How To Treat Sensitive Teeth

Hi. I am Brian Halvorsen and I am a dentist. I have been in practice for over 35 years and I have written a book about my principles on holistic dentistry.

The book is called "Great Teeth For Life". In this video, I am going to be talking about causes of sensitive teeth and how you can treat them. Now, sensitivity of teeth is becoming very common, especially among the younger generation.

Why is this? Mainly because there is a great deal more consumption of fizzy drinks. Now, this is not just, you know, lemonades and cokes and so on and so forth. It is also, believe it or not, fizzy water because fizzy water contains carbonic acid and anything you have which is acidic will dissolve away the surface of your teeth and this also includes fruits, unfortunately.

Now, the problem is that the acid thins out the enamel. It literally dissolves the layer, so the layers become thinner, exposing the much more sensitive part of the tooth, and in a younger tooth, you can find that it does not take quite as much of the enamel to dissolve away before the teeth become quite sensitive. Now, there are other causes, such as if you plunge your teeth too much and frankly, also if you have got a cavity which often is a first sign of; is actually the tooth reacting to possibly hot or cold or something that is acidic or something that is sweet and if you are not sure, obviously please do visit your dentist and confirm that it is not an actual start of a cavity because the sooner you can see the dentist, the sooner it can be repaired before it gets too big.

Now, there are various areas where you can get sensitive teeth and most of it, as you can see from the illustration, is around the gum line and also if the gum string is back a little bit, that also makes what we call the denting layer exposed, which is where most of the sensitivity occurs. Now to prevent sensitivity of your teeth, there are various ways. The first is the preventive, that is to reduce the frequency of carbonated drinks which produces acids and that also applies to the frequency of fruits.

Sometimes, if you do have fruits and if you do know your teeth are sensitive, then please have something like yogurt or cheese which will absorb some of the acids; and so during the meal, you can actually help prevent sensitivity by having, suppose something to balance out the acids. On a dietary note, it is often the frequency which will actually increase the sensitivity. So again if you are sipping a fizzy drink during the day, then you will have far more to expose to the acid than if you just had the whole drink in one go.

Now, also this can apply to unfortunately, things like wine as well, because often wines are acidic and can cause what we call erosion of the tooth. Erosion is where we are thinning the layers of the enamel out. Now, by using, say, Sensodyne or a desensitizing toothpaste, then what that does is that it blocks the little tiny pores which actually gives you the pain and this is being very much sophisticated in the last few years and so they are much more effective than they used to be.

If there is extreme sensitivity, the dentist or the dental hygienist can also paint various forms of protective coats onto the tooth surface which will actually again remedy the problem. We are all individuals and some of us have much more sensitivity than others but there are very good ways by which we can actually reduce the problem. But as I say, prevention, I think, is better.

So, stay away from the acidic type of foods or cut down the frequency of those foods. Now, what can you do yourself, well, also, what can cause sensitivity is in fact excessive brushing; and so although we encourage the gums or roots of tooth around the gums to be cleaned, if it is done in the incorrect fashion, this again can cause sensitivity by wearing away the surface at the base of the tooth and again, seek advice from your dental hygienist about how to brush effectively but not weari