Eli5: what exactly in sugar makes it so bad for our teeth, and why?

Question

Eli5: what exactly in sugar makes it so bad for our teeth, and why?

In: 13

Answer 1

it’s like this:

sugar is good tasting to us. it’s also good tasting to other stuff. the other stuff lives in our mouths, and they poop out stuff that is bad for our teeth, because it hurts our teeth while making it hard to remove.

so, bacteria in our mouths will also eat the sugar and will ‘poop’ which causes 2 things:

* the poop eats away at our enamel, weakening our teeth, and
* the poop becomes hard, like concrete, and becomes a protective shell that prevents the removal of the bacteria and poop, if not removed fast enough