Supertooth and Good Food Friends Toothbrush with chewy tongue cleaner

Supertooth and the Good Food Friends is a school, home and community science based project to help teachers, parents and professionals, promote and develop health and personal tooth care skills that prevent dental disease.

Almost all cavities occur where food is left after eating, trapped between teeth and inside grooves on chewing surfaces while chewing every meal or snack and where the brush, toothpaste, mouthwash, saliva and chewing gum, cannot remove plaque or trapped food. Trapped food is the source of carbohydrate and acid that cause cavities.

Even 30 years after fluoride supported by dental health education and a $304.5 million Australian oral hygiene industry, tooth decay is still the most common and second most costly diet related disease with an economic impact comparable with that of heart disease and diabetes. Ironically, dental decay and gum disease are also some of the most preventable conditions yet there has been no reduction in tooth decay in the last 20 years and waiting lists for treatment are getting longer. What is wrong with the system? What happens to food left trapped between teeth and inside grooves after every meal or snack?

Brushing and flossing clean gum margins and between teeth. Saliva can help remove trapped food, neutralise acid and repair demineralised tooth but nothing is done about food trapped inside grooves on chewing surfaces where 80% of cavities occur.

A new brush design has a foam strip with open outer cells as in drawing, that can scour tongue and cheek surfaces while brushing teeth and fill with saliva while chewing forcing the saliva inside grooves help remove trapped food, neutralise acid and repair demineralised tooth.

Chewing Barium Sulphate before bitewing x-rays appears white where food is trapped inside grooves. The barium suphate is difficult to remove indicating the chewy sealants can be developed to prevent food being trapped and changed to acid.

"It is estimated that 84% of the caries experience in the 5 to 17 year-old population involves tooth surfaces with pits and fissures. Although fluorides cannot be expected appreciably to reduce our incidence of caries on these surfaces, sealants can."
SOURCE: Journal of the American Dental Association 1984; 108:448.

Dentists and hygienits can apply fillings and fissure sealants to prevent food being trapped and changed to acid inside Grooves in chewing surfaces where over 80% of cavities occur.  These treatments are expensive and research suggests other natural methods like those that follow, are promising.

Chewing sealant foods like cheese and nuts before eating, is a more natural and easy personal tooth care method of preventing food being trapped and chaged to acid while eating. Research has developed a new more convenient sealant type confection,  to chew before eating to help prevent food being trapped and changed to acid and even remove trapped food after eating.

Chewing fibre foods after eating like celery string or new Brush/floss'n'chew foam strip gum that is also used as a chewy tongue cleaner on toothbrush heads and handles to help saliva remove trapped food  neutralise acid and repair demineralised tooth so no food is left trapped on teeth after eating to cause cavities.

See the glass model of a fissure that replicates how food is trapped and removed at grooves in chewing surfaces