You have brushed twice a day for fifty years — properly, not the thirty-second version. You floss more than most people your dentist sees. You have not had a new cavity since your children were in school.
Last month your dentist found three.
So you asked the obvious question, the one anybody would ask walking out to the parking lot: what am I doing wrong?
Probably nothing. The thing that changed almost certainly isn’t your brushing. There is a good chance it is sitting in the cabinet where you keep your prescriptions, and there is an equally good chance nobody has ever mentioned it to you.
Saliva is not just wetness
Most people think of saliva as the thing that makes your mouth wet, and that is the least of what it does.
Saliva rinses food off your teeth. It neutralizes the acid that mouth bacteria produce after yo…