What Can You Do To Reduce Tooth Decay?

Which of these two acts do you think will cause a cavity the fastest, if done on a daily basis?

1. Chugging 2 liters of a "sugar drink" in 20 minutes (once per day).

2. Sipping 12 ounces of a "sugar drink" over a 6 hour period of time.

Most people believe that the amount of sugar in a drink is the greatest factor in the speed of tooth decay. As it turns out, the greatest factor in how fast you or your child will cause a cavity the fastest is the amount of time that the sugar is on the teeth.

The good news is that your saliva is actually a tool that can help recover the damage that "sugar drinks" cause to teeth. However, it takes 1 to 2 hours after the drink is consumed for your saliva to do its job.

So, if you consume another sugary drink within the 1 to 2 hours of the last drink, then you have canceled out all the help that your saliva had given your teeth, and a cavity starts to grow.

What can you do to reduce your chances of tooth decay? The answer is simple if you maintain a good habit of brushing and flossing twice a day. All you have to do is eliminate sugary foods and drinks from your diet!

In today's society, the realistic answer for a person already in good health would be to limit your sugar intake to one or two 20 minute sessions of sugar in-take per day. Make sure you look at the labels on many of the foods and drinks that you normally consume and you may be surprised at how much sugar is in them. Sodas, sports drink, energy drinks and candies, to name a few, are all enemies to your teeth.

Submitted by Dr. Frank Wright

A Mortenson Family Dentist

Why Is It So Important To Have Good Dental Care?

Did you know that your gums and your teeth are directly connected to your blood stream? If you get infection in your gums, it will travel throughout your blood vessels and create all kind of havoc on your health. It is so important to have good dental care because it is the first line of protection for good, overall health.

Not convinced? Research has proven that an unhealthy bacteria-filled mouth can also lead to many, many problems throughout the body, such as heart disease, diabetes, infections in the blood stream and low birth weight in babies. What's worse is that in January, 2010 MSN.com reported that researcher Yiping Han, from the department of periodontilogy at Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine discovered the first documented case of a stillbirth caused by an oral bacteria. Visit this link to read the whole story.

And then there is the tragic case of Deamonte Driver, the 12-year-old Maryland boy who died in 2007 because of a dental infection. Deamonte's death drew national attention to the problems of those without access to dental care, prompting calls for change. Visit this link to read the whole story:

Seeing a dentist on a regular basis is very important, as your dentist can tell you what you might be doing wrong when it comes to brushing, or they can help resolve any sort of pain or problems that you might have within your mouth. You should see your dentist every six months to a year in order to get a deep cleaning as well as a full dental exam.