Chew on This: Ice Crunching and Your Teeth

Chewing on ice can cause dental damage like cracked or chipped teeth. It can also damage your enamel, causing increased sensitivity to hot and cold and leaving you more prone to tooth decay and cavities. Chewing ice can create even further problems by damaging existing dental work like fillings, crowns, and veneers, to top it off. So, yeah, eating ice probably isn’t the best habit. But what can you do instead?

If you love chewing on ice and need some ideas to shake the habit, try some of these tricks.

1. Make It Melt. Instead of crunching your way through a glass of frosty cubes, try letting them melt in your mouth slowly. You’ll still get that satisfying refreshment from the ice, and it will last longer than just chewing the entire glass.
2. Skip the temptation. When you’re at a restaurant, try skipping ice in beverages altogether, and remove the temptation to chew. By skipping the ice in restaurants, you could also be avoiding a certain amount of filth. Ice makers are notoriously tricky to clean and can be havens for bacteria.
3. Switch to Slush. You can also try replacing your regular cubes with softer types of ice. Go for shaved ice, slushies, or even “soft” ice, also known as nugget ice, which is slushier than the regular stuff.
4. Look for an underlying cause. If you find ice crunching impossible to resist, tell your dentist. According to The Times of India, the symptoms of iron deficiency include tongue inflammation and soreness plus an unusual diet. Chewing ice is studied to be caused due to the deficiency, as it provides relief.
5. Crunch Switch. The cooling sensation of chewing on ice is great, but so is the crunching feeling. When you feel the need to crunch away, go for carrot sticks, cucumber slices, or apple slices instead — anything nice and crisp. There’s an additional benefit to crunching up crisp fruits and vegetables, too. All that chewing of fibrous material will stimulate saliva production, which acts as a natural mouthwash — and the particles of fiber will help scrub your teeth.