 Hello everybody, Andrew Maeski here with Dental L. So let's talk about how to limit cavities. This is talking about children, adults, seniors. It doesn't matter who, but just basically limiting cavities inside the mouth. Even if you go to the dental office now and get 10 cavities every single time, that can be stopped. But you have to really know how to do that and follow certain steps to make sure that happens. Now having that said, this video can be for the dental professional who just wants to learn how to talk to their patients about how to limit cavities inside the mouth. This can be for a patient who says, okay I am sick and tired of getting cavities every single time I go to the dental office. I want to know how I can stop that because it's not as simple as just limiting your sugar intake. It's not as simple as brushing twice a day using a mouthwash, using a water pick. It's just so much more than that. So let me talk about this a little bit. So let's go back to the dental professional. So let's say you see a patient where every time they come in they get you know six cavities every single time, but you're looking at them and you just want to help them and they want to do whatever they possibly can to not have that happen every single time. So there are a few key things that do have to happen. So number one is those acids inside the mouth need to be reduced in such a way that acid-producing bacteria cannot happen. If the pH inside the mouth is of a neutral pH, the pH doesn't have a chance to get lower to cause a cavity. For a cavity to form, it needs to be at a pH of 6.8 or 5.5. So that's clearly a big number, right? We want the mouth to be at a pH of a number 7, but if patient has their root surface showing through, meaning the enamel is no longer covering that area, then to get a cavity they only need a pH inside the mouth of 6.8. So remember how I said neutral pH is a pH of the number 7. 6.8 is very close to a number 7. So if you look inside the mouth now and see that enamel has become thin to the point where you don't actually see it on that tooth or those teeth, a cavity can, you know, quickly happen, like very, very quickly. But on regular enamel, it only needs a pH of 5.5, but that's still not as bad as 6.8, right? So those acids need to be neutralized inside the mouth so that a cavity cannot happen. But then after that, something else also needs to happen. And that is our calcium and phosphate inside our saliva needs to, we need to somehow create more of that. And normally if we have a lot of saliva, that can happen. So us simply running our tongue over our teeth can help. Those calcium and the phosphate help to re-mineralize those areas. But if we have a patient that they don't have a lot of saliva, then that cannot happen. We need to bring something back to either help to stimulate the saliva that they have in the mouth, plus we need to help them to neutralize the pH levels inside their mouth also. But there's more. If we can also apply a fluoride varnish inside the mouth every three to six months when they come to their dental appointment, that can actually speed up that re-mineralization process to happen. Because what could happen in some cases is our teeth are trying to repair themselves. But if they keep eating sugar or they're not using their toothbrush every day twice a day, then as our teeth are trying to heal themselves, it can't do it quick enough before those sugar acids come back. So I like to put a varnish containing fluoride on my patients at least every six months. But if they do have a high incidence of getting a cavity or cavities every three months, helps even more. But then the bottom line is if the patient isn't brushing twice a day, that plaque can still eat away at those teeth no matter what. So even if you're able to neutralize the acids inside the mouth by drinking a lot of water using a special mouthwash, if they're not brushing twice a day to take that plaque off the teeth, all of that hard work is basically for nothing. If they're not having their teeth cleaned every six months, sometimes every three months is needed to take off that tartar that starts to form and that a toothbrush cannot take off, that's not good enough. So that plaque needs to stay off the teeth or those acids come back and can cause a cavity somewhere else. So does that make sense so far? So the main things to take away from this is that it's not as simple as saying, well, if you limit sugar and brush twice a day every day and use the water pick, use, you know, other methods to get in between the teeth, I tell patients you should be using the floss every day, but that's not always enough. If they're still coming to you and it's like, oh, you have three more cavities, but you're brushing twice a day, you're using the floss every day and you're even using a mouth. What's happening here? Why do you keep getting cavities? Because all of those steps have to happen for those acids to not be inside the mouth. So I'm just going to quickly recap all of that. So number one is those acids inside the mouth need to be neutralized. How does this happen? This can happen by drinking a lot of water, but in most cases, a mouthwash helps to neutralize those acids inside the mouth so that a cavity can't even happen because if there's no, if there's no acidity inside the mouth, then a cavity can't happen. Number two is those calcium and the phosphates need to be built up again in the saliva. How does that happen? By having enough saliva. So if a patient doesn't have a lot of saliva due to their age, medications, then we need to do something to help to bring that saliva back, plus they need to be using a mouthwash to neutralize the pH inside the mouth so that any saliva that they do have is actually helping them. Because if the saliva or if the pH inside the mouth is on the acidic side, any saliva you have isn't actually helping you. It might be harming you. You might have heard your patients telling you or if you are a patient watching this, you might have heard us tell you at some point, your saliva is pretty acidic. If you have heard that, you need a mouthwash to help to limit that acidity in the saliva. But the next step is you will likely be needing a varnish or a mouthwash even or a gel containing a probably a sodium fluoride to be applied by a dental hygienist every three to every six months, because that will help to protect the teeth overall so that acids can't penetrate inside the enamel. Without that, acids will just keep on coming back at some point because nobody's perfect. You can't brush perfectly. You can't always be using a mouthwash to help to neutralize those acids inside the mouth. So without a varnish of some kind, then you're not doing everything that you possibly can. But then last but not least is that plaque that tartar needs to be limited inside the mouth. So if you're only brushing once a day, that will not help. If you're not having your teeth cleaned every six months, even every three months, in some cases, those acids will just keep eating away at the teeth. So fake plaque causes acids to eat away. Tartar causes more plaque, which is eating away at the teeth. So see how this all just sort of plays, plays a part, plays, you know, everything into acids cause cavities. Without acids, you don't have cavities, and then your mouth is so much healthier. So I hope that helped to just kind of summon up a little bit. Let me know, though, if you have any questions, because this might be a little bit confusing. Let me know. I am so happy to help. And I will see you guys in the next one.