As I age, what can I do to keep my mouth healthy?

Your mouth is not exempt from the effects of aging. Older people suffer higher rates of gum disease, dental decay, mouth infections and tooth loss. 

Fortunately, you can keep your mouth looking and feeling younger than its years by practicing good oral hygiene. Let’s consider what happens in your mouth as you age. Your teeth are amazingly strong, but a lifetime of crunching, gnawing and grinding wears away the outer layer of enamel, as does exposure to acidic foods.   

Weakened enamel can set the stage for cavities. Cavities can lead to infections of the root of a tooth, requiring a root canal procedure. They also can weaken teeth, causing them to crack.

Along with our teeth, our gums get older too. Gum tissue naturally recedes with age. The gums pull away from the base of the teeth.

This leaves a gap between the gum and the tooth that can become a prime target for tooth decay.

Plaque, a mass of bacteria all embedded in a gel-like substance, often forms in and near the gap between the gum and tooth. The bacteria secrete substances that damage the teeth and gums.

Plaque is constantly forming, and if you don’t remove it by regular brushing and flossing, it will build up and start to attract minerals such as calcium. That’s called tartar, and it’s hard to fully remove with a toothbrush.  

Plaque can cause inflammation of your gums, a condition called gingivitis.

When plaque and tartar start damaging the tooth, the soft tissue around the tooth and the jaw bone, you have periodontal disease.

Periodontal disease is the primary culprit in tooth loss among older adults. Fortunately, your dentist can treat periodontal disease with a combination of scaling to remove the hardened plaque and infected gum tissue, antibiotics, and — in advanced cases — surgery.

 



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 reference: Dr. Anthony Komaroff, practicing physician and Harvard Medical School professor

Sport and Energy Drinks can cause Irreversible Damage to your teeth

The number of sugar cubes in each drink.

A recent study published in the May/June 2012 issue of General Dentistry, the peer-reviewed clinical journal of the Academy of General Dentistry, found that an alarming increase in the consumption of sports and energy drinks, especially among adolescents, is causing irreversible damage to teeth - specifically, the high acidity levels in the drinks erode tooth enamel, the glossy outer layer of the tooth.

"Young adults consume these drinks assuming that they will improve their sports performance and energy levels and that they are 'better' for them than soda," says Poonam Jain, BDS, MS, MPH, lead author of the study. "Most of these patients are shocked to learn that these drinks are essentially bathing their teeth with acid."

Researchers examined the acidity levels in 13 sports drinks and nine energy drinks. They found that the acidity levels can vary between brands of beverages and flavors of the same brand. To test the effect of the acidity levels, the researchers immersed samples of human tooth enamel in each beverage for 15 minutes, followed by immersion in artificial saliva for two hours. This cycle was repeated four times a day for five days, and the samples were stored in fresh artificial saliva at all other times.

"This type of testing simulates the same exposure that a large proportion of American teens and young adults are subjecting their teeth to on a regular basis when they drink one of these beverages every few hours," says Dr. Jain.

The researchers found that damage to enamel was evident after only five days of exposure to sports or energy drinks, although energy drinks showed a significantly greater potential to damage teeth than sports drinks. In fact, the authors found that energy drinks caused twice as much damage to teeth as sports drinks.

With a reported 30 to 50 percent of U.S. teens consuming energy drinks, and as many as 62 percent consuming at least one sports drink per day, it is important to educate parents and young adults about the downside of these drinks. Damage caused to tooth enamel is irreversible, and without the protection of enamel, teeth become overly sensitive, prone to cavities, and more likely to decay.

"Teens regularly come into my office with these types of symptoms, but they don't know why," says AGD spokesperson Jennifer Bone, DDS, MAGD. "We review their diet and snacking habits and then we discuss their consumption of these beverages. They don't realize that something as seemingly harmless as a sports or energy drink can do a lot of damage to their teeth."

Dr. Bone recommends that her patients minimize their intake of sports and energy drinks. She also advises them to chew sugar-free gum or rinse the mouth with water following consumption of the drinks. "Both tactics increase saliva flow, which naturally helps to return the acidity levels in the mouth to normal," she says.

 
reference: May/June 2012 issue of General Dentistry