Dental wear occurs naturally over time, but excessive or premature wear can damage your smile. At Starbody Dental in Murfreesboro, TN, we want to help our patients understand the causes of dental wear and how to prevent and manage it for lifelong dental health. Read on for tips on minimizing dental wear through both at-home habits and professional treatments. With preventive care and restorative dentistry, you can keep your smile looking its best for years to come.
What Factors Contribute to Dental Wear?
There are several factors that can accelerate the normal wearing process and lead to thinning enamel, receding gums, cracks, discoloration, and other issues:
- Tooth Grinding and Clenching: Grinding or clenching your teeth can scrape away enamel over time. This habit is called bruxism, and managing stress levels and wearing a nightguard can help curb damage from grinding.
- Acidic Foods and Drink: Acidic foods like citrus fruits, tomatoes, and soda wear away enamel through a process called erosion. Limiting acidic foods and rinsing with water after eating can minimize erosion.
- Aggressive Brushing: Using a hard-bristled toothbrush and brushing aggressively wears down enamel. Brush gently using soft circular motions instead.
- Aging: As you get older, your enamel naturally becomes thinner and your gums recede, increasing sensitivity and visible wear. Regular dental visits allow us to address age-related wear early.
- Genetics and Health Issues: Some people are predisposed to thinner enamel, excessive wear, or conditions like acid reflux that accelerate dental erosion. Let us know your medical history so we can tailor preventive solutions.
- Habits Like Nail Biting: Chewing on pens, nails, and other hard objects can chip or crack teeth over time. Stop these habits and talk to us about deterrent options.
- Teeth Grinding and Clenching: In addition to the enamel damage grinding causes, it can fracture teeth, break dental work, and alter your bite alignment. A nightguard protects your teeth from grinding.
Preventing Tooth Erosion and Dental Wear
To help our patients prevent excessive dental wear and erosion, we offer these tips:
- Drink Water After Acidic Drinks or Foods: Whenever you consume something acidic, rinse or drink water to wash away the acid and prevent demineralization of enamel.
- Avoid Hard Chewing: Minimize chewing ice, hard nuts, and hard candies, which can crack teeth and damage enamel.
- Use a Soft Toothbrush: Choose a soft-bristled toothbrush and avoid aggressive scrubbing, which wears down enamel over time. Gently brush using light circular motions.
- Wear a Mouthguard for Sports: Mouthguards protect your teeth from fractures, chips, and trauma during contact sports. Always wear one for activities like football, hockey, or boxing.
- Limit Acidic Foods and Sugary Drinks: Reducing your consumption of acidic foods like citrus fruits and sugary sodas prevents acid attacks on your enamel.
- Get Dental Checkups Every 6 Months: Visiting us regularly allows us to detect early signs of wear from grinding, erosion, or chipping so we can take action before major damage occurs.
- Use an Enamel-Fortifying Toothpaste: Look for toothpastes containing enamel-strengthening ingredients like stannous fluoride, hydroxyapatite, and fluoride. These help replenish minerals lost through wear.
- Drink With a Straw: When you do indulge in acidic drinks, use a straw to prevent the liquid from contacting your teeth directly and starting erosion.
Restorative Treatments to Repair and Prevent Dental Wear
If you already exhibit signs of dental wear, don’t worry! We offer these effective restorative treatments to repair damage and restore your beautiful smile:
- Dental Bonding: We apply a tooth-colored bonding material to worn, cracked, or fractured teeth to rebuild, reinforce, and reshape them. Bonding blends seamlessly for invisible repairs.
- Dental Crowns: Crowns completely cover damaged teeth to protect, strengthen, and restore function and aesthetics. Modern ceramic and porcelain crowns match your surrounding teeth’s shade while proving durable protection.
- Professional Teeth Whitening: Over time, dental wear can lead to yellowing and darkening as the thinner underlying dentin shows through. Our professional whitening treatments remove stains for brighter teeth.
- Dental Veneers: These thin shells of porcelain or composite bond to teeth to mask chips, cracks, gaps, and worn spots for a perfected smile. Veneers are strong, lifelike, and long-lasting.
- Clear Aligner Therapy: Aligners like Invisalign straighten teeth and correct bite alignment issues that lead to abnormal wear patterns. This helps prevent future damage from bite problems.
- Occlusal Guards: Also called nightguards, these protect your teeth from grinding damage overnight. We take impressions to craft custom-fit occlusal guards that prevent wearing down of enamel.
Preserving Your Smile for the Long Term
With a combination of at-home prevention and professional dental treatments, you can minimize tooth wear and safeguard your smile. It takes ongoing habits like a healthy diet, proper brushing technique, regular dental visits, and wearing mouthguards and nightguards to defend against erosion, fractures, and chipping over the years and ensure long-term dental health. And if you do experience dental wear, rest assured we can restore your teeth for optimal function and beauty.
Contact Starbody Dental in Murfreesboro, TN today to discuss your dental wear concerns, prevention strategies, and repair options. We want to help you maintain healthy, youthful teeth for life! With conscientious oral care and our restorative treatments, you can keep your smile intact and radiant for years to come.
