Whats eating your teeth?

Your teeth are made out of enamel, this is the strongest material in your body.

What could have the ability to put holes in this very strong material? Acid.

The holes that I am referring to are cavities or decay. A cavity starts when an area of the tooth is weakend by an acid, once the initial breakdown is started it is easier for bacteria and other acids to attack the tooth and spread deeper into the tooth.

This process is more complicated then this simplified explanation but the short and sweet version is:

• You eat food, or drink a beverage (esentially everything has sugar in it with the exception of water. Milk has lactose, apples have fructose- you can't completely illiminate the sugar)


• To break down the food your body produces acid,the acid begins to breakdown your enamel


• Your saliva rushes in to wash away the food and neutralize the acid

If any of these factors go haywire decay starts to appear

• If you eat and/or sip drinks all day the sugar and acid are allowed to remain on your teeth for longer periods of time allowing them to do more damage


• If your body is allowing too much acid in contact with you teeth-AKA acid reflux it starts to break down tooth structure


• If you don't have adequete saliva, "dry mouth" your body isn't able to neutralize the acid
  

Other factors that effect the decay process

• Home care: If you aren't brushing and flossing daily food and bacteria are allowed to sit on the teeth and eat away at it
  
• Poor dental restorations: If you have failing dental work it is the perfect place for bacteria to hide and eat away at your tooth.

Beverage - Acid*(Low = Bad ) Sugar (per 12 oz.Serving )

Pure Water 7 (neutral) - 0 tsp
Barq's Root Beer 4 - 11 tsp
Orange Juice 3.8 - 9 tsp
Propel Fitness Water 3.4 - 1 tsp
Red Bull 3.3 - 10 tsp
Sprite 3.3 - 10 tsp
Mountain Dew 3.3 - 12 tsp
Diet Coke 3.1 - 0 tsp
Gatorade 2.9 - 12 tsp
Sobe Energy Citrus 2.6 - 12 tsp
Lemonade 2.6 - 10 tsp
Pepsi 2.5 - 11 tsp
Battery Acid 1 - 0 tsp

For additional information visit http://www.rochesteradvanceddentistry.com/