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Sugar: Teeth’s Worst Nightmare

People in the United States eat more sugar than any other country in the world. (Fortunately, we also have some of the best dentists in the world.) You hear it all the time: “sugar rots your teeth.” But is it true? What exactly does sugar do to your teeth and why is it so bad? You might want to learn more about this substance that is added to nearly every edible item in the grocery store. Portland, Oregon dentist Dr. Case tells us more below.

Sugar 101

All food causes some buildup on your teeth. After eating and drinking, little bits of food are left behind in your mouth. Out of all the food we eat, sugar does the worst damage to your teeth.

Even healthy foods like milk, bread, and produce contain some natural sugar, but these foods also contain necessary vitamins and nutrients. Eaten in healthy amounts, your body has no problem breaking down the natural sugars with the other food bits on your teeth.

The problems begin when you eat food that has more sugar than nutritional value. Without proper nutrition, your body may be unable to fight the bacteria and decay excessive sugar consumption causes in your mouth.

Sugar is sneaky: it’s in almost everything! Read your regular grocery labels carefully just to estimate your actual sugar consumption levels. This is not an all-inclusive list, but here are some examples of these common and misleading names for sugar that are added where you least expect it:

• High fructose corn syrup
• Sucrose
• Barley malt
• Dextrose
• Maltose
• Rice syrup

The American Heart Association recommends you have no more than 9.5 teaspoons of sugar per day. However, in the U.S. the average adult consumes 22 teaspoons and the average child consumes 32 teaspoons…every single day!

Plaque 

Why is sugar so bad for your teeth? Because it causes plaque buildup and tooth decay.

Certain bacteria are normal and fine in your mouth. But sugar left on your teeth attracts bad bacteria that create plaque, which breaks down your teeth. Think of how the wind sweeps away bits of sand off a dune little by little, until eventually there is no dune left. That’s what plaque does to your teeth. It causes an acidic reaction that weakens enamel, your tooth’s outer layer.

Snacking all day means your teeth are exposed to food buildup, bacteria, and plaque over an extended period of time. Drinking sugary beverages is especially harmful because that liquid gets into all the grooves and hard-to-reach parts of your mouth. The average American consumes 53 gallons of soft drinks per year – do you see where this is going?

Decay

When plaque ruins your enamel, you get a hole in your tooth called a cavity. The hole allows more bacteria and plaque to move deeper into the inside of your tooth. This is known as tooth decay. Your enamel is the shiny white surface of your teeth and its purpose is to protect the inner layers of each tooth. Each individual tooth has a blood source and a nerve keeping that tooth alive. If decay reaches to the inner layers, your tooth may die and fall out. And all of that can happen much more quickly than you realize.

Next Steps

Tooth decay is the most common chronic disease among children, and many adults struggle with it as well. The good news is that tooth decay is preventable with healthy eating habits and proper oral hygiene. Here are some tips if you want to protect your teeth from the negative effects of sugar:

• Don’t snack all day
• Avoid sugar in any beverage
• Enjoy sweets in moderation
• Brush with fluoride toothpaste
• Try natural forms of licorice and cinnamon which taste sweet without any sugar
• Beware of sugar alternatives (those little yellow, blue, and pink packets) that can still have negative effects on your health
• Brush your teeth at least twice a day and floss at least once

Last but not least, contact Portland dentist Family Dental Health today to make an appointment and be sure to get your teeth professionally cleaned twice a year by our amazing hygienists.

The content of this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Is Your Little One Getting Enough Calcium?

Calcium. We regularly hear how important calcium is for our kids’ diets. It’s vital for healthy growth. Calcium is a building block for strong bones. It helps with hormone balance and keeps the heart pumping and blood circulating normally. But, did you know that calcium is also vital for healthy teeth?

Calcium builds strong bones. Years of milk commercials (backed by years of research) have firmly planted that information in our brains. In fact, 99% of the calcium in the body goes to building healthy bones and teeth. Calcium is the hard mineral that makes bones hard, and it also makes the enamel that surrounds our teeth the hardest substance in the human body.

The 1% Difference

Since 99% of the calcium in the body is in the teeth and bones, you might think there’s always enough for the teeth, but it turns out that’s not always the case. Because regulating heart rhythms and hormone balance is necessary to stay alive, if there isn’t enough calcium for these vital functions from food, the body will take it from anywhere it can get it.

Unfortunately, that means your body and your kids’ bodies will take calcium from the teeth and bones to keep enough of it for other necessary jobs it has in the body. Teeth without enough calcium can develop demineralized spots–dull white spots on the teeth that are not as strong as regular enamel. Those spots are fragile and have a high risk of turning into full cavities.

Who’s at Risk?

Not having enough calcium in your diet may not sound as scary as the big bad wolf, but it’s far more worrisome in real life. More than half of both boys and girls 9-13 routinely get less than half of the calcium required for good health at their age. The National Institutes of Health identifies several groups that are chronically at risk of inadequate calcium. They include girls 4 and older, especially adolescent girls, and boys age 9-18. Women who are pregnant also need additional calcium to support bone development in the growing baby.

What Foods are Calcium Champs?

When we say calcium, we often flash back to those milk ads. It’s true; there is a lot of calcium in dairy. That includes milk, yogurt, and cheese. But, not all calcium-rich foods are dairy-based, which is good news for those who do not eat dairy.

Sardines pack more calcium per 3-ounce serving than calcium-fortified orange juice, but the orange juice will probably be easier to convince your children to consume. Dark green leafy vegetables like kale, bok choi, Chinese cabbage, and turnip greens also pack a calcium punch. Even a corn tortilla can provide 5% of the recommended daily value for calcium.

What About Supplements?

Calcium supplements are commonly used to make up for a lack of calcium in the diet. They can be a good choice to help when there is no way to make up the calcium by better eating, but they require a little extra care. Food-sourced calcium is easier for the body to process. Calcium carbonate is less expensive, but harder to absorb and can be hard on people with stomach issues. Calcium citrate is easier to absorb, but is more expensive and can be harder to find.

Too Much of a Good Thing?

Sometimes with supplements, you can run into “a little is good, more is better” mentality. That’s just not the case. There’s an upper limit to how much calcium your body can safely process in a day. The smaller the body, the smaller the limit. While it’s very unlikely that you would exceed that limit with food alone in your children’s diets, supplements, particularly gummy ones with candy flavors, can increase the risk of having too much. As with most things in life, balance is key.

Mindful Eating

With some care and attention, it’s possible to keep your family healthy and calcium-rich, making your dental visits more pleasant. If supplements are necessary, they are readily available. Healthy calcium builds healthy teeth, so build healthy eating habits and keep your teeth ready to eat with you (and your family) for a lifetime.

If you have any questions about calcium, tooth decay, or any other oral health topics, please contact your Portland dentist, Dr. Case at Family Dental Health today! We would be more than happy to talk with you about a healthy diet to help your little one grow up strong and healthy.

The content of this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

TMJ: The Root of Your Pain

Temporomandibular joint dysfunction is a really long name… so let’s call it TMJ.  That sounds more familiar—you’ve probably heard it before. Maybe some lingering pain in your chewing muscles and bones even have you wondering if you have it.

TMJ dysfunction is sometimes called TMD, TMJD, or TMJ Syndrome, especially if there seem to be a number of other jaw-related issues. Dr. David Case at Family Dental Health is here to tell you more about TMJ and what to do if you’ve got it.

What is TMJ?

A sailboat requires a complex system of ropes, pulleys, and hooks to catch the wind in its sails and get moving. Your jaw is also made of an incredible team of muscles, bones, joints, and tissues working together in order to function. If anything affects any one part of these pieces in your jaw, it could lead to chronic pain and problems with the joints in your jaw. TMJ is a broad term that includes any of this pain or dysfunction.

TMJ can feel like anything from a headache to an inner ear infection, with pain moving from your face and head down to your neck and shoulders. If you have TMJ, talking, chewing and yawning can be very uncomfortable. You might also hear clicking in your jaw, feel your jaw lock in place, or experience muscle spasms.

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Filling in the Gaps: Restoring Your Smile & Quality of Life

Life is full of unexpected surprises, and while we’d love for all of them to be smile-inducing, that’s not entirely realistic—and there may be many reasons you hide your smile. If you’re hiding your smile because of one or more missing teeth, we want you to know you’re not alone. In fact, 120 million people in the U.S. are missing at least one tooth, and more than 36 million Americans do not have any teeth at all.

Whether the cause is tooth decay, gum disease—#1 on the list of reasons, with 50% of Americans over the age of 30 having the most severe form of periodontitis—illness, or injury, there are solutions. Dr. David Case at Family Dental Health would like to fill you in on your options, which have expanded and improved over the years thanks to technological advancements and continuing education.

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Salivary Diagnostics: What Can Your Saliva Reveal?

If you’ve tuned in to any crime scene investigation shows, you’ve probably heard of salivary testing, but did you know it’s becoming increasingly common in dental offices? Salivary testing has a bright future in medicine because of how much it can tell us about your state of health—both oral and overall.

One of the reasons it’s especially important in the dental office is because we screen for oral cancer, and the number one culprit for diagnoses in recent years is human papillomavirus (HPV), which can be detected through saliva.

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Crowning Glory: Esthetic Dental Crowns

The first known dental crowns were made as far back as 200 A.D. when Etruscans used gold to create crowns and bridges. Can you imagine what the process must have been like without the technology we have now? If you’d rather not, we can’t blame you!

Thanks to digital x-rays and impressions, dentists today can create crowns that blend in so well with the rest of the mouth, you’ll forget you weren’t born with them. The updated materials appear very natural, especially ceramic and porcelain.

But I Love Gold!

Gold is still an option for crowns today, and it’s not a bad option in terms of durability—they’re extremely fracture-resistant and seal well to prevent recurrent tooth decay. However, gold is usually the most expensive material for the creation of crowns, and most people want their dental restorations to be a secret only they know—especially if the tooth in need of crowning is an incisor or canine.

For those anterior (front) teeth, porcelain and ceramic are excellent crown options; they’re the most economical solution and can be color-matched to blend in with your smile perfectly.

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Good, Clean, Wholesome Family Dentistry

You love your teeth. You brush them twice a day, floss once a day, and see your dentist regularly. Right? We love your teeth, too! In fact, there’s so much to know about caring for your oral health that dentistry has quite a few categories of specialties and different kinds of dentists.

The primary dentist in your life should be your family dentist, also known as a general dentist. Your family dentist is who you will see most often for dental check-ups. But how exactly is family dentistry different from other kinds of dentistry? Portland dentist Dr. David Case shares more below about family dentistry.

Types of Dentistry

All dentists have an undergraduate degree and then go on to about four years of dental school. This earns them either a doctorate of dental medicine (DMD) or a doctorate of dental surgery (DDS). To become more specialized, the dentist will need additional education and clinical experience.

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When a Toothache is Not a Toothache

Most of us have experienced a toothache. At their mildest, toothaches may cause just enough discomfort to get on your nerves and disrupt your concentration, but at their worst, they can be debilitating. Because the pain feels like it’s coming from your tooth, it’s natural to assume that all toothaches are caused by cavities, gum disease or some other tooth-related problem. However, Dr. David Case would like you to know that not all toothaches are related to your teeth.

Wait, what? Toothaches that have nothing to do with teeth? Yes– as anyone at Family Dental Health will tell you –it is possible and it does happen. That being said, most toothaches are tooth-related.

How can a toothache not come from your tooth?

Your mouth is a complex organ that contains a number of different types of tissue, nerves, and microorganisms. While run-of-the-mill dental problems like tooth decay and gum disease are responsible for the majority of toothaches, there are many other conditions that can cause localized pain in one or more teeth –and some of them have nothing to do with your teeth. Here are a few examples:

• Temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ or TMD)
• Trigeminal neuralgia
• Maxillary sinusitis
• Shingles
• Oral herpes

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Warning Signs of Impacted Wisdom Teeth

Nicknamed for the fact that they come into your mouth and your life by the time you are mature and supposedly “wise”, wisdom teeth are simply the last set of molars that grow furthest back in your mouth. If you’re experiencing some specific pain in your gums and jaw, you may be wondering if you have impacted wisdom teeth.

Dr. David Case takes care of wisdom teeth from all around Portland! Let us tell you more about impacted wisdom teeth and what to do if you have them.

What are Impacted Wisdom Teeth?

Your wisdom teeth are the third and final set of molars you’ll get. They usually come in when you are between 17 and 21 years old. Sometimes they appear later in life, while some people’s wisdom teeth never grow in at all. (Does that mean those people never become wise? Hard to say.)

As with other teeth, wisdom teeth are expected to break through the gums and become totally visible when they emerge. However, in some situations, they remain deep in the jawbone or never break through the gums. These are examples of impacted wisdom teeth.

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The Science of Tooth Decay

If you’ve visited our blog before, you know that we love to talk about tooth decay. The chances are, everyone has had or will have tooth decay at one point. It is classified by the National Institutes of Health as the most prevalent disease in the world. Today we’re going to talk about a few of the factors involved in causing tooth decay and what you and Portland dentist Dr. David Case can do to protect your smile.

The Unique Makeup of Your Teeth

Even within your own mouth, teeth vary widely in shape, size, and enamel quality and consistency. Some teeth are harder than others, and some—especially molars—may have deep fissures that can trap bacteria, causing decay. Additional defects in enamel formation can cause yellow or brown areas on your teeth that are more susceptible to caries (tooth decay).

The pH Level in Your Mouth

Research indicates that acidity in your mouth plays an important role in developing tooth decay. A low pH (an acidic state) allows decay-causing bacteria to thrive. Acidity is affected by the quality and flow of saliva, diet, and a number of other factors. For example, after eating carbohydrates, people will experience a temporary drop in the pH of their saliva.

Diet

One of the biggest and most easily controlled risk factors for tooth decay is diet. An unhealthy diet rich in sugars and sticky foods will increase the amount of plaque formed and lower the acidity of your saliva.

Saliva

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