dentist will likely spot these differences, but it helps to bring them to their attention.
Avoid Dry Mouth
Your saliva contains calcium and phosphate minerals that are naturally deposited in your tooth enamel as part of a process called remineralization. This process is important because you lose minerals through “demineralization,” which occurs as you eat and drink. Every day, your teeth are exposed to bacteria that cause this loss of minerals. Saliva improves remineralization to help replace lost minerals needed to maintain tooth strength. If you find you often have dry mouth, your dentist can recommend products that help promote saliva production.
Avoid Bad Habits That Increase Demineralization
Bad habits such as poor oral hygiene, smoking, and an unhealthy diet increase demineralization. This weakens your teeth and prevents the natural remineralization process from being effective. Using our healthy eating and oral health care routine tips can improve remineralization, but not enough to overcome the negative impact of these bad habits.
While remineralization provides ongoing strengthening, once the enamel is completely eroded, cavities form, which are not reversible. In this case, the only option is restoration, such as fillings. The longer decay has time to set in, the deeper the cavities and the more risk there is for infection. When this happens, you’ll require more complex treatments, such as root canals and crowns.
Chew Sugarless Gum
Sugarless gum helps promote tooth remineralization, increases saliva production, and helps remove plaque. You can keep your mouth moist because chewing sugarless gum triggers saliva production, providing the naturally occurring phosphate and calcium needed for remineralization. Gum with xylitol and sorbitol are the perfect snack between meals, helping to curb your urge for something sweet while keeping your breath fresh.
Unless you have decay, the remineralization process is designed to keep teeth strong. If you’ve experienced the symptoms of enamel erosion, using these tips can help reduce sensitivity, the appearance of white dots, and the uneven roughness you feel on your teeth.
If you notice the signs of enamel erosion mentioned above, give us a call at (416) 232-2033 or request an appointment by clicking here.