ARG! LOST ME ANOTHER TOOTH

In the past, pirates sailed the high seas in search of treasure and adventure. Today, children grow up hearing pirate stories, left in awe of the lives they lived on the water journeying from one place to the next. And while the majority of their hardships will never affect our land-dwelling children, there is one pirate problem that should be considered today.

Pirates may have been great navigators, skilled at not getting lost at sea, but they often didn’t find the right nutrients to protect their dental health and lost many teeth. It’s too bad that while exploring the Atlantic Sea they didn’t better explore the Vitamin C.

Vitamin C: The Real Treasure

Pirates walked the plank, battled on the open water, and were often backstabbed by their fellow crew mates, but nothing was more deadly than Scurvy. Scurvy is a disease caused by an extreme deficiency of vitamin C that plagued many people living on the open seas due to their lack of proper nutrients.

Now, while Scurvy thankfully isn’t seen often today, milder forms of the symptoms associated with this disease do still affect those who do not have enough vitamin C in their diets. If you have a continuous lack of vitamin C, you may start to suffer with a common sign of this deficiency – bleeding gums. If left uncorrected, you may even experience tooth loss.

While the suffering pirates of years past didn’t know what was causing their problems, we now know both what caused them and how to prevent them from happening!

X… Wait No… Fruit Marks the Spot!

Fruit is a major source of vitamin C, but, as we all know, fruit also goes bad quickly. In order to avoid the burden of rotten food, pirates and boat travelers didn’t keep fruits on board – leading to their severe lack of vitamin C.

So, what fruits give us these valuable nutrients? It turns out you can find that much needed vitamin C within citrus fruits.

Maybe you’ve heard that citrus fruits are bad for your teeth? Well, while citric acid can pose a danger, the lack of vitamins and nutrients within citrus fruits can be just as harmful. Citrus fruits are rich in vitamin C and eating them is a great way to protect against bleeding gums and potential tooth loss. However, you should always remember to drink water after eating these fruits to rinse out the citric acid and avoid wearing down the enamel on your teeth.

Vitamin C can also be found in vegetables and other fruits, including cantaloupe and strawberries. However, regardless of what source you choose, it’s important to make sure you have plenty of vitamin C in your diet to stop your teeth from walking the plank.