What is Cavity?
Cavity is a hole in your tooth caused by dental decay. It can grow bigger and bigger over time and cause pain if it reaches the roots of the tooth. It is always preferred to get it filled from the dentist rather than waiting to get it worse.
Who can get cavities?
Anyone who does not maintain good oral hygiene can be the case of cavities. It also depends upon your lifestyle and eating habits. If you take too much of sugary things, snacks and drinks, you are at higher risk of getting cavities. On the other hand, if you maintain good oral hygiene and eat healthy food, you are at lower risk of getting cavities.
Why do we get cavity?
Some of the reasons due to which one can get cavities are:
- Cavities are caused by the acid plaque that resides on the tooth.
- Too much of sugary food and drinks can also be the cause of bacteria converting this food into plaque.
- Poor Oral Hygiene – Where you need to brush after every meal or at least brush twice a day to avoid cavities.
- Poor Diet – Which means you are not eating a healthy diet.
How can you avoid cavities?
- Avoid sugary food, junk food and sugary drinks.
- Maintain good oral hygiene – If you are at a higher risk of cavities, you should brush after every meal else at least twice a day brushing is very important. Brushing before sleeping is the most important brushing as the acid level in your mouth can increase during the night.
- Healthy diet – A healthy diet where you try to include all the possible nutrients is a good way to avoid cavities. People who eat a lot of junk are at higher risk of getting cavities.
- Good Toothpaste – Your toothpaste should include good amount of fluoride to avoid cavities. You can even consult your dentist and get recommendation on a good toothpaste which is suitable for your teeth.
- pH Levels – A healthy mouth is a non-acidic, neutral, or alkaline mouth, with a pH 7.0 or above. It is important that you eat food with good pH values inorder to keep neutralising the acid effects on your teeth. The below chart will help you know the food to avoid with high acids and food to eat with alkaline properties.
What food you should eat to avoid cavities?
You should avoid food which is very acidic and eat food with good alkaline value. The below chart will help you achieve that.
What are the natural ways of treating cavities?
If you feel you have cavities, the fastest way to treat it and to avoid a situation when it gets worse is to immediately see a dentist. However, here are some natural ways to treat cavities.
- Oil Pulling: Oil Pulling is considered as a good way to reduce cavities. Though dentists might not agree to this but at least it prevents bacteria from spreading.
- Oil Pulling Procedure: Take a spoon of preferably coconut oil or vegetable oil if coconut oil is not available. Take it in your mouth and gargle for 20 minutes. This solution inside your mouth will increase due to saliva. Just ensure you don’t take this solution inside your body and spit it out once done. You can gargle with warm water and brush your teeth later. Oil Pulling is believed to catch all the bacteria from your mouth like a magnet which can then be spit out.
- Good Diet: It is said, if you eat good diet (that is you follow the chart above and maintain acidic levels in your diet), your existing cavities might reverse on its own.
- Remove Sugar from your diet: Removing sugar from your diet to a major extend can reverse your cavities. When we sugar, it does not mean just sugar but also certain products which has high levels of sugar present in them. Check the ingredients of the products you purchase you ensure you are successful avoiding sugar from your diet.
- Consume Raw Dairy Products: Add dairy products to your diet. It is good to consume cheese, milk etc in your diet as it makes your teeth stronger and helps prevent cavities.
- Add minerals to your diet
Are kids more prone to cavities?
- Yes, they are. Kids with milk teeth are more prone to cavities due to immature and porous enamel. As they grow, this enamel is then replaced with mature, dense, hard and shiny enamel. This is the reason, they are more prone to cavities at an early age. Worse thing is they get cavities, we should not think that this tooth will go and will be replaced by another new one which will not have this problem present. There is a higher chance that the new tooth that comes will already be infected due to the old infection. The old infection can easily travel beyond the roots and infect the new tooth which is already present behind to take the place.
- Another major problem with kids is too much of sugary things in their diet. They eat a lot of candies and ice-cremes. It is the duty of every parent to avoid giving sweets to kids as much as possible as by giving them sugary things you are only going to make things worse for them.
- Kids are often found snacking too much during their meals. This also increasing their chances of getting cavities as their teeth are most of the time being attacked by acids produced from these snacks. We understand that you cannot stop them from snacking but you can surely replace their junk snacks with the healthy ones like chewing carrots etc. You can follow the pH chart above to understand what all you can include.
- Another problem with kids is sitting for longer hours while eating. Ensure that they finish their meals on time and don’t sit for hours with food inside their mouth.
- Another best way to avoid cavities for kids is to ensure that they gargle after everything they eat / brush after every meal or at least twice a day.
- Check that they are drinking a good amount of water throughout the day as this also helps acids to vanish from their mouth and body through regular urine.
- Assist them in brushing. They are not sure about how to brush properly. Be there when they are brushing so that you can guide them well.