Why does eating sugar cause tooth decay? Sugar actually contains these ingredients

It is not difficult to find that children who love to eat sweets will suffer from tooth decay, and their teeth will become black and uneven. Studies have found that sugar contains a variety of acids, which can have a certain destructive effect on teeth, and in severe cases can even cause cavities.

This is closely related to the increase in sugar content in people's food. In nutrition, sugar is called carbohydrates (including sucrose, lactose, glucose, starch, etc.). Almost all our food contains sugar. People often say that eating too much sugar can easily damage your teeth, which makes sense. The white sugar, brown sugar, rock sugar, etc. that we usually eat are all sucrose. Some bacteria in the mouth can use sucrose to synthesize polysaccharides, such as dextran, fructan, etc. Polysaccharides can form a viscous liquid to protect dental plaque. The bacteria in the dental plaque can ferment and decompose sucrose to produce acids (such as lactic acid), and the amount is increasing. Acid has a certain destructive effect on teeth. For example, if you soak egg shells in vinegar, the egg shells will become soft after a few days. This is because the acid dissolves the calcium salt in the egg shell. This phenomenon is called decalcification. The main component of teeth is apatite, which contains a large amount of phosphorus and calcium and can be dissolved after being exposed to acid.

There are many factors that cause tooth decay, mainly the formation of dental plaque and the susceptibility of tooth worms to caries. When these two factors exist at the same time, caries is difficult to avoid. The general process of caries is as follows: the residues of sugary food remaining on the surface of teeth are acted upon by acid-producing bacteria such as Streptococcus mutans in the mouth, producing a variety of acids. If the teeth themselves have weak caries resistance, the tooth tissue will be dissolved, forming caries holes. Carbohydrates account for a large proportion of modern people's food (such as sugar, flour, cake, biscuits, bread, jam, candy, etc.). These foods lack friction and are sticky. They can adhere to the tooth surface for a long time and are easily acted upon by acid-producing bacteria. Therefore, eating sugar can easily cause caries.

Children particularly like to eat sweets, and they do not yet have the habit of consciously maintaining oral hygiene, so the incidence of tooth decay in children is higher than that in adults. It is difficult to ask children to keep their mouths clean like adults, so parents should patiently educate their children to maintain good oral hygiene. If they cannot change the habit of eating snacks in time, they can choose some fresh fruits containing crude fiber instead of carbohydrates, which is beneficial to their dental health and physical growth and development.