Dental advice from your local dental practice in Cardiff

Our modern lifestyles and modern culture means many of us crave sugar as part of our daily eating and drinking habits. Yet if many of us continue over consuming sugary based food and beverages then we run the risk of increasing our chances of not only tooth decay but also diabetes and heart disease.

So what can we do about this?

By making gradual and continuous changes to how we think about sugar and how we consume it can have a huge impact to our well-being and lifestyles.

When it comes to tooth decay, added sugar is hard to defend. More than a quarter of five year olds have tooth decay Source: BBC

As the BBC quotation shows, for many our lifestyle choices are also being mirrored by our children. With more than a quarter of five year olds having tooth decay its more important than ever to look at how sugar is entering into our food and drink consumption habits. Here at Bamboo Dental we like to provide help and guidance on how you can help reduce the chances of experiencing tooth decay through changing your daily consumption habits.

Our top tips for reducing your sugar intake and helping to prevent tooth decay

Look carefully at the packaging of your foods, and find those less obvious words used words to describe sugar! Glucose, fructose, corn syrup, sucrose and invert sugars, are just some of the descriptions that may be used on food and drink packaging to describe a form of sugar. So don't just look for the obvious sugar descriptor, when checking your weekly shop, when you're giving a quick glance over the food label. Also those food types that are often not perceived as high in sugar content sometimes offer surprise to consumers, thats when they find out the actual amount of sugar contained within the products is a lot more than originally thought. For example cereals and certain snack bars can contain high sugar levels that can be detrimental to preventing tooth decay.

Although blending and making smoothies is on trend, is this good for my teeth?

The sugars found naturally in whole fruit are less likely to cause tooth decay because the sugars are contained within the structure of the fruit. But when fruit is juiced or blended, the sugars are released. Source: NHS

As the NHS quotation shows, it is indeed preferable to consume fruit in its whole form rather than blending or juicing. When you blend or juice fruit, you are releasing the sugars within, this can increase the chances of tooth decay especially if a fruit juice or smoothie is consumed over many intervals during the day. Although fruit juices are still a healthy contribution to your diet, you may wish to have your fruit juice nearer mealtimes in order to help minimise tooth decay and subsequent tooth loss. For some drinking tea and coffee and adding sugar has become a habit, why not gradually cut down on your sugar intake. For many it is a daily habit to brush your teeth in the morning and evening, yet in between periods for many mean considerable amounts of tea and coffee is consumed in between. When you couple this with adding sugar to each cup you can begin to appreciate how decay can set in during this period, where your teeth are under a sugary form of attack! Perhaps considering reducing the amount of sugar gradually is the answer. Better still drink more water that is not flavoured and has not had sugar added to it. This can even help increase your concentration levels while at work, why not give this a try. If your teeth have become discoloured or suffered tooth loss due to lifestyle reasons or injury then why not contact Bamboo Dental to consider cosmetic dental surgery as a form of regaining that healthy and brighter smile.

Bamboo Dental actively encourages healthy lifestyles, to prevent tooth loss or decay.

For those situations where your teeth have become irreparable or damaged why not consider the possibility of cosmetic dental surgery, such as having veneers fitted, to improve the cosmetic appearance of your smile.

Cardiff Dental Practice and Clinic

For all your dental requirements, whether that be cosmetic or for any other corrective dental procedures, why not contact Bamboo Dental in Cardiff today.

For more advice on tooth decay and how to prevent tooth loss, why not read this article. Tooth Loss and Tooth decay.