Posted on Jun 27, 2012 in Teeth | 2 comments

sweets

Sweet Remedies for Better Teeth

There are lots of things you can do to enjoy healthier teeth, from brushing more thoroughly and more frequently, to drinking more water and eating more fiber.

Whatever you do though, it’s very important that you remember to avoid sweets and other unhealthy treats that contain lots of sugar and this is the number one way to improve your teeth. The reason this is so important is essentially that the bacteria in your mouth which creates plaque needs sugar to live – it’s essentially its food. This then means that when you eat sweets, it’s like laying bread out for the birds and you can expect to get a lot more bacteria collecting over time as a result.

Sugar

Of course sugar is not only bad for your teeth, it also has a large number of ill effects on the body, and chances are that this is not the first time you have tried to eliminate the sugar in your diet and have struggled to do so. As such then, it will take more than just knowing that it’s bad for your teeth to get you to successfully give up the sugar. Here we will look at how to better control your urges and end your dependency on sugar.

toasted marshmallow

CBT

Cognitive behavioral therapy is a school of psychology that basically looks at how we can effectively ‘reprogram’ our thoughts by looking for unhealthy thought patterns and then overwriting them with new, more positive ones. Some diet experts then recommend trying to effectively ‘convince’ yourself that you don’t even like sweets or cakes. The way you would do this is to simply repeat that to yourself every time it comes up – so next time you head to the cupboard and think you want to get a chocolate out, just think ‘wait a second, I don’t like chocolate’. Eventually you can convince yourself not to eat as much chocolate as a result.

burger

Eye on the Prize

Meanwhile it helps to keep in mind the reasons you are trying to give up sweets in the first place, and to look at all the benefits that will come from exercising some willpower. In other words then, when you next go to help yourself to a fistful of sweets, try smiling at yourself in the mirror and remember what it will do to your teeth. Likewise look at your skin and think about what it can do for your complexion, and then try grabbing a little patch of flab and thinking how that will be effected as well. Suddenly those sweets don’t seem so inviting.

Replacements

What also helps of course is to have something else to eat that is a lot less damaging for you. In particular it’s a good idea to have something like yogurt or cereal that will still be sweet and give you that pick me up without damaging your teeth quite so much.

muffin

Energy Management

Often we crave sugar because of how it makes us feel – it’s a pick me up and a comfort food and we often eat it because we feel down or lethargic – as sugar gives us energy this is what we crave to fix ourselves.

If you can avoid getting into that position where you feel low then, you will be able to avoid having to fight the craving for something as a pick me up. The best way to avoid this is to make sure that you eat plenty of complex carbs at the start of the day which will give you slow release carbs providing you with a steady supply of energy throughout the day that does not damage your teeth. Meanwhile make sure you get enough sleep and don’t forget the importance of mood which can affect your health in a big way – in short if you feel depressed then you are going to crave sweets so believe it or not changing your job could actually help you to improve your teeth. This is just one example of how our lifestyle is so interconnected and you can’t just change one aspect of it without changing the rest as well.

question mark

Have you chewed on too many sweets already and now have missing teeth? One thing you can do about this is to get dental implants.

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