Why take care of cavities early?

None of us like cavities! When cavities form, the mineral on the outside of our teeth gets eroded away and becomes chalky or soft to the touch.  Cavities can be white, black, grey, tan, or brown in color.  In the early stages, cavities can be arrested (stopped) by: applying topical fluoride treatments, regular dental hygiene visits, and meticulous care at home.  However, once a cavity has advanced most of the way through enamel they are no longer able to be arrested and need intervention by a dentist. A cavity at this stage only gets worse with time and given enough time can become larger and larger requiring more and more treatment.  The take home message here is if you have a cavity that needs to be fixed, schedule to have it fixed as soon as possible.