When you eat sugar the the bacteria in your mouth use the sugar for energy. In doing this, they produce acid. Acid causes a small amount of tooth surface material to dissolve. With repeated "acid attacks", a hole is formed.

Each time sugar is consumed, the resulting acid attack lasts for one hour.

FREQUENCY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN AMOUNT.

What can I do?

•  Keep acid attacks to no more than 5 a day
• Try artificial sweeteners in tea and coffee. Canderel tastes better!
• Drink more water, sugar-free squash and milk.
• Cut out sugary snacks. Try snacks such as bananas, cheese, Marmite on toast, salad sandwich.
• Read food labels - sugar is often added to processed savoury food such as Baked Beans and tinned soup.

Tooth surface loss

Teeth can be worn away for many reasons but one common reason for thinning of the teeth is dietary acid, such as:

• fizzy drinks including water
• fruit juices
• diet fizzy drinks
• fizzy sports drinks
• large amounts of citrus fruits
• alcohol

Try to substitute fizzy drinks with still water, sugar-free squash or milk. If you want to have fizzy drinks occasionally, drink through a wide bore straw, drink it all at once and don't drink it just before going to bed. No sipping!

After fizzy drinks or fruit juice, it is advisable not to clean your teeth for about an hour, when the acid in your mouth will have been neutralised. This allows your saliva to toughen up the tooth again as it neutralises the acid.