Dental caries is a disease that we all know closely, either because we suffer from it or because someone in our family suffers from it. But do we know everything we need to know?

1. What is tooth decay?
Dental caries is a disease of infectious origin, which does not heal spontaneously, but rather damages the tooth.

2. How many people suffer from caries?
Dental caries is currently the most common infectious disease in humanity. In Catalonia, 30% of children aged 6 and 47% of 12 years suffer from dental caries.

3. Why does it occur?
Dental caries occurs when 3 factors coincide at the same time:

DIETARY FACTORS (Excessive consumption of REFINED SUGAR) + BACTERIAL FACTORS (BACTERIA present in the mouth) + INDIVIDUAL FACTORS (TOOTH RESISTANCE)

There are a lot of bacteria in our mouths that usually live there. When we eat too many foods that contain refined sugars (sucrose), the bacteria take them as food and break them down to produce acids, which attack the tooth enamel. In addition, these bacteria lead to the formation of sticky substances that do not dissolve with saliva and stick to the surface of the enamel and form the so-called “bacterial plaque”, which protects the bacteria and therefore contributes at the onset of caries. The greater or lesser resistance of the teeth to caries depends on individual factors:

-The composition and structure of tooth enamel
-The composition of saliva
-The arrangement of the pieces in the dental arch and the presence or absence of malocclusions.

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