Diet and the Teeth

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Sep 21, 1905

Diet and the Teeth

An exchange says: “One of the commonest causes of bad teeth is that of taking very hot food. Hot food and very hot tea or coffee cause the enamel on the teeth to expand, and breathing cold air afterward causes it to contract. When the enamel cracks, as it soon does, the inner part of the tooth soon crumbles away. Acids formed by the decomposition of food within the mouth, or acid regurgitation due to fermentation of food in the stomach, are always waging war upon the teeth by breaking down their enamel. To guard against this evil, care should be taken in the selection and combination of food, and thoroughly to cleanse the mouth at least night and morning, even if it be not possible to do so after every meal. More dangerous than naturally formed acids is the more powerful acid of vinegar. Place an egg in a cup of diluted vinegar, and in a few hours the shell will be entirely dissolved. Vinegar exerts a similar influence on the teeth. Yet foolish girls, to make themselves pale, often drink vinegar; the teeth pay the penalty. If one desired to ruin his teeth, he could not choose a surer way of doing it, and it is a well-known fact that the dentist’s most profitable patients are those who indulge in the use of vinegar in their food.”