Our teeth are pretty strong, and it’s all thanks to a natural tissue called enamel. Enamel is a super hard layer of material over the surface of our teeth that protects them from bacterial and physical damage. Without enamel, our teeth would feel sensitive and be much more fragile than they are.

Unfortunately, enamel is so strong that our bodies can’t produce more of it once it’s gone. If bacteria or other hazards wear away the enamel layer of your teeth, it’s gone forever.

However, if you catch enamel damage before it progresses too far, you can remineralize your teeth, which essentially involves boosting the enamel layer and repairing it with minerals like fluoride, calcium, phosphate, and more. Remineralizing your teeth is the best way to ensure their health for years to come.

How Can I Naturally Remineralize My Teeth?

Fortunately, you don’t need to rely on expensive dentist visits to remineralize your teeth’s enamel over time. In fact, there are lots of effective ways in which you can naturally remineralize your teeth, especially if you stick to these helpful habits for the long term.

Brush Your Teeth with Fluoride Toothpaste

For starters, make sure that you regularly brush your teeth with fluoride toothpaste. In fact, the American Dental Association recommends that you brush your teeth twice daily, once in the morning and once in the evening. Use a fluoride toothpaste with a quality electric toothbrush and your teeth’s enamel will be more supported than ever.

Fluoride is the perfect mineral for remineralization because it can fill in the gaps in your teeth’s enamel layer that might have been worn down by acid and grinding damage over time. That’s why fluoride is included in most American tap water, as it passively bolsters teeth.

Want to go the extra mile? Try Supersmile’s Professional Whitening Toothpaste. It not only includes fluoride, but also a proprietary whitening and defending compound called Calprox that whitens your teeth without damaging them like other whitening methods do.

Reduce the Sugar in Your Diet

Furthermore, you should take steps to immediately reduce how much sugar is in your diet. While almost any food can provide fuel for bacteria in tooth plaque, sugar is particularly good for that bacteria and allows them to produce acid more frequently.

In other words, the more sugar you eat, the more plaque your teeth will have to deal with and the faster your enamel will be stripped away.

If you do reduce the sugar in your diet, you’ll not only reduce enamel damage and, therefore, improve the re-mineralization process. You’ll also enjoy other health benefits across the board. Too much sugar is never a good thing, as it leads to more fat and a higher risk of cardiovascular disease.

Moderate Your Fruit Intake

We’re often told that fruits and vegetables are great dietary staples… and they are, to an extent. While fruit is an excellent healthy alternative to sugary candy or sweets, you should also monitor and moderate your fruit intake at the same time.

Fruit naturally has tons of sugar in the form of glucose and many fruits, especially citrus fruits, contain acid that can wear down your teeth’s enamel. Therefore, eating too many fruits can both lead to more plaque formation and reduce your remineralization results at the same time. 

Decrease Your Dairy Consumption

Milk is a bit of an edge case when it comes to tooth health. On the one hand, milk contains casein proteins that can form a protective film over your teeth, potentially protecting enamel as well. Milk also has lots of calcium and phosphorus, both of which are great minerals for re-mineralization and can assist fluoride and filling in enamel gaps.

However, on the other hand, milk is also chock-full of a sugar called lactose. This sugar doesn’t break down as quickly as glucose, so bacteria produce less acid. But it still results in a small amount of acid that wears down enamel over time.

So if you drink too much milk or eat too many dairy products, you can end up boosting bacteria instead of remineralizing your teeth. For the best results, only consume dairy products in moderation rather than making them a huge staple of your diet.

Take a Probiotic

Probiotics are helpful bacteria that can boost the health of your gut microbiome. Your gut microbiome is a system of bacteria that assists with digestion and prevents harmful bacteria from settling in your body.

But certain probiotic strains can also lead to increased oral health and help with re-mineralization. Good bacteria can reduce how effective harmful bacteria are at creating plaque and acid, minimizing their potential damage.

Furthermore, probiotics can help to manage gum disease and ensure that more helpful bacteria are present in your mouth. Those helpful bacteria take up space and prevent harmful bacteria from sticking around as well.

What Foods Can I Eat To Help Remineralize My Teeth?

Alongside the above tips, you can also add several helpful foods to your diet to assist with the re-mineralization process.

Eggs

One surprising option is the egg. Eggs are great for your teeth since they contain protein along with vitamins like vitamin D and vitamin K. Both of these are key vitamins for the maintenance of tooth roots and pulp. Eggs also contain phosphorus, which is a good mineral for enamel health.

Seafood

Many types of seafood, such as fatty fish like salmon, contain omega-3 fatty acids. These important fatty acids can prevent gum disease and inflammation, plus aid your immune system and help to fight off harmful bacteria that form plaque and wear down your teeth's enamel over time.

Red Meats

By the same token, red meat like beef can be a good choice for your gums and teeth. Beef in particular contains vitamins B3 and B12, along with minerals like phosphorus and calcium, both of which are excellent for remineralizing your teeth’s enamel. Just be sure that you floss well after eating beef to ensure that no food particles are left between your teeth!

Cereals

Some types of breakfast cereals can be great boosters for your teeth. Naturally, you’ll want to avoid high sugar cereals, as this can only exacerbate plaque problems.

Instead, target cereals without a lot of sugar that are fortified with extra calcium. Eating some cereal with a small amount of milk might provide your teeth all the calcium they need to re-mineralize effectively, provided you brush your teeth well afterward.

Green Leafy Vegetables

Green leafy vegetables are great for overall bodily health and for your enamel. Lots of the most nutritious leafy green vegetables have plenty of fiber, which can help to clean your teeth and gums and boost saliva production. All of that can help with the re-mineralization process.

Plus, eating starchy leafy green vegetables causes your saliva to reduce the effects of bacteria and the acid they produce.

Carrots

Carrots are a helpful choice for mitigating enamel damage for the same reason. They're fibrous and crunchy, which can lead to more plaque and bacteria being scraped away as you eat them. The vitamins included in carrots certainly don't hurt when it comes to tooth and gum health, either.

Sweet Potatoes

If you want to boost re-mineralization, you’ll want as much vitamin A as you can get. That’s because your body uses vitamin A to make keratin: a key protein that can help your teeth’s enamel to rebuild. You can find plenty of vitamin A in sweet potatoes, which can be cooked in a variety of ways and which are otherwise quite nutritious. 

Other Tips to Protect Tooth Enamel

As you can see, there are lots of ways to protect your teeth’s enamel, ranging from maintaining great dental hygiene to eating the right foods to cutting sugar out of your diet. Here are some other top tips you can follow to make the most of your re-mineralization efforts:

• Always floss! It’s not enough to brush twice per day. You also need to floss twice per day to get rid of food stuck between your teeth
  
  
• Consider taking a calcium supplement if you don’t want to risk eating or drinking too many dairy products. That will give your enamel plenty of the mineral to use
  
  
• Don’t chew sugary gum, which can make plaque worse. Chew sugar-free gum instead to strengthen your jaw and teeth while minimizing harm
  
  
• Try to avoid drinking too much coffee and quit smoking if you can. These products can damage your teeth’s enamel and lead to tooth discoloration

Takeaway

Ultimately, there are lots of ways you can remineralize your teeth naturally. Following the above tips is the best way to make sure you can keep your winning smile for years to come, plus impress your dentist the next time you go in for a cleaning.

Best of all, you can find everything you need for a top-tier oral hygiene routine right at Supersmile. We offer fluoride toothpaste, electric brushes, and more! Check out how we can help your oral care today!

Sources:

https://www.healthline.com/health/remineralizing-teeth

https://www.webmd.com/oral-health/guide/tooth-enamel-erosion-restoration

https://www.mouthhealthy.org/en/az-topics/b/brushing-your-teeth

https://www.mouthhealthy.org/en/fluoride-superhero#:~:text=Once%20in%20your%20enamel%2C%20fluoride,fights%20to%20protect%20your%20teeth.

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/10953-plaque
https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?contenttypeid=1&contentid=4062

https://www.livescience.com/44111-foods-healthy-teeth-bad-breath.html