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The reason is fluoride. Think of it as
the chrome plating on a bumper bar. We all know about fluoride.
Lots of people from the country side complain about its odour when
town water supplies get low. But fluoride has proved to be the
biggest boon to fighting tooth decay ever known. It doesn't stop
the decay, but it does put a protective film over the teeth which
keeps bacteria at bay. It has contributed to a 50 percent decline
in tooth decay in young people in recent years. |
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Fluoride is a substance which occurs
naturally in water in odd parts of Australia. It was first
discovered in the United States when the health service made a
study and found that teeth in some areas of the country were far
better than in others. Fluoride in the water was the cause.
Since then it has been artificially added to water supplies and
fed to us in the form of tablets. |
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For hundreds of years bacteria has
eaten into our teeth and gums, but only recently has it become
known outside the dentistry world as plaque. This is one word
you have to get used to; throughout our lives it's the one evil
which will constantly threaten to cause a decline in the healthy
state of teeth. Plaque is invisible. What it does is harbour
millions of harmful bacteria and hold them together in close
contact with our teeth. The bacteria can float around our mouth
and not cause any harm, until they gang together with plaque. |
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Although you can't see it, you feel
it if you haven't brushed for about 48 hours. The furry feeling
on your teeth is plaque. For women today it is the cause of all
teeth and gum problems. Up to our late twenties the decay of
enamel is really our only problem. It's a disease of the young.
But after the twenties major problems are likely to be the decay
of the roots or gingivitis.
While children being born today can
look forward to relatively trouble-free teeth, we must pay
constant attention to the problems we will have as a result of
missed fluoride. The biggest change in attitudes in dentistry
today comes from the Department of Preventive Dentistry and
concerns the frequency of brushing. The three times a day advice
of our mothers was nice for fresh breath, but only one of the
brushings was really necessary to clean the teeth. We brush for
two reasons: |
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1. Cosmetic brushing leaves us with
fresh breath and the mouth feeling cleansed and tingling. |
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2. Normal brushing removes decaying
material, plaque. Plaque only needs to be removed once every 24
hours because it takes this long to attack the teeth. How we do it
is the most important factor. |
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If you imagine a tooth, see it as a
six-sided block with one side lodged into the gum and five
exposed. When all these blocks are lined up in our mouth it
becomes very difficult to brush the five exposed surfaces. It
takes more than a toothbrush to do so. This is the important
news. |
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Now that your teeth
are free from plaque you need to be aware of the damage of acid
attacks. What this means is that the next time you eat, be it a tiny
breath freshener or a piece of fruit, the food will come in contact
with bacteria and begin to form plaque, causing what dentists call
an “acid attack”. It happens every time you eat something between
meals, so some people will have far more acid attacks than others,
depending on what and how often they eat.
It's the frequency of these acid
attacks that does the damage. If you must eat between meals that
apple is still the best. Other good snacks are dried fruit,
other fruit, cheese, nuts, celery, carrots or fruit juice. Best
brushes to use have a small head, soft bristles and a flat
surface. Probably the most damaging brush is a very hard one. |
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The Other Problems
For many, most teeth problems will occur when they are young and
they can look forward to relatively trouble-free teeth for the
rest of their lives, kept in check with a six monthly visit to
the dentist of course. But all tooth problems stem from the same
cause. Plaque. Don't be led to think that bleeding gums result
from any other cause. If teeth bleed after brushing it's a sign
that you have missed an important area. Often the problem is
made worse when people don't brush bleeding gums. What you
should do is brush the area correctly and the bleeding will
stop, the gums return to a healthy state. |
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Conclusion: So look after
your teeth so that they last you a life time |
