Family Dentistry
1414 Kingsley Ave.
Suite 2
Orange Park, Florida 32073
Phone: 904.269.3842
Fax: 904.269.0317
E-mail:office@drarchambault.com

Hot Topics

09/23/10: Diet & Teeth; Read more about how your diet affects your teeth.

11/04/08: Dental Habits; Read more about habits that can affect your dental health.

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Diet & Teeth

We are seeing an increase in the incidence of tooth decay due to poor dietary choices. “You are what you eat,” also applies to oral health. Many of our dietary choices really fall under the category of “habits.” Habits like the regular consumption of sugar will lead eventually to decay. You might be surprised to learn of some of the culprits. Energy drinks, Gatorade and cough drops, soft drinks, sweet tea, hard candy and breath mints are cavity causing agents. For children, raisins, fruit roll ups and fruit juice cause cavities when consumed on a regular basis, between meals or before bed. Don’t feel guilty if your child has raisins as a snack and washes it down with apple juice. If it is done every day for an entire summer however, the chance of getting cavities greatly increases. This is especially true when one of their friends or relatives (Are you listening grandparents?) is giving them Skittles.

Occasionally we encounter a patient with erosion of the teeth that is cause by sucking on fruit slices – lemon, lime or orange. This is a particularly destructive habit that can lead to the need of root canals and crowns to save the teeth.

We are often asked if diet sodas are OK to drink. Diet sodas do not cause as many problems as regular soda. If you read the label however, you will see they contain small amounts of citric acid and phosphoric acid. If taken on a regular basis these acids cause an etching effect on teeth that gives a boost to the formation of cavities. With any soft drink, sipping slowly causes the most damage. Having an occasional soda or sweet tea is really no problem. Personally, I drink root beer in the summer and I love Sonny’s iced tea for lunch once in a while. Having any sugared drink only with a meal greatly minimizes any adverse dental or diet effects.

For the times when we have to eat on the go or do have a between meal snack, we recommend chewing xylitol flavored gum afterwards. Xylitol does not cause cavities and in fact helps prevent them. Trident makes xylitol flavored gum. Look for “xylitol” on the label. The amount of xylitol in the gum is also a factor. To have a more optimum level of xylitol in gum you have to go online to purchase gum. I used epicdental.com to purchase gum that has more xylitol than Trident. They also sell xylitol mints. If you google “xylitol gum” you will see lots of information and places to purchase.

Bad Dental Habits

There are a few habits we often see that affect teeth. They involve nail biting and ice chewing.

Nail biting causes wear on front teeth. It isn't noticable during any one moment of nail biting, but over time causes tiny stress fractures in the enamel. Over time the normally rounded edges of teeth become flat. This usually isn't noticed because it happens so slowly. We always tell patients that fingernails grow back but enamel doesn't.

Ice chewing also causes the slow wear of mostly back teeth. Like nail biting, ice chewing also causes tiny fractures in the enamel. The difference is the rate of the wear. Ice chewing wears teeth much faster and much further than fingernail biting.

Other habits that wear teeth include excessive gum chewing, chewing on pens, pencils and straws. All these things have something in common - they are habits that are very hard to break. We encourage patients to be aware of these habits so they can take steps to reduce and eliminate them to help preserve their teeth and prevent wear.

Greg Archambault, DMD Family Dentistry