This is for all those who want to prevent disease and protect their teeth.
This is normally a first consultation for all my patients.
What is the progression of dental problems and what is a long term prevention?
Mouth is the best incubator in the world. It has :
- optimum temperature 98.4 F
- optimum moisture due to presence of saliva
- optimum oxygen because we open our mouth and talk, yawn, breathe etc
- billions of bacteria present in the mouth at all times (about 700 species)
- we provide them (the bacteria) food for about 15 -18 hours a day
These bacteria sense the presence of food after about 12 hours and begin to multiply into two every two minutes thus increasing their number.They breakdown the food and produce acid to enter the tooth and eat the protein layer of the tooth or dentine and reach the pulp. They become the cause of the cavities and reside inside the tooth cavity.Very large cavities reach the pulp to cause pain or maybe no pain but root canals involved!!!!
So, FIRST lets start with how we can prevent cavities
- if we brush twice a day at a gap of 12 hours then we can break their multiplication cycle
- check efficiency of your brush by checking if it is cleaning your teeth properly or not
- don't eat sweets at night post dinner
- don't drink milk at night before going to bed
- use either floss or interdental brush or dental wood sticks to clean between teeth as 40% of the tooth structure is between two teeth
- visit the dentist every 6 months to check and control cavities at a small stage- they are trained to see what you can't
- anywhere food getting stuck between teeth is an alarm bell for a small cavity or a big one eventually, maybe even a root canal treatment
THIRD lets talk of treatment
- every cavity needs to be cleaned thoroughly and filled only then-or the best filling will fail.
- before filling the dentist should check with a cavity indicating dye if it is clean or not -or the filling will fail
- the filling should be done as the original shape of your individual tooth and not any other way -or it will fail
- bleeding of gums needs to be controlled before final filling -or it will fail
- if while cleaning the cavity the root canal chamber or pulp is open /exposed then root canal treatment is mandatory