Life

Ask the Dentist: Tooth enamel is tough, yes, but we need to take care of it too

Let's big up tooth enamel – it’s harder than steel, gold and iron but it breaks more easily, writes Lucy Stock, dentist at Gentle Dental Care in Belfast

If you or your child have chalky teeth then operation clean teeth and maintaining a super-tooth-friendly diet is the name of the game
If you or your child have chalky teeth then operation clean teeth and maintaining a super-tooth-friendly diet is the name of the game If you or your child have chalky teeth then operation clean teeth and maintaining a super-tooth-friendly diet is the name of the game

TOOTH enamel is mostly made up of hydroxyapatite, which is a mineral form of calcium phosphate. The apatite group of minerals scores a five on the Mohs hardness scale, which makes enamel the hardest biological material.

However, sometimes things don’t go to plan and our enamel can fail to develop properly; the crystals don’t form in an ideal fashion, resulting in brown creamy pitted discoloured patches in the enamel – clinically referred to as hypoplastic teeth. Or, as the Dutch called them 'cheesy molars' as they look similar to Dutch cheese.

Hypoplastic enamel appears dull and opaque and also crumbles easily like chalk, which is in stark contrast to the shiny hard surface and translucency of normal enamel.

These chalky-looking teeth affect about one in six children and because the tooth doesn’t have its hard outer enamel shield, the teeth are more prone to decay and being lost early.

There are many reasons that enamel may not form properly. Some genetic conditions mean that chalky teeth are passed down the line. There are also environmental factors that have an impact on the formation of enamel – for example, if a baby is born prematurely, has a difficult birth or the child is sick during early childhood.

What the baby eats is super important for good tooth development too. If a small child lacks good nutrition, such as vitamins including A,C and D, the teeth may not form ideally.

If you or your child have chalky teeth then operation clean teeth and maintaining a super-tooth-friendly diet is the name of the game. To maximise the chances of your baby having good strong teeth think about your diet during pregnancy, make sure it’s a balanced diet full of unprocessed, natural foods like milk and other dairy products, fruit, real natural fats and green leafy vegetables.

Chalky teeth are suitable for preventative treatments such as fluoride treatment, varnishes and sealants to help keep decay at bay. For heavily affected teeth bonding, fillings or crowns may be suggested by the dentist to protect the teeth.