October 1, 2018
Some facts about dental decay:
- There are 4 ingredients to dental decay: Teeth + sugar + bacteria + time = Dental Decay. Remove any of these ingredients and decay will not happen.
- Decay is a preventable condition. Daily oral hygiene, including using dental floss, can protect teeth from decay. Spend time cleaning your teeth properly, using your tongue to feel how effective your cleaning is. Rough surfaces breed more plaque, so have your teeth polished smooth to protect them.
- Sugar needs time to become destructive. A sugar binge once in the day is far less destructive than little sugar snacks many times throughout the day. If you have a sweet tooth, try xylitol as a natural sweetener to prevent plaque formation.
- Most at risk are children who are not adequately supervised, special needs people and the elderly. Care for these people to achieve healthy mouths is mandatory.
- Repairs by the dentist can range from simple fillings, to cast ceramic restorations. If the decay is too far advanced, the tooth may either need root canal treatment, or removal
Dental floss could have helped dramatically to prevent this decay.
Fortunately we were able to restore all of these teeth with fillings and crowns.