Braces as an adult? No way. At least, that was what I thought when my dentist told me that I was going to have to see an orthodontist about my crooked teeth. But my teeth were so misaligned that they were causing me pain when I chewed, so I decided to at least look into it. Turns out braces today are nothing like the ones my friends had when I was a kid. Mine were practically invisible, and I didn't need to wear them that long. I started this blog to encourage other people like me who are nervous about the prospect of wearing braces as an adult. My straight smile is so worth the trips to the orthodontist, and wearing braces was nowhere near as bad as I thought. Read on to find out more about how you can straighten your smile.
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Keeping your teeth healthy involves preventing cavities from forming, and most people try to do this by brushing and flossing their teeth. Brushing and flossing are extremely helpful for this purpose; however, it is also important to understand how cavities form. To understand this, you will need to know what lactic acid is, where it comes from, and how it damages your teeth.
What Is Lactic Acid?
Lactic acid is a harmful substance to your teeth, and it comes from the foods you eat and the bacteria that lives in your mouth. Your mouth is full of bacteria, but there is one type called mutans streptococci, which feeds on sugars and lives primarily in plaque found on your teeth. As this bacteria consumes the sugars in your mouth, it converts them into lactic acid.
Lactic acid has the ability to demineralize your teeth, and this is what leads to the formation of cavities. When you keep sugar out of your mouth, the bacteria has nothing to consume, and therefore it cannot produce lactic acid in your mouth.
How Can You Avoid This?
Cavities cannot form without the presence of lactic acid, so the goal is to keep lactic acid out of your mouth and away from your teeth. There are several ways to accomplish this, and the first method may involve changing your diet. Ideally, changing your diet would involve eliminating all foods that contain sugar, carbohydrates, and glucose. Unfortunately, it can be hard to completely eliminate foods like this. Just making an effort to cut back on these types of foods could also make a difference though.
To reduce your chances of developing cavities, you may also want to limit the frequency of sugar on your teeth. For example, if you want to drink a soda, drink it all within 30 minutes instead of sipping on it for hours. In addition, if you drink your beverages with a straw, you may be able to reduce the amount of sugars that come in contact with your teeth, simply because some of the sugars will bypass your teeth. Chewing sugar-free gum after meals may also help eliminate the sugars from your teeth.
Lactic acid leads to the destruction of teeth, but you might be able to avoid this. If you would like to learn more about cavities and the health of your teeth, schedule an appointment with a dentist {like those at Pine Lake Dental Group}.
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