How to maintain your teeth. What works and what is not so good.
Look at bacteria and how they work – How to control them – how to choose tooth-pastes – mouthwashes – brushes and flosses; ID brushes.
Dental decay and equally gum disease are not inherent. By this we mean all damage is started from outside.
What are these things that attack your teeth.
First lets look at the outside of the tooth.
These eat or ingest sugars and excrete very acidic waste. They form a biofilm on teeth. This is a real mix of different bacteria and by products and eventually forms more like a city similar to Venice with big and small water-ways.
This is both hard to remove fully and even after flossing and brushing there are significant residues.
Thus it seems far more productive to alter the acid – bacteria.
This can be done by using ‘buffered hypochlorite’s’. This is alkaline (opposite of acid) and it can be chemically trapped so only small amounts are released, but when its used there is more in the store so it is possible to frequently (2-3 times per day) bathe the plaque in this and the acid lovers simply don’t grow well and the ‘good’ bacteria can take over.
When the type of biofilm bacteria are established as prefentially alkaline dominant then acid production drops and decay process is subdued or stopped.
There are available CaMaBRA ( Caries Management By Risk Assessment ) products and also the clever and locally made Dr Hisham’s package of both the ‘mouthwash’ as well as other products to remove biofilm and they use non-abrasive ‘tooth crèmes’ rather than typical tooth pastes to avoid scratching the tooth surface.
Whichever route you choose, both work, both help, but there is no absolute system that cures tooth decay. Fluoride works in two ways. First to catalyse the process of converting phosphate ions dissolved in saliva to Fluorapatite. Fluoride also protects by swapping HA (hydroxyapatite) to Fluor-appatite which doesn’t dissolve so easily thus removing one of the vulnerable sites in tooth enamel.
Other methods include keeping food intake to set times. Bacteria can only handle sugar in relatively small amounts, so eating more than they can convert means some or most sugar is not converted to acid immediately. Therefore eat less sugar and with meals and finish the meal with something that cant be converted to acid or stored such as cheese. If you need ‘sweet’ try fruit that has fructose and less easily converted, particularly for those on dairy free diets.
Simply – where there is neither sugar or bacteria that can convert it, you don’t get decay.
It is also possible to trick bacteria by using FAKE sugar – Xylitol which is wood-sugar, can be eaten by bacteria (Strep Mutans) but they cant digest it. So they get full and burst! End of bug! This is a complementary to these mouth-washes.
Use of alcohol mouthwashes. Generally this may tingle the soft tissues in the mouth and give the impression of great-activity, but it does little to stop the bacteria.
There appears little benefit and arguably increased risks. An Australian study found mouth-washing 3 times per day was associated with increased mouth/throat cancer.
Also in a review of 9 papers Dr Cole agreed. (JADA 134/8 2003)
Alternative and herbal toothpastes. These are difficult to report on, but many use the concept that if there is enough abrasive all the bacteria will be ground off. This is not true and the effects of various herbs has little traditional research to support (or deny) it.
Tooth brushes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQPHpJ35lNw Check this out from MagicBox English Kids Channel
There are thousands of designs, from the Elder twigs used by North American Indians to Water-Pic and other mechanical devices – all work to some degree.
Check out the chewable tooth-brush. This has Xylitol included so it’s a double whammy. It has good reviews.
Electric brushes. These are thought to be far better than hand brushing, because of the driver (ie you)
Both are capable, but technique and time spent make the difference. Generally it is better if you have braces or gum disease to use electrics. Electrics move more plaque but what if this helps decay is less well shown. – it probably does help.
How to floss.
This is the conventional method – start with this and muck about until you find what suits. Safety tips… anchor floss well and keep usable section to 25mm – 40mm where fingers are reasonably close. Avoid dragging floss over gum papillae (points)
Add-ons Things that help toughen the surface.
GC’s Tooth Mousse has been used for a long time, it works and is proven safe.
Others reduce sensitivity – and do this, but they don’t address cause.
Have a look at Night-bruxing page. Paint-on’s can work well, but it’s pointless if you keep on damaging the tooth.