Supertooth and Good Food Friends Plaque Watch School Project for better tooth care. Home * Supertooth book * Approved Products * Blog  * Journal 06 * Experiments Activities = * 1.Brush Gum margins * 2.Floss Between teeth * 3.Chewing Inside grooves

Supertooth and the Good Food Friends is a school, home and community science based project to help teachers, parents and professionals, promote and develop healthy eating and personal tooth care skills. 1. brush gum margins,  2. floss between teeth to remove trapped food, especially chewing skills to help remove trapped food  from 3. grooves in chewing surfaces neutralise acid and repair demineralised tooth where little food is trapped yet 80% of cavities occur .

Why are there long waiting lists to treat dental disease.  It is one of the most preventable diseases yet little progress has been made in the last 20 years because everyone leaves food trapped on teeth after every meal or snack.

Even with fluoride and dental health education tooth decay is the most common food related disease with an economic impact similar to heart disease and diabetes.

Food is trapped under chewing pressure, between teeth and inside deep pits and fissures in grooves on chewing surfaces where almost all cavities occur and the brush, toothpaste, mouthwash and chewing gum cannot reach.

This trapped food is the source of carbohydrate that resident plaque bacteria change to acid, which demineralises a small amount of tooth, eventually developing cavities. In round figures, one cavity develops in the average deciduous dentition by the age of 6 and another in the permanent dentition by the age of 12, and increases four fold by 21.

Only a small fraction of food is trapped inside grooves compared to that trapped between teeth, causing some 80% of cavities occur . Trapped food prevents access of saliva and fluoride to neutralise acid and repair demineralised tooth.

Chewing Barium Sulphate with a suitable fibre like the foam strip teaching aid in the Superooth project shows where food is trapped in bitewing x rays and replicated with the glass model of a fissure experiment.  The glass model also shows that chewing a suitable fibre like celery string or the foam strip after eating helps force saliva into difficult to reach surfaces to neutralise acid and repair demineralised tooth.

Supertooth and Good Food Friends evidence based online school/community dental health project has potential national brand power and could be a good project for sponsorship so we are looking for feedback from government, industry, parents, teachers and dental professionals to develop a standard easy to understand evidence based project for Australia.

The teaching aids help develop tooth care skills that are convenient at any time anywhere to help remove trapped food after eating and can improve access for fluoride toothpaste and saliva to neutralise acid and remineralise demineralised tooth. Also to compare with the tooth brushing, flossing and chewing gum, but the web site needs to be updated into modules for school teachers, even dental professionals.

The glass model also shows how a red jelly confection is forced inside grooves and that brushing cannot remove the confection or force the toothpaste inside the groove. Simulate chewing toothpaste on one end of a a foam strip can be seen to force the toothpaste inside the glass mode in one stroke. This indicates that chewing toothpaste on one end of a a foam strip couple of times on one side of the mouth before brushing forces toothpaste inside pits and fissures where brushing cannot reach so the saliva fluoride mix helps displace trapped food, neutralise acid, toughen and repair demineralised tooth. Repeat on the other side, spit out but do not wash out after brushing each side.

Chewing toothpaste formulae in tablet form before eating seals pits and fissures and blocks food from being trapped while eating.

Chewing the tablets after eating helps remove any food that is trapped while eating. Chewing the convenient tablet with the convenient foam strip is much more efficient.

Plaque changes carbohydrate like sugar and starch to acid, which demineralises tooth. Saliva access neutralises acid and repairs demineralised tooth. However trapped food prevents access. It is wise to remove trapped food from between teeth before brushing to provide easy access for fluoride toothpaste.

Few cavities occur at Gum margins where the brush and saliva have good access.
Food dye can colour plaque on teeth. Brushing, wiping a cloth or Brush/floss'n'chew foam strips over teeth or chewing fibre like celery string, removes the coloured plaque.

Almost all cavities occur where food is trapped, between teeth and inside grooves on chewing surfaces while chewing every meal or snack and where the brush, toothpaste, mouthwash, saliva and chewing gum, cannot remove plaque or trapped food.

Chewing Barium Sulphate before bitewing x-rays appears white where food is trapped inside grooves. The barium suphate is difficult to remove indicating that  chewy sealants can be developed to prevent food being trapped and changed to acid.

"It is estimated that 84% of the caries experience in the 5 to 17 year-old population involves tooth surfaces with pits and fissures. Although fluorides cannot be expected appreciably to reduce our incidence of caries on these surfaces, sealants can."
SOURCE: Journal of the American Dental Association 1984; 108:448.

Experiments
Simultaneous acid attack on two half egg shells floating in a cup of acetic acid (vinegar) one being protected by fluoride.

The glass model of a deep fissure in grooves on back teeth, replicates chewing and shows how brushing with toothpaste cannot remove red food dye from the fissure, but chewing the toothpaste with suitable fibre displaces all the red dye and prevents food being trapped.

Chewing sealant foods like cheese and nuts before eating, is a more natural and easy personal tooth care method of preventing food being trapped and changed to acid while eating. Research has developed a new more convenient sealant type sugarless confection,  to chew before eating to help prevent food being trapped and changed to acid and even remove trapped food after eating.

Chewing fibre foods after eating like celery string or new Brush/floss'n'chew foam strip gum can help saliva remove trapped food, neutralise acid and repair demineralised tooth so no food is left trapped on teeth after eating to cause cavities.
See the glass model of a fissure that replicates how food is trapped and removed at grooves in chewing surfaces

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