 |
Plaque Watch School Project for better tooth care. Home * Brush * Floss * Chewing * Experiments * Supertooth book |
Chewing leaves food trapped between teeth and inside pits and fissures in grooves on chewing surfaces after every meal or snack. Almost all cavities occur where trapped food prevents access of saliva and fluoride to neutralise acid and repair demineralised tooth after eating.
"It is estimated that 84% of the caries experience in the 5 to 17 year-old population involves tooth surfaces with pits and fissures. Although fluorides cannot be expected appreciably to reduce our incidence of caries on these surfaces, sealants can." SOURCE: Journal of the American Dental Association 1984; 108:448. Only a small fraction of food is trapped inside grooves compared to that trapped between teeth .
Chewing Barium Sulphate with a suitable fibre like the foam strip teaching aid in the Superooth project shows where food is trapped, in x-rays of back teeth and replicated with the glass model of a fissure experiment. The glass model also shows that chewing a suitable fibre like celery string or a foam strip after eating helps force saliva into difficult to reach surfaces to neutralise acid and repair demineralised tooth.
Chew non-cariogenic food like nuts before eating to help prevent food being trapped and changed to acid. Also after every meal or snack, chewing fibre like celery string to help saliva displace trapped food that may contain carbohydrate like sugar or starch, neuralise acid and repair demineralised tooth.