My baby stole my calcium, right?

Every once in a while I have a patient tell me, “Doc, I never had any cavities until I got pregnant, then I started have all these problems.  I heard that my baby stole the calcium from my teeth.  What can I do now?”

Let’s talk about this problem for a little bit a get to the bottom of it.

First off I have good news, your baby CANNOT steal the calcium from your teeth.  The stuff your teeth are made out of(calcium, phosphates, and fluoride) is hard.  The enamel of teeth is harder than bone.  There’s no way for minerals that hard to break down into microscopic pieces travel through the blood stream and get built into baby.  

So if babies don’t steal the calcium, why do new mothers get more cavities?

The answer is so simple you will wonder why you didn’t think if it, STOMACH ACID.  Acid is one of the three pillars of tooth decay (the other two are bacteria and sugar) and stomach acid is a very evil version of it.  If tooth decay is a burning house, acid is not only the match that started it but gasoline poured over the top just to make it burn faster.  Consider these things about pregnancy:

  

1) Most expecting mothers experience significant nausea during their first trimester if not further into the pregnancy.  The last thing you are thinking about when vomiting is your teeth yet they are getting coated with stomach acid every time. 

2) Acid reflux is a common condition later in pregnancy due to the increased pressure on internal organs.  That baby gets big and he/she has to go somewhere.  This can cause your stomach to force acid into your esophagus.  This is an even bigger problem at night because it’s sitting there all night before you get up to brush it off.

3) The last thing you want to do when you are nauseous is brush your teeth.  This produces a kind of double whammy situation.  Not only are you coating all those pearly whites with stomach acid but you unintentionally neglect them as well. 

The ultimate goal is always less cavities and less trips to the dentist so let’s cover how to prevent the problems. 

1) During pregnancy is it even more important to brush and floss twice a day, more if you want to. 

2) After any episode of nausea or reflux you should rinse your mouth out with water (not Pepsi) and if you can brush as well.  More time for the acid to sit on the teeth equals more time to destroy something vital. 

3) Try not to add to the problem by consuming high acid things like soda, most fruit juices, and tomato sauce.

4) Chew some sugar free gum throughout the day.  This keeps saliva flowing and will help keep the surfaces of the teeth clean. 

5) Don’t miss your checkups.  Sometimes we even recommend an extra hygiene appointment during pregnancy.

Hopefully we just put one more myth to bed and got some good information out into the world.  Babies don’t steal your calcium but without the proper care pregnancy can cause you serious dental problems. 

Let's talk about sugar and your teeth

It’s pretty much common knowledge that sugar causes cavities.  We’re all told this fact as we grow up.  If you eat too much candy and don’t brush your teeth, you get cavities.

Well, if that was the total truth to the situation, we would simply throw the Twizzlers, Snickers bars, and other junk food in the trash and be well on our way to zero decay.  I can tell you right now that this just isn’t working out.  We are VERY busy cleaning up decay from many people that just aren’t huge junk food eaters.

Let’s shed some light on the subject:

We all have a TON of bacteria that lives in our mouths every day.  Despite our best efforts to brush, we wake up every morning with that nice fuzzy reminder on our teeth that germs are here to stay.

There are a couple of groups of these bugs that have a specific interest in eating sugars.  They don’t care if it’s from candy, soda, Gatorade, or any other source.  When a person introduces sugar to the teeth, the bacteria process the substances for energy, then produce acid as a byproduct.  It’s actually the ACID that’s destroying your teeth.

Another interesting note is that it’s not the AMOUNT of sugar you take in, but THE FREQUENCY that you introduce it.  You have that nice 20 oz. bottle of Pepsi at the computer.  You take a sip. The bacteria go to work, processing the sugar and coating your teeth with acid.  It takes a little while for this to happen, but a point comes where the germs are ready for more.

If you chugged the entire bottle in one gulp, there’s really only one “feeding” that these bugs are getting.  They can’t get to all of the available food.  The key here is the fact that you’re not going to chug that bottle of Pepsi or Gatorade, are you? Nope, we sip it throughout the day, and we’re giving those germs ample time to get ready for the next batch between sips.

Listen, we’re all human.  I know there’s no way you are going to cut chocolate and soda completely out.  Even I love a good dessert or a Reese’s Cup.  The key is to LIMIT YOUR FREQUENCY.

Keep the bacteria off of your teeth with brushing and flossing, limit the amount of exposures to sugar (the drinks are the WORST), and try to get away from the candies that stick to your teeth (sorry, Butterfinger fans).  The microscopic “pot holes” in your teeth from acid attack can be partially filled in by a little fluoride (in your toothpaste and mouth rinses).

That’s a good recipe to keep you out of the chair.