Between Halloween sweet, Thanksgiving pies and vacation cookies, the tip of the yr is commonly full of alternatives to eat sugar. But what occurs in your mouth throughout these first minutes and hours after consuming these sweets?
While you’re seemingly conscious that consuming an excessive amount of sugar may cause cavities – that’s, harm to your tooth – you is perhaps much less acquainted with how micro organism use these sugars to construct a sticky movie known as plaque in your tooth as quickly as you’re taking that first candy chunk.
We are a group of microbiologists that research how oral micro organism trigger tooth decay. Here’s what occurs in your mouth the second sugar passes your lips – and the best way to shield your tooth:
An acid plunge
Within seconds of your first chunk or sip of one thing sugary, the micro organism that make the human mouth their house begin utilizing these dietary sugars to develop and multiply. In the method of changing these sugars into vitality, these micro organism produce giant portions of acids. As a end result, only a minute or two after consuming high-sugar meals or drinks, the acidity of your mouth will increase into ranges that may dissolve enamel – that’s, the minerals making up the floor of your tooth.
Luckily, saliva involves the rescue earlier than these acids can begin corroding the floor of your tooth. It washes away extra sugars whereas additionally neutralising the acids in your mouth.
Your mouth can also be house to different micro organism that compete with cavity-causing micro organism for assets and area, combating them off and restoring the acidity of your mouth to ranges that aren’t dangerous to tooth.
However, frequent consumption of sweets and sugary drinks can overfeed dangerous micro organism in a manner that neither saliva nor useful micro organism can overcome.
Assault on enamel
Cavity-causing micro organism additionally use dietary sugars to make a sticky layer known as a biofilm that acts like a fortress hooked up to the tooth. Biofilms are very laborious to take away with out mechanical power, comparable to from routinely brushing your tooth or cleansing on the dentist’s workplace.
In addition, biofilms impose a bodily barrier that restricts what crosses its border, such that saliva can now not do its job of neutralising acid as nicely. To make issues worse, whereas cavity-causing micro organism are in a position to survive in these acidic circumstances, the great micro organism combating them can not.
In these protected fortresses, cavity-causing micro organism are in a position to maintain multiplying, conserving the acidity degree of the mouth elevated and resulting in additional lack of tooth minerals till a cavity turns into seen or painful.
How to guard your tooth
Before consuming your subsequent sugary deal with, there are just a few measures you possibly can take to assist maintain the cavity-forming micro organism at bay and your tooth protected.
First, attempt to cut back the quantity of sugar you eat and eat your sugary meals or drink throughout a meal. This manner, the elevated saliva manufacturing that happens whereas consuming might help wash away sugars and neutralise acids in your mouth.
In addition, keep away from snacking on sweets and sugary drinks all through the day, particularly these containing desk sugar or high-fructose corn syrup. Continually exposing your mouth to sugar will maintain its acidity degree greater for longer durations of time.
Finally, keep in mind to brush frequently, particularly after meals, to take away as a lot dental plaque as doable. Daily flossing additionally helps take away plaque from areas that your toothbrush can not attain.
José Lemos is Professor of Oral Biology, University of Florida.
Jacqueline Abranches is Associate Professor of Oral Biology, University of Florida.
This article was first revealed on The Conversation.
