The Dirty Truth About Cavities

A friend of mine just endured a day of that awkward numbness that plagues your mouth after a dental procedure

. He felt like he could not smile, eat, or really make any facial expression except one of sad despondency. What caused this inconvenient toll in his day? He had a cavity filled.

Cavities are the monsters under your bed that parents threaten their children with after trick-or-treating. If you eat to much candy, they would say, you will get a cavity. Or multiple cavities. And no amount of brushing can help. Yes, there is a fragment of truth to that statement. Cavities occur when the plaque on our teeth combine with sugars and starches from the food we eat. This combination then attacks the protective enamel on our teeth, leaving them weak and vulnerable to decay. However, parents also use that classic threat to prevent their children from developing unhealthy eating habits, eating too much candy and suffering a sugar induced tummy ache.

Cavities seem to be an acceptable fate to many. They figure there is no way to avoid them, so why bother? In fact, many dentists have observed that even some who have the best dental hygiene routines get more cavities than others who do not tend to their teeth as well. That is because many factors that play into the likelihood of developing cavities are actually linked to your genetics. Two of the most important factors are the chemical composition of your saliva and the biting surfaces of your teeth. For example, an individual with more bicarbonates in their saliva may be better at neutralizing acids effectively, thus helping fight against enamel decay and cavity formation. Also, those with deeper grooves in the center of their teeth are more likely to get cavities. It is like a ditch in your tooth, collecting those bits of food that are hard to get when you brush and steadily eating away at the enamel on your teeth. That is why many children get sealants on their molars. The sealant simply fills in the groove, making a flatter surface on your teeth so that food doesn't get stuck there.

Even with these genetic factors, the best preventions to cavities are the same. Brushing your teeth twice a day and flossing not only helps remove those sugars and starches, but it also keeps the level of acid in your saliva low. Also, keeping up on your regular dental appointments will allow the dentists to spot potential cavities early on, as well as check and maintain your sealants.

So our mothers were right. Eating too much candy can give us cavities. They were also right about brushing our teeth twice a day. So listen to your mothers and protect your teeth.

by: Art Gib

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