 Hello everybody. Andrea here with Dental L. I've been a dental professional for 17 years and cavities are definitely something that most patients struggle with. Have you been to the dentist or you're a dental hygienist and have you been told that we need to watch certain teeth? We are watching certain areas. They might say to you it's not a cavity but I don't like how it looks. They might be running the instrument along and saying oh this is sticking a little bit. It's not big enough to do a filling yet but we need to watch those areas. So if this happens to you there are some key points that you really should know and how to prevent that spot from becoming a large cavity because watch areas means there's bad bacteria in there trying to cause a cavity. So even six months when you come back there could very well be a hole in that tooth if you're not careful. So what you need to do is make sure to be brushing well. Pay attention to those watch areas that they told you about and brush even better. Brush for an extra 10 seconds just on that tooth. Brush well. You need to be getting that toothpaste in there and if you're not yet I do suggest a different toothpaste. Not all toothpaste are the same. Make sure your toothpaste has a xylitol in it and sodium fluoride. So xylitol helps to limit the bacteria in the mouth. If there's limited bacteria you cannot get a cavity. There has to be certain levels of certain bacteria. We don't have to go into the sciences where that has to be there to cause a cavity. If it's not there you will not get that cavity but then sodium fluoride helps to remineralize those watch areas and make it stronger. So it's not weaker and the cavity can't get in there and get worse. So you need a toothpaste with both. Please make sure to get that. Hopefully your dental office has given you one or suggested one to you because they can be hard to find in stores. I'm going to leave a link for you guys down below that you can order online if you choose to do so. If they tell you your watch areas are in between the teeth because they took an x-ray they can see in the x-ray like oh you have some dark we also call it radial lucent areas. So if you remember that term that means there's a cavity starting. If it's in between the teeth the only way to make that better is to floss the teeth. Okay floss and or use a water flosser. You have to be cleaning in between those areas. To take it a step further actually get a water flosser and get a sodium sodium fluoride that's hard to say sometimes. Sodium fluoride mouthwash put it in the water flosser and get that mouthwash in between the teeth. That will help to reduce that cavity so it doesn't get bigger. What I like to do for my patients when I'm there there is a little liquid that we can place on the teeth that can actually kill the bacteria that's causing the cavity. Not all dental offices have that. It does depend. I find typically a dental office just wants you to kind of treat it yourself at home with you know toothpaste and then if it gets worse they're going to do a feeling for you. But as a dental hygienist in my mobile dental hygiene practice so I travel to patients' homes to clean their teeth I don't want things to get worse. I just want to nip it in the bud right away. So there's a liquid that I actually put on the tooth. It's called Stannis fluoride. Stannis fluoride that will actually kill the bacteria causing the cavity so that watch area cannot get worse. But you have to brush. If for some reason I put the liquid on and then you're never going to brush again it's going to get worse. But as long as you're maintaining brushing and the flossing and or the water pick at home it will not get worse and that liquid does have to be reapplied every six months. But I would prefer to have a liquid reapplied every six months than to get a needle and a fillet. So it's definitely something that should be offered to you. But just not all offices have that not all offices have jumped the ball on that so maybe check. But I hope that helps proper oral hygienist key and of course try to limit sugar the more water you do drink the better you will get less cavities and those watch areas will not become worse. So I hope this helps you guys please let me know if any questions and I will leave those links for you down below. Please click like to this video if you have not yet and thank you so much. I will talk to you guys very very soon.