Browse through all the pages for tooth decay, and teeth whitening. Your children should be taught quite early for oral hygeine and oral health so that they do not have toothache, dental plaque and bad breath in their later life. Take care of your teeth. Avoid tooth cavities and tooth decay by caring your teeth.
Our teeth are very important to us, as important as our heart. Teeth are meant to last the entire life. To keep them healthy is necessary for us through out our life. Tooth decay, cavities, erosion of tooth enamel, etc are the main problem.
Tooth decay can occur anywhere on the surface of teeth, but is most common on the chewing surfaces of teeth, near the gum and in-between teeth. It is believed that filling of tooth cavities costs more than the costs involved in heart disease.
Carbohydrate foods such as sugars can cause dental decay. Sweets, biscuits, pastries, buns, cakes, sticky breakfast bars, and other similar kinds of food stick in the teeth, providing food for bacteria that live in dental plaque. The bacteria use sugars from residues of carbohydrates to multiply. They also ferment sugary food residues around teeth, producing acids that eats into tooth enamel, causing cavities. The longer the time that residues are in contact with bacteria in teeth, the greater the amount of acid produced.
Saliva has some ability to counteract the effect of the acid produced by bacteria as it contains some minerals that help repair tooth enamel. Foods that do not contain sugar and need to be chewed are useful, stimulating production of saliva. When less saliva is available on very hot days, one should not consume foods containing sugars that stick in the teeth.
According a study published in the July 2006 issue of The Journal of the American Dental Association, chewing gum containing xylitol, a sweetener with antimicrobial properties, temporarily suppresses bacteria that cause tooth decay. Results also showed that using chewing gum with a sorbitol-aspartame-saccharin sweetening mixture or not chewing any gum was ineffective in maintaining suppression of the tooth-decaying bacteria.