Your mouth is not just your living space. You host millions of microorganisms who live and grow inside your mouth. Growing together in a thin, sticky layer, these microorganisms, largely bacteria, make up your mouth’s biofilm.
Your biofilm can be a powerful asset to your health if it is populated with healthy, symbiotic (helpful) bacteria. If it becomes overrun by cavity causing bacteria, it can become a liability for your oral health. It is definitely worth paying attention to your biofilm and leveraging it to aid your health rather than letting it harm you.
High pH=Highly healthy
The bacteria in your mouth are extremely sensitive to the pH level of your mouth. This can be a problem since every time you eat, you cause the pH level in your mouth to drop. The healthy bacteria that can form biofilm flourish at high pH levels.
Unfortunately, eating and drinking (things other than plain water) causes oral pH to drop. The high acid environment that occurs post-eating allows the bacteria that causes cavities to flourish. So, how do you turn the bad news to good?
Unleash the PH Balances
Rinsing with plain water after eating can help restore a healthy pH to the mouth after eating or drinking. Rinsing with CariFree CTx3 Rinse after eating can help restore ideal pH quickly; it’s specifically made to support a healthy pH and aid your long term cavity prevention goals.
Food Choices Make All The Difference
We all know that good eating choices make for healthier lives. Nutrition provides the building blocks of everything in our bodies. The same is true of the organisms that make up our oral biofilm. The food we take in feeds the biofilm. How we feed it, what foods we take in, can make a huge difference.
The bacteria that form biofilm, healthy or unhealthy, are single celled organisms that use the simple components of the food we eat to live. Specifically, they eat the sugars from the foods we choose. The kind of sugar we choose can make a huge difference in the organisms that flourish.
The type of bacteria that is most often associated with cavity formation is S. mutans, which loves to eat the sugars from our foods. If S. mutans is fed the sweetener Xylitol, it will happily chow down. But, it cannot use xylitol for energy or to grow, so the bacteria effectively starve to death while eating.
Feed Them to Death
CariFree CTx2 Xylitol Gum lets you chew gum while simultaneously starving dangerous bacteria. Our tooth gels and rinses also contain beneficial amounts of xylitol, keeping your oral care products sweetly helpful.
Starting Anew
Of course, ways to feed good bacteria and keep dangerous bacteria from growing might not seem terribly helpful if you’re fighting a mouth with a firmly established biofilm of unhealthy bacteria. You may even be under the impression that you are doomed to a life of bad dental visits because you always seem to have cavities. Nothing could be further from the truth.
As our understanding of the role of biofilm in oral health has grown, so too has our understanding of how to treat an overgrowth of unhealthy bacteria. Your cavity-prevention focused dentist can help you evaluate your bacteria levels and develop a home care plan that can make cavity free dental visits a reality.
Bring It Home
If your oral biofilm has grown out of control, CariFree Professional Treatment Kits can help you control the bacteria and build a healthy oral environment. Your CAMBRA dentist can help you find the right products for your specific situation.