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Cheyenne Advanced Dental Arts
L. Scott Brooksby, DDS, DICOI
Prosthodontist practicing under Specialty License Number S-5
8960 W. Cheyenne #190
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Cavities and Acid SalivaDr.Brooksby, I just had a check up by my dentist and he said everything looked ok. This morning I found a hole in my tooth that was not there yesterday. Was he being sloppy or does this happen. I have been going to him for years and thought he was one of the best. Tom. Dear Tom,
I doubt that a dentist that has earned that type of trust from you was sloppy. You need to understand that you could easily put a million bacteria on the head of a pin. If a hundred
of these tiny bacteria were to dig a hole into your tooth we would need a microscope to see it. Once
the bacteria have tunneled into the tooth they beginning eating the softer insides. As this progresses the
outside of the tooth remains intact so even though you have a cavity inside the tooth it can not be seen
on the outside. Often we take x-rays to find these hidden cavities, but if they are under crowns or
behind a filling they will not show up on the x-rays. Once the hole inside the tooth is big enough it eventually undermines the enamel until the enamel finally
breaks through exposing a much larger hole inside the tooth. If the cavity is under a crown it may look
like a small cavity yet be huge inside the tooth. The only way to tell how big the cavity is under a crown
is to remove the crown. If the decay is too large the tooth may end up having to be removed. We now have the use of Ozone gas to help eliminate the bacteria that are
causing cavities.
So if your dentist has looked and even taken x-rays, there are still occasions when a cavity will rear its
ugly head and cause you problems. Now you know why Superman with his x-rays vision never
became a dentist. Dr. Brooksby,
I brush my teeth religiously and I even floss regularly, but I have begun to get cavities
under my crowns and at the gum line of my teeth. What could be going on? I thought if I did my part I
would be able to keep my teeth healthy for a lifetime. Judy K. Judy,
in dental school all dentists are taught that bacteria, aka sugar bugs, eat the sugar from our foods
and then produce acids which cause tooth decay. They then teach you that if you brush and floss
regularly you will avoid all kinds of dental decay. For years I had the perception that there was more to decay than this, but that is all anyone would tell
us. About five years ago we had a patient develop decay under a crown that was only three months
old. Her dentist had taken an x-ray immediately after the crown was cemented in place. The x-ray
three months later looked drastically different. This lady had meticulous oral hygiene with no plague or
tartar visible in any part of her mouth. At the same time we were seeing her mother who constantly had
problems with tartar build up on her teeth. We had just finished a research project testing the acidity of
denture adhesives. We had found a swimming pool test kit to be the most effective tester. We
checked the saliva of each of these ladies. The mother had a pH of 7.8 and the daughter had a pH less
than 6.8. We began testing every patient that came through the doors of our practice. We found that
70% of the cavities in our practice came from people with a pH of 7.0 or less. Most of these people
also had absolutely no plaque around any of their teeth. Those with a pH above 7.8 had huge amounts
of tartar build up, but no decay. We were unable to determine what caused the pH changes in the mouth, but did notice that many of the
patients with low pH were being treated for some other type of medical problem or were under a lot of
stress. For more information on restoring pH balance check out lesson 18 at the naturalhealthschool.com website. Judy, you might get a swimming pool tester, and spit into a cup. Place some of the saliva in the tester
and add the red test liquid. If your pH is low you will know you have acid saliva and that is causing
your cavities, not your oral hygiene habits. For more information on saliva testing or if you have decay problems call Dr. Brooksby at 702-517-5834 or if you have questions you would like answered you can e-mail Dr. Brooksby at
scott@lvimplant.com. |