You grow up learning about candy, sweets, lollies, soft drink and all things related and how they are bad for your teeth. Well, if you’ve read any of my posts thus far, you’ll know that I don’t have any of the above. So you can imagine my shock at a recent dental check up, with the announcement that I had 7 cavities, 2 of them being really, really bad! $3.2K, here I begrudgingly come!
There I was, in that oh-so-comfortable position with a suction thingy collecting water and another thingy spraying it out, with latin terms being dictated from dentist to nurse as I made acknowledging noises in an effort to answer questions. As he finished his examination and x-rays, he sat me up, and said ‘it’s not cancer (ok, already here i was petrified!) but it’s a serious amount of cavities. “How does a healthy sugar free woman like you get teeth like this?” He was really shocked and concerned and I was damn near devastated! I am such a proud anti sugar / refined starches kind of girl… How did this happen? Admittedly I’d forgotten to go to the dentist for a couple of years, but to tell you the truth, I wasn’t really worried as I knew my diet was fantastic.
What they don’t tell you growing up, or at least I missed that class when they did, is that several other things are really bad for your teeth!
What did I drink bucket loads of during pregnancy? What do I kick start everyday with after brushing my teeth? What do I drink  on non-drinking days to feel a zingy kick to my end of day drink? LEMONS. I am a lemon junkie through and through.
Lesson learned, and if you’re worried about your teeth, just book and get checked out. It only gets more and more expensive the more you ignore! Other top foods to avoid, or at least to rinse with water and then after about 20 minutes brush your teeth when enjoying are fruit juices, fruit, honey, anything starchy, any citrus, sports drinks and dried fruit as well as the night shade veggies tomato, potato, capsicum and eggplant. If you’re thinking what I’m thinking: We’re soon about to find out we can’t eat anything at all. Argh!
Who knew? I certainly now do!
So please remember, that while lemons are a cheeky $4 odd a kilo, if you don’t brush after eating them, you might find their price goes up by about $3K!
Comments 2
Hi Alexx,
Some great points there. What a shame about the big bill and the fillings to come! A couple of other things about lemons – I start my day with a hot lemon drink which I love. Although lemons are alkaline in the body, they are quite acidic on your teeth so can cause erosion where they erode the tooth enamel. It is REALLY important not to brush immediately after drinking lemon juice. You need to rinse your mouth out or eat something first or your toothbrush will erode your tooth enamel. I have also taken to drinking my lemon juice with a straw to minimise the amount of lemon juice that gets onto my teeth and to have a glass of water straight afterwards. Unfortunately, this too was a hard earned lesson after having work done to fix my eroding tooth enamel. I think, as you say, the regular 6 monthly checkups are really crucial as well. Which reminds me, I need to book mine…
Author
Thanks for your comment Claire – yes, still in shock! I will ameliorate my ‘tooth brush timing’ on the post, as I did read that, yes. Rinse, wait THEN brush! SO annoying that something so good for our insides is so bad for our teeth!
Have a fab day 🙂