You are what you eat — and so are your teeth
What you eat reaches your teeth before it reaches anywhere else. Some foods help and some do the damage, and the list is shorter than you would think.
- Topic
- Prevention
- Read
- 4 min
Eating well slides down the list when term gets busy. A tooth-friendly diet is one of the simplest ways to avoid ending up in a chair with a toothache, and it takes less thought than most nutrition advice.
What strengthens enamel
Cheese, yogurt and milk are the base of it. They carry calcium, which is what teeth and bone are built from, and casein, a dairy protein that helps protect enamel. Yogurt also brings probiotics, which may help the gums and the breath.
Why water does the most work
Fluoridated water helps prevent decay. It also rinses off the sugar bacteria feed on, dilutes the acid they make, and keeps saliva moving, which is the mouth’s own first defence. Juice, sports drinks and pop do the opposite: they leave more sugar behind than they wash away.
Things that take real chewing
Carrots, celery and fresh apples take real chewing, and that scrubs the tooth surfaces as you eat while getting saliva going. An apple eaten whole does more for your teeth than the same apple drunk as juice.
The rest of the list
- Leafy greens — spinach, kale, lettuce
- Pears, nuts and fresh cranberries
- Meat, tofu and fatty fish
- Tea and coffee, if you accept the staining a cleaning takes off
Diet is half of it. The other half is an exam and a cleaning on whatever schedule the dentist recommends for you. Student and private plans are billed directly from the desk.
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