Texas is hot in the summer. Like, really hot.
That’s why we want to talk to you about the importance of staying hydrated.
You might be asking yourself what hydration has to do with oral health. After all,  aren’t we just the people who clean your teeth?
Well, it turns out that hydration has a lot to do with good oral health! First, we’ll discuss why this is true, and then we’ll go over the best ways of staying hydrated during the scorching summer months in Bedford, Texas.
How Water Affects Your Oral Health
Did you know that saliva is one of the best ways to combat harmful bacteria in your mouth? It clears the bacteria away, acting as another line of defense after brushing, flossing, and fluoride.
Water is essential to sufficient saliva production, which makes hydration directly related to the quality of your oral health. Without enough water in your body, you won’t be able to make enough saliva.
Water not only bolsters the production of saliva, but it also helps rinse out plaque and bacteria before they can settle in and start doing damage. Lack of hydration will lead to tooth decay, gingivitis, and a host of other issues. What’s worse, if you don’t rid your mouth of bacteria before gum disease sets in, you’ll have to get treatment to prevent loss of teeth.
There’s a much better way. Just keep yourself hydrated in the first place. It’ll help your overall health as well as your oral health!
Staying Hydrated
The question is, how do you stay hydrated?
First and foremost, I recommend you toss out all the sports drinks. Fruit punch might be refreshing and cool after a day in the sun, but drinks like these often contain sugar and caffeine, which directly damage the enamel on your teeth and encourage the proliferation of harmful bacteria.
One helpful tip to figure out if the drink you have is too sugary is to divide the number of grams of sugar it contains by four. That tells you roughly how many teaspoons of sugar it has. Most sports drinks contain somewhere around twelve teaspoons of sugar!
Considering a typical adult male shouldn’t have more than nine teaspoons of sugar per day, and an adult female shouldn’t have more than five or six teaspoons, this is an outrageous amount that can wreak sheer havoc on your teeth. It’s a double whammy when you consider that all that sugar actually dehydrates you, which defeats the purpose of the sports drink in the first place!
For great hydration and oral health, turn to fluoridated bottled water or local tap water. As long as you don’t filter it, Bedford’s tap water contains the fluoride you need. The key is to drink lots and lots of water.
That’s pretty obvious, though. For additional help with dry mouth, I highly recommend using Biotine dry mouth rinse and toothpaste.
Other than that, just be sure to drink lots of water and try to avoid too much intense sun exposure.
Stay hydrated!
~Dr. Marea White