Healthy Smile Series: Part 2 of Things your dentist WANTS you to know.

Sugary and starchy foods literally feed the bacteria that eat away at your enamel and cause cavities.

When it’s metabolized it becomes acid that attacks your teeth, causing tooth decay and gum disease. 

But It’s not as simple as avoiding all sweets — fruits can be huge culprits, too. And actually dark chocolate isn’t so bad, since it contains flavonoids, polyphenols, and tannins, which promote dental health. Things that don’t harm your teeth as much include cheeses and dairy, which rinse off easily, and non-acidic vegetables and meat.

The more times you eat during the day without brushing in between, the faster decay will happen.

It is not just what you eat, but how often you eat that influences teeth decay. Every time you eat, you create an environment for bacteria to attack your teeth because they also eat that food residue and produce acid.

If you are snacking all day — or sipping on that big iced coffee — you are hardly giving your teeth a rest from little acid attacks. Instead, stick to a normal four-meal schedule and finishing sugary drinks or coffee within 30 minutes, then switching to water.

A chip in your teeth, no matter how small, is super vulnerable to tooth decay.

When the tooth chips, the dentin — a softer bone-like tissue that covers root — becomes exposed. Unlike enamel, which is our tooth’s natural defense against decay, dentin will rapidly decay when bacteria gets inside the chipped part of the tooth. Even if the chip is tiny, do not ignore it — get it fixed right away or else it will become 10 times worse.

If you don’t get fluoride from water or toothpaste, you risk getting 20-40% more cavities.

There is a lot of debate about fluoride, but researchers have proven that fluoride prevents decay.  The best way to get fluoride is ingesting it in water because it gets in your bloodstream and works from inside the tooth — it is nature’s cavity fighter.

Ingesting fluoride and using fluoride toothpaste or rinses has been proven to reduce up to 40% of tooth decay.

If you have kids, make sure to pass these cleaning habits along ASAP, because dental decay is one of the most common chronic childhood illnesses.

Dental decay is about five times more common than asthma in children. It is considered a chronic childhood illness because poor dental hygiene habits at a young age can lead to serious tooth decay, gum disease, and bone or tissue loss in the future.

Poor dental health can affect your overall health, too.

Gum disease, cavities, and tooth loss are obviously painful and uncomfortable conditions, but losing any kind of function of your teeth also makes eating and using your mouth more difficult. There has been research that links gum disease and low-birth weight babies, and some studies which show a connection between gum disease bacteria and heart disease. Overall, having a healthy mouth and teeth is critical to having good health in general.

And even if you take great care of your teeth, you still need to see a dentist regularly.

Even if you are a fabulous brusher and flosser and it looks like you have amazing teeth, most of us are not perfect. Dentists can see a lot of things you cannot including the inside of your teeth with X-rays and more importantly, they can help you address your own needs.

Everyone is different and requires a somewhat unique cleaning routine or products depending on their problems. Schedule you dental visit today to find what you should be doing to keep your smile and yourself healthy.

Reference: BuzzFeed; Nylaan Dental 

Brian S. Nylaan, D.D.S.

Dental Health Series: Part 1 of Things your dentist WANTS you to know.

Right now, there’s a super sticky biofilm called plaque that’s coating the surfaces of your teeth with bacteria.

That bacterial plaque sticks to the front, back, side, in between, and right under gums. Plaque isn’t very thick, so your teeth can actually feel relatively clean even when they’re coated in it. But it is actually the root of decay and many other dental diseases, so it’s good to understand that it builds up all over your teeth every day, which is why brushing is so important. The best way to fight plaque is brushing for two minutes and flossing properly at least twice a day. 

If your mouth is super dry, that bacteria grows even faster.

Many people don’t know how important saliva is for cleaning our teeth and fighting cavities. Saliva obviously helps physically wash away food residue, but it also has antibacterial properties, neutralizes acids that eat away at enamel, and helps repair and restore teeth. If you suffer from dry mouth, while is often caused by certain medications, that can be bad news for your teeth.

You need added protection or attention to teeth cleaning if you have dry mouth. There are a variety of saliva-increasing rinses and toothpastes on the market, but drinking lots of water helps, too AND water is the best drink for your teeth and health.

Plaque also grows on your teeth at night, which is why it’s pretty gross to forget to brush and floss in the morning.

Even though you don’t eat in your sleep and your teeth probably feel super clean in the morning if you brushed them before bed, plaque is still coating your teeth during all hours of the night. Hence morning breath.

Brushing in the morning is just as important as at night, especially if you’re a mouth-breather, which dries out saliva.It doesn’t matter if it’s before or after breakfast, just as long as you remove the bacteria that grew overnight.

Plaque can only be removed manually by brushing and flossing or else it will literally just sit there FOREVER.

Plaque covers every single surface of the teeth, including the surfaces you can’t see or reach with a toothbrush. If people understood plaque, they’d be flossing twice a day. Without flossing, the sticky plaque bacteria will just sit there. One-third of your teeth’s surfaces are covered by other teeth so you need inter dental cleaners like floss, tiny brushes, or water picks to physically clean plaque away. 

Over time, that plaque will turn into super hard white stuff called tartar, which a dentist usually needs to remove. 

If the plaque just sits there, over time it picks up minerals from the saliva and hardens into tartar. This usually happens on the inside of teeth because this area if often neglected by brushing and flossing.

Unlike normal plaque, you actually need to go to a dentist to get tartar removed. Using a tartar-control toothpaste can help, but  you will still need a professional to remove all the buildup.

And eventually, bad dental hygiene habits can turn into gum disease, which is obviously painful and annoying.

Plaque also builds up just under the gums around your teeth. If it isn’t removed by brushing, those gums become inflamed, which is called gingivitis, or periodontal (gum) disease. The inflamed gums then pull away from the teeth, so if left untreated, bacteria can build up and cause tartar, infections, and even loss of the tissues and bones that support your teeth.

There is a wrong way to floss, and you might be doing it.

You can never floss too often, but you can floss too hard and incorrectly, which damages your gums. Many people just pop the floss through their teeth and punch it up and down hard. Not only does this fail to remove plaque, it also really hurts the little part of gum in between teeth, which can lead to bleeding, irritation, and swelling.

Instead, try to hold the floss at an angle so it wraps around the tooth and removes plaque when you move it up and down. Think of it as gliding the floss gently along the two sides of each tooth.

And you definitely don’t want to brush too hard, which can lead to receding gums.

Even though it might feel like you are cleaning your teeth better, brushing too hard literally wears away surface of teeth and gums. It is basically like sandpaper. As we age, our teeth go through a lot of wear and tear so you don’t need to add to this with bad brushing habits that end up exposing the super sensitive roots.

Use a soft toothbrush and going in gentle circles when brushing close to the gum line.

reference: BuzzFeed; Nylaan Dental

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