Healthy Foods for Healthy Smiles

Great Food Choices to Support Healthy Teeth

We want to have clean, healthy, white teeth. Here’s what we know we need to do:

1.    Brush our teeth twice daily.

2.    Floss once daily (ideally).

3.    Avoid sugary junk foods.

4.    Avoid tobacco products.

5.    Avoid drinking sodas and sports drinks.

But What Foods Should We Eat to Support Tooth and Gum Health?

Fresh Vegetables

Not only are fresh vegetables great for your overall health, they are great for your teeth. Eating vegetables – and a small amount of fruit, for that matter – stimulates saliva flow. Saliva washes away the harmful bacteria, leaving less to attach to your teeth or to populate beneath your gumline. Because of this, increasing natural saliva production is a good way to decrease your risk of developing cavities and developing periodontal disease and it’s also a great way to ward off bad breath.

Whole Grains

Whole grains are rich in B vitamins, which support gum health and can also keep toothaches at bay. Since B vitamins are water soluble (meaning they aren’t stored in the body), they need to be eaten regularly for you to continue reaping their many benefits. This group of vitamins includes B1 (thiamin), B2 (riboflavin), niacin, B6 (pyridoxine), folic acid, B12 (cobalamine), biotin, and pantothenic acid.

Milk & Cheese

Dairy products are alkalizing, meaning they reverse the harmful effects of acids. This is a fantastic thing in the mouth, as acid is the enemy of healthy tooth enamel. Acid erosion sets the stage for tooth decay. Cheese and milk are great alkaline foods.

Water

Not only does the water nourish your body, it helps clear food debris from your teeth without leaving behind any unwanted sugar molecules and without staining teeth, the way coffee and tea do.

Probiotics

In addition to a healthy diet (and daily brushing and flossing), oral care probiotics are a great way to support tooth and gum health. These beneficial bacteria come as a tasty, easy-to-use probiotic mint for adults or probiotic chew for children ages 3 – 11. Both dissolve quickly in the mouth to restore the good bacteria essential for good oral health.

When it comes to maintaining tooth and gum health, choose fresh, choose whole, choose alkaline, and choose water – and you will be making the best possible choices for your teeth and gums.

Do Tongue Scrapers Beat Bad Breath?

Do you use a tongue scraper? Why? Because you like the way your tongue feels after it has been scraped? Does it make your mouth feel cleaner? Do you think it makes your breath fresher?

Tongue scrapers come in all shapes and sizes – and with all kinds of promises. From reducing bad breath to allegedly reducing plaque build-up, tongue scrapers are often touted as one of the best over-the-counter dental tools.

By scraping the surface of the tongue, these devices are said to eliminate bacteria in the mouth and improve bad breath.

The truth is, a good old tooth brush, tooth paste, and dental floss are actually the most important tools for maintaining oral health – just ask your dentist!

While most people brush their teeth at least once or twice daily, flossing falls far behind, with only about 12 percent of Americans flossing daily, and 49 percent don’t floss at all.

The American Dental Association says that there are many benefits to regular flossing, including decreased risk of gum disease, better breath, reduced plaque build-up between teeth and polished tooth surfaces. You simply cannot go wrong by taking a little extra time to floss daily.

What if Brushing and Flossing Aren’t Busting Your Bad Breath?

If you have persistent bad breath, it probably means that there is a bacterial imbalance in your mouth. The best way to kiss bad breath (and its ugly cousin, morning breath) good-bye is to get the bacteria in your mouth back in balance.

What?! I Have Bacteria in My Mouth?

You sure do. In fact, the human mouth is home to between 700 – 800 bacteria. Most of these bacteria are just hanging around because the mouth is a warm, wet, dark place. They cause no harm and affect no benefit. A few, however, are to blame for bad breath. These bacteria naturally emit volatile sulfur compounds as a byproduct. These VSCs are to blame for the vast majority of chronic bad breath conditions.

On the flip side, there are also beneficial bacteria that make their home in the human mouth. If you have chronic bad breath, you are likely lacking in the beneficial bacteria department.

An Easy Fix for a Stinky Problem

Many cultures have long relied on the health benefits of beneficial bacteria, often called probiotics. Through more than 25 years of research, one American researcher, Dr. Jeffrey Hillman, has identified three strains of probiotics found in very healthy mouths. Using this information, Dr. Hillman had developed a probiotic mint that, when used twice daily after brushing, can stop bad-breath-causing bacteria in its tracks. The beneficial bacteria in these mints crowd out the bacteria responsible for bad breath making your mouth kissing fresh – even before you brush in the morning.

The Embarrassment of Bad Breath

Balancing Your Mouth’s Ecosystem Key to Controlling Bad Breath

Brushing, flossing and using mouthwash are not enough to eliminate some cases of bad breath. That, my friends, is not headline news for those who battle chronic halitosis. For those who endure the daily struggle with bad breath, it’s no shocker to learn that what is considered basic dental hygiene doesn’t eliminate – or even tone down – their bad breath.

Recent studies back up what halitosis sufferers have known all along: brushing, flossing, visits to the dentists, mouth washes and breath fresheners simply may not be enough to combat the root cause of bad breath.

Researchers have found that the most effective treatment for bad breath is to adjust the ecological system of bacteria in the mouth, restoring the ratio of health and unhealthy bacteria to equilibrium.

The study, published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology found that all mouths have the odor-causing bacteria. People with bad breath actually have an imbalance of healthy and unhealthy mouth bacteria which leads to an overgrowth of the germs that cause bad breath.

“The results of this investigation clearly demonstrate that oral malodor is a symptom based on the characteristic occupation of indigenous oral bacterial populations, rather than solely on bacterial overgrowth due to poor oral hygiene,” say the researchers.

In other words, making the assumption that bad breath is the result of poor oral hygiene is like making the assumption that dandruff is caused solely by not washing hair.

One of the best ways to remedy this imbalance is to introduce native oral care probiotics into the mouth. These beneficial bacteria compete with harmful bacteria for space and nutrients in the mouth. The end result is fresher breath.

Back to the Basics

Brush Up on Basic Oral Care Techniques to Cut Down on Dental Expenses

As we continue to wait for the economic downturn to turn around, many families are looking for ways to cut household expenses. One place you can easily cut your dental expenses is to take a good luck at your current oral care regimen and give your skills a little brush up.

Are You Brushing Properly?

Pay careful attention the next time you brush your teeth. Are you simply rubbing the brush horizontally across your teeth? Dentists and hygienists agree that’s simply not the best way to clean bacteria and debris from your teeth and from beneath the gumline.

The proper brushing technique is to brush in a circular motion down from the gums. This technique not only works food debris and bacteria loose from the gums, it also helps remove bacteria and debris from the grooves of your teeth, which happen to be vertical.

Do You Floss?

This is, by no means, a guilt trip. But studies show that up to a huge percentage of Americans don’t floss daily. Flossing not only removes the tiny food particles lodged between your teeth, helping fight decay, it also helps dislodge bacteria from the gums. This simple, quick daily step could save you a wallet-full of money down the road.

How’s Your Bacteria Holding Up?

Just like the rest of our bodies, our mouths are host to hundreds of bacteria. Research has identified that some of these bacteria can support gum and tooth health, while others are considered more harmful. Using a simple, tasty oral care probiotic mint twice daily can help replenish the colonies of the beneficial bacteria, giving them the strength in numbers they need to crowd out the harmful bacteria.

Whether you’re looking to invest less money in trips to the dentist or simply to spend less time in the chair when you’re there, getting back to the basics of good oral care can go a long way.

An Important Time to Take Care of Yourself

Oral Care During Chemotherapy

Those undergoing chemotherapy face many struggles, not the least of which is how to manage their oral care.

Because the body’s natural defense line (the white blood cells) is weakened by the medications used during chemotherapy, infections can crop up anywhere in the body. There are several ways you can avoid oral infections during chemotherapy.

See the Dentist

Your dentist will have many strategies to help keep your mouth healthy during chemotherapy. He may even suggest a dental cleaning before your chemo starts to ensure your teeth and gums are as healthy as possible before your treatment begins.

Clean Your Teeth Every Day

Because your gums may be very sensitive during chemotherapy treatments, special care is recommended for keeping your mouth clean and healthy.

Gently brushing twice a day with a soft-bristled tooth brush or a gauze pad will help keep the surfaces of the teeth and gums clean. If your gums are too sensitive for daily brushing, call your dentist. He may want to see you in the office to check on the health of your teeth and gums.

If nausea and vomiting are an issue, brushing your teeth afterward is especially important. Brushing teeth after vomiting not only improves breath, it also removes the acids from the surfaces of the teeth. These acids wear down the surfaces of your teeth and put you at an increased risk for developing cavities.

Add Oral Care Probiotics

Oral care probiotics, like EvoraPlus, can help support tooth and gum health even if your brushing and flossing habits are lacking during chemotherapy. These beneficial bacteria help keep the bacterial balance in the mouth in a healthy ratio. This is especially helpful if your daily oral care routine is interrupted during treatment.

Oral care probiotics support tooth and gum health year-round, not just during chemotherapy treatment. Taking care of your teeth and gums is a good way to take care of your overall health.

Address Ulcers

Mouth ulcers are very common during certain kinds of chemotherapy. These ulcers, which can occur on the lips, gums, insides of the mouth or tongue, often can be prevented by cautious and careful oral hygiene.

Taking care of oral health during chemotherapy is very important. Be sure to share your oral-care concerns with your doctor and your dentist, and do your best to keep your mouth healthy while undergoing treatment.

Ouch!

Tooth Sensitivity? Try Chewing Sugarless Gum!

If you’re one of the hundreds of thousands of people who suffer from tooth sensitivity, relief could be just a stick of gum away.

Researchers who performed a study recently published in the British Dental Journal were looking for ways to relieve the temporary tooth sensitivity experienced by those who have undergone in-office tooth-whitening procedures. They found that those who chewed gum after the procedure had significantly less tooth sensitivity than those who didn’t.
While the study was aimed at helping relieve those with tooth-whitening related sensitivities, researchers found that the simple act of chewing serves as a “Lamaze technique for the teeth,” noting that chewing gum is an extremely cost-effective way to deal with tooth sensitivity.

Products developed with the aim to reduce tooth sensitivity generally work to remineralize the teeth. This study shows that for a short-term solution to tooth sensitivity, such as pain caused by tooth whitening or even tooth pain caused by sinus inflammation, chewing is a simple, non-prescription way for patients to overcome pain.

While chewing things other than gum, such as food, might help relieve tooth pain, sugar-free gum carries the addition feather in its cap of helping fight cavities. Noshing on food to ease your tooth pain may have exactly the opposite effect.

The next time you feel that familiar throb of tooth sensitivity, try reaching for a stick of sugar-free gum before you reach for the phone to call the dentist.

Say Good-Bye to Bad Breath!

Oral Care Probiotics for Fresher Breath

If you’ve ever had bad breath – and who hasn’t? – you know how embarrassing it can be. Sometimes just brushing your teeth helps, if you have a toothbrush and sink handy, that is. Sometimes a stick of gum can help. Sometimes a mint will make your breath better for a few minutes.

But really, most known solutions for tackling bad breath are temporary, topical solutions. After all, once that mint dissolves, your breath is generally no fresher. Same deal with a stick of gum. Once the flavor wears off, your breath is back to where you started.

Bad breath is caused by volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) released by the bacteria that inhabit the mouth. These VSCs can’t be curbed by the use of plain breath mints, breath strips or even gum, which only mask the foul smells. To truly control bad breath, the bacteria responsible for the smelly VSCs needs to be dealt with.

Oral care probiotics are a great way to deal with bad breath. Probiotic mints flood the mouth with beneficial bacteria that crowd out the bad-breath causing bacteria and their VSCs, leaving your breath fresh enough to skip the breath mints, gums and mouth rinses.

In fact, using oral care probiotics can also put an end to one of the most annoying and most difficult-to-control types of bad breath – morning breath!

If you struggle with bad breath or morning breath, skip the gums, mints and mouthwashes, and give EvoraPlus Oral Care Probiotics a try. The only thing you have to lose is your bad breath.

Lower Your Risk of Periodontal Disease with Dietary Changes

Whole Grains for Heart Health and Gum Health

Looking for a healthy dietary change that can also improve your gum health? Researchers say look no further than whole grains.

In a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers announced that, because diabetes and hyperglycemia increase the risk of periodontal inflammation, increasing your daily intake of whole grains and fiber can help offset the risk of developing periodontal disease.

Study participants who replaced their intake of processed grains, like white bread and regular pasta, with whole grains, like whole-grain bread and whole wheat pasta, had a 23% reduction in the incidence of periodontal disease, compared to those who continued to eat processed grains.

Those with the greatest risk reduction ate four servings of whole grains on average by simply replacing servings of processed grains with whole grains. They did not increase their caloric intake when making the switch to whole grains.

How Do Whole Grains Affect Gum Health?

Whole grains lower levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) in the blood, a marker of inflammation associated with periodontal disease, along with high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis.

To get more good grains in your diet, make all of your grains whole grains. Eat oatmeal, brown rice, whole-grain cereals, whole-grain breads and whole-wheat crackers – all foods where the majority of the grain comes from whole grain.

Eating a diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables, along with lean proteins like fish and poultry will also lower inflammation and decrease your risk of inflammation-related diseases.

Healthy Eating Habits Equal Healthy Teeth

Eating an excess of sweets or not brushing your teeth after eating sweets is a fairly sure-fire way of ending up with a mouth full of cavities. Sugar, candy and sweet drinks take the majority of the blame for causing cavities, but there’s a little more to it than simply eating sweets.

How Are Cavities Formed?

Cavities are formed when foods – especially things that break down into sugars, like bread and other simple starches – combine with bacteria in the mouth and turn into acids. These acids cause the enamel of the teeth to erode and eventually cause cavities.

What Are Good Food Choices For Healthy Teeth?

Fresh vegetables are a great choice to avoid tooth decay. Fresh fruits are a good choice, but, since they do contain sugars, it’s best to brush your teeth within 20 minutes of eating them, since plaque begins to form in that time frame.
Cheese is another great food to help protect your healthy smile. Cheese is low in carbohydrates and has a very low pH, so it helps alkalize the mouth and minimize the damage done by acidic foods. Cheese also helps rebuild tooth enamel and produces saliva. A healthy amount of saliva will kill the bacteria that cause cavities and gum disease.

What Else Can I Do to Keep My Teeth Healthy?

Drinking lots of water can help keep your mouth well hydrated and can help wash away food particles left behind after meals. Drinking water also stimulates the production of saliva, which also protects your tooth and gum health.

Another way to boost tooth and gum health is to use oral care probiotics. These probiotics help crowd out harmful bacteria in the mouth by boosting the population of beneficial bacteria in the mouth. These beneficial bacteria compete with harmful bacteria in the mouth for both space and nutrients.

By following simple guidelines of proper oral care and choosing foods that promote oral health, you can help ensure your smile remains healthy and happy.

Affordable Dental Care

Website Shows Facilities That Provide Low-Cost Dental Care

With the economy in a serious slump, many families have found themselves cutting back on spending the past couple of years. Car and home sales have slumped, holiday sales have led stores to cut back on inventory and staff and still many continue to look for ways to cut spending.

Families have cut back on all the extras – gifts, travel, vacations, dining out and then some.

No Expense Spared

One expense that families absolutely should not skimp on, however, is regularly scheduled dental care. In fact, keeping teeth clean and maintained is actually more cost effective than skipping a regular cleaning and potentially risking having a serious problem, like a cavity or early stages of periodontal disease (or gingivitis) going undetected while treatment is easier and more cost effective.

And the reasons for keeping those twice-per-year appointments with the dentist don’t end there. With the many diseases that are now being connected to good oral health, including heart disease, kidney failure, diabetes and more, the importance of regular dental maintenance is becoming even more clear.

Making Dentistry More Affordable

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has created a database to help consumers find dental clinics whose fees are based on a sliding-scale structure. To find a dentist near you whose charges are based on how much money you make, visit http://findahealthcenter.hrsa.gov/.

A Little Extra Support

Adding an oral care probiotic like EvoraPlus to your regular brushing and flossing schedule can go a long way toward supporting your tooth and gum health. By creating a basecamp of beneficial bacteria on your teeth and below your gum line, oral care probiotics crowd out harmful bacteria normally found throughout the mouth. EvoraPlus offers the added benefits of freshening breath and gradually, safely and 100% naturally whitening teeth.

Paying a little extra attention to the health of your teeth and gums can actually save you money in the long run.