Dr. Shanmuga Sundaram

Hi friend, I am  Dr Goyal. I am a dentist from Mumbai India. Tday I will talk about cavities and dental caries as we call it. This is the condition which is affecting almost everyone in some or the other form. Most commonly seen in children and teens even adults post 50 years of age are not insulated from this sort of problems , because the moment the gums start to go down we start getting cavities on the root surfaces of our teeth.

How do these cavities form?

We have a lot of normal bacteria in our mouth which use up the food staff which we eat and form a thin film called plaque on our teeth. This plaque thermos the acid which in turn removes the calcium from the enamel of our tooth making the tooth soft and susceptible to removal by any means. The best way to keep our mouth free of cavities is to clean our mouth after eating anything, that has been always told by everyone. But there is more, this give and take of calcium from enamel is always going on. The moment we eat something the acid levels of our saliva goes up which removes the calcium from our tooth but at the same time the same saliva is going on replenishing this calcium and phosphate iron in our teeth. If this balance is broken the moment the removal of calcium is more, then the resupply of calcium we end up getting cavities.

The best way to avoid this is to limit the number of meals e have per day. It is recommended to have not more than four meals a day . after every meal we need to clean our mouth properly possibly brush our teeth but at the same time it is very important to note that we should not brush our teeth immediately after eating because that is when the saliva is more acidic leaving our enamel more susceptible to damage by brushing itself. Brushing itself may cause lot of damage so wait for a few minutes before you brush your teeth. If it is not possible to brush atleast rinse your mouth forcefully there are lot of fluoridated toothpaste available in India also which have a formulation called as anti k which lets our saliva carry more calcium and phosphate which will repair the damage which has been done by the acids on the enamel . all in all get into a healthy habbit of brushing after every meal , eat healthy food , avoid very sticky food avoid too many colas avoid too many chocolates and you can get rid of habbit of cavity formation and be healthy.

Thank you very much for more information you can contact us via lybrate .