subject: Helpful Tips For Cavity Prevention [print this page] Cavities are expensive, hard on your teeth, and painful which are three reasons why you should work to prevent the occurrence of cavities every single day.
Cavities are holes, or structural damage, that occurs on teeth. A cavity creates a soft and sensitive part of the tooth the helps it decay faster.
There are three main types of cavities including coronal, root, and recurrent decay. The most common type of cavity is coronal.
Coronal cavities occur in both children and adults. They usually are located on chewing surfaces or in the tight spaces between teeth.
Root cavities occur on the root of the tooth when part of the root is slightly exposed. Recurrent decay is decay that forms around existing fillings and crowns. Recurrent decay can be originally caused by coronal or root cavities.
Many cavities can be prevented from ever happening if we each learn to follow a few simple steps. The biggest preventer of cavities is good oral hygiene. If you steadily maintain good oral hygiene you will have healthier gums and teeth.
Know that in order to have good oral hygiene we need to know what we must do to achieve oral hygiene. Oral hygiene mainly includes brushing and flossing but is not only limited to these practices. It may also include mouth wash, other fluoride rinses, and some other practices.
You should be brushing your teeth at least twice a day. Brushing removes bacteria as well as the food debris that bacteria feed on.
A thorough brushing should take at least 2-3 minutes to rid itself of germs and bacteria that can cause cavities. There are toothbrushes on the market today that light up or sing tunes to help you to brush as long as you should to maintain good oral hygiene.
Flossing is often more overlooked than brushing. Yet, flossing is important to the oral hygiene process. Flossing can reach places in your mouth that brushing misses.
It is said that toothbrushes cannot reach approximately 35 percent of your mouth but that 35 percent needs to be reached somehow. Flossing is the simple solution to brushing's missed spots.
When it comes to oral hygiene remember that brushing without flossing is like taking a shower and only washing two thirds of your body. You would never do that when it comes to your body, so why do it when it comes to your teeth?
The second biggest preventative factor is eating healthy foods. Foods containing sugars and carbohydrates attract more bacteria than other foods and give them energy to break down your teeth enamel. They make your teeth more susceptible to cavities.
Be especially careful when eating foods that tend to stick to teeth. Sticky foods would include peanut butter, caramel, and honey. These foods are not easily cleared from your teeth by chewing and swallowing, so they stay on teeth longer.
If you do eat sticky foods, make sure that you take the time to brush your teeth after to remove any food buildup that may have occurred.
Another thing that can help prevent cavities is determined by how often you eat. If you eat lots of snacks or three big meals it may make a difference in your susceptibility to cavities.
Larger intervals between eating provide more opportunity for a constant acid attack on your teeth and provide less time for tooth repair.
This explains why snacks eaten with a meal are better for teeth than snacks eaten in between meals. Because of this process, remember that a piece of cake eaten with a meal is less likely to contribute to cavity formation than a piece of cake eaten as a snack between meals.
This also explains why fewer larger sized meals are better for teeth than more frequent smaller sized meals. This principle can also be applied to drinks.
If you sip on sugar-containing liquids, like soda or juice, throughout the day it is harder on your teeth than they would be if you drank them with a meal.
One of the final ways we can prevent cavities and other potential problems is to have regular dental visits in the form of a yearly dental check-up with our personal dentist.
Seeing a dentist is important because they help identify problems before they become a real problem. It is crucial to have regular dental visits, because often you will not know if you have cavities starting to form.
If you take the time to maintain good oral hygiene, eat healthy, and keep up with regular dentist appointments you will be preventing cavities every single day of your life.
