If you are looking to avoid cavities in your teeth and wisdom teeth, then you may want to consider limiting your intake of sugar.
Free sugars are added to many foods and are naturally present in other food such as honey and fruit juice. Since 1990, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said they suggest less than 10% of all calorie intake should be from free sugars. A study conducted by Newcastle University and commissioned by the WHO and was published last year in the Journal of Dental Research explored free sugar intake as a percentage of calorie intake and the incidence of dental cavities. The article found when less than 10% of total calories in the diet is from free sugars there are much lower levels of cavities (tooth decay). The article also found that when less than 5% of total calories is from free sugars even further benefits are found which reduces the risk of dental cavities over a lifetime.
Hence if one is expecting to keep their teeth throughout their lifetime and wants to minimize the risk of dental cavities they should modify what they eat and drink to limit sugars. The researchers from Newcastle explored 55 past studies since 1950 that looked at sugar and dental cavities in their analysis.
Of course one may know to limit sugar to minimize the risk of cavities but how does one go about finding the amount of sugar in their current diet and modifying their diet to limit this accordingly easily? This takes work and effort. It is also important that products without much sugar are available and taste good. Further, the information on how much sugar is in the food or drink needs to be made clear.
Source:
P. J. Moynihan, S. A. M. Kelly. Effect on Caries of Restricting Sugars Intake: Systematic Review to Inform WHO Guidelines. Journal of Dental Research, 2013.