SPONSORED You already know that lollies, sugary soft drinks and sticky toffee are bad for your teeth, but a quick look at some of the other foods that are ruining your pearlers might leave a bad taste in your mouth.

1. Some fruit

Some fruits, such as oranges and lemons, are acidic enough to cause dental erosion. Some kinds of apples and grapes can do the same thing, and your teeth can even find it hard to deal with non-acidic fruits like bananas. Now, no one is saying don’t eat fruit, but it’s important to wash any fruit down with a glass of water or milk. Fruit is a lot less harmful to your teeth than sugar-loaded processed foods, but giving your saliva some help protecting your teeth by taking a drink is good practice no matter what food you eat, according to Bond Street Dental.

2. Ice

It can be tempting when you finish a cool drink to crunch or suck on the odd piece of ice. But if you have your teeth foremost in mind, don’t. While sucking is fine, and can help stimulate saliva, biting ice can chip the enamel off your teeth, causing problems in the long run.

3. Popcorn

Obviously if you buy the sweet caramel-coated stuff, there can be problems for your teeth, but even if you stick to plain popcorn, beware of the damage it can do. Little bits of popcorn can hang around in small spaces between your teeth for a long time. If you’ve ever eaten popcorn at the movies you’ll know the feeling of coming home and going straight to the bathroom to find your toothbrush or to floss. The un-popped kernels can also chip your teeth’s enamel, leading to fillings.

4. Fruit juice & sports drinks

Like the fruit mentioned before, fruit juice can also be high in acid. This can erode your teeth and make it hard for saliva to do its job. The same goes for sports drinks. On top of the acid, both fruit drinks and sports drinks also have high sugar content, which isn’t good for healthy teeth.

5. Bottled water

You might think you’re doing the right thing by buying a bottle of water to drink with lunch. But the problem with bottled water is it lacks fluoride, which is found in tap water in Australia. Fluoride helps prevent tooth decay – so instead of buying bottled water, invest in a reusable water bottle and fill it up with tap water before leaving the house. 

For more information on oral hygiene, visit bondstreetdental.com.au