Street Dance
Siletz Tribal Administration
Building Parking Lot
July 10, 2009
Everyone seems to enjoy the limbo, one of
several activities that took place during the
evening, including Angel Oleman and
Hayden Worman (left photo), Leslie Brown,
Ryan Rilatos, Lexie Metcalf and Kyle Mac
rae (below left) and three youth community
members (below right photo).
Right: Mandi and Kylee Mae Smith watch
all the action.
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Toothtalk - Plaque, Biofilm and Oral Sprawl, What is that on Your Teeth?
By Mary Ellen Volansky, RDH, MS
You wake up in the morning and
rush to the bathroom to brush and floss
your teeth. Homecare: always your first
thought and action after your usual restful
uninterrupted night of sleep.
You run your tongue over the no-
longer-furry surfaces of your teeth, satis
fied with the cleanliness and health of
your mouth. What a way to start a day!
Are you with me so far? In thought
at least?
A short time later, you check your
teeth again and this time you have a
smooth almost glossy feeling to your
teeth. You think of how wonderful it is to
have such clean teeth and you move on
through the rest of your day.
Hey, wait a minute. Aren't my teeth
supposed to feel like they did just after I
brushed? What is that glossy feeling to
my teeth? Is it bad for my teeth?
Well no ... or sort of. The glossy
surface on your teeth is called pellicle,
widely considered a protective film. Pel
licle helps protect the tooth surfaces from
the acids that bacteria excrete.
Bacteria eat the foods we cat, es
pecially refined sugars/carbohydrates
- white sugar, white flour, etc. Those
special little critters then produce acids
or waste or excrement. Aren’t those great
words to use for inside our mouth? They
are accurate if not attractive.
Now the “or sort of’ portion of the
answer. Pellicle “is the first step in plaque
formation.”1 Pellicle-coated teeth allow
for the attachment and growth of bacte
ria - streptococcus sanguis, actinomyces
viscosus and streptococcus mutans (cavity
-causing critters)2. Ah, what a mouthful
(remember these critters, their name will
come up again) and gone is the glossiness.
How can a substance do two things
that are opposite to each the other? Re
searchers continue to look for an answer.
Researchers have placed pieces of
teeth in people’s mouths. While in the
mouth the pieces grow pellicle. These
mouths usually belong to dental students
who “volunteer” to not brush or floss their
teeth for three weeks. Yuck, aren’t you glad
dental professionals all wear facemasks?
In summation, the tooth pieces with
pellicle that are exposed to acid (orange
juice) did not show as much wear as those
without pellicle that were exposed to or
angejuice. This is important because it’s
the acid of plaque that etches teeth.
Teeth with etched spots (engraved or
cut) appear as white spots on our teeth.
These white spots are the early stages of
decay. Did you ever think orange juice and chunkier. Now the plaque begins to
was an acid strong enough to etch teeth? cause not just cavities but gingivitis and
Here is where the “sort of’ part comes eventually periodontitis - gum disease.
in again. Researchers know that pellicle
“It has been estimated that as many
also helps the cavity-causing bacteria to as 400 distinct species may be found
grow. Go figure.
in plaque.”3
And in one to two days after pellicle
So much for that furry vs. glossy feel
grows and after streptococcus mutans and
ing on our teeth. Glossy is good initially
friends have settled in (remember them and bad the longer we allow it to sprawl
from before?), new critters sprawl onto across our teeth.
the surfaces of our teeth.
Whether it’s the first thing in the morn
These new bacteria land and grow
ing or the last before you rush out the door,
because mutans and friends excrete sub brush and floss. Let’s show those bacteria
stances that encourage them to land, grow
what we think of their excrement!
and stay put. These new critters or germs
Or brush and floss the last thing
have names like fusobacterium nucleatum
before exhaustedly dropping off into an
or prevotella intermdiea.
uninterrupted night of dreaming. Just keep
Remember those dental student vol those critters and their excrement (acids)
unteers? After two weeks of not brushing from building a condo on your teeth.
or flossing, more germs land and grow.
Oh by the way, are you due to have
Can you even imagine not brushing and your teeth cleaned? Give a call at 541-
flossing for that length of time?
444-1030 or 800-648-0449.
These critters have names like Campy
1
Microbiology of Dental Plaque, Dr. Susan
lobacter rectus, eikenella corrodens
Kinder Haake, www.dent.ucla.edu/pic/mem-
and (this tongue twister) actinobacillus
bers/microbio/mdphome.html .
actinomycetecomitans.
2 Role of Streptococcus Mutans in Human Den
All of these germs excrete (sorry, but
tal Decay, Walter J. Loesche, Microbiological
Reviews, Dec. 1986, p. 353-380. American
1 am making a brushing and flossing state
Society
for Microbiology.
ment) chemicals that help each other grow
3
Microbiology of Dental Plaque, Dr. Susan
stronger. In other words, these germs ex
Kinder Haake, page 1, www.dent.ucla.edu/
crete chemicals that build plaque thicker
pic/members/microbio/mdphome.html.
August 2009
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Siletz News
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