What are dental cavities?
The proper term for dental cavities is “Caries,” but what does it really mean? Patients will refer to it as decay or literally holes in the teeth. The most basic definition of “what a cavity is” is that it is a hole in a tooth.
What causes cavities?
The short answer is bacteria. Everybody has bacteria in their mouths, it’s a natural and even a good thing but different patients have different types of bacteria and different amounts of bacteria. Some bacteria are good; some bacteria are bad. Bacteria that are bad sit on the teeth and if your teeth aren’t appropriately cleaned, the bacteria eat whatever is left in your mouth that hasn’t been swallowed or brushed out and they use that food and make acid and the acid that the bacteria make is sitting on the teeth. Like you would imagine, acid sitting on tooth structure will slowly eat it away and cause a hole or a cavity. So, one way to look at it is that cavities are caused by bacteria. Another way to look at it are cavities are caused by not appropriately cleaning your teeth and removing the bacteria out of your mouth. Another way to look at it is that cavities are caused by eating an inappropriate amount of sugar that feed the bacteria that then make that acid that sits on the teeth that causes the holes. So, there are multiple ways to look at it, and multiple ways that we can protect you from having dental cavities.
How does a dentist check for cavities?
There are two primary ways that we look for cavities. One is the obvious way; we look do an exam and look in your mouth and we are looking for evidence of cavities. We are looking physically for holes in the teeth. We are also looking for changes in the color of the teeth or changes in the structure of the teeth by how they feel with our instruments. Another important way that we evaluate cavities is x-rays. For the parts of the teeth where we cannot see directly, we rely on x-rays to evaluate if there are holes in the teeth that need to be treated.
What are the stages of a cavity?
The stages of a cavity are based on the depth of how bad the hole is, or how bad the cavity is. So, a superficial cavity is barely into the surface of the teeth and it is not always necessary to be treated. A lot of times, those cavities can heal if the patients will do a better job of brushing their teeth and can take advantage of using fluoride therapy. As the cavity deepens and gets into the inner structure of the tooth, it will then require some sort of restoration; a filling or maybe a crown or something along those lines. If the cavities are very deep and they’ve entered the most interior part of the tooth where the blood and the nerve tissue is, where we call the Nerve Chamber, often more therapy is needed like root canal therapy. So, the stages of the cavity are based on the depth or how far it has grown into the center of the tooth.
Can a cavity spread to other teeth?
Well, let’s go back to the question “what is a cavity?” A cavity is caused by bacteria. Bacteria can spread from one spot in the mouth to another and believe it or not, it can spread from mouth to mouth. So, if you have a cavity in one tooth, you definitely want to have that treated because that is a place where the bacteria can live and hide and grow and multiply and that can infect other parts of the teeth, other parts of the mouth and make other teeth susceptible to cavities. And as a parent, you want to be care that if you have dental disease or you have cavities, sharing spoons or bottles or glasses with your family, particularly with young children with whom parents often share, you can transfer that bacteria in your mouth that causes cavities into your children’s mouths and cause them to be at higher risk for cavities. So yes, cavities can spread throughout the mouth as well as from person to person.
Is it possible for cavities to go away?
Well thankfully, if we can catch cavities at their earliest stage when they have not gone deep into the tooth, the teeth can heal. Now that only happens if we can get the cavities before an actual hole is formed. We call those incipient cavities, or the dental term would be incipient caries. That’s when the tooth structure is just starting to thin out. It’s demineralizing, getting ready to cavitate. It’s getting ready to crumble. If we can catch it before it crumbles, we can put minerals back into the tooth structure to harden it up and it can heal on its own. That is called remineralization therapy, and that’s often why dentists are prescribing fluoride in their toothpaste, prescription fluoride in toothpaste that will help remineralize and help heal some of those cavities that have not cavitate or become holes yet.
How do you stop cavities from progressing?
Once a cavity has grown into the center of the tooth and there is a physical hole there, unfortunately, treatment must be done. You need some form of restoration, probably in the form of a filling. Once there is a physical cavity, despite how well you brush it, despite how well you use fluoride, it’s likely to progress by virtue of not being able to adequately clean that little hole that is there. So, at that point you cannot stop it from progressing; it needs treatment. But if we can catch it before it cavitates, before it turns into a hole, it can heal on its own. How can it heal on its own? Well you will have to up the quality and consistency of brushing and flossing. If you can do a better job of taking the plaque and bacteria away from the area of the tooth that started the cavity, and it has a chance to heal with that remineralization therapy we talked about, it can heal. So, the long and short of it is, how do you prevent cavities? How do you prevent them from getting worse? Thoroughly clean your mouth with consistent brushing and flossing as well as using toothpastes that have fluoride therapy in them.
How long do cavity fillings last?
That is a hard thing to predict because it depends on several factors. It depends on one, where the filling or restoration is in the mouth. If it is a front tooth that is easy to clean, easy to get to and not being stressed out by a lot of chewing, it can last a long time. I’ve got fillings I my mouth that are 10+ years old, but they’re smaller and towards the front of my mouth. If they’re bigger and in the back and require more function or are on the chewing surfaces of the teeth, they don’t tend to last as long as the material is under more stress. So, part of it is how big the filling is, part of it is where it is in the mouth. Generally speaking, the smaller the filling, the longer it will last. And the further back in the mouth, the less time it will last by virtue of how much stress it is under. Another important factor to consider is how well you take care of it. If you’re not brushing your teeth and the cavity that was there originally was because you didn’t take good care of your mouth and you continue to not take good care of it, it’s unlikely to last very long. It’s hard for us to predict how long a filling will last but what we will often say is that we want them to last a minimum of about three years. Ideally, five or longer. But a lot of that depends on the patient and how they are using them.
Can dental cleaning prevent cavities?
Yes! How can dental cleanings prevent cavities? Simply, dental cleanings help keep the teeth clean and help remove that plaque, that film that sits on the teeth, which is infested with bacteria. If the teeth are well cleaned and the bacteria is removed, then the risk of cavities goes down. But cleaning twice a year doesn’t adequately protect a patient unless they’re doing their part at home. But it is definitely a good addition to what you are doing at home to keep you healthy.
What should I do if I suspect I have a cavity?
If you suspect you have a cavity, I recommend you give us a call or give your local dentist a call and get a good exam with x-rays. Sometimes what you are thinking is a cavity is just staining and doesn’t need to be treated, but oftentimes what you see or what you are feeling needs treatment. So, give us a call and have a professional check it out.
Well, I hope this discussion on dental cavities has been helpful. We didn’t cover it all, so if you have additional questions please give us a call, sit down with us. We can chat about your oral health and how things are going and what you can do to prevent cavities or treat the cavities that you may have. We are located in Pueblo, Colorado at Integrity Dental. Please give us a call at 719-545-2468.