Dental Caries, you better detect it on time!

by Wildsmile

Our tooth are made up of several components, one of them is the enamel, that covers the tooth, and because of this, is most vulnerable to corrosion. When enamel is destroyed, we talk about a dental caries. This is generated due to the presence of the bacterial plaque, which is a sticky layer that contains bacteria that feed especially of the sugars in food and release acids that destroy the enamel. However, there are more factors that generate caries.

Main causes of dental caries

• Acid foods: foods with a high acid content, such as lemon, corrode tooth enamel. If we consume them, it is necessary to brush your teeth immediately after consuming them.
• Lack of hygiene: as we said before, dental caries is caused by bacterial plaque. However, this can be removed by brushing. For this reason, it is necessary to brush your teeth after each meal, even after snacks. Flossing should not be underestimated so, at least once a day and preferably at night, we must floss through each of our teeth
• Reflux: when the valve of the esophagus is open, what is called gastric reflux occurs. In addition to representing a danger to the health of the esophagus itself, this reflux contains enough acid to damage tooth enamel. The solution to this transcends tooth brushing, so it is essential to treat the problem at the gastric level.
• Receding gums: the coating that protects dental roots is much weaker than enamel, so when they are exposed as a product of the gum recession, they are much more likely to develop dental caries. If this occurs, the only solution is endodontics, since root-level caries cannot be restored in the usual way.
  
  

Consequences of not treating dental caries on time

Once caries appears, there is no turning back. The only thing that can be done is to treat it. The sooner we go to the dentist to eliminate it, the more problems we will save. In the first place, caries is immersed in the tissue of our tooth. As time passes, it can reach the dental nerve, which will make it necessary to resort to a endodontics to be removed. However, this is not the only consequence of letting time pass before treating a dental caries, there are many more.

When cavities has taken most of the tooth, the only solution is to extract the tooth. Therefore, untreated caries can result in the loss of the tooth.

How to detect caries

The most classic way to detect caries is when they become visible, since their dark hue contrasts with the tooth enamel. However, if we can detect them before they made visible, the treatment will be much more gentle. In addition, some caries are generated on non-visible faces of the teeth, so only a dentist can detect them. Thus, going to the dentist every six months for a check-up is the starting point to save our teeth from caries, that are not felt until it is too late.