Does Brushing After Sweets Help Prevent Cavities?

Surprisingly, the answer to that is no! To have a cavity one requires a tooth, some of the right kind of bacteria concentrated in an area where they can create and harbor acid on the tooth, sugar that the bacteria will eat and convert to acid, and some time for the acids to dissolve calcium out of the tooth enamel to make a hole.

So you see, if sometime during the day you cleaned all the bacteria off your teeth so they are not there to create any acid, then the sugar has no affect on the teeth. Also note: If bacteria have been successfully cleaned off the teeth, then it will take 24 hours for those bacteria to multiply and aggregate adequately to create and concentrate acid in a sheltered place on the tooth. In other words, your teeth are safe for 24 hours.

So THE TRICK here is to know how to effectively clean your teeth once each day to make them safe. Check our web site regarding disclosing solution as a tool to teach yourself effective tooth cleaning, and as a tool to monitor yourself periodically to verify you are still keeping your teeth safe.

Now here is an interesting taboo. DO NOT brush your teeth immediately after drinking any beverages (other than water or milk). Check in with us next week to learn why brushing your teeth immediately after drinking nearly all prepared beverages can do serious harm to your teeth.

In the mean time teach yourself to be a superb once a day effective tooth cleaner. And it makes absolutely no difference when during the day you do this cleaning.

Photo credit: Wikipedia Commons

Potato Chips for Dessert?

My curiosity couldn't resist and I bought the package of Cappuccino Potato Chips. What are we doing with coffee flavored potato chips? So when I got home, I discovered the cappuccino was more about the cinnamon and sugar than it was the coffee. They have taken that sugary cappuccino powder drink mix and used it to "season" the chips.

Sugar is being added to everything, it is true. As a dentist I clearly see the ravages it takes on teeth. My medical colleagues see it in the melange of diabetes, obesity, cardiac disease, liver damage that results. My friends in the insurance industry point out to me the necessity of increasing life insurance premiums because this new generation of youth is going to live a shorter life span than us and will therefore be paying into the system few years. Alas. When will you take charge of your eating habits?

So back to potato chips. We all know that a good southern barbeque sauce has sugar in it, so sugar in potato chip ingredients is not a new thing. But this is the first time a potato chip tasted sweet enough to qualify for dessert. Please read labels and be aware how much sugar is being added to your diet and be aware of the multitude of long term debilitating illnesses it is responsible for in our culture. It is not just about teeth.

Photo: Free image from Pixabay

Chocolate for Teeth?!?!?

Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons

Chocolate to the rescue! Eh? … It turns out theobromine, a natural alkaloid found in cocoa works perhaps as well as fluoride to remineralize teeth that have begun to decay. A preliminary laboratory study of the alkaloid comparing it with fluoride to reverse the demineralizing process in tooth decay found them statistically equal.
Can you imagine it now? Brush your teeth clean and then smear a bit of chocolate on them before bed. For those of you on the cutting edge, there is already an “up-scale” chocolate toothpaste emphasizing the theobromine.

Don't jump to conclusions just yet. There is more research going on to verify these preliminary results.

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Chocolate Milk Makes Cavities!

Chocolate milk is candy.  Granted it has milk protein and calcium, but the sugar ratio to other nutrients still makes it candy.  As for its ability to make cavities, it is less of a problem than juice and sports drinks because it is not acidic like them.  I put it on the same scale as chocolate candy, except we do not nibble on chocolate candy multiple times a day every day.  Infants and toddlers who drink chocolate milk do sip on it at multiple opportunities during the day.  Some have it in a sippy cup or bottle and sip on it all day.  As you might expect, these kids develop a high rate of cavities early in life* and they establish an oral bacterial balance around their teeth that will plague them their entire life.**

If your child is already “addicted”*** to the sweet flavor of chocolate milk, there are a couple options for you.

1) Adamantly restrict chocolate milk to one glass at mealtime when it will be mixed with the other foods of the meal.  Note:  If you can do this you are a committed person (and tougher than me).  If children are used to having chocolate milk throughout the day, and they know it is in the house, they will insist on having it as usual and you will have a small war (demands, crying & tantrums) on your hands.  My experience with small wars with children is that they win … every time.  They don’t understand losing and they will persist until they win.