Tag Archive for ‘Cavities’
What Causes Cavities?
If you’re like most people, you may believe that sugar causes cavities. After all, candy is bad for our teeth, right? Sugar doesn’t cause cavities. In fact, this has been known for over 50 years! In 1954, a man by the name of Frank Orland wanted to see if sugar caused cavities. He conducted a pioneering [...]
Preventing Tooth Decay, Acid Erosion
I got the following email from an Oral Answers reader asking about the difference between acid erosion and tooth decay. He writes: “What is the difference between acid erosion and tooth decay? How to I ensure that I minimise both of these. Also which is the best toothpaste to use to prevent this, I have [...]
25 Things That Make You More Likely To Get Cavities
Many people come into the dental school and tell us things like, “I just have bad teeth” and “My parents and grandparents all had soft teeth – and my teeth are soft too, so I get lots of cavities.” While it may be true that some people do have teeth that are more susceptible to [...]
Cavities in Baby Teeth: Should You Get Baby Teeth Filled?
A lot of parents wonder if it’s really necessary to have their children get fillings in their baby teeth. Since baby teeth just end up falling out, why not let the cavity fall out with the baby tooth rather than paying to have a dentist remove the cavity? Many people assume that baby teeth aren’t [...]
Do You Make These 10 Mistakes When You Floss?
It seems so simple to just slide some string between your teeth to clean those hard-to-reach areas. While the idea is simple, there are a few techniques that you need to master in order to maximize the return on the time you spend flossing. Here are ten common mistakes that people make when they floss: [...]
Tooth Decay: A Serious Disease
Deamonte Driver was a typical twelve year old boy growing up in Maryland. In January 2007, he complained that he had a headache to his mother, Alyce. Then he said his tooth hurt. Alyce, his concerned mother took him to the emergency room at the local hospital where the doctors found that bacteria from decayed [...]
Dental Crown Procedure: What is a Dental Crown / Cap?
Have you ever been unable to fall asleep at night, staring at the ceiling and wondering what a dental crown was? Maybe you’ve wondered what the difference between a crown and a cap was. If so, this one’s for you! Some teeth develop an unstable structure as a result of cavities or trauma (such as cracking [...]
Can Kids Eat Halloween Candy & Have Healthy Teeth?
If you’re like most parents, you probably took your kids out trick-or-treating this past weekend. Halloween candy can harm your kids’ teeth, but there are certain ways to minimize the harm. About 15 years ago, dressed as a gangster, I walked up to a dimly lit house and opened my pillow case and said “Trick [...]
Six Common Places Where You Might Get a Cavity
Imagine you are in the dental office and the dentist is showing you on a screen where in your mouth you are most likely to get cavities, much like in the picture to the left. Wouldn’t that advice be invaluable? It would probably help you know where to concentrate when you brush. Although you’re not [...]
How Saliva Protects Your Teeth
A couple of years ago, my wife and I were on a walk near our community’s park. A baseball game was taking place on the baseball field and we stopped to watch. I noticed that some of the players were constantly spitting into the dirt near the dugout. It took almost all of the self-control [...]
Is Fruit Good or Bad for Your Teeth? It Depends.
Many people have asked me whether or not fruit is bad for your teeth. The answer is that it depends. We all know that the main reason people like fruit compared to vegetables is because of the sugar. The question is, does the sugar in fruit cause tooth decay? There are six main ways that [...]
The Vipeholm Study: Learning About Dental Cavities
The Vipeholm Study was a study that dental researchers conducted on a group of mentally challenged residents of the Vipeholm Institution. Dental researchers fed mentally handicapped people lots of sugar for the purpose of studying tooth decay. Unfortunately, many of these patients ended up losing their teeth to cavities. Although the study is tragic and [...]
Children’s Medicine: How to Keep Cough Syrup from Causing Cavities
A quick walk down the aisle at your local pharmacy will reveal an alarming amount of sugar. Most medicine that we give our children is combined with a thick syrup made up of sugar and corn syrup. For more information on the different sugars that hurt your teeth, read my article about the five sugars [...]
The Five Sugars That Hurt Your Teeth
Did you know that carbohydrates are really sugars? Carbohydrates are just long chains of sugars hooked together. Fortunately, the bacteria in our mouths can’t break down those long chains of carbohydrates. However, the bacteria in our mouths do love to feed on the monosaccharides (simple sugars) and the disaccharides (sugars that are links of two [...]
Hi, I'm Tom. I'm currently a 4th year dental student in the USA. I started this blog to help people take better care of their teeth. You can 
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