Why You Should Protect Your Tooth Enamel
Enamel plays an important role in maintaining healthy teeth. It protects the inner layers of teeth from being damaged by dietary acids and helps keep your teeth looking white. It also cannot be restored, so it is important to ensure your enamel stays healthy.
Since tooth enamel contains no living cells, it lacks the ability to regrow. That means that once it’s damaged, it’s gone—leaving you vulnerable to tooth sensitivity and yellow teeth.
Acid found in foods and drinks is the leading cause of damage to tooth enamel. Many acidic foods and drinks that make up our everyday diets, like fruits and fruit juices, coffee, and wine, can weaken tooth enamel over time. This process is called acid erosion, and approximately 1 in every 3 young adults is already showing signs of it.
Acid erosion can also be caused by the acid produced by the oral bacteria in plaque, which interacts with sugars in the foods we eat to demineralize tooth enamel.
Healthy, strong enamel is not only essential for keeping your teeth free from cavities and other oral health issues—it also helps keep them white. So if you want white teeth, strengthening and protecting your enamel is key.
Taking steps to prevent acid erosion can ensure that your enamel—and the rest of your mouth—
stay healthy now and in the future.
