Preventing Dental Cavities by Eating Right

Video Transcript

"Hello, my name is Melissa, and on behalf of Expert Village, today we are going to be talking about how to prevent a cavity and how to save your smile. In this clip, let's about how to prevent a cavity by doing something as simple as watching what you eat. Now it's not necessarily that you can't eat certain foods or you can eat certain foods, it's watching what you eat and knowing when you are eating it. That if it is really high in sugar that you need to do something about it afterwards as a preventative back-up method. So bacteria if we are talking about that and we have been discussing a lot about bacteria because that, of course, is what cause cavities. But it's important to know that bacteria are extremely fond of foods that are high in sugar or carbohydrates. So sugars are carbohydrates. So a special favorite, especially of bacteria, are foods that stick to your teeth. Can you think of foods that stick to your teeth? (Of course we are talking about things like peanut butter, caramel, honey, candy, things high in sugar). You get that sticky film on your teeth and you just can't get it off. So there are a couple of things to do if you are watching what you eat. Let's say you have had some sugary foods, you can of course brush your teeth, chew dental gum. Something very important you can do: something as simple as drinking water. Try to wash away some of that sugar; some of that bacteria on your teeth. Again, it's just watching what you eat. If you are going to eat a sugary chocolate bar in between meals, of course it's going to do damage to your teeth; not necessarily right away but if you continuously do this over time it's going to have a buildup of bacteria and that's what, in essence of course, we've talked about this causes cavities. So if possible, drink water to wash some of it away. And if possible, brush your teeth immediately after you have a meal, especially if it's high in sugar or carbohydrates."