From your teeth’s point of view, how often you eat matters more than how much you eat at once. Every time you snack on something with sugar or starch, mouth bacteria turn it into acid. That acid attack lasts around 20–30 minutes. If you’re nibbling all day, your teeth are under almost constant attack.
With fixed meal times, you might eat a bigger portion, but there are fewer “acid events”. Your saliva gets a chance to neutralise acids, wash away food particles and repair early damage in between meals. With continuous snacking, especially on biscuits, chips, sweets or sugary tea/coffee, saliva never really catches up.
Even “healthy” snacks like dried fruits, flavoured yoghurt or energy bars can be sticky and sugary enough to harm enamel when eaten too frequently. Sipping sweet drinks slowly over hours is just as bad; each sip restarts the acid cycle.
This doesn’t mean you must eat huge meals and never snack. It means being strategic:
- Keep snacks to 1–2 set times instead of grazing.
- Choose tooth-friendlier options like nuts, cheese, plain yoghurt or fresh fruit.
- Drink water between meals instead of sweet beverages.
Brushing twice daily with fluoride toothpaste and cleaning between teeth are the foundation. But if you’re serious about cavity prevention, reducing how often your teeth meet sugar is one of the biggest wins you can give your smile.