What Is a Food Trap?

Have you ever had your satisfying meal disrupted by food stuck in your teeth? This distracting sensation can throw off your entire day, but trapped food can be more than just annoying. Lingering food particles in your mouth can also harm your oral health.

If you notice food tends to stick in your teeth frequently, you could have what dentists refer to as a food trap. This means that your teeth shift slightly out of alignment so that food more easily becomes trapped between the teeth. Then you have a higher risk of suffering dental health complications related to trapped food.

You should not ignore this oral phenomenon if you want to protect your smile. Read on to learn more about how food trapped between your teeth can impact your dental health over time.

Will Food Stuck in My Teeth Harm My Oral Health?

Though food stuck between your teeth can feel like an irritating foreign presence in the mouth, the condition can worsen over time. If the bit of food stays in your smile, your mouth can start to feel sore due to the excess pressure exerted on your teeth.

This pressure could indicate that your teeth are beginning to get pushed out of their straight alignment. So to preserve the look and feel of your smile, you should address this annoyance promptly.

Lingering bits of food will also start to decay in your mouth, which will encourage the spread of the natural bacteria in your mouth. As plaque develops, the film over your teeth will start to eat away at your dental structure.

This weakens your teeth, leaving them vulnerable to cavities and other dental concerns. Reduce the risk of dental emergencies by removing trapped food from your smile swiftly and safely.

How Do I Safely Remove Trapped Food in My Smile?

Removing bits of food from between your teeth is a task you can complete on your own. You may feel tempted to dig food particles out of your teeth with your fingernails, but this can be unsanitary.

Instead, dentists recommend using dental floss or your toothbrush to eradicate food trapped in your teeth. Your oral hygiene regimen is designed to scrub away lingering food particles in a safe and effective manner. Floss in particular targets the spaces between the teeth so that you can free these bits of food without harming the rest of your mouth.

How Do I Fix a Food Trap?

A small seed or bit of pork can lodge between the teeth of the best of us sometimes. But as mentioned, frequent cases of food stuck in your smile may mean you have a food trap.

This dental alignment concern will not go away on its own, so schedule an appointment with your dentist to find the best way to address the issue. In minor cases, the dentist might use tooth bonding to close gaps in your smile. But you may need to visit an orthodontist to fix severe bite problems.