How change with age

As you get older, everyday wear and tear takes a toll on your teeth. But there's plenty you can do to keep them in great shape. Follow these rules and you’ll have lots to smile about as the birthday candles pile up on your cake.

Cut Down Wear and Tear

 

Your teeth are crazy strong. Still, they can be worn down. All that chewing, grinding, and biting wears away the enamel -- that hard, outer layer of your teeth. It also flattens the parts you use when you bite and chew.

You can't erase a lifetime of wear and tear, without having it restored by a dentist, but you can keep it from getting worse. Don't chew ice or other hard foods. That can cause chips in your enamel and even broken teeth.

Keep Your Gums Healthy

 Bacteria, called plaque is always forming on your teeth. If you don't remove it, it can cause soreness, swelling, and bleeding in your gums. It can even cause infections that hurt the bone underneath.

 

Your dentist will treat serious gum disease, called periodontitis. If you let it go unchecked, it could harm your gums and bones. Once that happens, you may need to have teeth removed.
Signs of gum disease  include:

• Bleeding when you brush your teeth
• Gums that recede, or pull back from your teeth
• Loose teeth
• Bad Breath

 The best way to keep your gums in good shape is to take good care of your teeth. Brush twice a day and floss every day. See your dentist regularly for check-ups and cleanings. If you smoke, quit.

Don’t Let Your Mouth Dry Out

 Saliva helps clean teeth and protects your mouth from decay. But as you get older, your mouth gets drier and your odds of tooth decay go up. Your meds could be to blame. Lots of drugs dry you out. To fight back, drink more water. Hold it in your mouth for a few seconds before you swallow. You can also suck on sugarless candy or chew sugarless gum. If you think drugs are the cause, talk to your doctor about changing them.

 

Be Kind to Sensitive Teeth

 

Worn enamel, gum problems , and tooth decay can all make your teeth more sensitive. It can hurt when you drink something hot or cold or even when you brush your teeth a little too hard.
Good dental care is the best prevention. Brush, floss, and see your dentist regularly. If you have sensitive teeth, your dentist can recommend a toothpaste or in-office treatment that will make you more comfortable.

Look Out for Acid

 Fizzy drinks and citrus fruits and juices all contain acid. Sugary and starchy foods cause your mouth to make acid. Each wears away the enamel on your teeth.

  Don't swish these drinks around in your mouth. Follow it up with milk or cheese to "cancel out" the acid. Eat sugary and starchy foods with your main meals, not as snacks. That's when your mouth makes the most saliva  to help wash acid away.

 

Great numbers

God can put a bridle in the mouth of wicked men, to restrain their malice, though he do not change their hearts. Though they have no love to God's people, they will pretend to it, and try to make a merit of necessity. Foolish Laban! to call those things his gods which could be stolen! Enemies may steal our goods, but not our God. Here Laban lays to Jacob's charge things that he knew not. Those who commit their cause to God, are not forbidden to plead it themselves with meekness and fear. When we read of Rachel's stealing her father's images, what a scene of iniquity opens! The family of Nahor, who left the idolatrous Chaldees; is this family itself become idolatrous? It is even so. The truth seems to be, that they were like some in after-times, who swear by the Lord and by Malcham, Zep 1:5; and like others in our times, who wish to serve both God and mammon. Great numbers will acknowledge the true God in words, but their hearts and houses are the abodes of spiritual idolatry. When a man gives himself up to covetousness, like Laban, the world is his god; and he has only to reside among gross idolaters in order to become one, or at least a favorite of their abominations.

Genesis 31:22-35

 

²² On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled. ²³ Taking his relatives with him, he pursued Jacob for seven days and caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead. ²⁴ Then God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”
²⁵ Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country of Gilead when Laban overtook him, and Laban and his relatives camped there too. ²⁶ Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You’ve deceived me, and you’ve carried off my daughters like captives in war. ²⁷ Why did you run off secretly and deceive me? Why didn’t you tell me, so I could send you away with joy and singing to the music of timbrels and harps? ²⁸ You didn’t even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters goodbye. You have done a foolish thing. ²⁹ I have the power to harm you; but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’ ³⁰ Now you have gone off because you longed to return to your father’s household. But why did you steal my gods?”
³¹ Jacob answered Laban, “I was afraid, because I thought you would take your daughters away from me by force. ³² But if you find anyone who has your gods, that person shall not live. In the presence of our relatives, see for yourself whether there is anything of yours here with me; and if so, take it.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the gods.
³³ So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two female servants, but he found nothing. After he came out of Leah’s tent, he entered Rachel’s tent. ³⁴ Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them inside her camel’s saddle and was sitting on them. Laban searched through everything in the tent but found nothing.
³⁵ Rachel said to her father, “Don’t be angry, my lord, that I cannot stand up in your presence; I’m having my period.” So he searched but could not find the household gods.