What Causes Cavities in Your Teeth? (Curious Kids Club)

Curious Kids Every Day: A Daily Educational Podcast

This episode of Curious Kids Every Day explores what causes cavities in teeth, explaining how bacteria in the mouth feed on sugar and produc

Key takeaways

• Cavities are caused by acid produced when mouth bacteria feed on sugar left after eating.
• Enamel is the hard outer layer of teeth but can be worn down by acid over time.

Main topics

• Causes of tooth decay
• Role of bacteria in the mouth

Notable quotes

Brushing isn't just about cavities, though. Without brushing, bacteria can also cause gum disease.

Conclusion

This episode combines science education with fun activities and commun

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) The Curious Kids Club. What causes cavities? Hi! Welcome to Curious Kids Every Day. I'm Josh. How are you doing today? It's so good to hear from you. Today is another episode of The Curious Kids Club. Speaker 1 (0:32) We have a club here at Curious Kids Every Day, and it's called the Curious Kids Club. And in these special episodes of Curious Kids Every Day, the kids in the Curious Kids Club get to help me make the episode. So for all the grownups listening, if your family wants to join the Curious Kids Club, you can find all the information at supportcuriouskids.com. There, you'll get activity sheets for every new episode of the show. Your kids will get a shout out on their birthday and all kinds of other fun things, including one new thing we're going to announce at the end of this episode. Speaker 1 (1:08) Today's episode is going to be a little different than usual. Do you want to know why? Well, two weeks ago, in the last episode of the Curious Kids Club, I asked everybody for some help. See, the Curious Kids Club is growing so much that it's getting harder and harder to include all the submissions we get in each episode. There are just so many, but I want to include them all. It's become a bit of a problem, and when you have a problem, one of the best things you can do is ask for help. So that's exactly what I did. I asked all the families in the Curious Kids Club for some advice. What should I do? How can I keep these episodes from getting too long while still including as many submissions as possible? And you know what? We had come up with a few solutions on our own, but after reading the submissions that you all sent in, We changed course. We decided to do something different because you guys gave us some great ideas. I'm really excited to share with you what we've decided to do. I really think you're going to like it. But before we get to all that, I got a question from a kid in the Curious Kids Club named Charlie. And Charlie had a question about teeth. I thought it'd be fun to talk about that for a little bit today. And I also have some jokes to share. The kids in the Curious Kids Club always send me the funniest jokes and I can't wait to share them with you today. I also have a fun new game that I made up today and I want to play it with you guys. Then I'll share the big announcement that I mentioned earlier as well. How does that all sound? Okay, great. Well, in that case, we need to get started. We have a lot to do. Here is Charlie's question about teeth. Speaker 2 (2:55) Hi, Josh. My name is Charlie. I'm seven years old. And my question is, what causes cavities? Do Speaker 1 (3:09) you like brushing your teeth? Do you do it? Speaker 1 (3:23) Do you brush your teeth at a specific time of day? Like in the morning or right before bed? You know why we need to brush our teeth? Yep, to keep our teeth clean and healthy. But how does brushing our teeth keep our teeth clean? What's so special about a toothbrush and toothpaste? Speaker 1 (3:51) Let's start with what is going on inside your mouth every single day. Your mouth is home to billions of tiny organisms called bacteria. Can you say bacteria? Speaker 1 (4:05) Some of these bacteria are harmless, but others can cause trouble. They especially love to eat the sugars left over from the foods you eat. When bacteria snack on those sugars, they produce acids, and those acids are not friendly. They slowly start to attack the hard outer layer of your teeth called enamel. Can you say enamel? Speaker 1 (4:33) Enamel is like a suit of armor that protects your teeth. But even though enamel is the hardest substance in your body, even harder than bone, it's still not invincible. If acid wears it down too much, it can create little holes called cavities. That's when you might feel tooth pain, or the dentist has to step in to fix things. Speaker 1 (4:58) If only there was something we could do to get that sugar out of our mouths before the bacteria feeds on them and creates the acid