You must Sign In to post a response.
  • Is eating ice bad for teeth and gums?


    Wonder whether chewing ice deteriorates your oral health? Know the answer from our experts.

    My neighbor has an ice addiction since I was 15 and it is getting worse. Is it really bad for his teeth? Does it damage his roots? Because sometimes he says that his gums are aching badly. Besides that, his teeth are not aligned properly. He has gone for therapy but that did not work. Can you please suggest some tips?
  • Answers

    10 Answers found.
  • Anything extreme is not good in the long run. While eating ice, it not only touches the teeth, but other parts and affects throat and mouth walls. As ice has a temperature far less than the average body temperature, it puts a load on the body to maintain the body temperature especially to neutralise the freezing effect on the affected part. The teeth may not feel it immediately, but if there is some problem and it touches the nerves, then it becomes very sensitive.
    If the person is comfortable with eating ice, and does not get cold or sore throat due to that then it means the person can tolerate that. However it is better to do it moderately and avoid it in adverse weather seasons.
    He can take warm water immediately after taking ice. This 'inconvenience' may slowly reduce the addition.

  • Ice eating is never good for your gums, teeth, and even your overall health. The habit of eating ice is also considered as a mental illness. It causes tooth decay and loss of enamel (the cement of teeth), resulting in pain. Chewing ice cubes frequently cause major dental problems that lead to treatments like root canal and capping.
    If we talk about reasons, if a person is addicted to chewing ice cubes for a long time, there can be serious health issues behind the same. Although it sounds normal it can be an eating disorder (Pica in medical terms), anemia or iron deficiency, anxiety, and emotional weakness. In such cases, proper and specific treatment can give positive results.

    If it is just a craving, replacing ice cubes with chilled water or fruit juices can work. A person can use out freshener to avoid ice cubes.

    Padmini

    Living & Learning- simultaneous processes!

  • Ice cream eating would produce adverse effects on gum, teeth and other health disorders not immediately detectable. Our metabolism works the best within a certain temperature range starting from 18 degree centigrade to 30 degree centigrade. A large fluctuation of the temperature will affect the blood circulation, digestion disorders and other diseases at a later stage.,
    It may emanate from some mental disorder and this may escalate our abnormal desires including ice cream eating, chalk eating etc. If such habits are not checked immediately, it may give rise to other mental illness, liver disorder and sometimes the patients may be anaemic due to improper follow up the diets.
    The patients need both a psychological counselling from the expert apart from a help of a Physician who can treat other underlining causes.
    It would be the best to divert his attention from the present one by offering him fruit juices of different variants or some chewing gums so this bad habit can be tackled to a great extent. In this regard, you may get some valuable suggestions from the psychologist and the same is to be followed.

  • Eating ice cream or cold water or hot water anything will affect teeth and gums if consumed by touching the teeth and gums. To indicate this only our elders practiced to consume hot drinks or water etc., by not sipping through the lips. If we drink the hot or cold items by sipping through lips, we get the teeth and gums touches well and affect them. Eating ice creams if often it will affect the teeth and gums as told by many but as for as myself, I used to eat ice creams very often and even in winter and rain I ate ice cream and not did anything to me as my withstanding power. If your health is normal it will not affect.

  • Any kind of habit can be harmful when it is more than required and eating ice is not a good habit anyway, yet some people like to eat ice. Such people break their teeth and eat ice. But eating ice can be very harmful to your teeth. This is because ice damages the enamel of your teeth. This is the reason that many people develop a sensitivity problem in the teeth after eating ice.
    Gums damage- Eating a piece of ice can damage your gums and can result in some serious troubles, swelling of the gums, etc.
    Teeth layers are bad - One of the harmful experiments you can do with your teeth by eating ice, damaging the teeth. Chewing ice can break the lining of your teeth, causing damage to the roots of the teeth.
    Repeatedly cold things like ice cream, ice cream, or if you feel like putting ice in your mouth can cause a lack of iron in the body. If this problem is 2-3 months, then it can be considered as iron deficiency anemia.
    Try to leave this habit as soon as possible, if not possible then consult a good physician.

  • Ice eating is never a good habit. Eating ice indicated nutritional deficiency. This habit is an indication of some health problem. Phogophagia is the name of the problem in medical terms. It indicates an eating disorder. People who are having anaemia problem may get into this problem. Iron deficiency will cause this desire to eat ice. It is better to let him get his blood checked for haemoglobin. If necessary, he has to consult a doctor and take medicines to improve iron content in the body.
    By consuming ice cubes you will have dental problems. If we eat ice more this will affect the enamel coating on the teeth and teeth decay will be faster. Once the enamel erodes, your teeth can't withstand high and low temperatures. Cavities will also form.
    Excessive eating of ice will give bowel problems. intestinal obstructions and infections. So one should not neglect this and proper medication is required to come out of the problem.
    If your neighbour is having this habit for long he should see the doctor immediately.

    drrao
    always confident

  • Addiction or excessive consumption of anything is harmful. Some people are fond of eating ice. If this habit changes into addiction then certainly, it will harm teeth and gums in the long run. Alhough this addiction may appear harmlesss and is taken for granted, yet studies have indicated that eating ice can result in several health problems and is an inkling of an essential medical ailment. This not-so- common habit of ice consumption may be assessed as an eating disorder, which is also referred to as pagophagia in which a person yearns for eating non-food things. Moreover, studies have also demonstrated that this addiction can be a sign of a few severe physical, mental and emotional diseases.

    Eating ice can harm tooth enamel that could even entail you to require a root canal therapy. Eating a pointed piece of ice can harm gums and may result in various serious gum issues. Eating ice can also harm tooth sensitivity. It may also result in sore jaw muscles and chipped teeth.

  • Our teeth and gums are not meant for high or low temperatures. They are only good when extreme temperatures are not there affecting them. Ice is having low temperature and over and above that it is hard like a rock and can damage the teeth sides while pressing on it. As per the expert dentists we have to refrain from extreme temperatures as far as possible. Our teeth are having a thin coating of enamel on them which protects them from any external attack and abrasive action. Eating hard ice at low temperature can damage this enamel and once enamel is removed the teeth are open to decay and can get ruined soon. So it is not advisable to use ice in that fashion. Excessive use of ice would accelerate the process of cavity formation in the teeth. Gums are more delicate than the teeth and they are also affected by the high and low temperatures. Ice can be used in drinks and other such material in moderated quantity. Moderation in our eating habits is a sure way to maintain the teeth and gum conditions and achieve good health.

    Knowledge is power.

  • As we know that our teeth have an enamel coating that protects our teeth and with regular eating or grinding ice cubes which are not only hard but cold also will affect the tooth enamel. The constant extreme temperature changes after or during eating ice will cause the enamel to expand and contract and this, in turn, causes tiny cracks and weakening the teeth enamel which further causes other problems like tooth sensitivity to food and drinks that are hot and cold, more prone to decay or cavities, can crake or chip your teeth, cause numbness while eating ice, can injure gum tissues killings crowns and sore jaw muscles, etc.

    The study conducted by Medical experts and documented in the medical textbook proposes a connection between anaemia i.e. iron deficiency and compulsively eating ice people to the most common form of pica or pagophagia where the valetudinarian addiction to food that has zero nutritional value like mud, clay, dirt, spicy or salty foods, eggshells and charcoal or ashes, etc. A recent study indicates this condition is in 20% of women (higher in pregnant women) and about 3% in men.

    Few tips to reduce your neighbour's habit of eating ice cubes directly which is affecting his/her teeth is:
    a) Taking iron supplements: As the cause for such craving is the iron deficiency, you can ask your neighbour to start taking iron supplements and even include more iron-rich food in his/her diet. After a few days or week, the ice cravings the habit may stop on its own or go away after taking iron supplements.
    b) Replace ice cubes with Slush/soft ice: As ice cubes are hard that can damage your tooth, one can switch to slushies' or shaved or nugget ice as they are softer than the regular ice cubes and would not affect the teeth or gum.
    c) Switch ice cubes with fruit or vegetable crunches: As many are addicted to crunching and may feel the need to bite on ice cubes, you can replace or switch it with some fresh crunchy vegetables like carrot, cucumber or fruits like apple, pear, etc. In this way, they will get the cool crunching to feel and also intake fibrous material that is good for the body.

    “The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in." — Morrie Schwartz

  • Definitely, eating ice is not good for your health. As we all know, everything has its own limit. If we take any food item more than the required quantity then obviously it would affect our body. Frequently eating ice not only affect your teeth but other body parts also. Eating ice cube habit would damage your gum, enamel and teeth. As ice having very low temperature compared to our body. So, while eating ice enamel becomes expand and contract which leads to crack in the enamel.
    Moreover, eating ice habit will affect your blood circulation, digestive system, mental illness and another intestinal disease. Sometimes, this habit causes iron deficiency in the body. Thus, this addiction leads to several health problems.


  • Sign In to post your comments