“You Mean I Have Another Cavity”

7/3/08
By: Dr. Cook

Person after person resists going to their dentist to learn how healthy or unhealthy their mouths are. The frustration for a very large percentage of the public is doing their best to take care of their dental health daily and at their dental check-up they learn once again that they have a cavity. Why is it that people can work consistently and intently on caring for their dental hygiene and still have damage to their teeth? Tooth healthiness or well-ness can be envisioned as a "Three Legged Stool." Each leg of the stool is a variable, which must be considered in order to keep teeth healthy and sound.
The first leg of the stool is what we inherit when we are born-our dental genes. This is the variable that we have no control over. Yet, heredity is the least important variable that influences tooth health long term. Even though we do not have control of our heredity, this variable can be compensated for with effort toward the other two variables. The second leg of our dental tooth stool is oral hygiene. It depends on how effective one is at properly cleaning every surface of every tooth multiple times a day.
Almost every person who enters a dental office is using a toothbrush every day. Yet, 90% or more have never been taught how to be the most effective with using dental hygiene tools (toothbrush, floss, perio aids, etc.) The last leg of our stool (and by far the greatest influence) is nutrition. Most people believe that the sugars we eat or drink cause cavities. Yet, the sugars are only the food and energy source for bugs (bacteria), which live in all human mouths. The oral "bugs" use sugars (solid or liquid form) and food, convert it to energy, and then release waste products into our mouths. This waste from the bugs is the real culprit to tooth enamel since it is a potent ACID. These acids dissolve the calcium out of our teeth leaving a damaged hole or cavity. Our strong recommendation to our patients is to look closely at the amount and frequency of solid or liquid sugar intake they have daily. It is not just candy and cookies, but also soft drinks, power drinks, gum, mints, sweet coffee, sweet tea, etc. The less sugar we give the bugs, the lower the acid levels will be and the less likely you and /or your children will have tooth damage. See your dentist today and learn more of the nutrition-tooth relationship