Acid Erosion?

[McGonicle]

After a few months of little dental obsession, I've woken up this morning with the subject of acid erosion dominating my mind.

I spotted those stupid adverts with the supposed dentist tell us how terrible acid erosion is caused by eating pretty much anything is when they came out. I decided to just block them out of my mind or switch over the television.

However today I looked up the subject and now I'm paranoid about it. What are the facts? Is it just another thing the trade has dreamed up to sell more toothpaste?

At one point when I was a teenager, I had some problems with my diet. For a I was mainly eating loads of those little swizzel sherbert lolly things. I used to scrape them right up on the corner of one of my front teeth. The corner of that tooth went really transparent. A couple of months ago I was advised on here that teeth are naturally transparent at the edges, but that tooth is really transparent and a few mm into the corner of the tooth. Is that acid erosion? As I say, I have similar but finer transparency on most of my front teeth.

I don't really drink fizzy drinks and I don't eat chocolate. 99% of the time I just drink tap water. But when I was in my mid teens I used to drink gallons of pure orange juice, and after a while by teeth did get a slight yellowish tinge. I've read that this is also a symptom of acid erosion.

I get so panicked with dental issues sometime that I can not actually make sense of what I read. My mind goes totally irrational. So really, I want to know without any of the commercial scaremongering, what is acid erosion, is it anything to worry about and what, if anything can be done to treat it?

Thank you.

 

[Gordon]

Acid erosion is caused by 2 things.
1) A diet high in acidic food and drinks
2) Reflux of the stomach contents from hiatus hernia for instance.

What happens is that enamel is soluble in acid and basically some of the enamel is dissolved away. If the process continues unchecked for long enough then the teeth are left weakened and discoloured, as well as much more liable to decay. There can sometimes be quite a lot of sensitivity to hot/cold/sweet because of the exposed dentine that's left.
Treatment consists of eliminating the cause followed by either coating the remaining enamel with several coats of fluoride varnish or else replacing the missing enamel with anything from composite to crowns/veneers.

Without seeing you it's impossible to say whether you have this or not, BUT if you've given up the orange juice and other acid foods then there's no point in worrying, it won't get worse and if it was that bad somebody would have mentioned it or you'd have had some problems caused by it.

 

[Yourbigpalal83]

McGonicle im the same exact way. its so easy to watch an add or read somthing on the internet and think HOLY COW I GOT THAT! and instantly panic and your mind just constantly focues on it.

Heres what i learned. No matter who you are, how good you brush your teeth, take care of them, etc, your going to get a little ware and tear on them just by using them. It happens to every single human being on this planet. No one returns there teeth at the great check in point in heaven with them being in absolutly mint factory fresh condition. If you have eaten in your life, daily, over the course of even a few years, there going to take some minor, microscopic abuse. Its part of there design. I got a little worn mark (if its even that, appears to be natural and ive seen the dentist 4 times in the past year alone and she dident even say a word on it) on the edge of a lower incisor in the front, and if you think it could be this or that, etc you become obsessed with it, and it really scares you, and u think all sorts of things, and it really robs you of your life. Truthfully though, every time i look at it im supprised how minor it is compared to the image i have of what it is in my mind. I dont wish that on anyone, and believe me, with loads of free time like i have, u might as well spend it on somthing you enjoy, other then tortoruing yourself over it.


How ever, since u brought up acid erosion here is what i know. If you eat anything or drink anything with acid in it, wait an hour before brushing. This gives your mouth time return to normal.

Hell, even an hour might be overkill, but, i figure what the hell right. Nice even time frame. Also, if you are paranoid like me, rinse out your mouth with just water after u eat anything with acid in it. Then eat some cheese. Cheese counteracts the acid and cleans your teeth apparently.

(which is great because i love cheese)

Dont drink soda. Esp Diet soda. They strip the pain off cars with the stuff. Believe me i dident buy that for an instant, but when i saw it in person, i said, to hell with this. Trust me on this, after over a year without evening touching the stuff, i see people drink it and i go to myself i wonder how the hell i drank tons of that stuff before.

Enamel erosion happens, but, its treatable. Most front teeth esp look transparent at the edges. This is normal. Dont let the ads scare you. Ads love nothing more then to get you paranoid over this and that, and for you do spend god knows how much on there products which clame to protect u from this and that, and reality is they do just as good a job as any other product.

If your that worried or scared, go to your dentist, ask them, let them check you out, find out about your situation, then take the steeps needed to getting it fixed, if need be. I know its easy to write and read then to actuley do, but, once u do it and know for sure..believe me you will feel 100 times better

 

[Deleted member 34]

Hell, even an hour might be overkill, but, i figure what the hell right. Nice even time frame. Also, if you are paranoid like me, rinse out your mouth with just water after u eat anything with acid in it. Then eat some cheese. Cheese counteracts the acid and cleans your teeth apparently.

(which is great because i love cheese)

Yourbigpal: please dont say ur taking that info from the site i posted... i did say it might not even be true coz websites are never that reliable coz we never know who writes them.... i rly dont wanna be the one responsible for making the population fat from eating loads of cheese.......ofcourse it could be true i dont really research cheese that often tho now im not working i have alot of time on my hands

 

[letsconnect]

Isn't this overkill? I couldn't even imagine going to the trouble of squeezing clementines and drinking the result through a straw... as long as you give your teeth a chance to remineralize in between acid attacks...

*reaches for a diet coke*

 

[Yourbigpalal83]

Ya know, i have no clue if cheese is a counter acid or not. I mean, who really does know. Im just saying, IT SEEMS LOGICAL and its an excuse to eat cheese! so i do it, lol