Potential Signs of a Cavity

Potential Signs of a Cavity

One of the important requirements for good overall health is a healthy set of teeth. Your teeth not only help you eat well, they are also responsible for your speech and diction and how your face looks. Hence it is of utmost importance to pay attention to your dental health.

Dental cavities caused due to dental decay or caries are one of the most common chronic diseases that affect individuals all over the world. Prevention and early diagnosis and treatment of cavities in your teeth is the easiest and most important way to maintain good oral health.

Speaking of prevention, all you need to do is brush twice a day, floss away and eat a healthy diet to keep cavities at bay! Cavities start as small holes on your teeth that form due to acids secreted from the food you eat. The more sugary and acidic food that you consume, the more prone you are to cavities. The earliest sign of a cavity is a black/ brown spot on your tooth that doesn’t go away on brushing. With time this spot turns into a narrow cavity which accumulates food into the crevices. This narrow crypt like cavity is not a self-cleansing area and neither can a toothbrush clean it. Repeated accumulation and degradation of the food causes more acid production eventually leading to weakening of the enamel and dentin.At this stage the cavity treatment includes a dental filling. If not treated, the cavity keeps getting bigger and ultimately affects the nerve of the toothOnce the nerve is involved there is pain and/or sensitivity. Initially the pain is mild and may occur only on chewing. As the disease progresses, the pain and sensitivity worsens and the infection can reach the jaw bone. Such a tooth becomes dead and requires advanced dental care such as root canal treatment or removal of the tooth. Basically, what starts as a tiny discoloured spot snowballs into an irreversibly damaged tooth.

To know how to identify a cavity while you can still save the tooth, look out for these signs:

• 1. Small discoloured spot(s) on your tooth The earliest sign of a cavity on your tooth first appear as rough white spots. As the decay progresses, the stains become darker. These stains can be brown and/or black, and usually appear on the chewing surfaces of the, on the surface between the two teeth or near the gum line. These stains do not disappear by brushing. In fact, brushing very hard to try and remove these stains will cause the cavity to progress faster.
• 2. A tiny pit or hole on your tooth A pit or crevice or hole occurs once your tooth begins to decay. If the holes have big openings they are easy to identify. A lot of times food gets stuck into them and you may struggle with getting it out. At times the opening of the pit may barely be visible, but there may be a huge hole below the superficial tooth surface. These holes show a black-brown halo on the tooth surface. These holes are difficult to identify yourself. These are usually seen on dental x-rays.
• 3. Sensitivity to hot, cold and sweet foods Once your cavity gets close to the dentin and nerve of your tooth, it starts getting very sensitive. Hot, cold or sweet foods can cause a stinging sensitivity and will not let you enjoy your food.
• 3. Toothache Once your cavity is bad enough to affect the nerve, pain sets in. Initially the pain may occur only on eating or at intervals. Later the pain becomes more severe and continuous. If the tooth is left untreated at this stage, the tooth dies and the infection from your cavity enters the jaw bone. If you have any of these signs of a cavity, or you have any doubts pertaining to dental cavity treatment, get in touch with our doctors at The Maxfac Clinic. We are a team of Super Specialist doctors providing advanced dental care for everyone.