I’m a dentist: Eat your Easter egg in one go |
Easter is one of the few times of year when chocolate is not just allowed, it is expected.
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Children wake up excited to see what they have been given, adults convince themselves they are buying for someone else, and most people tell themselves they will make it last. It feels sensible to stretch it out across the day, or even over several days, rather than eating it all at once.
That instinct comes from a good place, but from a dental perspective it is where the problem begins.
Across the UK, somewhere between 80 and 90 million Easter eggs will be eaten over the course of the week. That averages out at roughly two per person, although the reality is far less even. Many children will receive several eggs, sometimes as many as eight or nine, and will dip in and out of them throughout the day.
What most people do not realise is that the damage to teeth is not driven primarily by how much sugar you consume, but by how often your teeth are exposed to it. Each time you take a bite of chocolate, bacteria in the mouth start to break down the sugar and produce acid within minutes. That acid lowers the pH in the mouth to a point where enamel begins to soften.
This process is not brief. Each exposure can leave your teeth under acid attack for up to an hour, and it can take significantly longer for the mouth to........