Dental Treatments to Prevent Tooth Decay

How to Prevent Tooth Decay

• Reduce Sugar

The first line of prevention is reducing how often you consume sugar. Sugar feeds the bacteria that cause tooth decay. The more frequently someone eats or drinks sugary things the greater that person’s risk of developing cavities.

• Fluoride

Fluoride is a naturally occurring element that serves to prevent decay in multiple ways. The Midlands is one of a minority of regions in the U.K. that has low dose fluoride added to tap water. Children who drink tap water containing this low dose fluoride benefit greatly as the fluoride is incorporated into their teeth as they are formed making them much more resistant to decay. Teeth stop forming at around 14 years of age so older children and adults no longer benefit from drinking more fluoride in tap water but the fluoride incorporated into teeth as they formed remains there for life so adults continue to benefit from the fluoride they drank in their tap water as a child. Children who spend their formative years in parts of the world without fluoride in the tap water, or who are not given tap water to drink, will not receive these benefits.

Fluoride is added to most toothpaste and mouthwash as an ingredient to prevent decay and heal early decay. It is added at varying concentrations for various ages of user but in mouthwashes it is usually at a concentration around 400x greater than in tap water and in toothpaste it is usually around 1400x greater than in tap water.

If someone is suffering out of control tooth decay then their dentist can prescribe a specialist toothpaste with more fluoride to provide additional decay healing and prevention. These specialist teethpastes are not available without a dentists prescription One, designed for long term use, contains 2800x the fluoride concentration of tap water and another, designed for short term use with 5000x the fluoride concentration of tap water.

We routinely apply a fluoride varnish to all children at their checkup to toughen their teeth against decay and reduce their decay risk. The fluoride varnish we use is 22600x the fluoride concentration of tap water.

• Dental Sealants

A dental sealant is often a very thin layer of resin that is brushed onto the surface of your teeth to ensure that enamel is not attacked by bacteria. They dramatically reduce the risk of getting decay in the ‘hard to clean’ grooves and fissures on the chewing surfaces of your teeth and can last for a period of 10 years or more.

• Low-Level Laser Treatment

Low-Level Laser Devices are used to detect early decay before a hole has a chance to form. Low level laser treatment is also used to kill bacteria that cause decay avoiding more extensive drilling.