Dental Caries

As we know, dental caries can cause pain, swelling, and you could even lose your tooth. The worse condition such as tooth sensitivity and root canal will appear if the decay is not treated properly. That is why you should treat your tooth well when you find a small decay on it. Otherwise, you should prevent dental caries with proper care of mouth and teeth, such as:

•    Care with Personal Hygiene

The main cause of dental caries is the bacteria and/or remained foods that produce acids and damage the enamel. That means that you should keep the hygiene of your teeth and mouth as the first prevention of dental caries. The personal hygiene care can start from the regular brushing of teeth. Brush your teeth at least twice a day; after breakfast and before bedtime. Teeth brushing can help remove the remaining foods and bacteria on your teeth quite effectively. Besides, use dental floss to clean the area between the teeth once a day for perfect clean teeth and plaque prevention. Furthermore, you can use mouthwashes for more hygiene care.

However, daily care of teeth sometimes is not enough to prevent dental caries. Some people still suffer from dental decay although they have cared their teeth well. It is because of the trapped foods between the inaccessible area of the teeth which cannot be removed by brushing, flossing, or mouthwashes. The trapped foods produce acids that will result in plaques and caries as well. Chewing celery can become a solution to neutralize the acids. The chewed celery and saliva will come into the inaccessible area and help preventing caries.

•    Modify Your Diet

Sugar and carbohydrate that produce acids in the mouth is one of the main causes of dental caries. For prevention, you should modify your diet by not consuming too much sugar and carbohydrate in a day. It means that too much snacks, sugary drinks, and sticky and sweet foods consumption is not recommended, because it causes high risk of dental caries. As the solution, you need to brush your teeth every time after the meal or snacking time. This dental caries prevention is also recommended for children. The little one should be limited in sugary and sweets consumption. Parents may also not let the kid sleeps with milk bottle in mouth.

•    Using Dental Sealant

Dental sealant is another way to prevent dental caries especially in children. The sealant will cover the teeth and protect from sticky carbohydrate, sugar and other food remaining that could cause dental caries. Besides, consuming foods and drinks consisting high calcium is also another solution for dental caries prevention. It protects and makes stronger the teeth so that prevents the decays on the enamels. Fluoride is also another substance that can protect teeth from caries. It is commonly found in toothpastes and mineral water.

As we know, good oral hygiene is a very important thing to have. It is crucial to take care of our teeth and gums to prevent dental caries, cavities and gum diseases even if we do not have braces. Dental caries, cavities or tooth decay is the most common problems that can attack everyone. However, not all of us understand the process of the dental caries. Based on experts, there are some factors that can lead to dental caries or tooth decay and there are also some things we can do to prevent them from occurring.

Dental caries or also known as cavities are a form of tooth decay that happens in the tooth because the bacteria attack in particular area. The area that is attacked by the bacteria is usually hidden and foods are easily stuck in it. Food particles that are left in the mouth will be eaten by the bacteria. Some minutes after they eat the foods, the bacteria produce residue namely lactic acid. The bacteria and the acid in the mouth will slowly start to damage the outer layer of our tooth and it leads to further decay and starts the formation of dental caries.

Several factors contribute to the formation of dental caries. The most obvious factor is the condition of the teeth. There could be particular conditions that can lead caries to form easily, such as weak enamel. It is the outer layer of tooth that is protecting the delicate layers. Sugars and acids gotten from drinks and foods can also speed up the dental caries process. Sugars and acids often stay on the teeth long after they are ingested; it will start the fermentation process on the enamel and cause dental caries.

Dental caries expose the inner layers of the teeth and in some cases, they also expose the nerves. In further cases, the tooth may have to be removed. In cases where the root is exposed, a root canal will be implemented. However, in most dental caries cases, such advanced procedures do not have to be used because it can be treated using simple filling technique. To repair the damage, amalgam or porcelain will be used to fill the cavity. This simple procedure requires some basic anesthetic and can be completed with just one visit.

However, the best way is always doing the prevention. Experts suggested that those who do not have dental caries should brush at least twice a day. Then, we are asked to keep good dietary habits, stay away from smoking and alcohol. Visiting dentist twice a year will be useful because he or she will find if there is an indication of dental caries so the prevention procedure can be taken before it is too late.

Toothache is annoying and it will affect our entire body function. More people today are suffering toothache and later on, they realize the importance of dental health. Unfortunately, most people do not want to meet dentists; they are fearful when the dentist wants to examines their teeth. It is normal to fear of dentist because it is also liable why many people undermine the significance of meeting their dentists in a regular basis. Dental checkups are done when suffering toothache but they forget to meet the dentist when it fades away.

Dental cavities, caries or tooth decay, even in ancient times, are not a big deal. But the number of dental caries cases is rare. Tooth decay must be taken care well because the infection will travel to heart and brain resulting more serious health problems. There are various approaches of dental caries treatments based on the broadness of decay. The decayed area will be removed through drilling technique and replacing it with composite resin; but it is for early stage of cavity. For extensive cases, dentists will use crowns to the weakened area or other procedure is the decayed tooth eliminated and then repaired while is fitted with crown to the remaining tooth.

Below are the most common effective treatments for tooth decay or dental caries:
•    Meet dentist in a regular basis. Seeing a dentist every six month will help prevent tooth decay and if we already have cavities, the dentist will start a treatment to save the teeth.
•    Teeth that show signs of cavities and decay must be filled; it will prevent a further damage. The process starts when the dentist finds the decayed part and then replaces it with fillings that are commonly made from amalgam or porcelain.
•    If the tooth decay or caries is severe, filling will be ineffective. Usually, dentist will remove the decayed area of the tooth and then place crown over what is left of it.
•    In extreme cases, if the dental caries has gone past being able to be fixed with filling or crown, the last method which will be taken by a dentist maybe is by extracting the tooth.
•    Another alternative, especially for us who hate dentists and fear of the drill, anesthesia and pain, we can try to use laser dentistry. This method is an increasingly popular method.
•    Brush and floss our teeth at least twice a day. Even if we have decay in the tooth, brushing and flossing are still important thing to do because it will help prevent any further damage from occurring. To prevent tooth decay or dental caries or cavities, it is essential to clean food particles from our teeth and mouth so the bacteria will have nothing to eat.

Cavities also known as dental caries or tooth decay is a disease resulting from the damage of the tooth enamel. There are some different types of cavities or dental caries but the most common type is the coronal cavities, which is attacking the chewing teeth. According to many experts, cavities, dental caries or tooth decay is a very serious thing because if it is not treated immediately it could lead to some major illnesses. However, many people do not understand why cavities happen, so they are lack of awareness about the causes of dental caries.

Both Children and Adults Can Be Infected

Most children love sweets, so usually, they eat too much and it leads to dental caries or cavities. Even if our children are updating to brush their teeth, eating too much sweet can still cause the oral problem because not all the time toothbrush can effectively remove the foods’ particles. However, cavity can also happen to adults as well. Poor oral hygiene is the most common cause for adults having dental caries. They tend to forget a lot, especially when they are in a hurry. Some adults often eat late at night; experts said that after eating too much late at night, especially when the foods are rich in carbohydrates, they will get sleepy and the result is they forget to brush their teeth. They will remember about it when they find themselves wake up in the morning with bad breath. If both adults and children keep doing the habits, they will easily find cavities in their teeth and if they do not take the right treatments, it will get worse. Commonly, most dental caries are unnoticeable in their very first stages.

We will know if we are already having dental caries if we have the symptoms, such as:

Bad breath, it happens because the amount of lactic acid in our mouth is quite huge. Sometimes, we cannot notice ourselves if we have bad breath but other people around us are the one who will notice.
•    Toothache. This is the most common symptoms which will be felt if we have dental caries. An infection of the pulp of the tooth is the cause of the pain.
•    Loose fillings in the teeth.
•    A foul taste of the mouth, especially when we are swallowing the saliva.
•    Broken tooth and sensitivity from pressure.
•    Brown, black or gray spots on our tooth.

Because dental; caries can attack everyone, so we have to be aware. It is important for us to take care of our dietary habits, brushing twice a day and meeting dentists regularly. The pain caused by dental caries is much worse than scratches; if we have toothache because of it, we will be unable to do all activities properly.

Dental caries or also called tooth decay is a common dental disease that can attack everyone. If we have experienced toothache, we will know how great its effect on our day. Maybe, the infected area is small but the pain in that specific area of our mouth renders us incapable of finishing even a simple task. But, what is caries etiology? How can we prevent it?

The simple definition of what causes tooth decay or dental caries is the loss of certain amount of mineral in the tooth, which is usually called as demineralization. The process takes place because of the presence of particular acids that are produced by specific types of bacteria on the surface of the tooth. The bacteria itself usually live in dental plaque.

The bacteria produce acids using sugars from the foods we eat, which is also its food source. The lactose, sucrose or glucose become the base for the lactic acid production that causes demineralization of dentin and tooth enamel resulting cavities and tooth decay. Simply we can say the causes of dental caries are:

•    Poor dental care: It is suggested by experts to brush and floss teeth twice a day at least, in the morning and before bedtime. Brushing regularly will help us control plaque that builds up in the teeth surface. It also helps us maintain the cleanliness of our mouth that automatically will control the growth of bacteria. But, it is also recommended to meet dentist on a regular basis to make sure and get the treatment whenever he finds something wrong.
•    Poor diet: Bacteria in the mouth also eat whenever we eat or drink sweets. After 20 minutes, the bacteria will transform the sugar into lactic acid.
•    Deficiency of fluoride: Fluoride is a substance that helps fight and prevent tooth decay. Fluoride strengthens the enamel and makes it stronger against the lactic acids. That is why, the water we drink and the toothpaste we use should have fluoride.
•    Smoking cigarettes: Smoking cigarette is a very dangerous thing. The habit can also cause tooth decay as well as other serious health problems.
•    Drinking alcohol: Drinking alcoholic beverages is also a bad habit that must be stopped. Alcoholic beverages also contain huge amount of sugar, which is the food of bacteria.

To eliminate decay or solving caries problems, we need professional help. We have to remember that having one cavity is like having an infection that will spread bacteria throughout our mouth. When the decay has been removed from our mouth and we follow good dietary habits, we will be able to get excellent oral health. So, let us start to live healthier from now before bacteria infect our mouth, teeth and causes serious unexpected problems.

It is very important to keep the teeth of our child healthy to promote our kid’s overall health. Baby bottle tooth decay (BBTD) or childhood caries can occur due to a fact that our kid’s teeth are constantly contacted with sugars from formula, fruit juice, milk, other drinks or even breast milk. In the mouth, the liquids break down and then form into simple sugars. During the process, the bacteria start to feed on the sugars and finally cause tooth decay. Because of that reason, it is important to prevent tooth decay because such problem will not only be uncomfortable for our children but according to further researches, can also cause health problems in the future. Preventing tooth decay will also pave the way for healthy teeth.

What We Must Do as Parents

•    According to experienced dentists and researchers, there are some simple ways we can do to prevent dental caries in children; here are the tips:

•    Give bottle during meals. It is suggested not to use bottle as a pacifier or give it to quiet our baby. Pacifier and bottle must be replaced with glasses when the time comes because it only promotes the development of bacteria that can lead tooth decay.
•    Make sweets and sugars only an occasional treat in our house. If we give too many sweets and sugar foods, it leads to tooth decay.
•    Limit the number of meals and snacks that we serve to our child. Do not let our child graze all day long on foods because it will harm his teeth, as the food will stay on the teeth, makes bacteria live on it and cause tooth decay.
•    We have to give our child enough water to drink every day. There is a fact about water; it leads the production of saliva in the mouth that will help washing sugars left on the teeth away. Water with fluoride will also help protecting our child’s teeth from over acid production.
•    When we eat out with him or are on the go, it is suggested to use dental wipes on his teeth. Dental wipes help prevent tooth decay especially that is caused by plaque formation. It can be bought easily in local drugstores.
•    We have to take our child to the dentist on a regular basis. We need to ask the dentist about fluoride sealant, especially if we live in an area where there is no fluoridated water or if our child’s teeth are prone to cavities.
•    As parents, we have responsibility to make sure that children are brushing their teeth every night before bedtime. Night is the best time to brush because it will help remove all foods and sugars from the day.