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Are you running behind and need a bite to eat? Have you dropped off the children, gone to the meeting with a client, and filed yesterday’s paperwork, yet still have a hectic day ahead of you? Better take that five minute break you have between errands to grab a bite to eat, might be the last chance you get today for a lunch break. Why don’t we look at the options between the office and the next client shall we? On the right we have a big greasy hamburger with a order of fries and a large coke. On the left there is a pizza place selling large slices for just $2.00, and you get one free topping! Hurry and pick, you have nine seconds to choose one!

This may seem like an over dramatization of the normal workday, but the point is clear, fast food is the lifeline of the work day. Especially if you are doing more than just work, when you have a family to take care of as well, a quick trip to McDonalds is more practical than coming home at 7 with nothing done for dinner. Maybe you had a long day and a cheesey pizza from Pizza Hut is more appealing then turning on the oven. Regardless of the situation, the daily routine might create a dependency on a fast food lifestyle. When you live off fast food, you are enjoying drive-thru tooth decay.

Drive-thru tooth decay, that is actually kinda clever, I’m proud of myself. Anyways, fast food, practically anything you can see on the menu, is terrible for your dental health. This shouldn’t really be too surprising to you, given all the talk over health and fast food over the years. There is a good chance you never really considered its impact on your dental health though. Modern day fast food isn’t made to be healthy, it is full of fats, sugar, and sodium (salt), things that don’t do much good for your teeth.

A McDonald’s burger or chicken sandwich for instance can have up to 1,700 milligrams of sodium, and that is not counting the sodium in the french fries and drink. How bad is that for you? The recommended daily intake for sodium is 1,500 milligrams, with 2,100 being the highest you should go. The sugar content in the hamburgers can be around 14-16 grams, over half the recommended daily sugar intake for females and around half for men. Depending on what meal you get, you could hit your daily recommended sugar and sodium intake with your lunch alone! All that extra sugar, salt, and the fats are going to affect your smile, not to mention your overall health. If you don’t brush and floss regularly, you are going to see that bright smile diminish rather quickly. Don’t think you can cheat the system with a salad either. A normal salad with just vegetables will do good, but if you add chicken to the top of it, and you’re just topping the healthy food with sodium and sugars.

Now we do understand the allure of the fast food industry. You only have 30 minutes to get food, eat it, and get back to work, so what do you do? Even Chef Ramsey wouldn’t work well under those circumstances, not to mention a bacon cheeseburger is just simply delicious. It is also alright to indulge now and then, to enjoy one of these unhealthy dishes. The key to a proper dental health plan is control, not letting fast food become a part of your day to day routine. Find lunches that you can pack and take with you to lunch. Look at options like preparing a salad at home and bringing it with you, or finding a low sugar and low sodium meal that is easy to prepare and can be put in a tupperware container. Be careful of microwave meals however, they didn’t design a full dinner course that can be microwaved in under 2 minutes for optimal health and dental benefits.

How do you know what is good for you when it comes to picking a lunch to take to work with you? One way is to do a little research around Google for ideas, another is to check the nutritional information. See how much sugar is in the product, how much sodium, and make sure you check the serving size of the product. It may say it only has 10 grams of sugar in it, but when you look at the serving size you might be multiplying that by 2 or 3. Take the popular energy drink Monster for instance. You don’t buy a can of it planning on sharing it with a friend, yet look at the nutritional facts and you will see it contains two servings in it. So that 25 grams of sugar listed in the nutritional facts is actually 50 grams if you drink the entire can by yourself, and let’s be honest, we don’t buy energy drinks to share them, we buy them to hog all the energy for ourselves.

How to Reverse the Bad Effects

Chances are you have eaten fast food in the last month, maybe even several times, so now what do you do? This article has made you worry about the state of your teeth and you need answers! Well the answers are simple, brush your teeth, floss them, and schedule a dental checkup every six months. You probably heard that advice before from your dentist, parents, toothpaste commercial, a lot of people use it because as simple as it is, it is the best defense against tooth decay and gum disease. It also helps if you cut back on sugary treats and junk food and find healthier alternatives. If your dental health has gotten more toward critical levels, don’t panic, we have answers for that as well. Drs. Costello and Drake at Atlantic Dentist have a variety of procedures at their disposal to help rebuild any smile. From porcelain crowns and bridges to invisalign for straightening smiles, this pair of Ormond Beach cosmetic dentists have a way to help fix your smile.