Give Your Teeth a Rest

I get a chuckle when children come into the office the week after Halloween or Easter.  They have eaten a bunch of candy in the last week and are worried that it made some cavities.  The reality is cavities take months or more commonly years to form.  When the complex biofilm of bacteria develops in the nooks around your teeth it creates acids as a byproduct of sugar metabolism.  These acids dissolve calcium out of tooth enamel.  As the disease progresses the enamel first develops a white mark as the calcium is dissolved out.  The enamel is softening and beginning to look like white chalk.

Next the microscopic voids where calcium has dissolved begin to collect stain and the mark on the tooth darkens brown or black.  Eventually the softening of enamel reaches the point that pieces of enamel begin to chip out and leave a hole, the cavity.  Depending on your habits, this process can take months or years or never become a cavity at all.

Each time we put simple carbohydrate (sugar or cooked starch) in our mouth the dental biofilm will function at a high metabolic rate for about 40 minutes.  During this time the high acid production is attacking all teeth.  Calcium is being dissolved out of our teeth in large quantities.  Don't despair!  Saliva has the ability to capture and hold that calcium in super saturation.

After the 40 minutes of high acid output, the biofilm bacteria hibernate and wait for their next sugar meal.  Now the saliva can neutralize the remaining acid.  When the mouth is neutral, the calcium balance favors calcium uptake and so the enamel recaptures the calcium that was lost during the acid attack.

If we eat 3 meals and a snack each day our teeth are under attack for about 5 hours each day and they here 19 hours to REST and RECOVER the calcium they lost.  A good balance with good rest time.

Grazers, however, especially children, have acids attacking their teeth all day with little or no recovery time.  If a child eats 3 meals and also has a sippy cup of juice to sip (hourly) between meals, her teeth will be under attack all day.  No recovery period for the teeth to regain lost calcium.  If the child goes to sleep sipping something, it will pool in the mouth and feed the bacteria all night.  The acids are attacking all day and all night!  This is why I have seen teeth with no detectable cavity on exam or x-ray develop a cavity so large and deep it requires a root canal treatment and crown within 6 months.

Give your teeth a rest!  Eat 3 meals and a snack and give your teeth a chance to rest and recuperate between meals.  If you like sweet beverages have them with meals where the sugar and acids get buffered by the other food.  For snacks use protein (nuts, seeds, cheese) and complex raw carbohydrate (carrots, celery, cauliflower, broccoli, jicama), perhaps with a nut or cheese spread.  Calories with robust nutritional support and no simple carbohydrates to threaten teeth.  Between meal beverage?  Water.  Only water.  That is what the human body needs.

Next:  1) Setting your cavity rate early.  2) Changing your cavity rate.