now i read that lactic acid causes dental caries so even if its so tempting to eat it...one must learn to stay away from it as well ! Frankly i just loved this munch food and had it a couple more times....but the caries news prevents me from eatin it frequently...great munch food though,thanx..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_caries only if it wasnt caries causin
All food is caries causing, as eating is.
The more often you eat or drink (as on the Wai diet), the more your teeth are exposed to enamel-eroding acids.
My teeth look great though, because i regularly go to a dentist.
My dentist said that even if you didn't eat at all (fed by IV 24/7), and didn't brush your teeth or wash them somehow, they will still erode (even faster than when eating) because of the plaque that forms over them even absent of food?
I've always been puzzled by if this is true or not
"Acids released from dental plaque lead to demineralization of the adjacent tooth surface, and consequently to dental caries. Saliva is also unable to penetrate the build-up of plaque and thus cannot act to neutralize the acid produced by the bacteria and remineralize the tooth surface."
"Dental plaque is a biofilm, usually a pale yellow, that develops naturally on the teeth. Like any biofilm, dental plaque is formed by colonizing bacteria trying to attach themselves to a smooth surface (of a tooth)[1]."
According to this, there is no mention about the 'food/saliva' requirement of plaque. It just says bacteria. And it's known that some bacteria produce acid. So where is the proof that plaque cannot form in the absensce of food, even if normally, when people are not fasting, plaque does contain bits of food?
Basically where is the evidence that it can't exist both ways?
Place a clean sterile glass slide in a stream of water containing at least minimal nutrients, and over the course of days or weeks a microbial ecosystem will form consisting of a variety of microorganisms arranged in a complex relationship to one another and embedded in a mass of extracellular polysaccharides of their own making.
The ability of oral bacteria to store iodophilic polysaccharides or glycogen-like molecules inside their cells is associated with dental caries since these storage compounds may extend the time during which lactic acid formation may occur. It is this prolonged exposure to lactic acid which results in decalcification of tooth enamel.
still doesn't make sense - our skin is crawling with bacteria, which also produce acids, and I'm not covering my skin with butter or honey, so why can't this happen in the mouth without external food?