2 Eating Methods Which Could Hurt Your Teeth More Than Your Waistline

There is nothing wrong with being focused on body health, and there are periods in your life when dieting is used to return to a weight range you're happy with. However, as someone who has embraced different types of diets in the past, have you ever given thought to how dieting also affects oral health? With 90% of Australian adults experiencing tooth decay, it is important that every Australian considers the impact their lifestyle plays on their teeth. So, before you reach for your next diet sheet, consider this information regarding your mouth's relationship with food.

Ketogenic Diet

The ketogenic diet makes news on a daily basis as celebrities embrace this trend of cutting carbs from their diet. Eliminating pasta, cereal, bread and other grains from the daily eating schedule is said to help you lose a lot of kilos in a short amount of time. While some people do experience weight loss while following a keto diet, there is one oral issue with this lifestyle, and that issue is bad breath.

When you don't feed your body carbs, it burns fat stores for fuel instead of the carbohydrates you eat. As a result of this, you enter a state of ketosis. One of the side effects of ketosis is breath which has been described as having a rotten fruit or acetone odour. Drinking a lot of water helps to dull the smell, but it is still off putting to many people.

Instead of doing a ketogenic diet, you may be considering prescribed diet pills, but these have an impact on your mouth too.

Diet Medication

Diet medication is prescribed by doctors when you need medical assistance in getting your weight loss started. One of the side effects of some diet pills is a dry mouth. As you already know, you need saliva in your mouth to wash away bacteria which settles on and between your teeth. This bacteria turns into plaque and also causes cavities. With a dry mouth, food scraps in your mouth are not washed away, and you need to add more liquid to your mouth to replace the saliva. If you turn to sports drinks or fluids other than water to rehydrate your mouth, you're adding more sugar in there and creating quite the vicious cycle.

These are just two examples of different dieting changes which are popular, but which could leave you with a dental repair bill bigger than you want or need. Talk to your dentist before starting any new diet plan so you can fully appreciate the effects your food changes will have on your mouth.