hey guys this is dr. Erekat pronounced
like the era of the cat and I'd like to
welcome you to the office first of all
like always thank you so so much for all
the support and all the love I mean when
I told the first part of the journey in
the last video I had no idea you guys
would be so into it and you know be so
excited about it and trust me you liked
that story I have so many more I mean
like I said it's an 18 year journey and
there's a lot of stories in there a lot
of life lessons so if you like those
first two life lessons there's a lot
more to come but as promised it's not
just the journey it's also to answer
some of your questions so one of the
most popular questions I got like
hundreds of likes was what is the best
toothpaste to use what is it you know
what's the best toothpaste with the best
mouthwash important question and I'm
going to answer that question for you I
promise at the end of this video but to
answer that question I want you to
understand what a tooth cavity is and I
am going to explain it to you in extreme
detail one thing I take a lot of
satisfaction in is that my explanations
are super super simple to understand I
mean when I have patients come in I want
to make sure that they understand
everything whether it's a five-year-old
kid or a 95 year old person there's
nothing more important to understanding
what is being said and I use very simple
analogies I use everyday words no
scientific mumbo-jumbo I make it make
sense okay and I promise you that by the
end of this video you will understand
tooth cavities so well that you'll be
able to explain it to your friends to
your families and whoever else you want
to explain it to okay so let's begin
okay guys so this is a beautiful perfect
tooth this is how well our teeth are and
every tooth in the mouth is made up of
three layers okay you have the outside
white layer which is what we see all the
time and then underneath the white layer
there's a second layer which is kind of
brownish and yellowish and then you have
the third and final layer of the tooth
which is called the pulp let's like you
have a pulp of a fruit we have a pulp of
a tooth and what's so important about
the poor
is that that's where all the nerves live
that's all the blood vessels and veins
and the arteries live that's what keeps
the tooth alive and gives it its
nutrition from the body and the reason
at some point is this pulp is connected
through the blood streams and it goes
throughout your entire body that's why
we always say that dental health affects
your entire body help whether it's your
heart whether it's your brain whether
it's any other organ in the body and
that will be for a future video
but just know that the Pope is what
connects every single tooth in them in
the mouth to the rest of your body so
those are the three layers now what you
have to understand is my mouth in your
mouth and every human beings nuts in the
universe is filled with millions and
millions of bacteria okay these little
tiny bugs that live in our mouth and
some of these bugs love to hang out on
the teeth think of the tooth as their
vacation spot they love to go and sit on
the tooth and lounge and have a great
time and and you always hear these terms
like plaque tartar calculus all that
means is that it's a collection of a lot
of these bacteria living together think
of them as mansions or homes for the
bacteria so bacteria might hang out one
of your teeth on one of your teeth and
say hey I really love this tooth so then
he invites his family members and his
and his friends and they go hey guys
let's start building homes on these
teeth and those homes that they build on
your teeth is what plaque is is what
tartar is is what calculus is so they're
just collections of teeth okay so you
have all these bacteria that are living
and attached on your teeth now bacteria
love to eat and they're number one food
that they love to eat is sugar and just
we love sugar bacteria love sugar
so when you eat the sugar what happens
is those bacteria later on as heat they
keep that same exact sugar and when we
eat we eventually have to go to the
bathroom and so do bacteria right think
of it that way but what comes out of
bacteria when they go to the bathroom is
pure acid literally it's acid that comes
out of the bacteria after they get that
sugar so think about it they're lounging
in your teeth they're enjoying all this
sugar
having a good time on your teeth they
have to go they go right where they are
on your teeth and pure acid comes out
and
acid makes holes inside your tooth and
that hole is what a cavity is so a
cavity is simply a hole in the tooth
that's caused by the acid comes with the
bacteria okay cavity equals holes so if
you look here in this next drawing okay
this is what a cabbie looks like so you
know and the cavity always starts in the
white layer it has starting the white
layer and it's making its way down down
down and it wants to get to the pulp the
bacteria have a goal in life and their
goal is to get to the pulp is to get to
the middle of that tooth they are
digging for gold and their gold is
inside this pulp we absolutely do not
want them to get there but that is their
goal in life that's their goal so a
cavity always starts here so what
happens is he's loud you know they're
laughing over here they eat the sugar
they asked it comes out as it makes a
hole in the tooth and the bacteria go
deeper in the hole they start lounging
over here they get more sugar more acid
comes out to make the hole deeper and
deeper and deeper and deeper and they
want to get here now if you go to a
dentist right and and the cavity is
still within the first or second layer
it's no big deal it's a very easy fix
all the dentist has to do is drill the
drill it out drill the cavity out clean
out the bacteria and they put a filling
in the tooth they just plug it up with a
filling you have white fillings you have
silver fillings and if you get to that
later but just know the concept of it
they just drill out the bacteria clean
up the hole and plug it in with a
feeling it's a it's an easy treatment
it's not painful and it's not that
expensive okay versus other dental
treatments and I know there's a lot of
stigma out there about dentistry being
very very expensive and that's a totally
other episode we'll get to that but just
know that a simple filling is not that
costly okay now what happens is if the
bacteria gets to the pulp if you get
there too late and it actually gets to
the post it's pretty much game over
because what happens is the bacteria now
have access down the entire tooth into
your bone and into
your bloodstream and it's bad news
because it could cause abscesses okay
inside your jaw and in your body and
that's again a different episode but
that just you know and that's that's
where treatment gets really expensive
that's what root canals come in to place
and again and we'll discuss that later
all I want you to understand right now
is that bacteria live on your teeth and
they want to get into the pulp and they
do that by eating sugar and having acid
come out of them that makes holes in the
teeth okay so now back to the original
question right what is the best
toothpaste is it Colgate in the Krebs in
the aquafresh is it Arm and Hammer
now that you know what a cavity is and
how a cavity begins okay
I want you to know what's the number one
cavity prevention in and that is the
actual physical mechanical acts of
brushing because when you brush your
teeth what you are literally doing is
just pushing the bacteria off the teeth
they're lounging in teeth they're trying
to make homes on your teeth and all
you're doing with the brushing is like
physically pushing them off so that you
don't give them enough time to eat that
sugar and make that acid into your tooth
right because if they're not on the
tooth they can't harm your teeth so
that's what brushing does and honestly
if you take a tooth brush and put no
toothpaste on it and just run it under
the water and brush your teeth you're
doing exactly what you need to do to
prevent cavities I tell some people just
take you if you don't have a tooth brush
just take your finger run underwater and
just rub your teeth with your finger
just to push the bacteria off your teeth
because that's what the number one
cavity prevention is pushing the
bacteria off so the best toothpaste is
the toothpaste that gets you to brush
that's that's really it because it's not
really the toothpaste that's doing it
it's the physical act of rushing that's
doing it so pick the favorite flavor you
like click the favorite brand you like
whatever gets you to brush is what it's
all about you know now don't get me
wrong these toothpastes have great
ingredients in them that strengthen the
teeth and the main ingredient in all
toothpastes
or ID and what fluoride does for the
teeth it gives them like a think of like
a force field like a force field shield
okay that goes outside of the right
layer so it makes it harder for the
bacteria to make holes in your teeth now
again any force peeler shields will get
broken down over time right so if you
brush once or twice it's not going to be
enough because the bacterial eventually
gets through that shield but when you
brush every day you're reinforcing that
force field and that shield to make it
harder to make the holes in your teeth
okay so toothpastes are great and you
definitely should be using them but it's
not the to taste itself that's
preventing you from getting cavities and
other really bad infections and
abscesses in your mouth and that's
exactly what flossing does as well
what does floss do frogs rule literally
pushes the bacteria off the teeth it
pushes the bacteria that are hiding in
between your teeth off your teeth so
when you brush your getting the outer
surfaces but sometimes the brushings can
get in between and some bacteria are so
sneaky that they want to live and hide
in between the gaps of the teeth that's
real frost comes in
you put that floss in there and it's
like literally pushes in an ICU hiding
and it just pushes them out that way so
frosting brushing all the same function
same purpose
pushing the bacteria off the seats to
not give them enough time to make those
holes in your teeth and how about mouth
washes mouth washes are great because
especially the antibacterial ones you
have to be careful there's some mouth
washes out there that are just for bad
breath that do nothing against bacteria
there are some mouth washes out there
that just have to ride in them you know
they help reinforce that force still
around the teeth but then we do nothing
against the bacteria themselves then you
have the antibacterial mouthwash which
actually have ingredients that kill the
bacteria like literally kills them so
when you rinse with your mouth it just
melts them away and kills them so that
they can't make that active so all of
these dental hygiene materials brushing
flossing mouth washes same purpose
get their bacteria off the teeth
they can hundred keys now we all know
the common recommendation that we hear
all the time
brush twice a day right brush once in
the morning and once a night and that is
the best recommendation because if you
brush twice a day the bacteria are not
going to have enough time to sit down
and do damage to your teeth now I have a
lot of friends and family go man you
know what it's hard for me to brush
twice a day you know sometimes I get
lazy sometimes I forget so I tell them
if you can only brush once a day the
best time to brush is right before you
go to bed okay right before you go to
bed and why is that because in the
daytime when you're awake you're talking
a lot you're eating your tongue is
moving in your mouth and even the tongue
movement itself pushes bacteria off the
team so it's not that damaging but when
you go to sleep you know you're just
you're sleeping you're not moving your
tongue you're not talking you're not
eating so that's like screen time for
the left kids eat okay guys you know no
one's looking let's let's do our damage
and they have time to actually eat the
sugar and make the acid so if there's
one time you could brush make sure it's
right before you go to bed to not give
them that free time while you're
sleeping and it make sense now it makes
sense right so the worst thing you could
do if you if you want to get cavities is
you eat candy right before you go to bed
at night without a lot of sugar in it
and it's just go to bed without brushing
if you do that you're pretty much asking
for cavities to happen because you not
only give you the bacteria the sugar
that you need to make the acid but
you're not even pushing in a lot of
teeth and you're pretty much saying hey
bacteria hasn't had that habit has the
best party of your life on my teeth in
and make your acid so of course I'm not
advocating that I'm just saying that to
reinforce all that we've learned in this
video okay so just to rehash everything
and to close up the video 1 what are
cavities cavities are holes that are
that are in our teeth that are created
by the acid that the bacteria make after
they eat sugar bacteria love to live on
our teeth and attached to our teeth and
build homes on our teeth and we have to
prevent that by literally physically
pushing them off the teeth by brushing
and flossing and using the antibacterial
mouthwashes
that actually kill the bacteria they
don't harm our Keith and I you know I
promise that if you think you don't use
a toothpaste or if you just brushed with
water and a brush twice a day the
chances that you're going to get
cavities goes down significantly but
when you don't brush and you don't floss
and you just let them land on your teeth
that's when bad things happen that's
when things get painful and that's when
things can get really costly and that's
for another time in another video again
thank you so much for watching if you
learned anything today please make sure
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and if you know anybody that would
benefit from this channel and the way
that I explain things make sure to tell
them to subscribe and until next time
stay healthy and stay strong
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