The Most Common Dental Myths Exposed

There are just too many dentistry related myths circulating around, to know truth you really need to keep on reading.

There are just too many dentistry related myths circulating around, and if you want to be able to stop panicking about the fact that dental cavities can be caused by worms or that AIDS is a condition that can be contracted through saliva, you really need to keep on reading.

Myth no1: A wrongly done tooth extraction can cause eye problems, and the patient can even go blind.

This is absolutely not true, because it doesn’t matter how many teeth you have extracted, your eyesight will not be affected. This myth is particularly used when the patient is about to have one of his upper teeth extracted.

Myth no.2: Tooth extraction is extremely painful.

Partially true- it used to be painful about 200 years ago. Nowadays, the sole thing that you will feel is the sting from the numbing injection, and perhaps you are also going to feel that “pressure” caused by the numbing solution entering your tissues. But that’s it. There is no way you are going to feel anything when the tooth is extracted, unless you have not been numbed properly.

Myth no.3: Pregnant women should not go to the dentist.

This is a very big mistake. Pregnant women are advised to go to the dentist for regular checkups and for having their teeth cleaned professionally of the plaque buildup. Pregnant women are generally vulnerable to gum disease, so they should indeed check with their dentist for plaque removal.

They should not go through more elaborate treatments such as tooth extraction of course. Every woman should know that before getting pregnant they should have all their teeth treated correspondingly, so that there will be no complex issues during pregnancy.

Myth no.4: Dental X-rays are dangerous. This myth says that people exposed to radiation from dental X-rays might develop brain tumors.

The radiation coming from the X-ray machine is of an extremely small amount, it is insignificant and 1,3 or 6 dental X-rays taken during your lifetime cannot case any harmful disease. Keep in mind that technology is getting better by the minute, and today we have got the digital X-rays which pose no real danger to human health.

Myth no.5: Using salt to brush the teeth, will make them pearly white. Again, not true because salt is an abrasive agent which if used too often and in large quantities might irritate the gums and “eat away” the enamel.

You should know that the dentin, which is the tooth structure layer beneath the enamel, is actually yellowish in color. So what could happen if you scrape away your healthy enamel? Get a set of yellow teeth that are ultra sensitive and not healthy.