Dr. Matthew
Mangino
While brushing,
flossing, and regular check-ups with your dentist are essential to maintaining healthy teeth and gums; there are other factors that you
may not be aware of which also affect your oral health. One factor
in particular is high levels of infectious bacteria is in your saliva
and plaque.
Saliva and plaque are everywhere in
your mouth. With poor oral hygiene, infectious bacteria in your
mouth can rise to high levels and cause dental cavities on the teeth
to grow at a more rapid rate. This in turn can cause one’s mouth
to become a “danger zone” quickly.
People wonder, how does my mouth reach
an unsafe level? Many of the risk factors are obvious: plaque, dry
mouth, dental appliances, medications, and soda consumption.
There is good news; at Paducah DentalCare we offer a simple evaluation to measure the presence of a dental
cavity environment through a simple sample of your plaque and saliva.
This test will allow us to measure the presence of adenosine
triphosphate (ATP), the universal energy molecule found in all
animals, plants, bacteria, yeast, and mold. ATP measurements have a
strong statistical association with the bacteria number in you plaque
and saliva. The higher the reading of ATP, the higher your risk is
for tooth decay.
This simple
one-minute test is done in our office to check your risk for
infectious bacteria. If one is at a high risk we have prescription
toothpaste and mouth rinses that will begin to help neutralize the
saliva and bring the mouth to a “healthy zone”. Some ways to
maintain and avoid high levels of this infectious saliva are to
maintain good oral hygiene habits at home, consume less soda, chew
gums and mints with Xylitol in them, and last but not least maintain
regular dental check-ups.
Visit Paducah Dental Care to learn more!
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