What Causes “Soft Teeth?”

Does it seem like you get a lot of cav­i­ties, even though you try to take really good care of your teeth with reg­u­lar brush­ing and floss­ing, and visit your den­tist reg­u­larly?  If so, you’ve prob­a­bly started think­ing that you just have “soft teeth” and there’s noth­ing you can do about it.  But keep read­ing to find out what REALLY might be happening!

I remem­ber one lady in her mid-30’s who came to my Char­lotte den­tist office years ago. Her story was sad — per­fect teeth until she started hav­ing chil­dren, when she sud­denly started get­ting cav­i­ties.  After her 3^rd child, it got worse.….…a LOT worse!  She was des­per­ate — she had spent so much time and money at the den­tist, but the cav­i­ties kept com­ing back.  We ended up doing a bunch of veneers and gave her a beau­ti­ful new smile back.….….but I kid you not, within 2 years there were cav­i­ties around those veneers!  And trust me.…..she worked SO HARD at keep­ing her teeth clean and healthy!  She was fanat­i­cal about brush­ing and floss­ing.  We tried every­thing I knew at the time; sadly, I even­tu­ally referred her to a spe­cial­ist who did den­tal implants that couldn’t get cavities.

There is NO SUCH THING as “Soft Teeth”

OK, now you want to know why — after expe­ri­ences like that, I say there’s no such thing as “soft teeth,” right?  Well, since then, I’ve learned a lot more, and I’m con­fi­dent in say­ing that NOT ONLY is there no such thing, but there ARE things we can do now to pre­vent that sad cycle.

Heart­burn, Acid Reflux & Tooth Decay

Pre­vi­ously, I dis­cussed one of the most unknown rea­sons for tooth cav­i­ties in my post Why Moms Get Cav­i­ties After Babies: ACID REFLUX.  Seri­ously!  Take a look at this chart that shows just how acidic stom­ach acid is (click to see a big­ger ver­sion, eas­ier to read).

Stud­ies indi­cate that up to 75% of peo­ple with heart­burn have zero symp­toms.  But it is more dam­ag­ing to teeth than sodas, mon­ster drinks, or any other food that you ingest.  Yet some­how, peo­ple never stop to think about this! PLEASE under­stand how seri­ous I am about this — I have seen so many patients who even KNOW they have heart­burn, but some­how don’t believe it’s problem.

After all, what do you think hap­pens to teeth for bulimic patients?  Take a look at how thin and translu­cent these teeth are, and know that this patient suf­fered from bulimia for more than 10 years:

Enamel is the Hard­est Thing in the Human Body

Here’s the sim­ple truth: enamel is MUCH harder than bone, so you can chew food your entire life.  The hard­ness comes from min­er­als (cal­cium, phos­phates, flu­o­ride), there is only one way for enamel to become weak: to have the min­er­als taken out.  And there’s only one way for the min­er­als to come out of your teeth: ACID.  That does include sodas, sports drinks (look up where Gatorade falls on the chart — scary, isn’t it?), and stom­ach acid, among other things.  But when your teeth come in, they are the hard­est & strongest part of your whole body.  It doesn’t mat­ter if your par­ents had lots of cavities!

The Worst Sodas for Cavities

Of course, DIET and NUTRITION are part of the prob­lem, too, and along with being a major con­trib­u­tor to dia­betes and obe­sity, sodas are the most com­mon prob­lem drinks.  If you ask almost any den­tist which are the worst sodas for caus­ing cav­i­ties, you will get more agree­ment than on almost any other den­tal topic:

• Moun­tain Dew^TM
• Mel­low Yel­low^TM
• Sun­Drop^TM
• Dr. Pep­per^TM

You’ll notice a pat­tern — the yel­low sodas cause the most cav­i­ties.  Of the dark sodas, only Dr. Pep­per seems to cause such a “cavities-gone-wild” scenario.

Other Causes of Lots of Cavities

• Not brush­ing and floss­ing your teeth
• Dry Mouth Syn­drome due to med­ica­tions: many drugs dry up your saliva, which is impor­tant for keep­ing your teeth washed
• Radi­a­tion Ther­apy for can­cer: this makes your saliva  thicker and less able to wash teeth clean
• Immune Dis­eases: some auto-immune dis­eases attack your saliva glands and dry up your saliva

If you seem to get a lot of cav­i­ties and think you have soft teeth, PLEASE don’t assume there’s noth­ing you can do.  There is always a cause, and it can be treated!

To make an appoint­ment for a Com­pli­men­tary Consultation:

Request an Appoint­ment Online or call us at 704–364-7069.

We’ll look for­ward to meet­ing you soon!