Yogurt for a Beautiful Smile

You brush, you floss, you rinse, you spit -- all for the sake of your pearly whites. But do you eat yogurt?

Might want to consider it. Research shows that yogurt eaters are less likely to suffer from gum disease and tooth loss.

A Little Healthy Bacteria
It only took a couple of ounces of yogurt daily for people's mouths to benefit. Researchers speculate that there's something about the healthy bacteria in yogurt that helps protect teeth and gums. They may help balance out the bad bacteria in your mouth, just the way they do in your gut. (Here are more ways that the beneficial bugs in yogurt help your health.)

5 Dental Do's for Healthier Teeth
Some additional off-the-beaten-path ways to protect your choppers . . .

• Skip sodas -- the diet kind, too.
• Drink this tart juice -- it can help thwart decay.
• Consider chewing gum with vitamin C in it. Here's how it might help.
• Buy yourself a pack of straws. Here's why.
• Don't be an overachiever when you brush your teeth. Here's what we mean by that.

Find out why having healthy teeth can mean having a healthy heart, too.

Intake of dairy products and periodontal disease: the Hisayama Study. Shimazaki, Y., Shirota, T., Uchida, K., Yonemoto, K., Kiyohara, Y., Iida, M., Saito, T., Yamashita, Y., Journal of Periodontology 2008 Jan;79(1):131-137.