How Does Beer Affect Your Teeth?

It may be your favorite beverage but it’s not without its downsides. We are talking about beer and how it is affecting your dental health.

If you didn’t know that beer could deteriorate your teeth, then read on to find out along with the ways to protect your oral health.

Tooth Discoloration:

Many beverages including soft drinks can cause tooth discoloration. Beer is one of many drinks that does that. Although all kinds of beers can lead to this problem darker beers like porters and stouts could particularly aggravate the problem. Make no mistakes, beers made from blackberries and cherries won’t help the situation either. So, you might want to drink wisely.

Enamel Loss:

Beer does more than just discolor your teeth. It can be a huge factor that causes structural damage as well. Enamel is the protective layer that surrounds your teeth. It’s very hard but acidic elements can affect its integrity. If you regularly consume beer, over the period, it could cause irreparable damage.

Enamel erosion can expose the dentil below the surface eventually exposing the tooth to the sensitivity which can be particularly discomforting.

Gum Disease:

You may think that beer has nothing to do with sugar but you it could not be farther from the truth. In fact, it carries sugar in abundance. When this sugar mixes with bacteria, it leads to plaque formation. It’s important to brush at least twice a day to remove this sticky film from the teeth. However, forgetting to brush after drinking beer can cause plaque to turn into tartar which is a much harder substance and dangerous to oral health.

Tartar can come in the way of your oral hygiene routine. The whole thing can eventually lead up to gum disease, periodontists, and all kinds of infections.

Chipped Teeth:

No, we’re not saying that drinking beer will lead to chipped teeth. But, you can think of it as a side-effect of drinking beer. Have you seen people drinking out of a beer can? Sometimes regularly drinking beer out of a beer can physically damage the teeth. Make sure not to use your teeth as a can opener. Although you may not hurt yourself drinking out of a beer can on the first try, you do run the risk of sustaining small cracks over the period of time.

How to Protect Your Teeth:

One may think that the only way to take care of your oral health is to stop drinking beer altogether. But, it’s not entirely true. If you cannot stop drinking beer, then don’t worry because you can always implement precautionary measures. You can start by implementing good dental habits and drinking moderately.

Additionally, you can take the following precautions:

Drink Water:

For every pint of beer, you should try drinking a glass of water. This will help keep the level of intoxication at bay and also take care of your oral health. Regularly drinking water helps in washing away any residential sugar. It also helps wash away any acid.

Brush Regularly:

It doesn't matter whether you are a beer drinker or not, it is imperative that you brush your teeth regularly. Ideally, it’s recommended to go about it twice a day but if you can take some time out and schedule a third session after a heavy meal or right after you’ve enjoyed happy hours, that should definitely help keep all kinds of oral health problems at bay and combat any health issues.

Floss Everyday:

Floss reaches those areas around your teeth that bristles of your brush can never. Flossing every day can prevent tartar from building up and cause any kind of decay.

Conclusion:

Prevention is always better than cure if you talk about oral health. Additionally, it is good to pay a visit to your dentist. To locate the best dentists in your vicinity, you can try logging onto Net Pro Referral.