Even if you are the best of brushers, there are some places your toothbrush just does not clean very well. Those places are between the ridges of your molars and premolars. Those ridges are called cusps, and their job is to help you chew your food so that you can swallow and digest it. Food particles, plaque, bacteria and acid... read more »
In general, your child’s primary teeth should be completely replaced by their 32 permanent teeth by mid-adolescence. These teeth will need to serve them for the rest of their adult life. So, taking some simple preventative measures now will help reduce their chances of suffering from tooth decay in the long term. This certainly starts by encouraging a consistent daily... read more »
Your child should have all of their permanent teeth replace their baby teeth by mid-adolescence. The premolars and molars in the back of their mouth are usually the last teeth to emerge. Sometimes the biting surface of these teeth to have deep pits and fissures that can be difficult to clean with brushing alone. Stuck-on plaque and residual food particles... read more »
It’s not uncommon for the biting surface of the molars in the back of the mouth to have pits or deep contours. These deep contours evolved to help us grind and chew hard foods. In some cases, a person might have exceptionally deep contours on the biting surfaces of multiple teeth. The deeper a pit is the harder it is... read more »