This week we were lucky enough to have Emma visit and share her knowledge about the impact of sugar on teeth. Emma is a Dental Assistant and one of our wonderful parents in the Pataitai Pod.

What did we learn?

- Sugar and the bacteria creates acid - the acid causes tooth decay

- Our body naturally looks after our teeth by using saliva to clean the sugar off our teeth

- Our saliva needs 30 minutes to heal our mouth after we have any kind of sugar

- We are better to brush our teeth 30 minutes after eating

- Children should only have a maximum of 4 teaspoons of sugar per day

We looked at sugary drinks and discovered:

- Coke (250ml) has 16 teaspoons of sugar

- Charlies juice has 7 teaspoons of sugar

- Powerade has 14 teaspoons of sugar

- Raro has 10 teaspoons of sugar per packet

We also looked at crackers to see how much sugar they have... it is amazing to see those unexpected ingredients. When we looked at the ingredients on packets of crackers, Emma told us a little secret. The earlier the sugar is listed in the ingredients, the more sugar it contains. Our rule was that if it is within the first 3 in the list then it isn't very good for us. The further down the list, the better.

Lastly, Emma gave us some teeth and the sugary drinks so we can watch what happens to the teeth in these drinks. Keep an eye out for some photos of what happens...