Which of these two acts do you think will cause a cavity the fastest, if done on a daily basis?
1. Chugging 2 liters of a "sugar drink" in 20 minutes (once per day).
2. Sipping 12 ounces of a "sugar drink" over a 6 hour period of time.
Most people believe that the amount of sugar in a drink is the greatest factor in the speed of tooth decay. As it turns out, the greatest factor in how fast you or your child will cause a cavity the fastest is the amount of time that the sugar is on the teeth.
The good news is that your saliva is actually a tool that can help recover the damage that "sugar drinks" cause to teeth. However, it takes 1 to 2 hours after the drink is consumed for your saliva to do its job.
So, if you consume another sugary drink within the 1 to 2 hours of the last drink, then you have canceled out all the help that your saliva had given your teeth, and a cavity starts to grow.
What can you do to reduce your chances of tooth decay? The answer is simple if you maintain a good habit of brushing and flossing twice a day. All you have to do is eliminate sugary foods and drinks from your diet!
In today's society, the realistic answer for a person already in good health would be to limit your sugar intake to one or two 20 minute sessions of sugar in-take per day. Make sure you look at the labels on many of the foods and drinks that you normally consume and you may be surprised at how much sugar is in them. Sodas, sports drink, energy drinks and candies, to name a few, are all enemies to your teeth.
Submitted by Dr. Frank Wright
A Mortenson Family Dentist
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