Source of pictures: Pixabay.com
Neil dropped around Daniel's today. Daniel’s mom took his chubby little hands and lead him to Daniel' bedroom and said, Daniel, can you play with Neil today? Your aunt will pick him up in the evening." Mom bent down to Neil and said, "Play with your brother, ok?" Neil liked Daniel very much and ran to him. Then Daniel took Neil to the small log house to play with building blocks. Mom then went out and busied herself with cooking.
Neil sat on the ground and said childishly, "Daniel, I want to play cars."
When Neil spoke, Daniel found that his teeth were black and had holes. With curiosity, Daniel picked Neil up first and took him to play telecontrolled racing cars.
When Neil was playing with the RC cars happily, Daniel went to the kitchen and asked his mom, "Mom, do you know what happened to Neil's teeth? His teeth are black and have holes."
Seeing Daniel was surprised at such normal thing, his mom explained, "That’s tooth decay. Maybe your aunt gave Neil too many sweets. The bacteria in our teeth love sugars and they can produce acids to decay our teeth, turning our teeth black or making small holes in teeth. We also call this dental caries."
Daniel touched his chin and thought that it was a good thing he didn’t eat too much sugars when he was a younger child.
Mom saw Daniel was still standing here, thought he had something else to ask. So she said, "Many factors can cause tooth decay. Teeth are the hardest part of our body. Neil now still has baby teeth. After losing baby teeth, he will grow permanent teeth. Then he won’t have tooth decay if he pays attention to diet. We can divide the structure of a tooth into three parts: the crown, the root and the neck. The crown is the visible white part of the tooth that enables us to chew. The neck connects the crown with the root. The root is below the pink gums. Although we can’t see the root, but it is an important basis for keeping our teeth healthy and absorbing nutrients, just like the root of a tree."
Mom stopped and saw Daniel was still listening carefully, then she continued, "Major causes of tooth decay are sugary and acid food, especially fizzy drinks, which contain both acid and sugar and cause greater damage to teeth. The main component of teeth is hydroxy calcium phosphate. This is a salt that fears acids, because acids will slowly corrode it, producing holes in our teeth. Then cold, hot or sour food can make our teeth uncomfortable."
Daniel frowned and asked anxiously, "Mom, is there any way to prevent tooth decay? Is there a good way to drink these tasty fizzy drinks without damaging our teeth?"
Mom touched his nose and said, "As long as you rinse your mouth and brush teeth carefully after every meal and drink, and drink less acid beverages."
Author: Huang Jing
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