Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Plaque-The Weak Link



Plaque-The Weak Link



If we are going to stop dental disease, let's target the weak link. We need four ingredients to create a cavity. A tooth, some bacteria (plaque), food for the bacteria, and time for the bacteria to make the hole.

So, eliminating the tooth would be an undesirable way to prevent cavities. Food is essential to life, although we have a lot to do in bringing the American diet back to healthful. We obviously are not going to eliminate simple carbohydrate from our diet. The only way I know to eliminate time from the equation is also an undesirable option. That leaves the bacteria as the easiest ingredient to target.

Plaque research has identified and described this incredibly complex organization of 600+ different kinds of bacteria called plaque. With over 600 different bacteria, it is impossible to create a vaccine or anti-biotic that can wipe it out. Because of the defense mechanisms developed by this complex organization of bacteria, it is also impossible to create vaccines or antibiotics that will target specific groups of bacteria within the plaque. However, the very complexity of the plaque becomes its weakness when we are preventing cavities. We merely need to disturb the organization, the village as it were, and it has to rebuild and reorganize before it can concentrate acid to dissolve holes in our teeth. Cleaning teeth does not remove bacteria from the mouth, it gets the plaque off the teeth and this disorganizes it.

It then takes plaque a minimum of 24 hours to reorganize and begin concentrating acid again. Your teeth are "safe" for 24 hours. Think of your job as scrambling the bacteria off your teeth. You don't need a new section of floss between each tooth because you are just scrambling it off your teeth.

All you need is a way to "see" the plaque so you can teach yourself a fast and efficient way to clean your teeth daily. See our website or blog about disclosing bacteria. Thoroughly effective tooth and gums cleaning can be as little as 2 min. each day. One good effective tooth cleaning each day will protect you for 24 hours.

Want to learn more, click HERE for Winning with Smiles.com

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Welcome to Winning With Smiles - Pediatric Dentistry. We are dedicated to cavity free, healthy beautiful smiles. We look forward to the opportunity to share with you what we know about creating optimal oral health for growing children. We understand oral health is closely tied to general health and like to work closely with the family physician. Oral health is also closely tied to family life and lifestyle. That is why we like to have the family involved with dental appointments. What we teach our patients works best if understood and supported by the family and will benefit the family as well. We enjoy working with parent and siblings present. We have been learning from families since 1974. With the family present, open questions lead to family learning. We are dedicated to your oral health.