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How Saliva Prevents Dental Diseases | Guest Post

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Think spit is just spat? Think again. Saliva is vital in helping prevent gum disease and in keeping your digestive system running smoothly. It cleanses the mouth, protects your teeth, and helps keep your gums healthy.

Composition and Production:

Your body is continuously producing a steady stream of saliva. But what is it, and why do our mouths produce more at different times?

Saliva is 99% water. The other 1% of saliva is proteins and electrolytes. However, even though they only make up 1% of saliva, these proteins and electrolytes perform powerful functions in your mouth.

Saliva production is controlled by the autonomic nervous system. This system also controls your breathing, heart rate, digestion, body temperature, sexual response, and metabolism, as well as sweat and tears production. As far as saliva production is concerned, there are three main glands primarily responsible: the submandibular, parotid, and sublingual glands.

Your autonomic nervous system communicates with the various parts of itself. For instance, if you smell an incredibly wonderful food, taste food, are stimulated by medication, or simply perform a chewing motion, your autonomic system amps up the production of saliva.

Key Functions of Saliva:

Saliva performs a few primary functions that make life–and especially eating and digestion–operate more smoothly than they would otherwise.

First, saliva facilitates speaking and eating. It lubricates oral tissues so your tongue, teeth, and roof of your mouth can work together smoothly to create sounds. It aids in the process of eating by enhancing the taste of food, helping you break down food in your mouth, and facilitating chewing.

Without saliva, swallowing and clearing or rinsing food from the side of your mouth would be far more difficult. The enzymes in the protein in saliva help break down food and prepare it for digestion. In short, saliva helps you throughout every phase of the eating process.

Saliva also helps protect your mouth and surrounding tissues. It dilutes the sugars in food and drinks, neutralizes acids to prevent plaque production, and remineralize your teeth enamel. All these functions help to prevent plaque and tartar damage.

Additionally, saliva has cleansing and antimicrobial properties, continually working to help keep you healthy and free of disease. Lastly, it also helps to repair tissue in instances of mouth injuries or cuts.

How Saliva Benefits Your Teeth:

With all of this in mind, here are five of the main ways saliva benefits your teeth.

  • Waste removal

    • Saliva acts as a rinsing and cleansing agent for teeth, helping your mouth wipe away food debris, yeast, fungi, bacteria, and viruses. As such, it helps to prevent a variety of medical and dental issues.
  • Protective barrier

    • Saliva shields the esophagus and digestive tract from harmful irritants, as well as shielding your teeth from the sugars and acids in many of our foods and beverages. Its enzymes help neutralize acids that would otherwise damage your teeth and gums.
  • Tooth decay prevention

    • Not only does saliva neutralize acids that would otherwise contribute to tooth decay, but it also literally washes those sugars and acids away from the teeth. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t brush your teeth–it means that your saliva is working hard and deserves all the help you give it so that you can avoid restorative and cosmetic dentistry procedures.
    • Additionally, saliva remineralizes the enamel on your teeth. After you eat, the enamel on your teeth takes a beating from sugars and acids. Afterward, however, calcium and phosphate ions in saliva remineralize your enamel.
    • This is why it’s essential to brush your teeth after eating, and especially before you go to sleep: it clears any debris out of the way so your saliva can repair your tooth enamel without impediment.
  • Healthy plaque

    • While too much plaque is bad, plaque in and of itself serves an important function. Saliva coats the tooth with one of its proteins, pellicle, which then accumulates to form plaque. This plaque attracts bacteria and other agents, forcing them to form clumps which are then more easily swallowed or brushed away.
  • Wound healing

    • Saliva is packed with proteins, electrolytes, endothelial and epidermal growth factors, making it a live-in medicine for your mouth. If the inside of your mouth sustains a wound–a cut, a canker sore, or if you bite your lip–then saliva helps to facilitate the healing process.

With all these healing and protective properties, saliva is a huge player in preventing tooth decay and any resulting gum disease.

Conclusion:

Saliva’s the unsung hero of your dental and digestive health, working to prevent gum disease and tooth decay at every step. As an intelligent servant of the autonomic nervous system, it’s your mouth’s way of protecting itself and facilitating healing. Practice good oral hygiene so you can help your saliva do its job.

About the AuthorWritten by Bryan, from York House Dentists in Chesham & Amersham, the practice maintains and improves smiles for nearly 30 years with a comforting combination of expertise, experience and exceptional standards. For more details feel free to visit www.yorkhousedentists.co.uk.

A Parent’s Guide to Early Childhood Dental Issue | Guest post

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Oral health is of utmost significance. Not only because the smile is the first thing that people see in you but also because your oral health has a great impact on the overall health.

In order to ensure that your kid has a great oral health throughout life, you have to start early. In fact, it is a myth that kids do not need to see the dentist until the first permanent tooth makes an appearance.

The oral health of your child starts in infancy and you should begin caring for the kid’s teeth and gums early and continue it throughout the teenage years if you want to ensure that she has a great oral health throughout life.

Here is a parent’s guide to tackling some of the early childhood dental issues. Just read on.

  • Baby Bottle Tooth Decay

    – This occurs when the kid’s teeth get decayed on being exposed to sugars frequently. This sugar exposure can occur from the drinks like milk, juice, and The sugar in the mouth offers sufficient bacteria to the space to cause tooth decay. The decayed and damaged baby teeth can also lead to dental issues later in life. If your baby wants to go to sleep with a bottle you should just give her a small amount of water instead of any sugary drinks.

  • Thrusting of Tongue

    – This occurs when the tongue is pushed forward during swallowing against the lips. The thrusting can even throw the front teeth out of alignment. This can lead to speech development issues and even create an overbite. This situation can be controlled with the help of a speech pathologist and a dentist. You can teach the baby a new swallowing method with the help of your dentist for controlling the problem.

  • Sucking of Thumbs

    – It is acceptable and normal for the young infants to keep sucking on their thumbs. Beyond 5 years of age, if the thumb sucking still continues, then it can give rise to some serious dental issues. An overbite can be created as a result of this as the teeth can get misaligned. This can also lead to issues with the way the upper and lower jaws are aligned. So if your child is over 5 years and is continuing with this habit you should use positive reinforcements to make her quit this habit.

  • Loss of Teeth

    – There can be a variety of issues for which the baby teeth can be lost. This may include decay, inadequate space in the jaw and injury. The neighboring teeth can shift if your baby loses her teeth too soon. Apart from that, when the permanent teeth arrive, they can appear in an angle. TMJ and improper chewing can be the result of crooked teeth. The dentist can help under such circumstances. The space for the lost tooth is held open with the help of a space maintainer often suggested by the dentist until the arrival of a permanent tooth.

  • Not Being Able to Brush Properly

    – As soon as the child is able to brush their teeth, they are also ready to take care of their pearly whites. To make sure that proper oral care is being followed, adult supervision is required. Let the kid observe as you brush your teeth followed by rinsing and flossing. Choose the right toothpaste so that it can benefit your child’s teeth truly. Avoid any kind of toothpaste that is formulated for adults such as whitening toothpaste for the child. Go for a child-sized toothbrush that comes with soft bristles and make it a point to replace it on a monthly basis. Another way to make your kid learn to brush is by singing the alphabet song as they brush in the head. This is will provide ample time for completing the process of brushing thoroughly.

Visiting the kid’s dentist is as essential for the child as cleaning the teeth on a regular basis and developing healthy eating habits.  To keep oral issues at bay, you should start early. A dentist can look at your kid’s oral health when she is just 6-12 months of age and by the age of 2-3 years ensure that your kid has a full check-up. By laying a strong foundation, you can rest assured that your kid will face no oral problems for years to come.