i
Charlie the Tooth
and His Best Friend,
Super Saliva
by Dr. Cindy Kudlik
This is Charlie.
He is a tooth, and he lives in your mouth!
His legs are hidden by your gums, so you just see his head and
body.
Teeth are the hardest part of your whole body.
Teeth are important for chewing, talking, and smiling.
Charlie and your other teeth are made up of minerals.
This is the nefarious Sugar Bug.
Nefarious means bad or evil.
He lives in your mouth, too.
You are not born with the nefarious Sugar Bug in your mouth,
but you get him by sharing spoons when you are very young
with your mom and dad or grandma and grandpa (one bite for
me, one bite for you).
Every time you eat, the nefarious Sugar Bug gets to eat.
The nefarious Sugar Bug only eats carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates are sugars.
Vegetables, fruits, breads, cakes, candies, pretzels, and
potato chips are all examples of carbohydrates.
Not all carbohydrates are created equally; vegetables have
the least amount of sugar, followed by fruits and breads, then
sweets like cakes & candies, pretzels, and chips.
The carbohydrates with the most sugar and that stick to your
teeth are the Sugar Bug's favorites. He can sit around and
munch on them much longer than the carbohydrates with less
sugar, like vegetables.
Carbohydrates can also be found in drinks like milk, juice,
lemonade, and soda.
The nefarious Sugar Bug does not like proteins or fats.
Examples of proteins are meats, eggs, nuts, and cheeses.
Examples of fats are butter, oils, and nuts.
Plain water is the best drink to have between meals!
So, what makes the Sugar Bug nefarious?
After the Sugar Bug eats the carbohydrates you eat, he has
to go potty, so he pees acid on Charlie and the rest of your
teeth!
The acid is bad.
The acid pulls the minerals out of Charlie and your other
teeth.
This makes Charlie sad.
When enough minerals have been pulled out of Charlie, pieces
of Charlie will chip away, and a cavity, or a hole, will be left
behind.
This makes Charlie super sad.
Fortunately, Charlie has a best friend, Super Saliva, to rescue
him and his friends from the acid attacks made by the
nefarious Sugar Bug....
This is Super Saliva!
He also lives in your mouth.
Super Saliva is your spit. See those dots in him? Those are
minerals - the same minerals that make up teeth like Charlie.
Within a half hour of you eating carbohydrates, Super Saliva
comes in to save the day!
His minerals neutralize the nefarious Sugar Bug's acids,
making them harmless, and put minerals back into Charlie and
the other teeth, fixing them and making them strong again.
Hooray for Super Saliva!
What happens if you keep eating carbohydrates and take
another bite or sip of these sugars every 20 minutes?
Well, you never give Super Saliva a chance to rescue Charlie
and his friends from the acid.
If Charlie and his friends keep drowning in the nefarious
Sugar Bug's acids, they will get cavities!
If Charlie gets a cavity, he will have to go to the dentist to be
fixed, but he will never be as good as the way he was born.
If Charlie does get a cavity, he should be fixed right away, so
that the hole does not get bigger, or even worse, make Charlie
sick and ouchy.
What can you do to help Charlie not get a cavity and keep
him strong and healthy?
Only eat or drink carbohydrates with your meals (breakfast,
lunch, and dinner). Stick with water to drink in between meals
and proteins and fats to eat for snacks. If you have a
carbohydrate as a snack, chose one lower in sugar and eat it
and be done with it - each bite or sip of a carbohydrate starts
a new acid attack!
It is also super important to brush and floss Charlie and his
friends at night before you go to sleep, because Super Saliva
slows down at night and cannot protect Charlie as well when
you are sleeping. Also, brush your teeth in the morning after
you eat breakfast. Not only will that make Charlie happy, it
will also make your friends and family happy that you will not
have stinky breath from leftover food that the nefarious
Sugar Bug is munching away at.
Draw a line from the
SNACK food to
Happy Charlie
-or-
Sad Charlie
About the Author
Dr. Cindy Kudlik is a dentist in Fullerton, California. She met her
husband, Dr. Dennis Kudlik, while they were attending the UC San
Francisco School of Dentistry. Dr. Cindy was an Assistant Clinical
Professor at Western University of Health Sciences, College of
Dental Medicine, where she was the creator of their diagnosis and
treatment planning curriculum. Currently, Dr. Cindy and Dr. Dennis
work together with their fun and caring Kudlik Dental Team,
providing general, cosmetic, and holistic dentistry for the whole
family.
Dr. Cindy created this book as a public service to reveal the secret
of how to avoid getting cavities. Although good oral hygiene is
important, frequency of eating and drinking carbohydrates is a key
component in dental decay and has not been widely communicated to
the public. By presenting this information in the style of a
children’s book, Dr. Cindy hopes to make this information available
to people at an early age to encourage lifelong healthy eating
habits and to prevent cavities and tooth loss due to decay.
Kudlik Dental Corporation
2000 E. Chapman Ave., Suite 100
Fullerton, CA 92831
714-526-2860
www.BiologicallyFriendlyDentistry.com
www.KudlikDentalCorporation.com