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sugar and teeth

Dental Questions: Can eating fruit harm your teeth?

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Dental Questions: Can eating fruit harm your teeth?

Fruits and vegetables are often hailed as the healthiest parts of a balanced diet. They bring vitamins, minerals and antioxidants to almost every dish, while avoiding harmful fats and oils. However, since many fruits are acidic and high in sugars, they can be potentially harmful to your teeth.

As with all foods, the quantity and quality of the fruit you eat doesn't matter as much as the duration in which it is consumed. The bacteria in your mouth don't care if it's organic and natural or processed and preserved. To them, sugar is sugar. As such, the best way you can modify the bacteria's response is to limit the time that your teeth are exposed to carbohydrates.

Every time we eat or drink our mouths turn to an acidic state for 30 minutes. During this period, dental enamel becomes softened and prone to decay. In this sense, someone who eats every 30 minutes spends nearly the entire day damaging their teeth. This is why snacking on apple slices all day is more harmful than eating a single candy bar immediately after a meal (in a strictly dental sense).  

Another factor you can control is the consistency of the foods you eat. Sticky and dry fruits like raisins can be much more harmful than something crisp and moist like pear or apple. This is particularly true in children, who don't have a natural tendency to pick food out of their teeth. 

In total, fruit makes an excellent healthy snack, but must be enjoyed in moderation. Realize that it still contains acids and sugars that fuel the tooth decay process. As with any sweet food, we recommend keeping snacking on fruits to a minimum and sticking to eating only at mealtime. If you must snack, make sure that you are cleaning your teeth of any residual food and rinsing with water when you're finished. If you have any more questions on diets, tooth decay and cavity prevention, please give our office a call!

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Case Presentation: Mountain Dew Mouth Reconstruction

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Case Presentation: Mountain Dew Mouth Reconstruction

thousandoaksfamilydentistry.com

Today’s case is a typical example of a condition called “Mountain Dew mouth.” It shows how rampant decay develops and what we can do to repair and intervene. Before describing what we did, it is important to note that home care and diet are key in stopping the spread of cavities. All the dentistry in the world won’t help unless we can disrupt the decay causing bacteria!

We typically see Mountain Dew mouth in younger patients who haven’t seen a dentist in a few years. Sugary drinks (such as Mountain Dew) create the perfect storm for rampant dental decay. They can contain as much as 46 grams of sugar per 12 ounce serving, more than enough to feed the bacteria in your mouth and start the decay process. The liquid is both sticky and acidic, making it efficient at evenly coating and softening all enamel surfaces. Finally, these drinks usually consumed over a long period of time. Duration, not quantity, is the important factor in the tooth decay process. The same 46 grams of sugar wouldn’t be nearly as destructive if they were consumed quickly and not allowed to bathe the teeth.

This patient came to us with dark stained decay around the necks of their front teeth. These areas take the majority of liquid exposure when we drink, and thus tend to decay first. You can also spot dark shadows around the sides of the teeth, signifying more decay beneath the enamel surface. None of the cavities on the front teeth extended to the dental pulp, meaning root canals or extractions weren’t immediately necessary. Unfortunately, some of the molars did have extensive decay and will need to be removed at a future appointment.

We proceeded to remove all decayed and compromised enamel. This process is very delicate, as we want to be thorough while leaving as much sound tooth structure as possible.  Once the decay was gone, we filled the teeth using a combination of glass ionomer and composite tooth colored materials. Glass ionomer is great for repairing rampant decay, as it both bonds to the tooth structure and releases fluoride on to the remaining enamel. In contrast, composite allows us to recreate difficult contours and best match the cosmetics of natural teeth. The entire procedure took us a single appointment, and the patient left our office with a beautifully restored smile!


Again, it is important to note that all of our restorative work will come undone unless this patient can stop the intake of sugary drinks and keep up with their daily brushing and flossing. While fillings and crowns can remove active dental decay, only proper hygiene AND healthy diet choices can stop the bacteria’s progress. If you would like to know more about dental decay, what foods cause it or how to intervene, please contact our office.

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