Diet Matters Just As Much As Brushing for Strong Teeth
What is the first advice you receive to maintain your oral health? Apparently, everyone tells you to brush, floss, use mouthwash, and visit your dentist for exams and cleanings. In addition, you often receive the advice that it is crucial for your oral health to follow the suggestions described.
Fortunately, modern dentistry has discovered multiple ways to overcome a challenge that makes tooth decay the #1 preventable chronic condition globally. However, they haven’t managed to fix the problem that encourages cavities to develop in your teeth. Dentistry has overlooked your diet, which contributes significantly to the problems in your mouth.
How Does Diet Matter?
The human diet has evolved over the years because we are no longer like our ancestors from the Paleolithic era who hunted and foraged food. Besides, our bodies have also evolved to match our current diet.
Our ancestors relied on meat, fish and seafood, fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, oil and butter, et cetera, which we still do. How, then, would our ancestors have better dental health than the present? Fortunately, they did not have access to processed and starchy foods; relying instead on the natural foods they gathered allowed them to develop straight and infection-free teeth without significantly being affected by cavities.
What’s Lacking in the Modern Diet?
Our ancestors relied on a diet without sugars, bread, or processed foods. The native cultures also consumed nutrients called “Activator X,” which experts presently believe was vitamin K2.
Vitamin K2 is a nutrient crucial to the synergistic movement of calcium throughout the body to deliver strong teeth and bones. Calcium movement also needs vitamins A and D, and the lack of this process makes teeth more prone to tooth decay. Besides, the above modern diets cause an increase in dental infections because the food textures people have are not varied as earlier. Our ancestors had a diet of leafy greens, animal meat, butter, and seeds offering different textures for chewing. It was excellent for cleaning teeth, like teeth brushing, and eliminating dental plaque from their mouths.
The Role of Saliva
Can you discuss teeth and gum health without considering your saliva? The extracellular fluid delivering nutrients to your teeth and serving as your baseline protection from bacteria to keep your mouth optimal is the saliva. Dental hygiene doesn’t help enhance saliva quality. On the other hand, your diet is a significant factor that impacts saliva production and quality.
If you have nutrient-rich foods low in empty calories, processed and artificial sugars, and acidic ingredients, they help promote healthy saliva that ensures protection for your teeth throughout the day.
The Importance of Brushing Your Teeth
After reading the description provided, you may wonder whether the dentist in Phoenix will still recommend brushing your teeth twice daily with fluoride paste and doing so for two minutes each. The answer is an emphatic YES. You must continue brushing twice daily, as mentioned above, without exceptions because you don’t have access to the diet your ancestors had and now rely on processed foods to nourish yourself.
Besides brushing your teeth as recommended by the Phoenix dentist, you must also schedule six monthly visits to them for preventive dentistry to have your mouth examined and cleaned to eliminate dental infections early before they aggravate to need intensive and invasive treatments.
During your visit to the Phoenix dentist for preventive dentistry, you also receive advice on nutrition to keep your teeth and gums healthy with your overall health. Again, no reasons to express concerns because dentists do not recommend having ancient diets like your ancestors did but will likely suggest you reduce your sugar intake and include vitamins and minerals available from leafy greens and supplements to ensure you have a tooth-friendly diet.
Dentists emphasize brushing with fluoride toothpaste to help protect your teeth by strengthening their enamel. They also discuss how excellent dental hygiene and a tooth-friendly diet work together to help fill the gaps created by inappropriate foods and beverages. Brushing keeps your teeth clean and healthy but cannot undo the damage created by an unhealthy diet. Therefore you must concentrate on the brushing suggested by the dentist and pay attention to that your diet matters the most because it helps your teeth remain robust.
If you think brushing and flossing are sufficient to keep your teeth healthy and robust, Encanto Family Dental Care will spring a surprise by mentioning your diet also matters. Consult them today to understand how your diet plays a crucial role, similar to brushing to give you stronger teeth.