The majority of non-essential businesses are closed during this self-quarantine—dental offices included, since most dental care is neither urgent in nature nor life-threatening. Because all regular checkup and cleaning/maintenance procedures will have to be postponed during this time, many of you will be missing your routinely scheduled visits. While this won’t cause much harm for those with healthy teeth and gums, the rest of the population may see an increase in severity of gum disease or small cavities that turn into large cavities as a result of waiting months to receive treatment. With that in mind, here are some pointers on what you can be doing at home to maintain a healthy mouth in addition to your normal brushing and flossing routine (i.e., brushing twice a day and flossing at least once a day).
I’ve discovered that because of the quarantine, many people are eating and snacking more than they normally would. Snacking is fine if the food does not contribute to dental decay, but the majority of snack foods tend to be highly processed refined carbohydrates and sugars, the main culprits in dental decay.
Before the industrial revolution, dental decay was not nearly as common as it is today, a phenomenon attributable in large part to diet. Ancient civilizations had diets without sugar or refined carbohydrates and were found to have no dental decay and often only periodontal disease (i.e., disease of the gums and surrounding jaw bone). The process of refining carbohydrates makes the sugars more available to bacteria in our mouths that thrive on those sugars. As a result, the bacteria that cause dental decay (i.e., cavities) overpopulate and take over the normal healthy bacteria in our mouths. The result is an imbalance in good and bad oral bacteria. If the bad bacteria have a constant supply of sugar, they are more active for more hours each day, resulting in cavities forming more quickly. Most packaged foods are high in refined carbohydrates, whether or not they are sweet. Take a look at almost any nutrition label and you will find some form of sugar (i.e., corn syrup, sugar, cane sugar, cane syrup, glucose, glucose syrup, molasses, honey) as well as some refined carbohydrate (i.e., enriched wheat flour, enriched white flour).
Healthier options for your teeth include cheeses, vegetables, lentils, unprocessed fruits, nuts, and healthy meats. Be sure to avoid hard foods (i.e., roasted almonds) if you have a lot of porcelain dental work in your mouth, as porcelain can break. Drinking water throughout the day is also imperative, as it helps to flush out small particles of food that stick to the teeth and acts to neutralize the pH (acidity/alkalinity) of your saliva. Acidity weakens enamel, therefore making teeth more prone to decay/cavities.
If you’re looking for more information or just find yourself with more reading time on your hands these days, a great book that goes into further depth on this topic is The Dental Diet by Dr. Steven Lin.
Cheers and wishing you all a safe and healthy quarantine.
Editor’s Note: Dr. Mistry (Beaumont Village Dentistry) is a BBA member and newsletter advertiser.