A recent study has found that just 2 glasses of wine could contain almost the entire adult's daily allowance of sugar.
As well as being bad for our health, excessive sugar is a major factor in tooth decay. These findings point to the necessity to be aware of just how much sugar a bottle of wine contains and adjust our oral hygiene routine accordingly.
Tooth Decay – Sugar and Enamel-destroying acids
We constantly strive to ensure our patients are aware of the negative effects of sugar on teeth and gum health. Informing our adult and child patients alike that sugar creates enamel-eating acids, that is, when you consume sugar, it immediately begins interacting with the plaque bacteria present in your mouth to produce acid. The acid then dissolves your enamel slowly, creating cavities in your teeth, making acid the culprit for tooth decay.
Tooth Decay – Sugar and Gum Disease
It’s also our mission to make our patients aware of not only the damage to teeth through decay caused by sugar acids, but of the ill effects of the tiny bacteria attracted to the sugar acid, that cause gingivitis and gum disease. These diseases can cause your gums to recede away from your teeth and destroy the protective tissues that hold your teeth into place.
Once teeth are lost, the bone density of the jaw decreases leading to further tooth loss.
Most of our patients are aware that red wine stains their teeth but are unaware that the hidden sugars in their glass of wine can cause decay. We find it is in our patient’s best interest to ensure they are aware of the damage these ‘hidden’ sugars cause to their teeth and gums, but also, to their health in general.
Tooth Decay – Our advice
As we counsel our patients, the most important tool in preventing tooth decay is proper oral hygiene. This involves brushing at least twice a day, in the morning to remove any bacteria built up during the night, and before bed, to ensure the teeth are as clean as possible and acid and plaque have been removed. We also advise patients to clean between the teeth (interdental flossing) where brushing cannot reach. This could be via dental floss, picks or Tepes and to clean teeth after any particularly sugary rich food or drink. The main goal is to ensure that teeth are as clean as possible and are not adversely affected by sugar acids and bacteria overnight.
We further advise patients to have regular checkups with us (usually 6 or 12 monthly) and to see our Hygienist regularly to ensure teeth are deep cleaned and gum disease is prevented.
Gateway Dental offer monthly membership plans to help you stay on track with your routine appointments.
For only £20.70 a month, you will receive 2 x checkups and 2 x hygienist cleans per year, with additional benefits like 50% off x-rays and 10% discount on general treatment. Many patients find this plan helpful as it allows you to spread the cost each month and has a total yearly saving of £66!
Tooth Decay – Beware of the hidden sugars in your glass of wine
As we mentioned above it is not widely known that 2 glasses of wine can contain almost the entire adult daily allowance of sugar. A recent study carried out by Alcohol Alliance UK found that “while the amount of sugar in a wine bottle did vary – between 0g and 59g, most contained some level of sugar that would be contributing to the daily allowance of sugar (30g per adult or roughly 7 sugar cubes).”
Interestingly, the Alcohol Health Alliance is campaigning to have the laws regarding wine labelling changed so that alcohol will no longer be exempt from Food and Wine labelling.
We believe that would only be a positive move to help patients understand how much sugar they are consuming daily. We hope that labelling laws change soon.
Until then, we advise patients to be mindful of the possibility of high levels of sugar in their glass of wine and to brush their teeth after consuming.
Have a lovely day and remember, enjoy your wine in moderation and clean your teeth afterwards!
Gateway Dental Team
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