How to Stop Getting Cavities

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By Marilyn Brodeur
User-Submitted Article

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Stop Getting Cavities

As a dental student, I have patients who first come in with many cavities in their teeth. A year later, they do not have a single cavity. They changed some things. Other patients of mine consistently have a new cavity each time they sit in my chair. Your mouth doesn't have to be that way. You can make your dentist do a happy dance when they look inside your cavity free mouth. Straight from the mouth of a dental student here's how it is done.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Toothbrush
Toothpaste
Fluoride source
Dentist

Step 1

Understand how cavities are formed. Basically everyone has bacteria in their mouth. When you have sugars in your mouth, the bacteria feed off of them and secret acid. Acid breaks down your tooth. Bacteria creep inside your tooth and do it all over again. Basically a cavity is a bacterial infection that has attacked your tooth. When I open up a tooth with a drill, it is really soft and mushy where the cavity is. The tooth decays away.
Step 2

Go to the dentist regularly. If you can't afford the dentist, go to a dental school where it is cheaper. Professional cleaning can do wonders for fighting cavities. The gunk, called dental plaque, that gets caked on to your teeth is full of bacteria. Get it off and you reduce your risk of cavities.
Step 3

Brush your teeth daily. Especially at night. Mouths have the least amount of salivary flow in the evening. This means the bacteria that feed in your mouth are at their highest concentrations while you are sleeping.
Step 4

Be mindful when brushing. Focus on getting all the surfaces of your teeth. You don't want to leave any mini bacterial colonies on your back tooth, do you? Didn't think so. Also angle your tooth brush towards your gums because most dental plaque gets caked on there.
Step 5

Watch your diet. Remember how I said bacteria feed on sugar? They do, especially sucrose. People who do not eat sugar, do not get cavities. It's a fact.
Step 6

Get fluoride on your teeth, whether from drinking community water, your toothpaste, or dental treatments. Essentially fluoride helps make the outer most surface of your tooth more resistant to acid breakdown from bacteria. Don't listen to the mumbojumbo about how fluoride is toxic and will give your children mutant tentacles. Anything can be toxic in high doses. Fluoride in water, toothpaste, and dental fluoride is given in safe doses, many times below toxic levels.
Step 7

Prance into that dental chair and open wide. Have no fear this appointment. Your lifestyle changes have made you cavity free.