Everytime you eat or drink something containing sugar, your teeth soften for approximately 2 hours. The frequency and amount of sugary foods and acidic drinks should be reduced and restricted to mealtimes.

​Top Tips

• Don’t snack in between meals.
• If you have to snack the best foods are savoury such as: raw carrots, cucumber, celery and peppers, chunk of cheese, plain cheese biscuit such as oat cakes, bread sticks, rice cakes, plain crisps, crumpets, pitta bread.
• Drink plain tap water or tea/coffee without sugar in between meals.
• Don’t eat sugary foods within an hour of bedtime.
• Chewing sugar free gum after eating may help to increase the salivary flow which helps the teeth to repair themselves.
• Check the packaging of foods and drinks you consume for sugar content (anything ending in –OSE e.g. sucrose/fructose) and hidden sugars. Tomatao ketchup, mayonnaise, crisps and baked beans are glucose, sucrose, fructose etc.
• Fizzy drinks, fruit squashes (including those that say ‘no added sugar’), fruit juice and smoothies will all cause decay and acid erosion.
• Fresh fruit should be eaten at meal times ideally. Some fruits such as bananas cause a lot of decay and citrus fruits can cause decay and acid erosion of the teeth.
• Avoid tablets high in sugars e.g. antacids, breath mints or cough lozenges. These can be particularly damaging