Dental Plaque : Tooth Decay and Dental Plaque

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You can consider tooth as a three layered structure. Inner most portion, which is the center of the tooth is the presence of nerves. The surface of a tooth is made of enamel and dentin. The bulk of a tooth, both its root and inner aspects, is composed of a calcified tissue called dentin. Dentin is comparatively softer and the hard surface of the tooth is due to presence of enamel. Most of the visible surface portion of a tooth that is visible is covered by enamel. Tooth enamel is the hardest tissue found in the human body and is more than 95% in mineral composition. Calcium is the most abundant mineral in the tooth.

Since our mouth contains billions of bacteria, which are regularly attacking our teeth, so, safeguard from mouth bacteria is the only viable solution we have, in order to avoid tooth decay. You can do this by not allowing the bacteria to form organized colonies. These bacterial colonies are referred to as Dental Plaque.

Dental plaque provides a home for oral bacteria and also acts as a medium that holds the acid produced by bacteria. Remember that acid prodction gets aided by sugar consumption. So, when we consume sugar, some of the acid seeps from the dental plaque’s surface into our mouth. Any acid finding its way into our mouth gets diluted and/or washed away by saliva. The acid that is instrumental in causing tooth decay, is the acid that seeps through the plaque and down to the tooth’s surface. This acid will lie underneath the dental plaque and directly against the tooth. Because of the dental plaque covering over this acid, there will be less effective dilution by the saliva. This in turn means that the acid will tend to remain in very concentrated form (a pH of 4 and lower) and thus aiding in demineralization or tooth decay. With time, saliva does penetrate through the dental plaque does neutralization, however, by then some harm has already been done.

The longer the dental plaque has been present on a tooth’s surface, the more capable it is of causing tooth damage. Hence, you should brush and floss often and effectively, taking time doing so.