Our goal is to help our patients to keep their teeth for a lifetime. Now more than any time in history this is a definite possibility, even a probability.

However, loss of even a single tooth is traumatic and seriously affects the rest of the teeth and the ability to chew food properly. Our ability to chew is vitally important for healthy lives, and the loss of several teeth or all teeth can be crippling. The following are some facts related to preserving teeth that may surprise you and, if followed, will greatly increase the chance that you will keep all of your teeth for a lifetime.

Surprising Keep My Teeth For A Lifetime Fact #1 - Whether or not you keep your teeth for a lifetime is 98% determined by the person who is directly attached to your teeth---YOU! Most dental disease is preventable or treatable.

If you brush well twice daily and clean once daily between your teeth where a toothbrush doesn’t reach (with floss or special toothpicks) much dental disease will be prevented. The sad fact is that most people don’t do this.

Solution: Brush twice daily, floss once daily, see your dentist and hygienist for regular check ups.

Surprising Keep My Teeth For A Lifetime Fact #2 - Going to the dentist is cheaper than not going to the dentist. Prevention is the key here, and relates to fact #1. Just visiting the dentist and hygienist once or twice a year for regular maintenance visits and routine cleaning will help to prevent both gum disease and tooth decay, and will allow any potential problems to be detected when they are very small and less costly to fix or prevent. You don’t need dental insurance to go to the dentist. Modern preventive dentistry is surprisingly affordable. It perplexes me when someone comes to my office after not being to the dentist for years and states that “I’m glad I just got dental insurance and I can come to the dentist.” While dental insurance is indeed helpful, we go to the grocery store without grocery insurance, we go to movies without movie insurance, we put gasoline in our car without gasoline insurance, we have our cars serviced and repaired without car service and repair insurance, we go the beauty shop without beauty shop insurance, we purchase big screen televisions without big screen television insurance...I could go on and on. It comes down to priorities and choices for most of us. The most costly dentistry is that dentistry that is often needed after not going to the dentist for years and years.

Solution: Look at proper dental care as an investment in your health. Plan to visit the dentist regularly to prevent small problems from becoming large problems.

Surprising Keep My Teeth For A Lifetime Fact #3 - 90% or more of damage to teeth is ultimately caused by one four letter word - acid. Teeth are crystals in structure and are able to be dissolved by acid. Bacteria live on teeth, digesting sugar to produce acid as their by-product. This acid then dissolves tooth structure and makes weak spots and holes that we call cavities or tooth decay. Soft drinks and sports drinks are acidic. (They contain phosphoric acid and citric acid among others.) If a person drinks 2 carbonated or sports drinks in a day (this includes diet soda), we see a 300% increase in dental disease regardless of whether we brush. This includes more decay and also direct acidic erosion of teeth. Acidic erosion of teeth is also seen in people who suffer from gastric reflux disease, again due to the direct contact of acid with teeth. Teeth that are exposed to acid from any source slowly will dissolve, and this is magnified at the edges of fillings and crowns.

Solution: Brush and floss well daily. Don’t drink more than one sports drink or carbonated drink daily. Don’t suck mints or hard candy.

Surprising Keep My Teeth For A Lifetime Fact #4 - Upper teeth, normally, never touch lower teeth. That’s right, ideally our upper teeth shouldn’t contact lower teeth, even when we chew! Research has shown that in a normal chewing pattern, food is sandwiched between teeth and chewed, but the teeth don’t touch other teeth. Along the same lines, when we aren’t chewing, our teeth shouldn’t touch together. Research has shown that the normal and ideal place for jaws, teeth, and muscles when not chewing is for the lower jaw to be suspended or hanging with the teeth about one fourth of an inch from touching in the front. If you notice your teeth touching together, you are clenching. We tend to do this when under stress, and we can also clench or grind teeth in our sleep.

This can lead to various dental and medical problems and symptoms such as muscle spasms, neck pain, migraine headaches, upper back pain, tooth mobility & tooth wear.

Solution: If you clench during the day, try to stop. If you clench or grind at night, ask your dentist about possibly being fitted with a night guard, thus preventing the problems that clenching and grinding can cause.

Surprising Keep My Teeth For A Lifetime Fact #5- Everyone has some natural resistance to dental disease, whether it be to periodontal (gum) disease or tooth decay. The amount of resistance varies from person to person. Eating a healthy, balanced diet will tend to increase natural resistance to disease.

Smoking or chewing tobacco greatly reduces this resistance to dental diseases. We see much more tooth decay and gum disease in tobacco users.

Solution: Don’t smoke or chew tobacco. Eat a healthy, balanced diet.

Surprising Keep My Teeth For A Lifetime Fact #6- Teeth are designed to function together as a unit. Losing even a single tooth adversely affects the other teeth in that area and increases the chance of further tooth loss. Loss of a tooth causes the bite to collapse in that area, and the ideal level bite to become uneven. This causes uneven forces on the teeth, poor chewing ability, and increased chance of further tooth loss.

Solution: Prevent tooth loss when possible. If not preventable, replace the missing tooth as soon as possible.

Everyone is different and unique, and the human body is very complex. For this reason, no guarantees can be made as to the outcome of any dental or medical treatment. However, I believe that following the above solutions come closest to a guarantee of a lifetime of oral health. I also feel that these facts and solutions are concrete, manageable and do-able. Best wishes for healthy teeth for a lifetime.