Episode 27.
Why do people lose their teeth (part 2)?

Question:

Key Points:

• Overview of last episode:
  • Baby teeth are called primery teeth
  • The main reasons we have primary teeth is for them to cut the gums more easily because they are sharper than our adult teeth and because they are smaller than our adult teeth
  • If your baby teeth don't fall out, it's called over-retaining
  • The first episode about teeth has details on when baby teeth come in and when they fall out
  • Bacteria in your mouth can cause cavities and gum disease/periodontitis
  • The best types of studies are controlled, randomized, and doubly blind
• There have not been a lot of well-done studies prooving that the things we think we should do (brush, floss, or use mouthwash) actually decrease cavities or gingivitis
• Mouthash does decrease the bacteria that is in your mouth that causes gingivitis/periodontitis
• Some mouthwah is only cosmetic, but most have an active ingredient:
  • CPC: 15% effective at killing gingivitis bacteria
  • CHX: 40% effective at killing gingivitis bacteria
  • EO : 27% effective at killing gingivitis bacteria (a.k.a. Essential Oils)
• The 4 main Essential oils in Listerine (and most other EO mouthwshes) are eucalyptol, menthol, thymol, and methyl salicylate
• Using mouthwash at night can dry out your mouth and may cause erosion, so the recommendation is to use mouthwash in the morning
• Brushing your teeth without floride toothpaste has not been able to be proven to improve mouth outcomes
• Going to the dentist for scaling and polishing has not been able to be shown as effective in decreasing cavities or gum disease
• There was a study on kids with a control group that did not go to the dentist, a group that went to the dentist but did not get floride, and a group that went and did get a floride treatment. The first two groups had statistically equivalent results, but the third group had a decrease in both cavities and gingivitis
• You should consider going to the dentist to be more like going to the doctor for a check-up
• The key to brushing frequency is getting floride on the teeth. More brushing makes it more likely for the floride to get where it needs to be
• Brushing very well once a day is better than brushing les well twice a day
• I did not find any studies showing brushing your teeth before bed was more important than brushing in the morning, but intuitively it does make sense
• Electric tooth brushes that spin are 5-10% more effective in decreasing cavities and 10-20% reduction in gingivitis compared to a traditional manual toothbrush