Decay is like a ninja, you may not see a ninja coming but
you will know when he gets there. Most
of the decay we see in dentistry begins in between the teeth. Food gets trapped in the small spaces in
between our teeth. If you are like most
Americans you only floss the week before and the week after your hygiene
visits.
When food is not removed from these areas decay begins. We're great clinicians and technicians in our
office but we still haven’t developed x-ray vision. We can only see the cheek, side tongue side
and biting surface of teeth with our eyes.
We can’t see that ninja-like decay laying in wait where your teeth touch
each other.
It is waiting, slowly creeping closer and closer to the
nerve of your tooth, undetected….then BOOM!
Ninja star to the nerve, a crushing blow, taking you down
with little effort and a lot of effectiveness.
All that can be avoided by taking bitewing x-rays once a year. A radiograph is like daytime to a ninja, there's
no hiding from my super detection rays. Radiographs
taken once a year can reveal decay when its small. If we can catch it when its small we can
usually restore the tooth with a tooth colored filling. The longer it hides in the tooth the more it's
destroying tooth structure and eventually can cause major damage. Treatment then becomes more complicated. Your tooth could need anything from a simple
onlay to a root canal or a crown (cap) or even extraction(if you let it go too
far).
Please, help us, help you
Thank you to Nicole McCracken, one of my Treatment Coordinators, for writing this blog, I simply edited it.
Just Sayin'... let 2012 be the year we stop the Ninja
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