Techniques to Prevent Dental Cavities

Video Transcript

Hello my name is Melissa and on behalf of Expert Village today were going to talk about how to prevent a cavity and how to save your smile. Now we've been talking in all of our other clips, how to prevent a cavity. Let's rewind a little bit and talk about the facts about bacteria because now you know and I'm sure your aware that cavities are caused by bacteria in your mouth so some facts about bacteria. So some facts about bacteria: Having bacteria in your mouth is absolutely normal. There's good bacteria and bad bacteria. What we?re talking about it the bad bacteria and how to eliminate it. Basically bacteria are tiny colonies of microscopic organisms and what they do is that they cover things like your teeth, your gum, your lips and your tongue. So your lips, gums, teeth, and your tongue. There are millions of them, millions of bacteria and there millions of them even on an area the size of your thumbnail. Millions in that microscopic area. This is what were dealing with and why it's so important to blush, and floss and rinse so you can get rid of that. So you can see why it can be very easy to get a cavity but it can also be very easy to prevent cavities as well. So harmful bacteria, basically what is does is it begins to attack your teeth by attaching itself to the enamel on the front of your teeth. The enamel that covers your teeth. So if that bacteria on your teeth, on the enamel is not removed by doing things like brushing, flossing, or using mouthwash, or a water pick or a tongue cleaner the bacteria grows it multiplies and it forms a colony, it really does and basically also when certain chemicals are present in the saliva that's in your mouth. When your saliva mixes with the bacterial colonies a whitish paste is form and that of course is called plaque. That's the beginning phases of getting cavities. So when the plaque forms that's when damage starts to begin and what you don't want to have is plaque buildup. So eventually if you have enough plaque buildup it builds up on your teeth and that eventually turns into acid which does dissolve away minerals to make your tooth enamel hard. That than makes or creates small holes on your teeth which than lead to larger holes which than create cavities. So those are just a few facts about bacteria and why it's so important to brush your teeth to help prevent cavities.

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