Sugary foods and beverages might be
delicious and refreshing, but they have a hard and harmful impact on your teeth
– here is how they affect your pearly whites.
The sugar from the foods and
beverages you consume come into direct contact not only with the enamel on the
surface of your teeth, but also with the bacteria that occur naturally in your
mouth. The bacteria feed on the sugars from your diet and they transform the
sugars into acids that instantly start dissolving the enamel on the teeth by
breaking down the minerals that make up the enamel. Each acid attack lasts for
about 20 minutes, then the saliva produces by the salivary glands rinses the
acids away. This also means that each time you consume something sugary, the
cycle starts again and the enamel on your teeth needs to ward off another
attack. Brushing your teeth immediately after sweets is a good idea, and will keep you from having to schedule visits to a cosmetic dentist Littleton offers in the future.
If you consume sweets often, the
body does not have the time it needs to rinse away the acids and to replenish the
minerals in the enamel and the weakened surface of your teeth becomes more
vulnerable, starting to decay. In the earliest phases, tooth decay manifests in
the form of small, discolored patches, but if the problem is not treated and
the weakened enamel stays under the continuous attack by acids, the small spots
quickly turn into cavities, then into inflammations that can lead to loosened
tooth and even the loss of teeth.