Are sugar-free sweets better for your teeth than normal sweets?

Question

eg sugar-free polos Vs regular polos
They contain less energy, but is there any evidence that they do less damage to your teeth?

They contain less energy, but is there any EVIDENCE that they do less damage to your teeth? (It seem obvious - but is there data to support this?)

Answer 1

Tooth decay is essentially impossible in the absence of fermentable carbohydrates, most notably sucrose. So if a food item contains no carbohydrates of this type, it should not act as a contributor to tooth decay. You'll need to check the ingredients list to be sure, because some sugar substitutes are themselves fermentable carbohydrates.

Answer 2

If there's no sugar in the product then it won't decay your teeth. Check all labels though, some drinks will say no added sugar but in fact have already fruit sugars which will cause your teeth to decay. look for words ending in 'ose' like fructose, glucose etc. It's better if you can find a label that says sugar free.
The most important thing to know when consuming foods is that it's the frequency of consumption rather than the sugar content that will cause tooth decay.E.g.-
There are sugars in many foodstuffs - beans, bread, crisps, milk, fruit and almost all processed foods.
The human body is designed to eat 4 main meals a day and teeth can cope with these sugar causing acid attacks if they are re-mineralised when you brush your teeth thoroughly with a fluoride toothpaste every day.
The problem occurs when there are more acid attacks on the teeth due to eating between meals. It takes an hour for the saliva to neutralise the acid so for every snack and meal there will be an hour's worth of attack on the teeth. With today's lifestyle - people generally regard snacking between meals as normal - but this is what causes tooth decay.
E.G. if you have a packet of polo mint's with sugar in and eat them all in the one go - you will one have one acid attack for this snack.If you take a polo mint at different intervals throughout the day - your teeth will be constantly bathed in sugar throughout the day and therefore will decay!
The best way to go is if your gonna have something sweet - have it straight after a meal. If you need a drink in between meals, make sure it is sugar free or plain water. Brush your teeth thoroughly twice a day with a fluoride toothpaste.

Answer 3

Yes. The thing about sugar sweets is that when you chew (or even suck) on them, the sugar finds its way between teeth (or gets wedged there if you chew). This allows for the growth of bacteria. You shouldn't be grossed out by having bacteria in your mouth. There is no place where bacteria isn't. But the fact is if you feed them they will grow. And the real problem is that when they use up the sugar, they secrete acids as a by-product. Normally this is not a bad thing, as the bactria secrete it over the whole surface of your mouth. But here you have the sugar concentracted against the teeth, so you have the bacteria concetrated against your teeth, and so you have the acids concentrated against your teeth.
What follow is that the acid eats through your enamel and allows the bacteria to get to the edible layers below and inside your tooth. By the time they get inside, it is called a cavity.
So the bottom line is that if you want to avoid cavities, either eat sugar free treats, or brush your teeth after eating treats with sugar.

Answer 4

Sugar-free means artificial sweetener. Aspartame exists as a sweetener because some filthy scientist licked his finger and accidently discovered a compound something like 800 times sweeter than sugar but without the calories. The first animals testing was on pigs, 7 of them iirc, and all but one didn't do very well. Artificial sweeteners have been around for just over 2 generations at the most. They ain't got no friggin clue what is is doing to human biochemistry because they have no clue as to what the variables are. Quite a few of the original pigs had grand mal fits/seizures.
I don't care what it does or doesn't do in the way of damaging my teeth. My line ain't being no guina pig in the name of progress. It's politics to me.

But from what i do now Xylitol is supposed to be actually beneficial for your teeth. But not all chewing gum has it.
"It is very popular in Finland, which is considered its "home country". Many Finnish confectioneries employ xylitol, or have a xylitol version available. Virtually all chewing gum sold in Finland and Europe is sweetened with xylitol. The Spanish company Chupa Chups makes a xylitol-based breath mint, Smint, that it markets worldwide. In China, Japan and South Korea, xylitol is found in wide assortment of chewing gums. In 2004, popular North American Trident gum was reformulated to include xylitol.

Xylitol is a "Toothfriendly" sugar substitute. In addition to not encouraging tooth decay (by replacing dietary sugars), xylitol may actively aid in repairing minor cavities caused by dental caries. Recent research[1] confirms a plaque-reducing effect and suggests that the compound, having some chemical properties similar to sucrose, attracts and then "starves" harmful micro-organisms, allowing the mouth to remineralize damaged teeth with less interruption. (However, this same effect also interferes with the yeast micro-organism and others, so xylitol is inappropriate in making bread, for instance.)

Answer 5

One of the biggest causes of dental caries (tooth decay) is sugar. This is particularly true when the sugar remains in the mouth for any length of time, as when sucking sweets. This is because the bacteria that cause tooth decay feed on the sugar, producing acids that attack the teeth.

Therefore one way to reduce tooth decay is to cut down on sugar-based sweets.

The main problem is that if sweets don't contain sugar then they need something else to make them taste sweet. This is done using one of a number of artificial sweeteners (which are also used to flavour "diet" fizzy drinks and so on). This has it's own potential problems because some of these artificial sweeteners are now being increasingly associated with an increased risk of cancer...

Answer 6

Yes but they're more likely to damage your arteries, your liver and most importantly your heart. Sugar-free mints contain chemicals you shouldn't really be eating.

Take for example the soft drinks scare a few months ago. Some of them reportedly contain benzene and this has been linked to cancer.

Be careful what you eat - and drink.

Answer 7

Not really because other ingredients in the sugar-free sweets could be harmful for your teeth. You would have to check the ingredients first.

Answer 8

There are far bigger risks to eating any sugar free products that contain Aspartame than your teeth!!

http://www.mercola.com/article/aspartame/hidden_dangers.htm

Answer 9

Can't help you there have got a set of false teeth so they do me no harm

Answer 10

reguar dental care keeps your teeth healthy. Bacteria live on food trapped inbetween and on your teeth as well as sugar.