At Southern California Dental Health Associates we take pride in our continued effort to stay on top of any technique or products that will help you keep your mouth health. After all, we strongly feel that the best dentistry is no dentistry. Today we want to let you know about a great product called MI Paste which helps in the prevention of cavities and helps eliminate annoying sensitivites that some of us get around the gum lines of our teeth.
MI Paste has a product in it called Recaldent which is really casein phosphopeptide-amorphous calcium phosphate paste. The Recaldent helps prevent cavities by
- Binding tooth-replenishing calcium and phosphate to teeth
- Strengthening enamel
- Buffering plaque acid
- Improving saliva flow and fluoride uptake
Some of the advantage over a straight flouride paste is that MI paste works all the time while flouride only works in a neutral environment. When sugar and bacteria work together they create acids which takes minerals out of the tooth structure. Both flouride and MI paste replenish minerals, but the MI paste remineralization is more acid resistant than the flouride remineralization. Recaldent penetrates on average 10 times deeper into tooth structure than flouride. MI paste stays on the tooth structure much longer than flouride so it can work longer to remineralize the start of the cavity on a tooth better than flouride. The agent to carry flouride in the toothpaste causes dry mouth for many patients where MI past stimulates salivary flow for more natural mineralization.
The other area of use for MI Paste is in helping to reduce, if not eliminate, sensitivites of teeth around the gum line where there might be some toothbrush erosion or gum recession. This is by:
- Delivering calcium and phosphate to provide a protective covering for dental nerve endings
- Helping remineralize your teeth and restore a healthy oral mineral balance
- Buffering plaque acid as it reduces sensitivity
The technique for using the MI Paste is different that regular tooth paste, and holds true whether you are trying to reduce cavities or sensitivites. Rather than using it on a brush, we recommend that after brushing with a regular flouride toothpaste you place a small pea size amount of MI Paste on a finger tip and massage it in to your teeth at the gum line and then no eating or dring for a half hour. Studies show that this is a more effective way of getting the Recaldent to work.
You can also find Recaldent in Trident Oral Care gum. This is the gum that you can find samples of in our office when you have finished your dental vist. Trident is the only gum that has Recaldent in it
Just for the record, Recaldent and Xylitol (another product we absolutely love at Southern California Dental Health Associates) are different types of products and can be used at the same time
You can find MI Paste along with other preventive products at Southern California Dental Health Associates. Call us at 323-934-3341 if you have any questions about these preventive products.