Are Your Teeth On Acid?

Every morning, children across America hear the words, "Finish your orange juice...Now go brush your teeth!" Orange juice is good for the body, and brushing is good for the teeth, but orange juice (and other acidic beverages) immediately followed by brushing is catestrophic to teeth. Could mom be wrong after all these years?

Enamel Erosion- A number of studies have shown that beverages with a low pH (acidic) have an influence on the softening and erosion of tooth enamel. One of the studies exposed a cow tooth to an acidic soft drink for 5 minutes and reported that the tooth surface--after only 5 minutes--was 31% less hard. The study also reported that the tooth regained only 86% of its strength back after a 24hr period of time.

Dental Abrasion- Another study revealed that brushing teeth immediately after consuming acidic products accelerates enamel erosion. Once the enamel is softened by the acid, it becomes more susceptible to abrasions by toothbrush bristles.

Most people tend to sip their beverages, submersing their teeth for a total time of several minutes. So a recent study chose to immerse teeth at times of 5 seconds, 1 minute or 10 minutes in one of the following four beverages: Coca-Cola, Pepsi One, Diet Mountain Dew or Tropicana Pure Premium Low Acid Orange Juice. Micrographs showed that the appearance of the tooth enamel was altered after only 5 seconds. The altered appearance showed the noticeably softer enamel surface. Brushing with toothpaste induced even greater surface changes and caused some enamel to be brushed away.

So how much time should elapse after drinking acidic beverages before brushing can occur? Well, that has yet to be determined. What we do know is that the plaque around teeth becomes acidic within 2 minutes of drinking a beverage containing sugar and that more than 30 minutes must elapse before normal pH is restored. Until a protocol is determined, I tell my patients to swish with water after drinking an acidic beverage and wait 30 minutes before brushing.

All acidic beverages aren't bad for the body, but most are bad for the teeth if not cared for properly...so don't leave your teeth on acid--Swish, Wait, then Brush!

Does Size Really Matter?

I remember feeding my nephew shortly after he began eating solid foods. This child loved to play & loved to eat, which in most cases isn't a big deal; however, the quantity of food eaten was out of the ordinary. Like most active little boys, he enjoyed playing so much that eating became somewhat of a chore. In the excitement of wanting to return to playing, he would eat so quickly that the results, sometimes in whole, would show up later in his diaper.

As children, most of us can remember our parents reminding us to chew our food. I even remember my grandmother advising us to chew each bite 32 times. Well, as a child--and even as an adult, 32 times takes forever--even getting to 10 is a stretch. Most often people reference chewing longer for fear of choking, but there's another reason why we must remember to chew our food well.

Our back teeth are made for chewing. Their design and position in the mouth are all indicators for chewing. We have also known for years that digestion begins in the mouth, and not the stomach. For example, before a bite is taken, saliva is produced, which hydrates & prepares the mouth to begin digesting the food. Saliva begins this process because it contains special enzymes. When eating, back teeth come together and a great force is placed on the food, causing the food to start breaking down. The jaw moves, causing a chewing action, and the food is broken down even further. The food is swallowed and progresses into the stomach and then the small intestines, both of which continue breaking down the food into even smaller particles to aid in digestion.

Food is made up of nutrients, minerals, etc. that provide our bodies with energy and nutrition. Once food leaves the mouth, it has a limited amount of time to go from stomach, to intestine, to well, how should I say it?...porcelain. This means that if food is not chewed enough, the stomach doesn't have enough time to break it down and extract all the nutrients inside. So the stomach does what it can in the limited amount of time it has with the food and then the remaining food is sent to the small intestines to take over. Again, there's a limited amount of time in the small intestines before the food remnants are "out the door". In essence, the larger, and less chewed, pieces of food provide less nutrition for the body than the well-chewed, broken-down, smaller versions.

So the next time you prepare to take a bite of food, ask yourself...Does Size Really Matter? I think men and women would both agree that it does--At least in this case.