Keeping your teeth healthy
Tooth decay is caused by the acid found in food and drink. Citrus fruits like oranges and lemons are good examples. It can also be caused by the way some bacteria react with sugar. The saliva in your mouth neutralises the acid but it can take anything up to 2 hours to be effective.
Saliva also helps your teeth to repair themselves after you have eaten something with acid in it but often we eat more of these types of food in a day that it can keep up with so causing longer term decay.
Just following a few simple steps will help your teeth keep healthy:
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Eat less acidic foods.
- Cut down the number of acid producing bacteria in your mouth and on your teeth through good oral hygiene routine and technique
- Use toothpaste and other dental hygiene products that contain fluoride
- Reduce how often and how much you eat and drink sugar containing foods and drinks
The good news is that dental decay is a preventable disease. Where appropriate, it can easily be controlled with changes in diet, good oral hygiene and fluoride use.
And don't forget there are more than 400 types of bacteria in a healthy mouth, most of which cause no tooth decay, as they can’t change sugars into acids. 
A couple of tips to remember:
When checking food labels on prepared food, the higher up the list sugar is, the more sugar there is in the product.
Foods safe for the teeth include milk, cheese, vegetables, non citrus fresh fruit and bread.
If you have any questions about keeping your teeth healthy go to the contact me page.