Let's find out about dental caries!
June 4-10 is Dental Hygiene Week, a time to think about dental health and disease prevention. Do you take good care of your teeth? Teeth have the important function of chewing and separating food into small pieces. However, if you do not brush your teeth or eat a lot of sweet foods, you can get tooth decay. Let's find out why they get tooth decay and what we can do to prevent it.
From deciduous teeth to permanent teeth
Teeth play an important role in eating food. The most important function of teeth is to chew food to make it finer and easier to swallow. Without teeth, it would be difficult to eat food unless it is very soft.
Newborn babies do not have teeth until they are about 2 years old. At around 6 years of age, the baby teeth fall out and adult teeth grow in that are larger than the baby teeth. These teeth are called permanent teeth because they never grow back. Baby teeth have 20 teeth, but permanent teeth usually have 32 teeth. Permanent teeth are especially important.
Teeth come in all shapes and sizes.
Look at your teeth in the mirror. Do you see that there are teeth with different shapes? Humans have three types of teeth: incisors (front teeth), canine teeth (incisors), and arch teeth (back teeth).
The incisors are the front teeth and are used for biting and cutting. The canine teeth are located behind the gate teeth and are sharp, making it easy to cut things off. The cuspid teeth are located next to the portal teeth. The cuspid teeth are shaped like a mortar, which makes it easier to chew and grind things. Thanks to these three types of teeth, humans are able to chop meat and vegetables into small pieces.
Acid combats tooth decay.
The cause of tooth decay is the bacteria called mutans in the mouth. If you do not clean your teeth thoroughly, you may find a white, grime-like substance on the surface of your teeth or at the interface between your teeth and gums. This is a mass of bacteria such as tooth decay germs and is called plaque. The acid from the plaque causes the teeth to dissolve.
When a tooth is carious, it gradually fades and makes a hole. When the tooth is slightly erupted, it does not hurt, but as the hole gets deeper and deeper, cold food stings and pain is felt. If left untreated, the tooth will be erased.
Source: Theme Park 8020
Curing carious teeth with the latest technology
In the past, most people had to grind away the decayed tooth and put a metal filling over it. However, with this method, plaque accumulates in the gap between the remaining tooth and the metal filling, and the tooth may become carious again. Therefore, new treatment methods are being researched.
Tohoku University and other institutions have developed a method of wiping fine particles of the same composition as teeth onto the erupted area. In this method, the tooth is filled up by wiping particles into the hole created by the eruption of a carious tooth, and the tooth is made to look like the original tooth. Compared to conventional treatments, this method leaves fewer gaps between the teeth and makes them more like the original teeth, so they are less likely to become carious again. It is expected that this method will be available in a few years. It is also thought to be able to prevent tooth decay by spraying healthy teeth with an ingredient that protects them from caries.
After eating, clean up right away!
To avoid tooth decay, let's take preventive measures.
The key to preventing tooth decay is to thoroughly remove food debris from the teeth after eating to prevent the formation of plaque. Also, brush your teeth properly.
The size of the toothbrush should be about the size of two front teeth. When the bristles open, replace it with a new one. A toothbrush with open bristles will not remove food debris as well as a toothbrush with bristles that are too loose.
When brushing, place the brush properly on the teeth and brush lightly and in small increments without exerting too much pressure. Food debris tends to remain in the crevices of the back teeth and between the teeth. These areas should be brushed out especially well. It is also effective to use dental floss to remove food debris between teeth.
Watch what you eat and how you eat it.
In addition to brushing your teeth, there are other good things you can do to prevent tooth decay. In addition to brushing, there are other good things you can do to prevent tooth decay. Be careful about foods that contain sugar and food debris that can easily stick to teeth. Eating snacks and other foods that are eaten in an uncontrolled manner is also a big problem. During and after eating, the acid produced by the cariogenic bacteria makes the inside of the mouth susceptible to tooth decay.
When eating, it is also important to chew well. When we chew our food well, it causes the production of oral fluid in our mouths. This helps to prevent the formation of carious teeth in the mouth by suppressing the action of acid.
Also, check your teeth daily, and if you find any carious teeth, go to the dentist as soon as possible. If the decayed tooth is not too advanced, it can be easily treated in a short period of time.
We should take care of our dental health on a daily basis so that we can eat delicious food with our own teeth forever.
