Question For Dentists re Toothpaste

Puddleglum

Please allow me to tack a personal question on to this thread

I spent my teenage years in the NE Scotland, private water supply untreated, an area notorious for poor teeth.

I had no fillings prior to moving there and only replacement and repair fillings since. Every time I went to the dentist there I came away with more fillings.:eek:

DM, who still lives there, brushes her teeth with salt twice daily and has hardly any decay.

Does salt have any magic properties or is she just lucky or what? I have always wondered yet never asked.

j.e.j.

Humphrey10 wrote: »

What on earth do you do with toothpaste! It's intended to go in your mouth, not on normal skin.

you don't have skin in your mouth/on your lips?? :rotfl:

I've been interested in trying the more natural toothpastes, but I see Kingfisher have flouride in some of their products but use SLS (from palm oil), and Green People have natural ingredients but don't contain any flouride.

So for the moment I'm sticking with Aquafresh (usually bought for £1 from the local chemist :money:) I got nerdy yesterday after reading this thread and checked the amount of flouride it's got in it. Think it was 1450, so the maximum amount allowed.

@puddleglum, not sure about salt, but I have heard of people brushing their teeth with bicarbonate of soda. I would imagine the salt is abrasive and so gets the teeth clean?

Toothsmith

Puddleglum wrote: »

Please allow me to tack a personal question on to this thread

I spent my teenage years in the NE Scotland, private water supply untreated, an area notorious for poor teeth.

I had no fillings prior to moving there and only replacement and repair fillings since. Every time I went to the dentist there I came away with more fillings.:eek:

DM, who still lives there, brushes her teeth with salt twice daily and has hardly any decay.

Does salt have any magic properties or is she just lucky or what? I have always wondered yet never asked.

Decay is caused by sugar, and the way the bacteria in your mouth break down sugar and produce acid.

Scotland has a notorious record on dental decay because, as a population, they consume a notoriously poor high-sugar diet.

It's more to do with the frequency of sugar intakes than the actual mass of sugar you consume.

It's probably something a bit more subtle that affected you whilst you wereup there. The wetter, colder weather? The long winter nights? All could have increased your craving for sweeter things more frequently, which would have had a detremental effect on your dental health.

It's unlikely to be anything to do with the water, unless someone was sneaking sugar into it!

brook2jack

Salt has no anti decay properties but is abrasive . Many areas of Scotland like many other places in the UK has a diet very high in sugar (amongst other things). In the Uk as a whole people eat 7 times a day and as sugar takes an hour each time to clear the acid from your mouth that's a long time for acid to sit on your teeth.

Add to that only 54% of British people brush their teeth twice a day and only 28% floss then you have a problem.

No you don't have skin in your mouth. It is mucosa which is very very different from skin. If you were to subject skin to the continuous water, acid, bacteria soup of saliva it would very quickly break down and become an infected, mushy mess. Lips are not skin either.

Skin has a "barrier" which protects it and a flora of yeast and bacteria which keep it intact. Break that balance by eg washing too much and skin rapidly breaks down.

The composition of skin and mucosa at a cellular level are very different and both have very different challenges.

Fluoride is, in my opinion, a necessity in toothpaste the rest is personal preference and manufacturers hard selling.

Sorry everyone TS and I were obviously separated at birth re posting habits.

belfastgirl23

I have nothing to add to this thread but thanks poorly scammo for asking the question and for all the informative answers, I have often wondered about this. Good to know the science behind it.

Also interesting that the fad for eating small snacks several times a day could also contribute to dental decay!

Toothsmith

belfastgirl23 wrote: »

Also interesting that the fad for eating small snacks several times a day could also contribute to dental decay!

Very much so.

pollypenny

Thanks to the lovely dentists here.

I tried not rinsing my mouth, but found that my tongue swells slightly, giving me a lisp, but more importantly, a little cut on my tongue which couyld infected while i was on holiday last year.

I understand about the freshness and fluoride, but surely the chemicals in 'sensitive' paste can be detrimental?

brook2jack

Sensitive paste will not work if it is rinsed out. It needs to be left in contact with the teeth.
Obviously if your toungue was cut last year anything left on it then would irritate. But it should not cause a problem now.

Humphrey10

j.e.j. wrote: »

you don't have skin in your mouth/on your lips??

No, of course not. I'm a human, so therefore I don't have normal skin in my mouth.

j.e.j.

Humphrey10 wrote: »

No, of course not. I'm a human, so therefore I don't have normal skin in my mouth.

:rotfl::rotfl:
ok.. well I call it skin

Must admit I was surprised that the skin on your lips isn't really skin.. you learn a new thing every day :undecided