 Hi everybody, Andrea Mayesca here with Dental L Tutoring. I'm going to talk to you guys about something today that you can actually talk to your patients about as well, or if you're even a new student or a new dental hygienist, a new dental assistant, you might have the same questions. And that's about kind of how to tell your patients, how to talk to your patients about preventing cavities and things that they can do. Even if you are a patient or a person, I should say watching this now, this will help you. Because unfortunately, unfortunately too, I mean, it depends on how you look at it. But even though there are some people out there that brush every day twice a day, three times a day, they may floss every day. They may use mouthwash. So they may be doing everything that they possibly can to prevent cavities, or so they think, but they still get a cavity or two every time they go to the dentist. And as children, especially, you don't want to associate a dental visit with every time I go for even a checkup. I know that I'll have to come back to get the needle because I have cavities and they need to be fixed. So the best thing that you can possibly do is to prevent a cavity from forming. But before I talk about that, let me say that once a cavity happens, there's no natural way, at least not that I've come across, that can get rid of a cavity. So when you do searches on Pinterest to try to get rid of cavities, you just simply can't. Okay, spend the money. It's just something that you have to do, you know, spend the money to get it fixed. Because if the cavity gets larger, it will become more expensive and cause you pain if it hasn't yet. The only time, okay, that you can kind of prevent, or not prevent, but the only time that you can maybe fix a cavity on its own, and there's only one time, okay, one time, is if the cavity is so tiny that it's not quite through the enamel yet to the point where it has to be fixed. So there are such a thing as called incipient cavities, where it's just a tiny little cavity. So yes, it is a cavity. But if you brush that area well and probably use MuseMuseMouthwash, if that's what's recommended, and make sure to floss every day, that incipient cavity might actually become smaller, okay, or it could even disappear entirely. That is possible, but those are hard to, you know, not everybody has an incipient cavity. Normally, by the time we catch them, the cavities are a lot larger. So every cavity technically starts off as an incipient, meaning it's so tiny. But once it's past that certain layer of enamel, you can't, I guess, stop it from getting larger. Whereas an incipient cavity, if you, as I said, if you brush really, really well and you make sure to floss every day, that can get smaller or even go away entirely. So if you hear the dentist say that or, you know, if you have an incipient cavity and the dentist or the dental hygienist said to you, make sure to take care of this really, really well, because the next time we see you, if it gets larger, we will have to fix it, okay. Using the right toothpaste does help, you know, using a pro enamel toothpaste helps, and they're not paying me to say this, by the way. This is just something that I do strongly recommend, because it does have that extra, you know, stuff in there to help deform that layer over the tooth to make it even stronger. And helps to heal, you know, for lack of a better word, those incipient cavities. Okay. But any toothpaste works too, it's just I find that one just seems to work even better because it does have that extra layer of protection. Okay, but any questions about that. Please feel free to comment below. And having that said, I have even had many incipient cavities throughout my years, just mainly because I have very thin enamel and I like sugar. Admittedly, so it's very, very common for the dentist to say to me, you have incipient cavities here, and then I know that I have to kind of step it up and take care of them. But okay, so I talked a little bit longer about incipients than I had planned. Sorry. So what to tell people to help to prevent cavities, keep it simple. Okay, brush twice a day. If they're more cavity prone, I do say to them, also brush after lunch. You will have patients that say I don't have time for that will too bad. If they are cavity prone, tell them to brush after lunch. If they're a teenager and they're still in school, tell them to bring a toothbrush. It takes two minutes. Brush after lunch. If you work full time, take your brush to work. Brush after lunch. It really, really helps. But I do also tell them If you're eating anything acidic or having a coffee, having orange juice for lunch, you know, something like that. Those things are pretty acidic. So I would wait one hour after lunch if you can Before brushing the teeth. If you can't wait one hour because if you have, say, an hour lunch break, you know, you can't exactly eat lunch and then wait an hour to brush your teeth because you'll be back to work. Right. So if that's not possible, then always rinse with water after lunch because that will help to neutralize all of the acids in the mouth. Okay. And that goes for Children, adults, it doesn't matter. That's what I do. So it works. That will help to neutralize the acids in the mouth, which in turn Limits the chances of getting cavities because the way people get cavities is because that, you know, Sugar that acidity, you know, is sitting there on the teeth. So that's one way to help to limit those acid attacks. So brush twice a day or three times a day. And make sure to floss every day. Every night. No excuses. Floss every night, you guys. It takes, what, 30 seconds, a minute, maybe I tend to floss when I'm watching a movie or a show of some kind because I'll be sitting down anyway. So I just simply take it out and then that's what I do. But some of you may have to look in the mirror to do that. So that might be harder to Try to floss. If you're watching a movie or TV show because you need to look at the mirror. So I mean, just find out what works for you. I know people that like to floss In the shower or just after they get out of the shower. I've heard of people using the floss in the car, although I don't recommend that obviously So just just, you know, find what works for you and form that habit and your teeth will thank you. So those are the easiest things I'd say to tell patients is to make sure to brush twice to three times a day. Make sure to floss and it doesn't hurt to use a mouthwash. I don't personally use a mouthwash, not because I don't like them, but just I don't feel that I need them. But it can't hurt, right. I recommend listerine Mouthwash simply because some of the some of the other mouthwash is out there on the market tend to stay in the teeth and or they just don't work. So what's the point Using a mouthwash if it doesn't work. I don't like to mention companies that I that don't work because that's kind of mean and I might get in trouble for doing that. I don't know. So I like to mention companies that I like and no listerine is not paying me to say this. So I just thought that I would mention that to But the thing about mouthwash is make sure to rinse for 30 seconds because if it's under 30 seconds, it will not work. Studies have shown that it must be 30 seconds. If it's 40 seconds. Okay, sure. Fine. But if it's a minute or longer. That's probably unnecessary and might even harm the Tissues inside the mouth because that's just keeping something in there for too long. So 30 seconds seems to be the key But another very important factor is the diet. If you're eating a lot of, you know, sugar starchy foods that turn into sugar that causes cavities. Okay, so You know, like, like I said, you know, sugars starchy foods eating chips have having pop having soda having Orange juice even all day every day things with a high sugar content causes cavities. So please limit that if you can't. Okay, things happen right things aren't always easy. But if you can't rinse your mouth with water. I will Literally have some and just kind of Swish around for like 10 seconds and then swallow, you know, whatever, right. And that helps to limit the acids in the mouth because you know what you guys I eat sugar. I eat sugar. I eat sweets. I eat, you know, pastas orange juice, you know, but all of that could cause cavities. So always have a cup of water, you know, Swish around and that's it. That will help you so much to prevent cavities to take it a step further. I do always say that it's a it's a A good idea to use an electric toothbrush because why not. They just help to do the work for you. Electric toothbrushes just help to get in there even more. And of course, make sure to see your dental hygienist at least every six months. If you're more cavity prone, even you might Be going in there more often. Everybody's different. It depends on the on the patient. I see patients every three months sometimes every four months every four and a half every six months every nine months, you know, Everybody's different but see your dentist more more often. So even if you do have a cavity, we can catch it when it's a lot smaller and then hopefully we can we can Catch it before it's at that point where it's through the enamel enough to actually do something. But even if we can't the earlier we catch them the better because if they're smaller, they're less expensive and a lot easier to fix because Not having a county is ultimately the way you want to go right you want to prevent things as much as possible. It doesn't matter if you're six years old 20 years old 80 years old. You want to prevent things before they happen. If you're especially cavity prone You might be getting a fluoride Varnish at the office every six months even every three months sometimes that stuff is Amazing if you haven't been offered that yet ask for it. Ask if that is something that you need. I have one done. I Actually do it to myself, but I apply The fluoride varnish every four months or so because as I said earlier I have very thin enamel and that does help to prevent cavities because it just it sits on the teeth and It does form a thin layer over the teeth also. It's not something you can tell so it's Microscopic it's invisible right but it does form a thin layer over the teeth to help to prevent cavities So in my opinion, everybody should have it because it is topical You're not, you know eating it, but it is topical and it does help to prevent against cavities So you are ultimately saving so much money in the long run and it's easy, right? And it's not something you can get at the store. It has to be done in the dental office. So ask for that, too It's pretty much all I can think of those are the main things, right? It's it's not hard, but if you've never heard this before then you might have had no idea And I should mention that even if you've had a cavity before and you either have a composite Filling or an amalgam you can get cavities around them Yes, you can so even if you if you think well, I've had tons of Cavities when I was a kid. There's there's no way that I can get anymore. It's still possible I see it all the time where cavities can form around other ones So any questions? Let me know, please. This was for pretty much anybody So dental assistants dental hygienists if you're a patient and you just have questions Please let me know and if I forgot to mention something, please comment below, too And if I did forget something I could always make another video because I just kind of did this on the spur of the moment Type thing so I didn't really take notes But I have been noticing a lot of people asking lately about well, how do I prevent cavities or when they get a cavity? Well, how did this happen? You know, so let me know if you need anything and I'll see you guys in the next one