Keeping Teeth Healthy through Diet

Dentists have long accepted the connection between a good diet and healthy teeth. Your dentist has no doubt provided you with a list of the forbidden foods that you must keep away from as much as possible. Top of the list are hard candies, starchy foods, chewy foods like caramel toffees, sugary sodas etc. These foods have a way of sticking back on your teeth even after you have finished eating them. Once on your teeth, they continue to be preyed upon by bacteria that are formed by the action of harmful oral acids. Plaque and tartar soon begin to form, and the result is, tooth decay, gum disease and another oral health diseases.

But did you know that you can actually prevent common dental health problems with the right diet? For instance, studies have shown that people whose saliva contains a lot of vitamin K don’t suffer from cavities easily. Vitamin K is one of the key nutrients for dental health. It is responsible for depositing calcium in your teeth. Common sources of vitamin K are liver, and the animal fats of animals that have been allowed to graze on pasture. Egg yolk and cheese are also excellent sources of vitamin K. if you are not too keen on cheese and butter to get your vitamin K, check out your neighborhood Asian specialty stores for nato, a soy product that is fermented to deliver a high quantity of Vitamin K.

A diet that includes healthy quantities of cod liver oil, and butter oil, both containing high quantities of vitamins has actually been found to prevent the formation of tooth decay. This diet, when combined with a complete abstinence from sugar allows the teeth to rebuild themselves, removing the decay naturally. Some doctors actually use drops of a combination of cod liver oil and butter oil to speed along the healing process.

The importance of nutrients can also extend to preventing the need for dental braces in children. According to some nutritionists, when children are not given a diet that’s rich in nutrients that can build a healthy, strong and wide palate, it can lead to deformities in the emergence of teeth. In the absence of healthy nutrients that can help in the formation of a large palate, teeth are likely to emerge crooked or misaligned, leading to the need for dental braces. The formation of the palate begins while the fetus is still in the womb, and continues through the first years of his life. This is why eating a healthy diet during pregnancy and giving infants a nutritious diet is so important.

There is no doubt that you can avoid dental problems by keeping away from the wrong foods. In the same vein, it's also possible that your teeth can actually be strengthened with the right foods. Eating the right foods can help prevent dental disease by providing your teeth with the tools they need to fight disease.  Teeth are stronger, healthier and don't require expensive treatments to fix.