Dental Decay/ Tooth Cavities

Dental Decay/Tooth Cavities

Like most of our diseases, Dental Decay is caused by a combination of contributing factors. Decay causing bacteria, poor diet, and genetic predisposition.

Here is how it happens. You have decay causing bacteria in your mouth. Simple sugars in your diet are their perfect food. It’s easy for them to digest, because the breakdown of simple sugars begins in the mouth. Plaque that builds up on your teeth – sticky soft deposits – acts as an anchoring device to keep the bacteria in place so that they can easily reproduce and multiply. When bacteria digest these sugars, they produce acid. Acid weakens the enamel, and eventually breaking the surface, creating a very tiny hole. Bacteria settle into that little hole and continue to multiply. The hole becomes deeper and deeper and eventually becomes a cavity.

Few things you can do to Prevent Decay

Proper Brushing

By brushing after meals, you remove the food debris that bacteria use as food, and you reduce the acidity, which aids in weakening the enamel. If you can’t brush after each meal, then chew gum, especially gum that has Xylitol as a main ingredient. For example brands like “Mentos Gum” (green or blue bottles only) and “Ice Brakers Gum” have Xylitol as the first ingredient. If you don’t like gum, use mints. At Whole Foods you can find “SPRY Xylitol Mints”. Using these products helps prevent decay.

Fluoride

Fluoride is found in toothpastes, some mouth rinses, and prescription products you can find at your dental office. If you are in the low-risk decay category – meaning, there is no history of decay, you don’t have many fillings, crowns or other dental work, you don’t need to use prescription products. Simple over the counter fluoride toothpaste will be enough.
If you had dental work done to repair previous decay, have crowns and bridges, then you are more susceptible to getting decay and stronger products are needed to keep your teeth staying strong and decay free. Your dental hygienist can let you know if you are at risk and prescribe products that will help you be decay free.

Diet

It’s all about acidity. If you like to eat sweets, and can’t live without them, eat them or drink them all in one sitting. When you expose your teeth to acids once it’s better than doing it constantly throughout the day. Try to brush or chew gum after eating, it helps to stimulate salivary flow to decrease acidity. It would be better for your teeth to avoid things like candy, soda, coffee, tea, cookies, cake… But what kind of life would it be without such goodies.

Just make sure you protect yourself by brushing well, taking care of your cavities if you have them. Don’t wait until they are huge. Decay is an infectious disease. If you have decay causing bacteria it will cause more than one cavity. So take care of cavities as soon as you know you have them. And definitely go for routine cleanings and check-ups to make sure we catch them before they are too big.

Oral Irrigator / WaterPik

Oral Irrigator.

WaterPik is one of the best tools that can help you keep your mouth healthy. Throughout our lifetime, because of genetic predisposition or other environmental risk factors, we get a bunch of different dental work done. Fillings, Crowns, Bridges, Implants… All that work is needed to either replace what was lost, or preserve the tooth structure. Unfortunately, there is nothing like a natural tooth.

The natural tooth structure is very smooth by nature, and that makes it more difficult for the bacteria to attach themselves and begin its destructive irritation. Dental work, although necessary, puts the mouth at a disadvantage, because it changes the natural smooth structure of the tooth.

All dental work, no matter how good it is, creates ledges under the gum, where bacteria can thrive because they are less likely to be disturbed. Even if you are the best flosser in the world, there are places that you cannot clean out. Thus, leaving the bacteria behind to build their housing units and flourish.

WaterPik uses a constant flow of water under pressure and in pulsations. If you imagine a dirty driveway, full of dust, leaves and other debris, a hose with pressured water moves the dirt away, making the driveway clean again. That is how the WaterPik works. It loosens up the plaque and moves it to areas where you can remove it with your toothbrush a lot easier. The most important function of the WaterPik is the fact that it disturbs the bacteria. When the bacteria are free floating, they are absolutely harmless. Only when they are allowed to settle, they become dangerous and irritating to the body.

There is a learning curve involved in using the WaterPik correctly, without spraying down half your bathroom. But it’s very easy to learn, and the tool is great for anyone.

Another advantage of the WaterPik is the fact that many different solutions can be diluted in the water, to help kill the bacteria. For example:

Baking Soda or Sea Salt

Dilute 1 teaspoon of Sea Salt or Baking Soda in 1 cup of Warm water. Add to the WaterPik. Add more water to fill the container to the top. Make sure to flush the WaterPik with hot water after use to clear the lines.

Baking Soda is a natural acid neutralizer. Bacteria love and thrive in an acidic environment. If the oral environment is more basic (>7 on the pH scale), it is more difficult for the bacteria to function. This actually protects you not only from Gingivitis, but also from getting decay, because decay is the enamel structure failure due to constant acidic bombardment. I’ll talk in more detail about tooth decay in later blogs.

Sea Salt is Sea Salt. I don’t know if there is any research that actually found the reason why using warm salt water is beneficial for the mouth and tissues, but I know this method has been around for ages, and it works. Sea Salt is better than regular table salt, because it is more natural.

Bleach

Yes! Regular Household Bleach! It is the world’s best disinfectant. A solution of bleach and baking soda is used in hospitals to rinse and disinfect wounds. It works the same way in the mouth. Using it, helps to eliminate stubborn bacteria. Using bleach in the WaterPik is recommended for people who have Periodontal Disease. You don’t need to use it for Gingivitis.

Instructions:
½ teaspoon of Bleach and ½ teaspoon of Baking Soda diluted in 16oz of water. Irrigate 3 times a week. Make sure to flush the WaterPik with hot water after use to clear the lines.

I hope this helps. Contact me if you have any questions about anything I’ve talked about.
Koshechka19@hotmail.com