Healthy Snacks for Healthy Teeth

We all love to snack, so it's essential to understand the best (and worst) snack foods for our teeth. Choosing the right snack foods and establishing healthy, "tooth-friendly" eating patterns at a young age can help to build good habits that last a lifetime. Selecting the right tooth-friendly snacks can help reduce your child's risk of getting cavities, benefiting both the baby teeth and the permanent teeth.

Best Snack Choices for Healthy Teeth

Picking the right snacks that taste good, and are suitable for our teeth, can be tricky. Our favorite recommendations for snack foods for healthy teeth are:

• Cheese (and other dairy products)

• Nuts

• Fresh vegetables

Along with most dairy products, cheese has a good source of calcium and is generally low in sugar. It's essential to be mindful of some dairy products, especially heavily processed yogurts, that may be high in sugar. Cheese is usually a safe bet, and it is available in "String cheese" packaging, which can be a fun way to snack!

Nuts are also great because they are naturally low in sugar, high in "good fats," and don't get stuck in our teeth' deep grooves.

Fresh vegetables such as carrots, broccoli, and bell peppers are excellent snack choices due to them being full of vitamins and antioxidants! Although it can be a struggle to get kids to eat most vegetables, offering a dipping sauce, like ranch, can turn them into a yummy snack that most kids enjoy.

Other great tooth-friendly snack options are smoothies, avocados, apples, and blueberries!

Worst Snack Choices for Healthy Teeth

Snacks that are sticky, like raisins and other dried fruits, can get stuck in the teeth' grooves. Sticky bites can cause an increase in the duration of exposure to sugar on the teeth and can harbor other plaque and bacteria. Making sure your child drinks water or milk with those sticky snacks can help wash out the teeth' grooves and decrease the sugar that is sitting on the teeth.

Other snacks that tend to stick in the grooves of the teeth are crackers, chips, and most candies. Goldfish is a trendy snack, but we recommend that your child drinks water after eating them to keep their teeth clean.

Another important topic to discuss is the overall sugar intake. Did you know that your child's oral health should eat the whole chocolate bar in one sitting instead of eating small bites throughout the day? The same goes for drinking juice, soda, and sports drinks. The increased exposure and duration of sugar (no matter what form) throughout the day results in a more extended amount of total time in the mouth, which results in a high risk for getting cavities. So, if your child is drinking juice, soda, and sports drinks, we recommend that they drink it all in one sitting and drink water and help wash away the sugar.

In Summary

Summarizing key points:

• Good snack choices for healthy teeth: cheese, nuts, and fresh veggies!

• Avoid snacks that quickly get stuck in the grooves: dried fruit, crackers, and other processed foods

• Drink lots of water after meals and snacks to wash away residual food debris

• Try to eat treats in one sitting instead of throughout the entire day

At our office, we will discuss snack choices and their impact on your child's overall dental health. Contact us to schedule an appointment. Call us at 703-525-8200.