Tooth Decay.
Remember.
1)
Teeth do not come through
decayed, They decay because you abuse them.
2)
A filled tooth is still a
damaged tooth.
So what causes tooth decay? The situation can be summed up
as follows.
Sugar + Bacteria = Acid. Acid + Tooth = Decay.
To stop your teeth from decaying you
need to stop the acid being produced. In an ideal world, we could cut sugar
from the diet to do this. However this is not an ideal world. Besides sweets
and pop, many other things that we consume contain sugar, these too can cause
tooth decay. Even things we do not expect to have sugar in
them like Baked Beans or tinned peas have them added at the factory.
So how can we prevent tooth decay?
Firstly we have to be sensible about sugar consumption. Research
shows that it is not how much sugar we consume but how often we consume it that
does the damage. If you have a bag of sweets and eat one every hour your teeth
will decay more than if you guzzle them all at once. This is because every time
you take sugar into your mouth, the acid produced takes over 1 hour to
disappear. If no other sugar is taken saliva can repair some of the damage done
and the longer the gap the better the repair.
So the most practical way to prevent
tooth decay is to restrict sugar intakes to
the three main meal times with sugar free gaps between them. Further to
this chewing sugar free gum after sugar intakes stimulates saliva production
and can shorten the duration of the acidic attack to as little as 20 minutes.
Many people think that brushing teeth
after sugar intakes will stop them going bad but this is not true. Brushing
will clean the sugar off the teeth but not the gum, tongue, cheeks and palate.
Fluoride in toothpaste or the water supply significantly strengthens teeth
against decay as does the use of fluoride drops or tablets taken while the
teeth are developing. It must be noted though that even teeth protected by
fluoride will decay if constantly under attack by acid, although at a slower
rate.
Up to date diet advice from the
BDA.