You have heard that fluoride helps you fight cavities. However, did you know that professionally applied fluoride treatments in your dentist’s office help repair the early stages of tooth decay? Even before you or your dentist see signs of problems, fluoride works to reverse the damage and restore optimal oral health. When you visit Lovett Dental, talk to your dentist about fluoride for yourself and your children.
Fluoride treatments in the dentist’s office apply this helpful nutrient directly onto your teeth. It’s a vital part of general dentistry services in Houston. Your tooth enamel absorbs the fluoride. Inside your tooth, it repairs your enamel by restoring lost calcium and phosphorous, the two minerals that harden your teeth and protect them.
Typically, even before your teeth grow into place, fluoride from your foods, drinks, and supplements help make your tooth enamel harder. With hard enamel, your teeth better resist tooth decay. Then, when your teeth grow into your mouth, fluoride restores weakened tooth enamel to reverse early tooth decay. Dentists call this process remineralization.
When you brush your teeth and use fluoride products like toothpaste, you receive more fluoride onto the surface of your teeth. This also helps rebuild your tooth enamel and protect your teeth from decay. Together, fluoride treatments in the dentist’s office and your home oral hygiene work to keep your teeth strong and healthy, resilient against decay.
Four methods help you provide enough fluoride for your teeth. These ways to receive fluoride include:
Almost all sources of water, including rivers, lakes, wells, and oceans, naturally include fluoride. But public works departments add fluoride to tap water, too. This helps prevent tooth decay and keeps your whole family’s teeth strong and healthy. Before public water fluoridation, children suffered 300 percent more cavities than they do today.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention credits water fluoride treatments and throughout the United States as one of the ten great 20th-century public health achievements. Water fluoridation prevents tooth decay by 25 percent or more in people of all ages, even with the use of fluoride toothpaste. About three-quarters of Americans receive fluoridated tap water in their community.
Like fluoride treatments in your dentist’s office, toothpaste and mouth rinse with fluoride also help prevent cavities. When you brush twice each day using fluoride toothpaste, you easily supplement your dentist’s treatment. You can find a fluoridated toothpaste simply by looking for the American Dental Association Seal of Acceptance on the toothpaste box or tube. For people over the age of six years, fluoride mouth rinses also help teeth resist decay.
Your dentist can prescribe a fluoride supplement your children take by mouth each day if they need more fluoride for their best oral health. These come in a drop, lozenge, and tablet form, for ages six months to 16 years. Dentists usually prescribe these supplements when community drinking water has too little, or no fluoride added.
At Lovett Dental, you and your family receive the essential fluoride you need, whether through in-office fluoride treatments or prescribed supplements. Your dentist conducts a thorough oral health exam to understand whether you receive enough fluoride. Other important dental services you receive at Lovett Dental include:
When you visit Lovett Dental, talk to us about fluoride treatments and determine if you or your children need more of this important mineral. After all, your dentist wants to help you prevent tooth decay and other problems, as well as to enjoy your healthiest teeth and gums. That’s why our patients love how we care for their smiles. Contact Lovett Dental at 832.990.8754 to schedule your next visit.
