- Eat fresh, not dried fruit
A healthy diet is not necessarily a dentally healthy diet. Dried fruit such as raisins are nutritionally valuable but from a dental perspective, can be a bit of a nightmare. This is because the drying process concentrates the natural fruit sugars, such as fructose, leaving a sticky product which hangs around the teeth, increasing the length of attack. Fresh fruit still contains these natural fruit sugars but with the water still present, they are much less damaging for teeth. So, go for grapes over raisins, especially between meals.
- Keep smoothies to mealtimes
Smoothies. The processing of fruit to make a smoothie also makes the natural sugars more readily available to bacteria which cause dental decay. As a treat, a smoothie is ok but try to pair it at the same time as having a meal to minimise its potential to harm the teeth.
A cube of cheese after meals and snacks helps to neutralise the acids which cause dental decay.
- Use a fluoride toothpaste
Make sure you are brushing your child’s teeth with a fluoride toothpaste, twice a day every day. Check the labels and use age appropriate toothpastes.
- Try to minimise the ‘added sugar’ in your diet
There are so many types of sugar – glucose, sucrose, fructose, maltose to name a few but it is the non-milk extrinsic sugars (i.e. those that are added to food, not naturally occurring) which the dental bugs really enjoy. For this reason, try when time allows to prepare your food as freshly as possible – that way you know how much sugar (and salt) you are eating.
Information adapted from http://www.toothfairyblog.org