We all know the old saw about “The best-tasting foods being the worst for your health”, but is the same true for foods and our teeth? Decide for yourself after reading this list courtesy of our local dentist’s office in Rochester.

For many Minnesotans, potato chips are a guilty pleasure that’s regularly indulged. Unfortunately, even “healthy” potato chip varieties are packed with starch, which becomes sugar when broken down by the chemicals in the human mouth. This sugar soon finds its way in-between the teeth, where it feeds on the bacteria found in plaque and creates acid that eats away at precious enamel.

If you can’t get enough of sour Gummies, Airheads, and the like, we hope you’re up-to-date on your teeth cleaning appointments at our Rochester dentist. All candy is bad for the teeth, but sour candy is especially bad since it contains a stew of acids that are tough on enamel, gums, and everything else in our mouth. Moreover, the candy’s chewiness causes it to adhere to the teeth for longer than usual, allowing more than enough time to cause problems.

Not everyone enjoys chewing on ice, but some people find it comforting. To those folks we say, try and stop. It isn’t that ice is packed with harmful chemicals (it’s just water, after all), but its hard texture can cause teeth to chip, crack, or break. Ice is also known to damage enamel and loosen crowns, and in terms of things we put into our mouths, it’s one of the biggest causes of oral emergencies.

Here lies a conundrum: dried fruit is healthy, but at the same time it’s also sticky: think raisins, figs, apricots, and prunes. Dried fruit does contain sugar, and its stickiness is prone to transferring the sugar onto your teeth and into the cracks between them. As with virtually every other substance on this list, our general dentist near Minneapolis suggests rinsing your mouth and brushing after your teeth after consuming dry fruits. Or, switch to the equally healthy, but less-sticky, fresh alternatives.

Similar to potato chips, bread is rich in starch. When bread is chewed, the starch turns to a gummy-like sugar substance that gets into the teeth and will remain there if left unaddressed. And hard as it may be to believe, bread can cause cavities. If you love bread and can’t live without it, whole wheat is a better, less-starchy option than white.

Coke, Pepsi, and the like comprise a multi-billion-dollar industry that’s known as much for its oft-irresistible taste as it is for its cavity-causing properties. Regular or diet, carbonated soda facilitates acid production within plaque, leading to enamel loss. Drinking pop all day is akin to saturating your teeth in acid, and dark-colored soda can also stain the teeth. Little wonder then that recent studies show consuming large quantities of carbonated soda can damage teeth to the same extent as crack cocaine and methamphetamines. Which will likely make you reassess your priorities, seeing as the further away we are from those drugs, the better.

For all of your dental needs, choose Circle Drive Dental. Our friendly, highly-trained dentists provide general dentistry and cosmetic dentistry solutions to patients of all ages. Contact us today for a consultation.