Healthy living is important. You want to be healthy not just to live longer, but to live better. When you take care yourself, you will be able to enjoy yourself more.

That it why you need to watch what you eat. Eating healthy foods, like fruits and vegetables, will give you more energy, without packing on pounds and clogging your arteries. So by all means, eat well. Just know that no food is perfect and that some foods that are otherwise very good for you may be very hard on your teeth.

Here at New Albany Implants we are passionate about keeping the people of Southern Indiana healthy, so please consider the effects theses healthy foods can have on your teeth.

Citrus

A grapefruit for breakfast is a wonderful way to start off you morning. They taste good, provide healthy fiber, and will give you some much need energy to make it through to lunchtime. Most importantly, grapefruits, along with oranges and other types of citrus, are loaded with Vitamin-C, which helps boost your immune system and fights off colds and other illnesses.

Unfortunately, these fruits are loaded with acid. Citric acid can weaken the enamel on your teeth. Enamel is the hard exterior shell that protects the inside of the tooth, where all the delicate nerves and blood vessels are. A weakened enamel puts your teeth at risk for decay. Decayed teeth ruin smiles. Not only that, they put your whole body at risk. Severe tooth decay can lead to an infection in your tooth. That infection can spread to your gums, other teeth, and even your bloodstream, where it can cause serious illness and health problems throughout your body.

Your inclination may be to brush your teeth immediately after eating citrus, but this is a bad idea. The citric acid can weaken your enamel to the point that brushing could strip the enamel off your tooth, so wait a while to brush. And remember to drink plenty of water along with citrus. This will wash the acid away from the teeth where it can do no harm.

Fruit Juices

Maybe you’ve decided to cut out sugary sodas, so you’ve replaced them with fruit juices, all-natural, no sugar added, of course. Now you can indulge is a sweet thirst quencher without fear of hurting your health.

If only that were true. Just like fruit, fruit juices contain sugar and acid. Sugar feeds the bacteria that causes tooth decay, and as you know, acid weakens the tooth enamel so that the bacteria can get to the inside of tooth.

Another problem with fruit juice is that it concentrates the sugar and acid while removing the pulp, which is made up of healthy fiber that aids in digestion. Essentially, if you’re drinking fruit juice, you are accentuating the unhealthy aspects of fruits while eliminating the healthy ones.

So if you want fruit, eat the actual fruit, and kick that juicer to the curb!

Save Your Smile!

Taking care of your teeth is an essential aspect of healthy living. Your oral health is directly linked to the health of your body as a whole. As we mentioned above, tooth decay can develop into serious problems, like infection, that threaten your overall well-being.

There is another reason that protecting your oral health is important, though. A beautiful smile can make you feel good. Even if you are healthy otherwise, a smile you are not happy with can have you feeling run down.

New Albany Implants wants you to feel great, with a healthy body and a healthy smile. Call us today to find out more about our services and make an appointment.

Be sure to check back in a few days for the next part in this two part blog series.