Every time you eat or drink something containing sugar, your teeth decay for approximately 45 minutes. The frequency and amount of sugary foods and drinks should be reduced and restricted to mealtimes.
Most sugars in the diet are in processed foods and drinks:
Watch out for hidden sugars found in foods for example:
Look at the ingredients list on foods, anything ending in -OSE means sugar. e.g. maltose, glucose, sucrose, fructose etc.
Particularly watch out for sugar in antacid tablets, cough/throat sweets, breath mints and any sweets that dissolve slowly in the mouth. These can be particularly damaging.
Fizzy drinks, fruit squashes (including those that say ‘no added sugar’), fruit juice and smoothies will all cause decay and acid erosion. Try to only have these drinks at a meal. Avoid sports drinks as these are high in sugar and erosive to enamel.
Drink tap water or tea/coffee without sugar in between meals.
Fresh fruit should be eaten at meal times ideally. Some fruits such as bananas cause a lot of decay and citrus fruits can cause decay and acid erosion of the teeth.
Too much sugar is also bad for your general health as well as your teeth. Too much sugar can lead to obesity, diabetes and some cancers.
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