Is still water better for you than sparkling water?
Still or sparkling? It's a question you'll commonly hear in a café or restaurant and you probably have a preference. But is there any difference for your health?
Sep 2, 2024
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Still or sparkling? It's a question you'll commonly hear in a café or restaurant and you probably have a preference. But is there any difference for your health?
Sep 2, 2024
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Added sugar in foods not only adds extra calories, it also can have direct toxic effects, such as tooth decay and even a risk for heart disease. Minimizing the amount of added sugar in your diet is important. However, you ...
Aug 29, 2024
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Reduced salivary flow, or hyposalivation, can cause an increased risk for tooth decay and other mouth conditions. Measuring salivary flow is important to guide risk assessment and management strategies when treating patients ...
Aug 27, 2024
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How much would you be willing to pay for a perfect movie star smile? For some, trying to achieve dazzlingly white, uniformly straight teeth without a Hollywood budget comes at a cost to their health as well as their wallet.
Jun 7, 2024
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Some UK nurseries are struggling to source healthy local food due to lack of funding and a workforce crisis, with some resorting to going to the local corner shop to buy lunches for children, according to the authors of a ...
Jun 4, 2024
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Your mouth is one of the most diverse habitats in the human body. It contains over 700 known species of bacteria, as well as yeasts, viruses and some protozoa. This community is collectively referred to as the oral microbiome—and ...
May 23, 2024
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The microbes that live in your gut are having their moment in the sun. Even if you haven't been following the research, you can't have missed the hundreds of adverts for probiotics and prebiotics, aimed at selling you products ...
May 16, 2024
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Regina Barrett, a 69-year-old retiree who lives in this small North Carolina city southeast of Charlotte, has not been happy with her tap water for a while.
Apr 17, 2024
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An inexpensive, cavity-fighting liquid called silver diamine fluoride (SDF) works as well as dental sealants to keep tooth decay at bay in a school cavity prevention and treatment program, according to a new study by researchers ...
Mar 4, 2024
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Researchers at Umeå University have for the first time been able to show that individual variation in susceptibility to infection and bacterial flora together explain recurrent caries disease and that others are asymptomatic. ...
Feb 21, 2024
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Dental caries, also known as tooth decay or cavity, is a disease where bacterial processes damage hard tooth structure (enamel, dentin and cementum). These tissues progressively break down, producing dental cavities (holes in the teeth). Two groups of bacteria are responsible for initiating caries, Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacilli. If left untreated, the disease can lead to pain, tooth loss, infection, and, in severe cases, death. Today, caries remains one of the most common diseases throughout the world. Cariology is the study of dental caries.
The presentation of caries is highly variable; however, the risk factors and stages of development are similar. Initially, it may appear as a small chalky area which may eventually develop into a large cavitation. Sometimes caries may be directly visible, however other methods of detection such as radiographs are used for less visible areas of teeth and to judge the extent of destruction.
Tooth decay is caused by specific types of acid-producing bacteria which cause damage in the presence of fermentable carbohydrates such as sucrose, fructose, and glucose. The mineral content of teeth is sensitive to increases in acidity from the production of lactic acid. Specifically, a tooth (which is primarily mineral in content) is in a constant state of back-and-forth demineralization and remineralization between the tooth and surrounding saliva. When the pH at the surface of the tooth drops below 5.5, demineralization proceeds faster than remineralization (i.e. there is a net loss of mineral structure on the tooth's surface). This results in the ensuing decay. Depending on the extent of tooth destruction, various treatments can be used to restore teeth to proper form, function, and aesthetics, but there is no known method to regenerate large amounts of tooth structure. Instead, dental health organizations advocate preventive and prophylactic measures, such as regular oral hygiene and dietary modifications, to avoid dental caries.
Though more than 95% of trapped food is left packed between teeth after every meal or snack, over 80% of cavities develop inside pits and fissures in grooves on chewing surfaces where the brush cannot reach and there is no access for saliva and fluoride to neutralise acid and remineralise demineralised tooth. Few cavities occur where saliva has easy access.
Chewing fibre like celery after eating helps force saliva into trapped food to dilute carbohydrate like sugar, neutralise acid and remineralise demineralised teeth.[citation needed]
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA