Dental tooth decay prevention.

Tooth decay is caused by bacteria that live in our mouths and LOVE acid. Many of the foods we eat and drink keep our mouths in an acid state. We do have good bacteria in our mouths, and they like the alkaline environment but they don't get a chance to be in charge because the bad "bugs "rule.

Learn more about alkaline foods and your health

But it requires a bit of medicine to prevent tooth decay. We all tell our patients to brush and floss for a healthy mouth, but these actions are not enough to prevent cavities. The good news is even people who "always seem to have cavities" can be turned from high or extreme risk to low or even no risk.
Dentistry can now provide a simple test that gives a measure of the bad bacteria we have. This test can be carried out in just a few minutes in the dental surgery from a scraping of plaque from the teeth. A program of special mouthwashes only available from dentists can then be prescribed to change the bacteria from the acid loving "bad bugs" to the alkaline loving "good bugs ". Also cutting down on foods that create acid in our mouth is very important.

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In Australia there have been several programs that have been put into place in some schools with screening to measure the bad bacteria and then the program of mouthwashes, then further screening to measure the level of bad bacteria. The results have been stunning in schools where tooth decay was epidemic to now virtually none. What a pity our New Zealand Government can't put such a program into our schools here. It is cheaper to prevent the disease than treat the affects of the disease.

Dr Wenley tells a story of a new recent patient named Jan. Jan was in her late 30,s and had not visited a dentist in 4 years. Her dental examination revealed 5 brand new cavities. There was also evidence that Jan was always in trouble with her teeth as she had lots of fillings done over the years due to tooth decay.
In short Jan was upset. She stated that every time she goes to the dentist she needs lots of fillings. She also said she brushed and flossed her teeth regularly and she regarded her diet as being fairly healthy.
She said that her previous dentist had made her feel guilty because she always needed fillings and she felt that the previous dentist was blaming her for the problem. Further questions revealed that Jan's mother had had terrible problems with her teeth and her brothers and sisters also had ongoing dental problems.
"You would not believe the look on her face when I told her that the problem was not her fault", said Dr Wenley.
Dr Wenley explained that tooth decay is not the disease; it is the symptom of the disease. The disease is infectious bad Bacteria. These Bad Bugs get passed on from family member to family member. We all have both good bugs and bad bugs in our mouths. This is called a Biofilm and is a massive community of millions of bacteria. It is like a city of good Guys and bad Guys and in Jan's case the bad guys are winning. We get ongoing tooth decay (Cavities) when the bad bugs take control. Fillings are only treating the symptoms of the disease and do not treat the disease.
The good news for Jan was that once the symptoms of the disease are treated (Cavities) then the cause of the disease can be treated (Bad Bugs). There is a lot of current research being carried out in this field and a group of researchers from America have developed a program of mouth washes to shift the balance from the bad Bacteria to the good Bacteria. These mouth rinses are only available at dental surgeries.
We now assess patients' risk factors. The risk groups are simply low, medium, high and extreme; says Dr Wenley.
The important factor for good on going dental health is regular dental visits.