A lifetime of oral health promotes overall general health and wellness!
A healthier smile starts with you.
Take control of your dental health.
We are here to help.
Pediatric Dental Health
February is pediatric dental health month. Here are some points to consider for parents and caregivers of infants and young children from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
P-E-A-R-L-S of Wisdom
Protect tiny teeth - by caring for your mouth when you’re pregnant. Your child’s future oral health starts with you.
Ensure to wipe your baby’s gums after each meal.
Avoid putting babies to bed with a bottle.
Remember to brush your child’s teeth twice daily with fluoride toothpaste. For children younger than 2 years, consult with your dentist or doctor about when to start using fluoride toothpaste.
Limit drinks and food with added sugars for children. Encourage your child to eat more fruits and vegetables and have fewer fruit drinks, cookies, and candies. This gives your child the best possible start to good oral health.
Schedule your child’s first dental visit by their first birthday or after their first tooth appears.
https://www.cdc.gov/oralhealth/publications/features/childrens-dental-health.html
A healthier smile starts with you.
Take control of your dental health.
We are here to help.
Tobacco Use and Periodontal Disease
The most recent statistics regarding use of cigarettes in the United States from 2019 found 14.0% of all adults (34.1 million people) currently smoked cigarettes: 15.3% of men, 12.7% of women.
Here are some key points in regards to cigarette use and periodontal disease:
Cigarette use increases the likelihood of periodontal disease by 2.7 times.
Heavy cigarette use (more than a pack per day) increases the amount of bone loss by 6-7 times.
Cigarette smoking influences composition of the plaque and how your body responds to plaque.
A low-oxygen environment creates a favorable subgingival environment for colonization by anaerobic bacteria (which can be more aggressive) caused by vasoconstriction of the blood vessels as a result of exposure to nicotine and decreased oxygen tension locally.
For more information: https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/index.htm
A healthier smile starts with you.
Take control of your dental health.
We are here to help.
Avoiding dental treatment?
Scared of the dentist? Welcome to the club! Half of Americans feel this way. Within a smaller group of individuals this fear is so severe that they refuse to be seen by a dentist. Delaying dental treatment can cause unnecessary pain and discomfort, could lead to more involved treatment and higher overall cost. There are a variety of concerns patients have, which ranges from previous experiences, to not wanting to accept reality that something may be wrong. The severity of anxiety or fear of the dentist can vary from slightly apprehensive to completely debilitating. Other ways to ease your nerves are to ask questions over the phone or read up on various topics/subjects to inform yourself. Share your concerns with our office staff, and we will do everything we can to help make your appointment more comfortable.
A healthier smile starts with you.
Take control of your dental health.
We are here to help.
Sore teeth? Sore jaw?
Clenching.
Grinding.
Gritting.
These are all common names for bruxism, or occlusal parafunction, which occurs when a person positions their teeth together and applies significant force.
Jaw clicks?
Jaw pops?
Jaw locks?
These sounds and sensations could be signs that there are dysfunction and/or deterioration of the masticatory system (muscles, ligaments, bones, connective tissue, teeth, and nerves). Intervention can be as simple as stress management or more involved depending on the severity and symptoms. Both temporomandibular joints work in conjunction with one another, and excessive stress, strain, or trauma can damage one or both of them. If you have concerns with your teeth or jaw joint, you should reach out to your dental provider for a thorough evaluation.
A healthier smile starts with you.
Take control of your dental health.
We are here to help.
Whitening or lightening teeth?
A common question asked: can I whiten or lighten my teeth?
Answer: That depends on a number of factors. Everyone’s teeth as an inherit color or shade, which depends on a number of factors, such as your diet, environmental factors you were exposed to when growing up, the amount of wear on your teeth, and if you were prescribed certain antibiotics as a child, to name a few. Diet can contribute to surface staining, which often is a result of consuming tea, coffee, or soft drinks. Maintaining a proper daily oral hygiene (brushing and flossing) can help combat the surface stains that can accumulate on the plaque and calculus.
When considering whitening or lightening your teeth, various treatment options are available, and we recommend you speak with your general dentist before seeking out treatment options on your own. A reasonable starting point are over the counter whitening/lightening strips, which are manufactured by numerous dental product companies. The benefit of these products are the concentration of the whitening/lightening agents are lower, which decreases the risk of tooth sensitivity. The other benefit to over the counter products are the application time and frequency are completely up to you.
In office treatments are available and can yield faster results, due to higher strength of whitening/lightening agents, and use of customized trays to apply the products. However, the risk for sensitivity can be greater due to the strength of the products.
Signs or symptoms to watch out for include, sloughing of the gum tissues (stringy in consistency and pale in color) can occur if the agents are applied to the gum tissues and not only the teeth. Sensitivity of the teeth can occur which can be transient or longer lasting depending on the frequency and duration of whitening/lightening.
Expectations: teeth have various natural shades and colors to them, having completely stark white teeth is likely not achievable with lightening/whitening alone. Other restorative dentistry treatments such as veneers or crowns may be necessary if that is the result you are looking to achieve.
A healthier smile starts with you.
Take control of your dental health.
We are here to help.
Mouth rinses: so many options to choose from...
Question: Should I use _____________ mouth rinse?
Answer: That depends. Not to dodge the questions, however, some self-assessment questions should be posed: Is your current oral hygiene habits effective? Are you missing areas of your mouth that need attention? Is plaque control a problem?
If you have wandered down the dental supply isle at your local grocery store or pharmacy lately, the number of options are a bit overwhelming. We suggest that you first identify what is the primary goal of this rinse: Plaque control? Whitening? Anti-microbial? Sensitivity? Fluoride supplement? After narrowing your search, look for options that fit your desired criteria. As for frequency of rinsing, ask your dentist what would be right for you and your situation. Other thoughts on mouth rinses include: do you have a dry mouth? are your gums sensitive? do you have a lot of dental restorations (fillings and/or crowns)? Alcohol based rinses can exacerbate the effects of dry mouth and can be hard on the gums in certain individuals. Many options are now formulated to be alcohol free, to alleviate dry mouth and irritation to the gums.
If you have questions regarding your daily oral hygiene routine and which products are right for you, reach out to your dental provider and ask directed questions.
A healthier smile starts with you.
Take control of your dental health.
We are here to help.
COVID-19 Infection and Transmission
The oral cavity is a site for infection and replication of SARS-CoV-2, and subsequently provides a risk for transmission to others due to aerosolized saliva.
A recent study (Huang et al. preprint) which was a multicenter study looking into the role of the oral cavity in infection and transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes the disease COVID-19).
A lead researcher on the project, Dr. Kevin Byrd, based out of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Adams School of Dentistry and the American Dental Association Science and Research Institute found that SARS-CoV-2 can infect the oral mucosa (gums, lips, cheeks, tongue, tonsils), major, and minor salivary glands.
They discussed the role that the oral cavity played in extraoral transmission, through aerosol of saliva, and the transmission of the virus to the lungs and gut. They observed that individuals who presented with SARS-CoV-2 in their saliva were approximately 6.5X more likely to report a loss of taste or smell.
Wide reports of various symptoms suggest that each individual may have a different immune response or pattern of infection. Further research into these routes of infection and transmission, as well as human immune response to SARS-CoV-2 will certainly be studied.
A healthier smile starts with you.
Take control of your dental health.
We are here to help.
Brushes and floss? So many options to choose!
The amount of variety when it comes to dental products available at a supermarket is a little intimidating.
Here are some thoughts on a few common dental products.
Toothbrushes: choices vary between powered (electric/battery) or manual, bristle hardness, brush head size and shape. All considerations to take into account when selecting the proper brush for each individual. Everyone has personal preferences, so take some time to figure out what works for you. Manual toothbrushes can be just as effective as powered brushes, if utilizing the proper techniques and brushing duration.
The American Dental Association recommends brushing for two minutes, twice daily.
Floss: a variety of sizes, composition, and specialty types for certain scenarios, the most common floss is standard woven waxed floss (in whatever flavor you prefer). Simply put, my favorite floss is the floss that you use regularly. At least once a day. I recommend flossing at night Arguments have been made about when to floss, either before or after brushing. Personally, I recommend flossing before you brush.
Glide is not a bad floss, however, it was designed for individuals with "tight" teeth, which makes it more challenging for waxed floss, or woven/braided flosses to pass through the spaces where teeth contact one another. I find that Glide does a fair job of displacing plaque and debris that remains in the pocket around teeth, however, given how "slippery" the material is, plaque or food debris does not accumulate on the floss as well as woven/braided flosses.
A healthier smile starts with you.
Take control of your dental health.
We are here to help.
COVID-19 Oral Signs & Symptoms
Lips, Cheeks, Tongue - all places where subtle changes can observed during the early infection of COVID-19. A systematic review of 40 studies found 45% of COVID-19 infected individuals presented with oral signs/symptoms including: loss of taste, dry mouth, and blistering of the oral tissues.
COVID tongue is a clinical presentation of your tongue first described in the United Kingdom. The tongue appears enlarged, to the point where the sides of the tongue are scalloped due to tongue pressing against the teeth. Other changes include patches of color changes throughout the surface of the tongue, which are reddish in color with a white to off white halo surrounding the red lesions. These lesions are typically not circles, but rather odd shaped rings that can mimic geographic tongue (benign migratory glossitis).
Lips and cheek lesions present much like canker sores (aphthous ulcers). These superficial changes can blister and form ulcers and appear on the lips, lining of the cheeks, and gum tissues. These symptoms often appear within the first few days of infection, and do not appear in all cases, however, some cases these are some of the only symptoms.
A healthier smile starts with you.
Take control of your dental health.
We are here to help.