Keto diet and oral health
Dr. D.Sendhil Nathan MDS, DNB Prosthodontics And Implantology
Keto diet (or) Ketogenic diet is the trendy diet program as it is recommended by many medical practitioners as well as fitness trainers. It is a high fat, moderate protein and less carbohydrate diet plan. High-fat meats like seafoods, eggs and low car veggies like Avocados are the perfect ones to eat on this diet.
The keto diet works on reducing weight by burning fats rather than carbohydrates. When our body burns fats, it produces an acid called Ketone that benefits our health enormously. As your diet changes with the weight-reducing programs, it will have a certain impact on your oral health also. If you concern about your dental well-being as well as reducing your weight, then this blog post is for you.
Here we have described the positive and negative impact of keto dietary plan on our dental health.
Positive effects of the ketogenic diet on dental health
1) Reduce Cavities
The keto diet followers have to avoid sugar in their diet. It lowers the amount of carbohydrates they intake. Sugar feeds the oral bacteria to thrive inside the mouth. Neglecting sugar reduces the existence of oral bacteria cling to the teeth and other soft tissues inside the mouth.
Hence the ketogenic diet ensures your mouth is free from bacteria and prevent their infection on teeth (i.e) cavities.
2) Reduce plaque build-up
Plaque is a sticky substance adhered to the teeth and is produced with a mixture of certain ingredients in our diet with saliva. As the keto diet followers have reduced the food items that help the bacteria to flourish and are responsible for plaque build-up, the chances of developing plaque and tartar are drastically reduced.
People who have plaque are highly susceptible to gum diseases as the microbes in the sticky substance extend to the adjacent gum tissues.
To put it simply, apart from preventing cavity formation and plaque build-up, keto diet reduces the chances of infection in gums.
Negative effects of keto diet on oral health
1) Keto Breath
Producing ketone bodies inside our bodies is a natural metabolic process. When you produce abnormal ketones with the ketogenic diet, then you will have an acetic or fruity smell. This is called Keto breath. Don’t worry about this odor. This happens with the breakdown of fat inside the body that indicates your diet is working.
Keep in mind that the filthy smell coming out from your mouth can be easily fixed with proper teeth cleaning actions. Besides this, chew sugar-free gums at regular intervals. This will help you to combat the keto breath.
2) pH imbalance
Restricting the carbohydrates you are taking leads to an imbalance in the nutrients your body is getting. Due to these restrictions, certain people encounter chemical imbalance in the body. Likewise, it also causes pH imbalance in the mouth that results in an acidic environment and makes your saliva has an acidic taste.
People with such pH imbalance or acidic saliva are highly prone to various oral issues like dry mouth.
Bottom line
We do not state that the keto diet is not dental-friendly. It has its advantages in your oral health too. Meanwhile, it limits the amount of nutrients your body is getting with a normal diet. Keep in mind that variations in the diet menu do not harm your teeth directly but it will cause a nutritional imbalance that causes various oral illnesses.
So we suggest every keto dieter consult their dentists to get the right foods in this diet that aid them in reducing their weight without disturbing their oral health.
