Teeth are undoubtedly important parts of our body, which makes it vital to care for them. In addition to helping cut and chew food to make it easier for your body to digest and absorb essential nutrients, they play a key role in your smile’s appearance.
While maintaining frequent dental appointments and brushing and flossing your teeth are excellent oral and dental hygiene practices for healthy teeth and gums, what you consume daily also matters. As with any other aspect of your body’s general health, excellent oral and dental health depends on the nourishment you receive daily from carbohydrates, protein, minerals, and vitamins in the food you eat.
Aside from helping lower the possible risks of oral and dental health problems, excellent nutrition and diet are necessary for healthy and strong teeth and gums. To stay on top of your dental and oral health, dentists recommend maintaining a balanced diet with adequate nutrient-rich foods.
Best Nutritious Foods for Healthy Teeth and Gums
Excellent nutrition is essential for your teeth to function properly. Explained below are some of the best foods for top-notch oral and dental health:
Yogurt, Cheese and Other Dairy Products
Dairy products like cheese and yogurt provide calcium, which supports dental health. For example:
- It helps increase the bone density of your jawbone, minimizing the risk of developing loose tooth
- It helps remineralize and strengthen your teeth’s enamel, keeping cavities at bay
In addition to quenching your thirst, drinking a cup of milk will benefit your teeth and gums in the long run. Dairy products also contain casein, which helps reduce harmful bacteria in your mouth and neutralize their acidic excretions, reducing the risk of enamel erosion and decay.
As a bonus, chewing cheese also helps stimulate your salivary glands to release more saliva, which helps balance your mouth’s pH and wash away food particles that the harmful bacteria feed on to release acidic excretions.
Crunchy Fruits and Vegetables
Crunchy vegetables, like celery and carrots, help promote cavity-free teeth and maintain healthy teeth and gums. Aside from being rich in vital nutrients, like vitamins and minerals, like keratins, these vegetables and fibrous fruits, like pears and apples, act as natural toothbrushes.
While they are not substitutes for a toothbrush, when you chew your crunchy vegetables and fruits, they help scrub and clean away plaque and food particles lingering on your tooth surface. Additionally, since these foods require more time to chew, they help promote saliva production, a vital fluid in your mouth, because it helps in digestion and balancing the mouth’s pH.
Leafy Greens
Leafy greens like kale, lettuce, and spinach are rich in several nutrients, like minerals, vitamins, and calcium, that your teeth need to grow healthy. Leafy vegetables are rich in folic acid (Vitamin B9), which helps promote healthy gums and lower the risk of dental and oral health issues like gum disease.
Incorporating leafy greens in your diet can help improve your teeth health without relying on supplements. Leafy greens also help lessen inflammation in your gums, reducing the risk of developing gum and periodontal diseases. Furthermore, they are fibre-rich and low in calories, making them an excellent and healthy addition to any diet that promotes excellent gums and dental health.
Seeds and Nuts
Seeds and nuts, like Brazil nuts, almonds, chia seeds, peanuts, and cashews, are a powerhouse of proper dental nutrition. Like crunchy vegetables and fruits, nuts and seeds help scrape and clean your teeth when chewing them. They are also rich in vital minerals like phosphorus, calcium, and other vital nutrients that help promote strong teeth.
Seeds and nuts are excellent snack choices if you want to improve the strength of your teeth and maintain excellent gum health.
Fish
Fish is another important food you should consider incorporating into your diet for improved dental and oral health. Fatty fish, like sardines, mackerel, and salmon, are excellent sources of omega-3, which helps reduce inflammation in your mouth. That is particularly helpful for your gum health because inflammation is one of the primary causes of periodontal gum disease.
Omega-3 fatty acids also help accelerate the healing of your gum tissues, making fish a vital diet for anyone who wants to stay on top of their dental and oral health. Additionally, fish is also rich in vitamin D, which aids in the absorption of calcium in your body, ensuring that your bones and teeth remain healthy and strong.
Other common sources of vitamin D include eggs and fortified foods, like milk and cereals. While exposure to sunlight can trigger your body to produce vitamin D, you will need to consider taking supplements if your location receives inadequate sunlight daily. However, when you incorporate omega-3-rich food, like salmon, into your diet, you will not need these supplements.
Lean Protein
Incorporating lean protein into your diet is another reliable way to keep your gums and teeth healthy. Lean protein supports overall health, which contributes to strong teeth.
Adding protein-rich lentils, legumes, and navy beans to soups, stews, and salads can help give your teeth the nutrients they need to grow strong and healthy.
Whole Grain Foods
Whole-grain foods like brown rice, oats, and barley are also excellent and healthy for your teeth and gums. Whole grains are rich in iron and B vitamins, which help boost gum health. On the other hand, magnesium in these foods helps keep your teeth strong, reducing your risk of cavities and tooth chips.
Strawberries
Incorporating strawberries and other citrus fruits like oranges and grapes into your diet could benefit your dental health. Strawberries are rich in vitamin C, which boosts your gum health, and folic acid, which helps whiten your teeth naturally by breaking down the stains that make your teeth discolored.
In addition to its anti-inflammatory properties that help reduce bleeding and inflammation of your mouth tissues, vitamin C in these fruits can help strengthen your connective tissues and blood vessels. However, after munching on citrus fruits, you should brush your teeth and rinse your mouth with water because their acidic content could erode your teeth’s enamel, making them more prone to cavities.
Shiitake Mushrooms
Shiitake mushrooms are another excellent healthy food you should consider incorporating into your diet for healthy teeth. Shiitake mushrooms are rich in lentinan (a carbohydrate type) that helps boost your immune system and vitamin D, which helps in the absorption of calcium in your body. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, calcium is a vital mineral in your body because it helps strengthen your bones and teeth enamel, reducing the risk of cavities.
Shiitake mushrooms are a delicious meal that is also rich in B vitamins, including riboflavin (B2) and niacin (B3), which play a vital role in keeping your mouth healthy, particularly the gums. In addition to preventing gum inflammation, these vitamins help in tissue repair and regeneration.
If you are wondering how to consume your shiitake mushrooms, add them to your mixed vegetables, soup, or omelet to reap their full health benefits.
Cinnamon
If you love eating cinnamon rolls, the great news is that these yummy rolls can help improve your dental health because they help suppress your oral bacteria. Fortunately, you can even make your mouth rinse with it and use it as part of your daily dental and oral care routine. When preparing your mouth rinse, it is advisable to boil your water and mix it with a moderate amount of cinnamon.
After this mixture cools, swish it around your mouth and teeth just like you would with a typical mouthwash before spitting it out.
Garlic and Onions
Aside from making your food tastier and aromatic, garlic and onions are a friend to your teeth. Garlic and onions have helpful properties that can lessen the harmful bacteria that cause dental and oral health issues like cavities, gum disease, and bad breath. However, you should brush your teeth after eating foods with onions and garlic because they can cause bad breath.
If the bad breath persists, even after brushing your teeth, you should speak to your dentist because it could be a sign of other oral and dental health issues, like cavities.
Mint
There is undoubtedly no better feeling than the fresh, minty feeling you experience after a dental appointment. To achieve this feeling long after your appointment, consider adding more mint to your dental and oral care routine.
In addition to boosting your breath, chewing a mint leaf can help reduce harmful bacteria in your mouth, keeping dental issues like cavities at bay.
Raisins
Raisins are dried grapes that people consume worldwide because they are rich in components that are beneficial to our health. In addition to fiber, which helps digestion, raisins contain phytochemicals, like oleanolic, which help halt cavity-causing bacterial activities in the mouth.
Raisins are also rich in antioxidants, which help fight harmful bacteria that cause gum inflammation and other periodontal diseases.
Water
Although milk can improve your dental health, water is even better to help you stay hydrated and keep your saliva levels high. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, high saliva in your mouth is important because it helps neutralize your mouth pH and wash away lingering food particles, which harmful bacteria feast on to release acidic secretions that cause enamel erosion.
Drinking fluoridated water can also help remineralize your teeth and improve their strength, keeping cavities at bay. If plain water is not your favorite, add cucumbers, berries, limes, or lemon for a natural flavor infusion.
Green Tea
Drinking green tea could also be helpful to your dental health because it is rich in antioxidants, particularly flavonoids and catechins, that help suppress harmful cavity-causing bacteria in your mouth. Green tea’s antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties can also help prevent plaque build-up, lessen bad breath issues, and reduce the risk of particular oral cancers.
However, since sugar is not a friend to your teeth’s health, you should go for unsweetened green tea. Regularly drinking unsweetened green tea has many advantages, making it a great complement to your oral and dental health regimen.
Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes are some of the best and most nutritious foods for better dental and gum health because they are rich in vitamin A, which helps keep the soft tissues of your gums healthy. This nutritious food is also rich in keratin, a protein that helps build your teeth’ enamel.
Which Foods Are Bad for My Teeth?
Now that you know which foods to eat for healthy teeth, you would want to know which ones to avoid to stay on top of your oral and dental health. While several foods benefit your dental health, others could severely affect it. Below are examples of foods you should avoid or limit to stay on top of your dental and oral health:
- Sugar — Excess sugar consumption can promote the development of harmful bacteria in your mouth, leading to decay or cavities
- Soda — Carbonated soft beverages like juice and soda could increase your risk of tooth decay and cavities because they are highly acidic and sugary
- Alcoholic beverages — Alcoholic beverages like spirits, wine, and beer could negatively affect your dental health because they cause dehydration and dry mouth, which create an excellent environment for harmful bacteria to thrive
- Crackers — Crackers and several other refined carbohydrates can break down into simple sugars in your mouth, creating an excellent breeding ground for the harmful cavity-causing bacteria
- Ice — While technically ice is not food, chewing it could crack your teeth and also aggravate gum disease
While you do not have to eliminate these foods from your diet, limiting their consumption is advisable to keep your teeth healthy.
Find a Lakewood Dentist Near Me
Excellent, well-thought-out nutrition is vital for maintaining healthy gums and teeth throughout life. Along with regular flossing and brushing, a healthy diet and snacking can help you maintain your dental health.
At The Lakewood Dentist, we encourage patients to incorporate healthy foods into their daily diets for healthy teeth and gums. The good news is that all healthy foods for teeth also benefit overall body health.
If you are looking for a reliable dentist for you and your family’s dental and oral care needs, our dentists are here to help. Call us at 562-423-1441 to schedule your first obligation-free consultation with us today.