3 Vitamins and 1 Mineral For Strong Teeth

There are plenty of vitamin and minerals that contribute to strong teeth.

However, if you emphasize consuming 4 specific vitamins most days, you’ll inherently get most of the nutrition you need to help naturally get strong teeth.  Focusing on nourishing your teeth to be strong may help you to reduce enamel erosion and may reduce developing dental problems like cavities.

Plus, as a bonus when you consistently eat foods that contain these 4 teeth strengthening vitamins, you not only help your mouth health, but these nutrients nourish your entire body.  Win-win nutrition for a happy mouth and happier general health!

Read on to learn about each tooth strengthening vitamin, how it helps to foster strong teeth, what foods contain these vitamins, and some meal and snack ideas!

Calcium

Why Your Teeth Need It

Did you know about 90-99% of the calcium in your body is in your bones and teeth?  Needless to say, it plays a big role in helping to keep your teeth strong.  Calcium helps reduce your risk of developing gum disease and strengthens teeth structure (it especially helps make your enamel strong).

By eating enough calcium, you nourish your pearly whites to be sturdy and release all sorts of nutrients from food when you bite down.

What Happens If You Don’t Get Enough Calcium? 

There are plenty of food sources of calcium.  If you don’t eat or drink enough of this bone-strengthening nutrient your body will remove calcium from your bones and teeth.  This could lead to your teeth becoming weak which could leave to tooth decay. 

Food Sources

• Dairy such as cheese, yogurt and milk
• Leafy greens such as kale, spinach, broccoli, and collard greens
• Beans
• Almonds and sunflower seeds
• Fish with bones

P.S. Milk is packed with calcium. If you want to learn more about how milk is good for your teeth, checkout my blog post, Is Milk Good For Your Teeth?

Vitamin C

Why Your Teeth Need It

Vitamin C is a crucial vitamin and antioxidant that your body does not make on its own.  The best way to get vitamin C is from food.  This antioxidant reduces gum inflammation and helps to nourish you the tissues around your teeth.  By helping your gums to be strong, vitamin C in turn helps to hold your teeth in place.  

On top of that, vitamin C helps with wound healing and helps your body synthesize collagen.  Collagen is a protein that helps your teeth form dentin.  Dentin is the tissue that is located just under your enamel.

What Happens If You Don’t Get Enough Vitamin C?

If you do not consume enough vitamin C your gums may bleed, become weak, inflamed and you could develop gum disease.  Deteriorating gum health may indicate that the tissues surrounding your teeth are not strong enough and this could result in teeth becoming loose.

Plus, vitamin C helps with wound healing.  So, if you don’t get enough of it regularly it could take longer for wounds to heal.  If you’re getting dental surgery, why not stock up on vitamin C and take action to potentially reduce healing after?

Food Sources

• Citrus fruits such as oranges, lemons, limes, and grapefruit
• Peppers
• Sweet potatoes
• Berries
• Kale

Vitamin D

Why Your Teeth Need It

Like many other nutrients, vitamin D is a team player that works with vitamins and minerals to help your teeth.  This is another vitamin that contributes to strong bones and teeth.  

Vitamin D specifically helps with teeth strength by helping your body to absorb calcium from food and carrying the calcium to your teeth.  In doing so, vitamin D and calcium work together to make your teeth more mineralized, solid, and dense leading to overall stronger teeth.

What Happens If You Don’t Get Enough Vitamin D?

Many people are deficient in this sunshine vitamin.  If you’re looking for more information about why people may be low in this vitamin and why it’s important for dental surgery, check out my blog post on this. 

In general, if you do not get enough vitamin D you may not be absorbing other nutrients as well (like I mentioned vitamin D is a team player and works best when consumed with other food).  This could lead to tooth decay and fractures

Food Sources

• Fatty fish such as salmon, herring and tuna
• Eggs, especially the egg yolk
• Labelled fortified foods such as milk, cereals, and orange juice

Vitamin K2

Why Your Teeth Need It

This vitamin is a relatively newly discovered vitamin and there is still much to be studied on it and its impact on our overall health.  As of right now, it appears that vitamin K2 promotes the growth of dentin which can help reduce developing tooth decay.  

In addition, K2 may work with calcium to increase the density of your teeth by increasing how much calcium is in your teeth.  Overall, we still have a lot to learn about K2, but so far we understand it’s another vitamin that helps strengthen your teeth.

What Happens If You Don’t Get Enough Vitamin K2?

As mentioned in the paragraph above, K2 is still being studied and understood.  However, it can be concluded that if you don’t consume enough foods that contain K2 then you could be skipping out on a vitamin that nourishes your dentin and helps strengthen your teeth.

Food Sources

• Hard cheese 
• Blue cheese
• Eggs
• Pork
• Chicken

Teeth Strengthening Meal and Snack Ideas

As you have read through each of these 3 vitamins and 1 mineral maybe you’ve thought of some great snacks and meals that you’re already eating that are packed with these nutrients.  If so, please leave your ideas in the comments, sharing is caring and can help us all nourish our teeth.

And, read on below to see some snack and meal ideas that pack a nutritious punch and may help make your teeth healthier and stronger.

Meal Ideas

• Wild-caught salmon salad with spinach, cheese, red peppers and almonds
• Rotisserie chicken with a baked sweet potato topped with black beans and some cheese

Snack Ideas

• 1 ounce of hard cheese and a serving of almonds
• 1 hard-boiled egg and a serving of berries

Nutrition: Control The Controllable

Many factors contribute to strong teeth.  However, one factor that you can control is what you eat every day.  If you strive to improve the strength of your teeth try consuming a variety of these 3 vitamins and 1 mineral containing foods most days. 

By focusing on adding these nutrients mostly via food to your diet you’ll not only help nourish the strength of your teeth, but you’ll also be consuming a ton of other nutrients that all work together to nourish your entire body.

A happy mouth may indicate happy health. 

Hopefully, you found this information useful.  If you are looking for help with meal plans or nutrition coaching for general dental health or if you have an upcoming oral surgery and need help with what to eat before and after, head on over to my contact me page and reach out!

All the best and cheers to foods for dental health