Blog – Charming Smiles

The First Black Woman Dentist in the US

Wed, 16 Aug 2023 23:19:00 GMT

IDA GRAY WAS BORN in Clarksville, Tennessee in 1867. She became an orphan when her mother died in her early teens, after which she went to live with her aunt in Cincinnati. While Gray attended segregated public schools alongside her aunt’s three children and worked as a seamstress, she found time to work in the dental offices of Jonathan Taft, an early advocate of training women as dentists.

Ida Gray’s Education and Practice

After three years working in Taft’s office, Gray had learned enough to pass the entrance examinations into the University of Michigan’s School of Dentistry, where Jonathan Taft had previously served as the dean, and begin her studies in 1887. She graduated three years later, making her the first Black woman to become a dentist in the United States. She opened her own office in Cincinnati, where she serviced patients of all races and was celebrated as a role model for women.

Continuing Career and Retirement

After marrying James Sanford Nelson, Gray moved her practice to Chicago, where she earned a reputation for her gentleness with pediatric patients and inspired another patient, Olive M. Henderson, to become the second Black woman dentist in Chicago. She was heavily involved in her community and continued practicing until her retirement in 1928. After the death of her first husband, she remarried William A. Rollins. She died in 1953 at 86 years old.

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Stress and Our Smiles

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 23:50:00 GMT

MENTAL HEALTH AND physical health are tied together in ways we don’t always expect. That even extends to the relationship between oral health and stress. Fortunately, there are a lot of tools we can use to protect our smiles from the effects of stress.

Stress Could Be Behind a Teeth-Grinding Habit

Habitual teeth-grinding and jaw-clenching are called bruxism. Clenching and grinding are natural responses to frustration and stress for many people. The typical signs of bruxism include a sore jaw and, eventually, flattened chewing surfaces of the teeth. Bruxism brings with it significant oral health risks , and the people with this habit might not even notice they’re doing it — particularly for those who grind their teeth in their sleep.

Stress Can Compound the Symptoms of TMD

Another oral health condition stress can contribute to is temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD), a disorder of the muscles, joint, and nerves in the jaw that is associated with chronic facial pain. Stress is believed to be one of the factors leading to TMD , which has symptoms like frequent headaches, pain in the jaw joint, and popping and clicking of the jaw.

Stress Weakens the Immune System

A brief period of stress is something the body can deal with pretty well, but chronic stress puts a major strain on the immune system , making it harder to fight off oral health issues like infections, canker sores, dry mouth, gum disease, and cavities.

Make Oral Health and Hygiene a Priority

Considering all the negative effects stress can have, good oral hygiene habits become particularly important. That includes brushing for two minutes twice a day using a soft-bristled toothbrush and fluoride toothpaste, flossing once a day, and cutting back on sugar intake. Giving your teeth and gums better tools to fight off oral health problems might not be a solution to the stress in your life, but it can help you feel a little better and more in control .

The Dentist Is Your Best Ally

Dental health experts such as our team want to help our patients stress less when it comes to their oral health. We know that just the idea of going to the dentist can be stressful for a lot of people, but we’re here to help. We encourage you to keep up with your regular dental checkups and keep a prevention mindset when it comes to oral health issues rather than waiting until an issue gets much worse to finally get treatment.

We want to help our patients smile easier AND healthier!

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Oral Health Goal: Cut Sugar Intake in Half

Wed, 02 Aug 2023 18:20:00 GMT

SUGAR GOES BY MANY NAMES and hides where we’d least expect it. Molasses and maltose? Sugar. Corn syrup and sucrose? Sugar. Honey and agave nectar? They’re sugar too!

We Consume a Jaw-Dropping Amount of Sugar

Sugar in some form is added to 74 percent of packaged foods, and the average American consumes 57 POUNDS of added sugar every year. That’s a lot of fuel for the harmful bacteria living in our mouths (particularly during orthodontic treatment when there are so many extra nooks and crannies for food to stay trapped after meals and snacks).

Sugar Versus Oral Health

Sugar has many negative health effects, but as dental professionals, we’re focused on how it impacts our teeth. Sugar consumption is closely linked to gum disease and tooth decay, and it can eventually lead to needing treatment like fillings and root canal therapy.

Cutting Back on Sugar

So how can we avoid sugar when it has so many disguises? The easiest way is to cut out sugary sodas, fruit juices, and cereals for ourselves and our kids. We should also pay attention to food labels and try to buy foods with less added sugar. Finally, if we make more of our food from scratch, we’ll have better control of how much sugar goes into it!

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

What Causes Tooth Sensitivity?

Wed, 26 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT

IT CAN BE DIFFICULT to get any enjoyment out of a cozy mug of hot cocoa if every sip comes with a jolt of pain from sensitive teeth. An eighth of the U.S. population (including kids!) deals with some level of tooth sensitivity, so what causes it and how can we protect our teeth?

The Nerves Inside Our Teeth

A healthy tooth consists of a protective outer layer of enamel over a more porous layer of dentin, with a pulp chamber at the center. Dental pulp is made up of nerves and blood vessels , and those nerves receive sensory input for things like pressure and temperature changes through the thousands of microscopic tubules running through the dentin.

When Sensory Input Works Against Us

Enamel erosion is one of the main causes of tooth sensitivity. If the protective enamel layer wears down, then it exposes the tubules in the dentin, which leads to the nerves suddenly getting a lot more stimulation than they like . They get a nasty shock when the tooth comes in contact with anything too hot or cold, or sometimes even anything too sweet or sour.

Other Causes of Sensitivity

Gum recession can expose the root of a tooth, which doesn’t have enamel protecting it the way the crown does. If overbrushing, teeth grinding, or gum disease leaves the root exposed, it can become very sensitive. Tooth injuries and cavities can also cause sensitivity because they weaken the structure of the tooth and compromise the enamel in other ways.

Sometimes teeth are temporarily sensitive after dental treatment!

Ways of Protecting Your Teeth

Fortunately, there are a few ways to fight back against tooth sensitivity and also ways to prevent it. Make sure to brush with a soft-bristled brush to prevent further enamel erosion or gum recession. It doesn’t actually take stiff bristles to effectively clean our teeth. Another way to combat the effects of sensitivity is to use special toothpaste formulated for special teeth, and it will also help to avoid sugary and acidic foods and drinks — especially soda.

Get Help from the Dentist

There’s no need to suffer tooth sensitivity in silence; make sure the dentist knows! They can determine what’s causing the problem and provide solutions, including a fluoride varnish to strengthen tooth enamel, a prescription for a desensitizing toothpaste, or even a dental restoration or gum graft to cover exposed roots in more severe cases.

Thank you for being part of our practice family!

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Dental Health: Men Vs. Women

Wed, 19 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT

MEN AND WOMEN have a lot in common, but they face significantly different challenges when it comes to keeping their teeth and gums healthy.

Men’s Dental Health Issues

Here are some of the major dental health problems that affect men more than women:

Women’s Dental Health Issues

Meanwhile, women have their own set of dental health challenges to face:

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Wait, Radioactive Toothpaste Was a Thing?

Wed, 12 Jul 2023 06:10:00 GMT

RADIATION AND THE harm it can do to humans wasn’t well understood in the early years after it was discovered. There were all kinds of exciting radioactive products for the public to buy, from radioactive water jugs to children’s toys to butter to…toothpaste.

Thorium Toothpaste in 1920s Germany

A hundred years ago, the German company Auergesellschaft produced Doramad, a toothpaste with thorium as the (radio)active ingredient . Doramad was advertised as being great for fighting gum disease and polishing enamel. Meanwhile, in Paris, a radioactive cosmetics line called Tho-Radia included toothpaste.

Tubes of Doramad had some bold (and false) claims on their labels: “Its radioactive radiation increases the defenses of teeth and gums. The cells are loaded with new life energy, the bacteria are hindered in their destroying effect.” This was flagrant false advertising, and thankfully the radioactive toothpaste craze didn’t last long .

The Saga Continued With a WWII Caper

These kinds of fraudulent health and cosmetics companies were probably the reason behind an odd series of events that happened in WWII. While the Manhattan Project was underway in the US, a team of spies was tasked to discover how far the Nazis were getting with developing nuclear technology. What they found instead was a radioactive scam.

The Alsos Mission was an international operation of scientific, intelligence, and military officials established in 1943. Colonel Boris Pash and his men seized scientists, scientific data, and atomic materials as they followed on the heels of the advancing Allied forces, and they discovered someone was collecting radioactive materials like uranium and a stockpile of thorium smuggled from Paris to Germany by the Auer company.

The Alsos team was obsessed with solving the mystery of that thorium stockpile. In what first seemed like a huge success for the mission, they eventually tracked it down — only to discover that it was being kept in preparation for the end of the war, after which the Auer company planned to get rich making toothpaste out of it . That’s how the mission got its sarcastic nickname “Operation Toothpaste.”

Dentists Discovered the Dangers of Radiation First!

Two decades earlier in the United States, a dentist, Joseph Knef, traced the pattern of severe tooth and jaw problems in local young women back to their place of employment: the US Radium plant, where they all used radioactive paint. The reason it was causing such awful dental problems is that the women would lick their brushes to keep the bristles straight, putting the paint in direct contact with their teeth and gums.

Follow the Dentist’s Advice and Steer Clear of Fads

Thankfully nothing so dangerous as radioactive materials has become a popular dental fad in modern times, but it’s still a good idea to avoid getting dental health advice from unofficial sources. If you’re looking for a good toothpaste for you, just ask the dentist!

Do you know of any wild old-fashioned dental health products?

Top image by Wikimedia user Suit used under Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 4.0 license . Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

The Fascinating History of Fluoride

Wed, 05 Jul 2023 20:39:00 GMT

THE ONE INGREDIENT a tube of toothpaste must contain to earn the American Dental Association’s Seal of Acceptance is fluoride. (And, conversely, it must NOT contain sugar.) Fluoride is also added in trace amounts to drinking water to help keep our teeth healthy and strong. We’ve been relying on fluoride like this for decades, and the history of it is fascinating.

The Naturally Fluoridated Water of Colorado Springs

In the early 1900s in Colorado Springs, local dentists noticed a strange pattern. They were seeing many cases of brown — but not decayed — teeth. There were so many cases that the phenomenon was nicknamed “Colorado brown stain.” We now know that the condition they observed was fluorosis , and so many locals were getting it because of the abundance of naturally occurring fluoride in the town’s water.

Residents of early-20th century Colorado Springs were obviously getting too much fluoride in their water, but those dentists wanted to find out if there was a level of fluoride that would still protect against cavities without leaving teeth stained, and they turned out to be right. The first town to add fluoride to its drinking water was Grand Rapids, Michigan , and it brought the rate of childhood caries down by a whopping 60%. Aside from a few cases of mild fluorosis, there were no adverse effects.

Modern Fluoridated Water

Today, more than half of Americans enjoy the dental health benefits of fluoridated drinking water, something the CDC counts as one of the top ten greatest public health achievements of the 20th century . Everyone benefits from fluoridated water, whether male or female, young or old, rich or poor.

The idea of adding fluoride to water might seem odd, but it’s about the same as how we use iodized salt (which prevents goiters), bake with enriched flour (which helps digestion), and drink milk with vitamin D added (which prevents rickets in children).

Fluoride and Our Teeth

Why is fluoride so good at preventing cavities? It’s because it’s a key ingredient in the remineralization process constantly happening in our tooth enamel. If we’re eating and drinking a lot of sugary or acidic things, minerals get pulled out of our enamel and it wears away through demineralization. If we’re limiting those foods and drinks while using fluoridated toothpaste and drinking fluoridated water, then we keep our teeth well stocked with the raw materials they need to stay strong.

The Goldilocks Zone of Fluoride

“Colorado brown stain” proved that fluoride can do more harm than good to teeth when the exposure level is too high, but avoiding fluoride entirely leaves the teeth vulnerable to decay . Fluoridated drinking water protects our teeth with only 1.2 parts per million of fluoride, particularly when paired with fluoride toothpaste. To prevent fluorosis, parents should be careful to use only small amounts of fluoride toothpaste with children, and everyone should be spitting it out rather than swallowing it.

Bring Us Your Fluoride Questions!

If you want to learn more about fluoride in toothpaste or in drinking water, you can ask us or check sources like the CDC or the ADA. We want our patients to have all the information they need to be confident about their dental care and why the daily dental hygiene habits we encourage are so important.

It’s wonderful to see our patients’ healthy smiles!

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license . Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Let’s Answer Some Dental FAQs!

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 07:00:00 GMT

A LOT OF PATIENTS and parents of patients come to us with the same dental health questions, so let’s have a quick FAQ session!

1. How often do I need to visit the dentist?

Twice a year is a good general rule, though it may vary depending on individual circumstances. Regular dental visits are critical for combating tartar buildup and catching problems early.

2. Why do I need a filling if my tooth doesn’t hurt?

A cavity typically doesn’t start to hurt when it’s still in the outer layer of the tooth, but that makes it the best time to get to it with a filling, to keep it from getting deeper!

3. Why are my teeth turning more yellow?

Over time, our teeth naturally get darker or more yellow, but tooth discoloration can also be the result of trauma or consuming a lot of substances that leave stains.

4. When should my child start having dental exams?

A good time to start coming to the dentist is when the first tooth appears!

5. Is it really that important to keep baby teeth healthy?

Yes! Baby teeth might be temporary, but they’re still serving a lot of important roles. Kids need them for chewing food, learning to speak clearly, and mastering the dental health habits they’ll need to keep their adult teeth healthy for life. They also help guide those adult teeth into their proper positions.

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Finding a Great Dentist in Laurel, MD

Wed, 21 Jun 2023 20:38:00 GMT

Finding a great family dentist in Laurel, MD ., is not as easy as it seems. Sometimes we overthink the tiny details, while other times, we get overwhelmed and make rash decisions.

Relax knowing we have compiled the essential information you should consider when choosing a dentist in Laurel, MD ., for your growing family. These tips will surely help you find a dentist you and the whole family love.

Positive Reviews

These days we are busier than we have ever been with work, school, appointments, extracurricular activities, and family events. So when someone takes time out of their day to sit down and leave a review, it’s a big deal and an invaluable tool for the rest of us to help us make decisions.

Search “dentists near me” in Google to see how others have rated their experiences in each dental practice. Nowadays, it is so easy to find a wealth of information online. Some dentists provide a website with all the information you need to help you make a good decision.

Continued Education

The training required by all dentists is to attend dental school and become licensed to work. Not all dentists are necessarily interested in staying current on the newest techniques and dental technologies in the dental industry.

Continuing education is crucial for professionals to maintain their licensure and provide the best possible service to patients. Staying up to date is essential in providing safe, efficient dental services year after year.

Research as much as you can about your dentist. Choose a professional who prioritizes continuing education and has the experience to back up all of their qualifications. Knowing if your dentist is qualified with years of experience will put you at ease and strengthen your trust.

Insurance and Financing

When choosing a dentist, it’s imperative to check that they accept your insurance or offer various financing options. Financial needs often evolve through the years. Your dentist should always be flexible in meeting your changing financial needs. If you aren’t insured, find a dentist that offers out-of-pocket prices, package deals, or payment plans.

Location and Atmosphere

The easiest option for most people is finding a dentist closer to home or work. Routine checkups and procedures will be much more convenient and guarantee that you find immediate help in the case of any dental emergency.

If you have children, your dentist can provide them with their formative dental experiences. So, talk to the staff and check out the waiting room to feel the atmosphere. The whole family should feel welcomed and at ease. Feeling comfortable will help eliminate anxiety and any fear of the dentist and instill good habits for a lifetime of healthy teeth.

Comprehensive Dental Services

Not all dentists offer all the same services. Services can widely vary depending on the dentist’s specialization. The main treatments your family will require are general checkups and cleanings. It is important to find a dentist near you to provide quality oral health care for the whole family, even as those needs change throughout the years.

Call today and schedule an appointment with your dentist in Laurel, Maryland . We offer a wide range of dental care treatment plans for the best oral health. At Charming Smiles, we want you to have a healthy future with a beautiful smile.

Happy Halloween From the Dentist!

Wed, 26 Oct 2022 22:27:00 GMT

WHY IS SUGAR so bad for our teeth? Because harmful oral bacteria love to eat it, then excrete acid onto our teeth. Even though tooth enamel is the hardest substance in the body, it is very vulnerable to erosion by acid. That’s why dentists aren’t huge fans of sour, sticky, and hard Halloween candies.

The Worst Candy for Our Teeth

Hard candy is basically a slow sugar delivery system, bathing our teeth in sugar over time. Sticky candy brings the sugar directly to the bacteria on our teeth and gums. Sour candy eliminates the middleman by being acidic on its own!

Is There Any Mouth-Healthy Candy?

So what’s the good news? Chocolate! It contains flavonoids and polyphenols — compounds that slow tooth decay, limit oral bacteria, and combat bad breath. However, the more sugar in the chocolate, the more it cancels out the benefits. That’s why dentists like dark chocolate best.

If it’s a candy sweetened by xylitol instead of sugar, it’s definitely better for our teeth. This sugar-free sweetener actually hurts harmful oral bacteria! Candies containing xylitol are far from the norm now, but maybe that will change in future Halloweens!

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

What’s Causing Caries in Childhood?

Thu, 20 Oct 2022 02:15:00 GMT

TWO OUT OF every five kids develop one or more cavity by the time they turn eleven. That makes dental caries the most common disease of childhood. The good news is that it’s very preventable when parents prioritize their kids’ dental health. We’re here to help you do that for your children by identifying the main culprits of childhood tooth decay.

Oral Bacteria Love Sugar

As much as kids love sugary treats, harmful bacteria living on the surfaces of their teeth love them even more. Oral bacteria eat any sugar that remains stuck to the teeth and excrete acid as a waste product. It takes about thirty minutes for saliva to neutralize these acids, so if a child is constantly snacking on something sweet, they’re giving their teeth a never-ending acid bath!

Parents can fight back by swapping some of those sugary snacks for options like sliced fruits and veggies or cheese. This isn’t just healthier for their teeth, but for their whole bodies!

Bottles and Sippy Cups Versus Oral Health

Sugary snacks aren’t the only problem; juice and soda are full of sugar and very acidic. Even milk isn’t sugar-free. Sugary drinks are particularly dangerous to a child’s oral health when they are able to sip on them over a long period of time, as that prevents their saliva from neutralizing the acid and washing away the sugar.

The risk of tooth decay from bottles and sippy cups is so high that it’s earned a few scary nicknames like “baby bottle tooth decay” and “bottle rot.” As with sugary snacks, we encourage parents to limit sugary drinks . We particularly recommend keeping them to mealtimes instead of letting your child carry them around in a bottle or sippy cup for hours. Water is a much better option for that.

Other Great Strategies for Parents

There are plenty of other ways to help your child keep their smile cavity-free aside from cutting back on sugar and limiting it to mealtimes. One is modeling good dental hygiene habits for them with your own brushing and flossing. Positive reinforcement and encouragement are also great, as is giving them an explanation about why brushing and flossing matter so much. You can also help make it fun for them by letting them choose a toothbrush they like.

One last tip is to avoid spreading oral bacteria by kissing on the mouth, sharing the same spoon, or cleaning off a dropped pacifier with your mouth. Any of these will introduce more types of bacteria into your child’s mouth.

The Dentist Is the Number 1 Fan of Your Child’s Smile!

Even when we do all the right things, kids are sometimes prone to dental health troubles for less controllable reasons like genetics or injuries. That’s why it’s so important to include the dentist when fighting for their cavity-free smile. Dentists have the training and experience to identify oral health problems early on and start fighting back.

We’re here to help you keep that sweet little smile healthy and bright!

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license . Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

How Can We Guard Against Gum Recession?

Thu, 13 Oct 2022 03:30:00 GMT

MANY PEOPLE HAVE the idea that gum recession is only a concern for older people (that’s where the saying “long in the tooth” came from), but it can start at any age. While we can’t do anything about a risk factor like genetics, there are many we can control.

1. Avoid Overbrushing

Overbrushing is a major risk factor for both enamel erosion and gum recession. Brushing too hard can damage the teeth and the gums. It’s time to ease up if it only takes a few months of using a toothbrush before all the bristles are bent outward. Overbrushing is why we recommend soft-bristled brushes. It’s also important to floss gently instead of snapping the floss directly onto the gums.

2. Fight Back Against Gum Disease

Gum disease can destroy supporting gum tissue and bone around teeth as it progresses, which is what makes it the main cause of gum recession. Dental hygiene habits and limited sugar intake are the best ways to maintain good gum health. That means (gentle) daily brushing and flossing, along with prioritizing regular dental appointments.

3. Break the Bruxism Habit (or Protect Against It)

People with a bruxism habit are more likely to have gum recession, as the constant harsh friction from their teeth puts too much pressure on the gum tissue and can damage it over time. Kids are also vulnerable to many of these gum recession causes, as well as oral injuries.

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license . Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

TikTok Is Full of Dangerous Dental Advice

Thu, 06 Oct 2022 01:29:00 GMT

TIKTOK ISN’T THE best place to go for dental health advice — unless your dentist is active on the app. We’ve seen a lot of worrying DIY dental procedures popping up recently, so now is a great time to nip those in the bud.

“Healthy Soda” Trend

There is no such thing as teeth-healthy soda. Even sugar-free soda is still full of acid (that’s where the bubbles come from), and our tooth enamel is highly vulnerable to erosion by acid. A recent trend on TikTok is the “healthy soda” trend, where people are mixing flavored sparkling water with balsamic vinegar to make a “healthier” soda alternative. In reality, they’re just mixing two acids together and bathing their teeth in them! That’s not something dentists can get behind.

Filing Down Teeth

Some TikTok videos show teenagers and young adults attempting to even out their smiles by taking a nail file to the chewing surfaces of longer teeth. This is a terrible idea because tooth enamel does not come back once it’s gone . Amateur tooth filing can end in fractures, tooth sensitivity, or infection, and the process itself will likely be very painful. As dental health professionals, we sometimes file teeth, but we have the training and tools to do it safely and not overdo it.

The “Veneers Check” Trend

An even worse trend in the same vein involves TikTok users filing their own teeth all the way down to pegs before getting crown restorations. This is extremely dangerous. It can lead to nerve damage and the need for root canal therapy or even cause tooth loss of previously healthy teeth . Even the name of this trend is part of the problem, as this kind of filing only happens before crown restorations, not veneers.

Home Hydrogen Peroxide Whitening

Some TikTokers have filmed themselves swishing 3% hydrogen peroxide for teeth whitening. This is not a safe way to get professional whitening results on a budget, because it can cause gum irritation and long-lasting sensitivity . Anyone interested in whitening should ask the dentist for recommendations, which could be toothpaste, whitening strips, take-home trays, or professional in-office whitening.

DIY Braces

Another very dangerous TikTok trend is teens who try to correct their own crowding or bite issues using things like rubber bands. NEVER DO THIS. The best case scenario is that it won’t work. The worst is what happened to David Campbell, who unwittingly killed the roots of his two front teeth and had to get them removed when he tried to close the gap between them with rubber bands. We hope anyone tempted to try this will enroll in dental school to become an orthodontist instead (and get real braces for themselves in the meantime)!

Dental Health Is More Than a Trend

Anyone unhappy with the appearance of their smile (especially when their teeth are healthy) should speak to a dentist about professional cosmetic treatment instead of irreversibly damaging their own teeth. In the meantime, keep up with good dental hygiene habits like daily brushing and flossing.

Leave the cosmetic dentistry to the professionals!

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license . Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Attention Parents: Follow These Teeth Tips

Thu, 29 Sep 2022 01:01:00 GMT

PARENTS CAN DO a few different things to give their kids’ smiles a healthy start.

1. Find an Effective Toothbrush They Like

It should have soft, polished bristles and be the right size for their hands and mouths, but otherwise, they might like one with their favorite cartoon character on it. Make sure to replace it when the bristles fray!

2. Prevent Cavities With Sealants

Sealants are recommended by the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, particularly for kids with a history of tooth decay already. They greatly reduce the risk of childhood tooth decay.

3. Provide Teeth-Friendly Snacks Like Fruit and Cheese

Whole or sliced fruit is a great mouth-healthy snack because the fibers help scrub the teeth clean. Cheese is a good source of calcium and stimulates saliva production. (We need saliva for neutralizing harmful acids and clearing away food debris.)

4. Manage Expectations for Whitening Toothpaste

As much as we would all love having pearly-white teeth, make sure the teens know that whitening toothpaste only contains abrasives and polishing agents to remove surface stains, not deeper ones or white spots.

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license . Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

How Do Dental Sealants Prevent Cavities?

Wed, 21 Sep 2022 21:41:00 GMT

AS A PARENT, maybe you spend a lot of your time worrying about whether your child’s teeth will develop cavities. Obviously, it’s critical to teach them how to brush and floss and encourage them to do so daily, but there’s something else that can help prevent childhood tooth decay: dental sealants.

The Battle Between Your Child’s Teeth and Bacteria

40% of children develop cavities by the time they begin school. This is a result of poor oral hygiene and frequent consumption of sugary drinks and snacks, and it’s why it’s so important to help them build strong oral health habits at an early age. The human mouth contains many species of bacteria, some of which consume the leftover sugar on our teeth and then excrete acid onto them. As tough as tooth enamel is, it’s very vulnerable to acid, so this causes tooth decay.

The ways we keep oral bacteria in check are brushing, flossing, and limiting our sugar intake. Even then, there are still crevices in our teeth where bacteria can hide, particularly for a child who doesn’t have the dexterity yet to brush as effectively . That’s where dental sealants come in.

What Exactly Are Dental Sealants?

Dental sealants are simply a layer of clear plastic that can be brushed onto the chewing surfaces of teeth in order to “seal them off” from cavity-causing plaque and bacteria. Dentists have been using sealants since the 1960s. They’ve been popular for so long due to how effective they are, as they reduce the risk of childhood tooth decay in the back teeth by up to 80%!

Sealants are typically applied to the molars because they do the most chewing and have deep crevices where bacteria can hide. Sealants fill in and cover these crevices and act as a shield against bacteria. Even better, the application process is so quick and painless that we can do it in the course of a normal appointment !

When Is the Right Time for Sealants?

As soon as your child’s adult molars erupt, they can be protected by sealants. That will usually be around age six. The earlier the sealants are in place, the less chance oral bacteria has to build up on the chewing surfaces of their molars. But the window doesn’t close if your child is older than six and doesn’t have sealants left; they’re still beneficial if they get them later. Even adults can get sealants!

Schedule Your Child’s Next Checkup Today!

Whether your child needs a normal twice-yearly cleaning and checkup or you’d like them to get sealants, go ahead and schedule the next appointment. If you have any concerns about their brushing or flossing or questions about how what they’re eating could be affecting their dental health, just let us know and we can help.

Protecting your child’s smile is our top priority!

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license . Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

How Do We Find the Right Toothpaste?

Thu, 15 Sep 2022 03:55:00 GMT

THERE ARE SO many choices of toothpaste in our grocery stores. With an entire aisle of toothpaste options to choose from, we want to help our patients narrow things down a little based on their individual dental health needs.

Whitening Toothpaste

Choose a whitening toothpaste to remove surface stains, but remember that it can’t change a tooth’s natural color or fight deeper stains. Whitening toothpaste contains abrasives to polish the teeth and peroxide to break down surface stains. Using it twice a day can lead to visible results after several weeks, but make sure to look for the ADA Seal of Acceptance!

Orthodontic patients should wait until Braces Off Day before using whitening products, toothpaste included so that they don’t end up with patches of different colors where the brackets were.

For Sensitive Teeth

Over-the-counter tooth sensitivity toothpaste is a good option for patients with sensitive teeth. It helps rebuild enamel and minimize discomfort, and if the over-the-counter type isn’t enough, the dentist can prescribe a stronger toothpaste.

Popular Inactive Ingredients?

What about ingredients like activated charcoal or aloe vera? There is little evidence to support the benefits these toothpastes claim to offer. Charcoal in particular is abrasive and may actually damage tooth enamel and make teeth more sensitive. Toothpaste with these ingredients also tends to lack fluoride, which helps rebuild tooth enamel.

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Weird Dental History Highlight: “Tooth Worms”

Wed, 07 Sep 2022 22:09:00 GMT

PEOPLE HAVE BEEN getting cavities as long as there have been people, and people before modern dentistry had some strange theories about what was causing them. A popular one believed around the world for thousands of years was the idea of “tooth worms.”

Ancient Sumeria Got the Tooth Worms Ball Rolling

As far back as 5000 B.C., tooth worms were listed in Sumerian texts as being a reason for tooth decay . They’re also mentioned in ancient Chinese scripts from 1500 B.C. in text carved from bone. People in the Roman Empire and medieval Europe also believed in tooth worms, which were said to gnaw at the teeth and live in the gums and cavities.

Why Was the Tooth Worms Theory So Common?

There are a few theories about why people all over the world believed cavities were caused by tooth worms:

Other Cavity Myths

Over the ages, people have attributed cavities to a variety of other causes:

How Cavities Actually Form

Thanks to modern dentistry, we know that the culprit behind tooth decay isn’t worms but dental plaque , which is a mixture of bacteria, acids, and food debris mixed with saliva. As it builds up, it erodes the outer layer of a tooth, creating tiny holes called cavities. If the bacteria reach the pulp at the center of the tooth, the tooth will become infected and possibly abscessed, which involves swelling and severe tooth pain.

How to Prevent Cavities

Far from the henbane treatments of old, as modern dental health professionals, we can recommend good dental hygiene habits that will actually help prevent cavities, including:

What’s the Takeaway?

As fun as it is to learn about old, debunked dental health practices, the takeaway is that tooth worms are a myth. Dentists have known this for centuries, and we know the real causes of tooth decay that we should avoid and fight against. Keeping up with your daily dental hygiene habits and dentist visits twice a year are the best ways to protect your oral health.

We love helping our patients maintain healthy smiles!

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Your Prescriptions and Your Oral Health

Wed, 31 Aug 2022 23:11:00 GMT

MOST MEDICATIONS come with a list of possible side effects, including side effects that impact oral health. These side effects are common even when the medications have nothing to do with your teeth or gums, so it’s helpful to know what you can do to balance necessary medications with maintaining a healthy smile.

Oral Chemistry and Medicine

Some medications and even some vitamins are actually directly harmful to our teeth. This is particularly common with children’s medication because they tend to come in the form of sugary syrups and multivitamins designed to be like candy. Sugar is the favorite food of harmful oral bacteria, which will then excrete acid on the teeth.

Adult medications are most often in pill form so they don’t interact with the teeth or gums, but something like an inhaler can lead to oral thrush (irritating or painful patches of white fungus that grow on the roof of the mouth, the inside of the cheeks, and the tongue). Adults and children can take preventative measures against this kind of side effects. It can be as simple as rinsing with water after taking these medications or vitamins or after using an inhaler.

Indirect Effects of Medicine on Oral Health

Even pills that make it past the mouth without any direct harm to the teeth can cause mouth-related side effects. For example, blood thinners can leave gum tissue more vulnerable to bleeding while brushing and flossing . Inflammation of the gums is a common side effect that increases the risk of gum disease.

Whether the medications are prescribed or over-the-counter, the most common oral side effect is dry mouth , which can lead to a wide range of other oral health issues. When there isn’t enough saliva in the mouth, it makes chewing and swallowing more difficult, even uncomfortable, and it leaves the teeth and gums more vulnerable to oral bacteria. It can even make it more difficult to taste food!

Other Ways Medicine Can Impact Oral Health

Osteoporosis drugs have in rare cases been associated with compromised bone tissue in the jaw, increasing the risk of tooth loss and gum recession. Some medications cause changes to the sense of taste even when they don’t cause any real harm , typically with a strange metallic or bitter aftertaste that lingers.

Talk to the Dentist And Your Doctor About Your Side Effects

Always make sure to keep your health care professionals in the know when you’re experiencing side effects, and that includes your dentist when the side effects are impacting your mouth. Sometimes it is possible to change prescriptions or alter the dosage to minimize a side effect, but that can only happen if the doctor knows what’s happening.

The dentist is always a great resource for your oral health concerns!

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

When Is Thumbsucking a Problem?

Wed, 24 Aug 2022 22:53:00 GMT

A PACIFIER OR THUMB /finger-sucking habit that lasts beyond the toddler years can have a negative impact on a child’s teeth and jaws.

A Healthy Self-Soothing Habit

In infancy and toddlerhood, these are perfectly healthy self-soothing habits. They help the child feel happy and safe when encountering a new or stressful experience (which happens frequently, as everything they encounter is new to them). The benefits of pacifiers or thumbsucking are many, both for the babies themselves and for their parents.

When It Stops Being Healthy

However, after a certain age, continuing these habits can change the way the developing adult teeth will come in. It can even change the shape of their dental arches. Most children will grow out of the habit on their own by age 4. If they aren’t showing any signs of stopping by then, it could be time to intervene.

Ways to Discourage the Habit

With pacifiers, it can be as simple as taking it away or trimming it down until the child loses interest. Thumbsuckers can be trickier. Nasty-tasting topical aids are an option but they aren’t perfect. We recommend praising successes rather than scolding failures, giving them activities to keep their hands too busy for sucking, and putting socks over their hands to discourage thumbsucking at night.

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Can We Smile Our Way to Better Health?

Thu, 18 Aug 2022 16:27:00 GMT

IT’S NOT ACTUALLY true that it takes more muscles to frown than to smile; smiling takes at least ten muscles while frowning requires as few as six. We think the saying should be changed to “smile to burn more calories!” And that isn’t the only health benefit of smiling.

Smiling Releases Endorphins

We obviously smile when we’re happy, but studies have suggested that the mere act of smiling is enough to make us feel happier. The feeling of happiness and the physical action of smiling are so tied together in our brains that even a fake smile can release endorphins.

Smile to Relieve Stress

In the short term, endorphins reduce pain and relieve stress, functioning a lot like painkillers. Over time, the effects compound into health benefits like reducing our risk of getting cancer and becoming more resilient against illnesses. This is because when we are better at managing stress, our cells go through fewer stress-induced mutations.

Smile to Live Longer

In a lifetime of smiling, we might actually accrue enough health benefits from the cumulative endorphins to give ourselves longer lives. One thing that makes it easier to smile more is to be confident in our smiles, and that’s where professional dental care and diligent brushing and flossing come in.

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

How We Breathe Can Affect Our Teeth

Wed, 17 Aug 2022 23:09:00 GMT

YOU MAY HAVE heard the insult “mouth-breather” in recent years thanks to the popularity of the show Stranger Things. There are actually many good health reasons to avoid breathing through your mouth if nose breathing is possible. We should consider mouth breathing an emergency backup, not our main way to breathe. In both the short term and the long term, mouth breathing has negative health effects.

The Short-Term Effects of Mouth Breathing

There are several negative effects of mouth breathing that kick in either immediately or very quickly . A major one is lower oxygen levels. When we breathe through our noses, we trigger nitric oxygen production, which helps our lungs absorb oxygen. Mouth breathing skips this process, making it harder to get the most out of each breath, resulting in less oxygen absorbed and less energy for mental and physical tasks. Other short-term effects include:

The Effects of Mouth Breathing Compound Over Time

The short-term effects are already unpleasant, but a mouth-breathing habit can lead to worse issues if it continues, including serious developmental effects for kids who grow up with this habit.

It’s Time to Break the Mouth-Breathing Habit!

Some people breathe through their mouths because of a problem with regular nose-breathing, like a deviated septum or a sinus infection, but anyone who can comfortably breathe through their nose should try to do that as their default option. We’re happy to answer any questions you may have about mouth breathing and its impacts on oral health.

Our patients are the best!

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Elizabethan England’s Rotten Sweet Tooth

Wed, 03 Aug 2022 23:00:00 GMT

IN ONE OF HIS sonnets, Shakespeare described the reeking breath of his lady love, and the subject came up again in two of his plays. He sets a creepy mood with the “black contagious breath” of the night in “King John” and includes the line “his breath stinks with eating toasted cheese” in “Henry IV Part II.” Unfortunately, smelly breath was a common problem for that time period, and so were bad teeth.

The Class Divide of Early Modern Dental Health

Most people in Early Modern England were missing one or two teeth and they had to deal with a lot of cavities, but the problem was actually worse for the wealthy and especially the queen. Sugar was the hot new fad among the aristocracy in Elizabeth I’s day, but it was only available as an expensive import. In fact, sugar was so expensive that it was almost its own currency, and only the wealthy could afford it as an ingredient in their food.

Tooth-Rotting Luxury

Unfortunately for all those lords and ladies, they didn’t realize the dental health implications of luxurious sugar consumption. It wasn’t long until black teeth became a symbol of wealth, which gave rise to the perplexing fashion among the lower classes of artificially blackening their teeth to appear richer.

The Royal Teeth

Few felt the effects of sugar as much as Queen Elizabeth herself. The people around her knew better than to gossip about her appearance, but late in her life, one French ambassador is recorded to have said that her teeth were “very yellow and unequal,” and a German traveler went even further, describing “her teeth black (a fault the English seem to suffer from because of their great use of sugar) .”

Despite her dental troubles, Elizabeth was terrified of dental treatment (or what passed for it back then). Before she was willing to undergo a tooth extraction, a bishop had to allow one of his own teeth to be pulled to prove it would be worth it. (To be fair, they didn’t have anesthesia available, so the prospect would have been much less pleasant than getting modern dental work.)

Dental Hygiene in the Elizabethan Era

What did the English do to try to keep their teeth healthy in that time period? They would use quills or wood for toothpicks and wash off plaque with a cloth. (We definitely prefer our modern toothbrushes.) If a tooth became too painful to tolerate, they could go to a surgeon to have it removed. If a surgeon was too expensive, a “tooth-drawer” or even a blacksmith could do it more cheaply.

However, some wealthy people were making matters worse for themselves by brushing their teeth with sugar paste:

For Our Teeth’s Sake, We’re Happy to Live in Modern Times

As fascinating as it is to look back on the history of dental health, it’s such a relief to live in a time when we get to enjoy the benefits of so much dental knowledge that we had to divide it into twelve different specialties, from endodontists to orthodontists to pediatric dentists and more. Make sure you’re scheduling regular appointments and keeping up with your dental hygiene habits!

Take advantage of the benefits of modern dentistry!

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

When to Expect Baby Teeth to Appear

Wed, 27 Jul 2022 23:07:00 GMT

A COUPLE OF the biggest rites of passage in childhood are the first baby teeth coming in and the first adult teeth coming in. We’re here to give parents a brief guide on the general timeline to follow.

The Baby Teeth Schedule

Baby teeth tend to arrive in pairs, alternating between the lower and upper arches. First up are the lower front teeth, usually between six and ten months. Next are the upper front teeth between eight and twelve months. Then come the lateral incisors, first bottom, then top. Then the first molars, then the canines, and finally the second molars.

By age three, most toddlers have all 20 of their baby teeth. A little late isn’t usually cause for concern, but we should take a look if there’s no sign of teeth by 18 months.

When Does the First Tooth Become Loose?

On average, age five or six is when kids start losing baby teeth. They might start feeling left behind by their peers if it takes longer. If they still aren’t loose by age seven, it’s time to see a dentist to discover the cause. In most cases, it’s nothing to worry about; late-blooming teeth actually tend to be more resistant to cavities than early ones!

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Cavities: The Most Common Childhood Disease

Thu, 21 Jul 2022 05:40:00 GMT

40% OF KIDS WILL develop at least one cavity by the time they turn eleven, which makes tooth decay the most common disease of childhood. That might seem scary, but parents can make a big difference, and that starts with understanding what causes cavities.

Sugary Drinks Cause Cavities

One major culprit is sugary drinks. That doesn’t just mean soda. We think of fruit juice as being healthier, but it’s just as bad! And the worst way to drink it is by sipping it throughout the day. It’s so harmful to the teeth that the results are called “bottle rot.” Baby bottle tooth decay can also happen with sippy cups and even breastfeeding!

If a baby’s gums and teeth aren’t properly cleaned after feeding, the sugary milk residue left in their mouth increases the risk of tooth decay.

So Do Sugary Snacks!

Sugar in solid form is a problem too. Most of the snacks kids tend to love most are loaded with sugar. If they’re snacking on these sugary treats all day, then their saliva won’t get a chance to wash the sugar away and neutralize the pH of their mouths. That means their teeth are constantly bathed in acid, leading to enamel erosion and decay.

We recommend trading sugary snacks for sliced fruits and veggies, especially if your child needs the energy boost from a snack in between meals.

Preventing Bottle Rot

We aren’t here to insist that you never let your child touch a drop of soda or fruit juice again, but we recommend limiting access to drinks other than water to mealtimes . A pacifier will be better for their teeth than continuous access to fruit juice. It’s safe to use a bottle of water after the baby is six months old or a sippy cup of water for toddlers. (Another benefit to water aside from better oral health: no risk of stains or stickiness on clothing, carpet, or furniture!)

With infants, clean out the milk residue after every meal. As soon as their baby teeth begin to appear, start brushing them with a soft toothbrush and only a tiny smear of toothpaste, since babies can’t rinse and spit.

What If My Child Already Has Tooth Decay?

A child who is already showing signs of tooth decay should see the dentist. We can assess how advanced the decay is, deal with the cavities, and come up with a plan with you to prevent further problems. An easy step to take at home is to limit your child’s consumption of sugary treats and drinks while maintaining good oral hygiene habits. We can help protect their teeth with fluoride varnish and dental sealants.

Your child’s healthy smile is our priority!

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

How Do Swimming and Diving Affect Teeth?

Wed, 13 Jul 2022 22:02:00 GMT

“SWIMMER’S CALCULUS” SOUNDS more like advanced mathematics than anything to do with teeth, but it’s actually the term for yellow or brown stains a swimmer can develop on their teeth after prolonged exposure to acidic chlorine ions in pool water. Tooth enamel is so vulnerable to acid that even mildly acidic pool water can increase the risk of stains.

Tooth Squeeze for Scuba Divers

For those who prefer scuba diving over swimming pools, the dental health risk is barodontalgia or “tooth squeeze.” The same way pressure builds in our ears when we dive, it can also build inside teeth, particularly any with untreated cavities or faulty dental work. If the pressure grows enough, it can even fracture the tooth. We recommend pre-diving dental visits to make sure no teeth are vulnerable.

Diving Masks: One Size Fits…None?

A common diving problem is that the so-called “one size fits all” mouthpieces don’t seem to fit anyone well, forcing divers to clench down on the mouthpiece to keep it in place. This puts a lot of strain on the jaws, potentially contributing to temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD). To anyone who dives multiple times a year, we recommend investing in a custom-fitted mouthpiece.

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Dental Health in Ancient Cultures

Wed, 06 Jul 2022 21:45:00 GMT

WE TEND TO ASSUME that people from earlier eras (especially the pre-industrial ones) must have had terrible dental health, but that’s not always true. While we get to benefit from modern dental care, braces, and root canal therapy here in the 21st century, the ancient Native Americans did a pretty good job of taking care of their teeth. So did people in ancient China!

Diet and Ancient American Dental Health

Perhaps the biggest thing ancient Native Americans had working in their teeth’s favor was their diet. The early Native American diet consisted of corn (maize), beans, squash, fish, game, and plenty of fresh fruit and nuts. That kind of high-fiber diet is great for dental health because the harmful bacteria in our mouths need sugar and starch to multiply. High-fiber foods actually help to scrub our teeth clean as we eat them!

Ancient Skulls With Periodontitis

Tooth decay and gum disease might have been uncommon for the early Native Americans, but they weren’t nonexistent. If you ever go check out the Manitou Cliff Dwellings by Colorado Springs, you can see the holes left by advanced gum disease in the jaw bones of some of the replica skulls.

Before the Toothbrush

Aside from diet, early Native Americans used chewsticks and chewed fresh herbs to keep their teeth clean and healthy. Chewsticks are twigs with one frayed end to chew and clean the teeth and one pointy end to use as a toothpick, and herbs like mint, cucacua, and sage were great for fresh breath.

Meanwhile, in China, some people had access to toothbrushes more like what we’re used to, made of animal bone and hair, and they made an early form of toothpaste by boiling honey locust fruit, ginger, foxglove, lotus leaves, and other herbs. The mixture helped reduce gum inflammation, ease toothaches, and remove stains. Having healthy teeth and fresh breath were important qualities — if a little harder to maintain than they are now.

Early Dental Extractions in Ancient China

The ancient Chinese were performing dental extractions and stabilizing teeth with wires as far back as 6,000 BC! They didn’t seem to be very interested in straightening teeth, but they were quite advanced when it came to treating endodontic problems.

Silver and Tin Fillings

Emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty developed a toothache in 618 AD, and his tooth doctor recommended a dental filling made of melted silver and tin. It would have been a very painful procedure, but it was over a thousand years before European dentistry reached the same point!

Ancient Mouthwash

In daily life, ancient Chinese people would maintain their oral hygiene by gargling tea or salt water, and it became common practice during the Tang dynasty to chew on a willow twig in the morning after soaking it in water overnight. The twig’s protruding fibers worked a lot like a toothbrush.

Modern Dental Health

As fascinating as it is to look back on the dental health practices of ancient cultures, we recommend sticking to modern solutions, such as brushing twice a day with a soft-bristled toothbrush and fluoride toothpaste, flossing daily, cutting back on sugar consumption, and scheduling regular dental exams.

We leave you with a more recent relic of dental history:

Do you know any other ancient dental facts?

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Never Forget That Teeth Are Not Tools

Wed, 29 Jun 2022 20:55:00 GMT

TEETH HAVE MANY different uses, from chewing our food to helping us speak clearly to forming the structure of our faces. They also give us our smiles! These are the uses our teeth are for, but we risk causing serious damage to them when we use them as tools for other jobs.

Teeth Do Not Make Good Scissors or Nail Clippers

Nail-biting is a habit that can do enough damage to fill its own blog post, but it ties into the topic of proper and improper uses for teeth. The area underneath our fingernails is essentially impossible to properly clean. Germs love to grow there, and they transfer to our mouths when we bite our nails. Nail-biting also causes a lot of unnecessary wear and tear to the front teeth, potentially even shifting them out of place.

Apart from biting nails, it may sometimes seem convenient to bite through something like a piece of tape. The sawing motion to cut through tape involves a lot of grinding that damages the surface of the teeth. It’s not the same as a chewing motion. Some people even use their teeth on materials like wire, which can wear notches into them. It’s worth the extra few seconds to use scissors or pliers instead!

Teeth Are for Chewing Nuts, Not Cracking Them

If you enjoy pistachios, peanuts, walnuts, pecans, or even the half-popped kernels at the bottom of the popcorn bag, don’t use your teeth to crack them. It’s a great way to chip or crack a tooth, especially one that’s already undergone a dental procedure or one that has an untreated cavity. It’s much safer to use your hands or a nutcracker.

Teeth Are Not Good for Opening Bottles

Tooth enamel might be the hardest substance in the human body, but it’s much too brittle to withstand metal bottle caps . A tooth can chip on the edge, and even a little slip could result in a nasty gash on the lips or gums. Even if you think it looks cool to open a bottle with your teeth, we as dental professionals urge you to use an actual bottle opener.

Don’t Use Teeth as a Third Hand

If we’re in the middle of a busy task and run out of hands to hold things, it can be easy to briefly stick a pencil, some nails, or a few sewing pins in our mouths until we have a hand free. The added convenience isn’t worth the risks. Being hit with a sudden yawn, hiccup, sneeze, or cough, or even tripping over something could end in disaster.

Even without anything that dramatic, these items cause unusual wear on the chewing surfaces. Seamstresses who hold sewing pins in the same spots between their teeth over the years wear dents into them. Just use the pincushion instead!

Make Sure You Only Use Your Teeth for Their Intended Purposes

Fracturing and cracks are the third-highest cause of tooth loss, and we significantly reduce the risk of needing an emergency dental visit and a series of expensive restorative procedures if we only use our teeth for chewing and speaking. Also make sure to brush twice a day, floss daily, and schedule your regular dental checkups!

Another intended use of teeth is smiling, which we love to see!

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

How to Get Ready for the First Dental Visit

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 06:03:00 GMT

PARENTS CAN DO a lot to help their child come into the dentist’s office feeling relaxed and positive. (We’ll take things from there.)

1. Start early. As soon as a child has teeth, they can benefit from dental care, and the earlier they see the dentist, the easier it is to build a trusting relationship.

2. Play pretend to explain what will happen if the child is very young. Parents can take the role of the dentist and help them see the experience as fun and interesting rather than scary.

3. For older children, a basic explanation will go a long way. Talk about visiting the dentist as something very normal and important for their teeth rather than leaving it as a mystery.

4. Make dental hygiene a priority. Kids who already know how much brushing and flossing matter will have an easier time appreciating the dentist.

5. Schedule a time to meet the dentist before the appointment. If the dentist isn’t a stranger on check-up day, the experience will be much less stressful. The same goes for the unfamiliar environment of the dental office.

6. Be there for support. No amount of information can replace the reassuring presence of a loved and trusted adult. Stay close by in early visits to offer encouragement and help them feel safe.

We look forward to meeting your child for the first time!

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

A Parent’s Guide to Teaching Dental Habits

Thu, 16 Jun 2022 00:34:00 GMT

PARENTING CAN BE such a wild time that you might struggle to find a moment to brush your own teeth, let alone brush theirs and teach them how to do it themselves. We have a few tips we hope will make this process a little smoother for your family.

Prioritize the Health of Baby Teeth

Temporary doesn’t mean unimportant. Just because your child’s baby teeth will be replaced with permanent teeth, it doesn’t mean it’s fine if they end up full of cavities. They need their baby teeth to chew their food, pronounce their words, and smile. Baby teeth are also placeholders for adult teeth. To protect them, aim for twice-daily brushing and daily flossing of any teeth that touch each other.

Begin Building Life-Long Habits Early

It isn’t always easy to teach a young child important life skills. They have boundless energy and short attention spans, so a session of sitting still with a toothbrush isn’t always going to go as planned. Following these tips might help as you’re trying to impart these essential skills:

Our Expertise Is for Your Benefit

We’re eager to hear all about your brushing routine with your child. Do you have a strategy that’s working well? How much have our tips helped? Make sure to tell us about it at your child’s next dental appointment.

We love to see your child’s healthy smile!

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Time for a Lesson in Dental Anatomy!

Thu, 09 Jun 2022 06:05:00 GMT

THERE WON’T BE a pop-quiz later, but we still want our patients to be familiar with the anatomy of their teeth, starting with the crown and going down to the roots. Everything visible above the gums is the crown, which has three layers.

Tooth Enamel

On the outside is the enamel, the hardest substance in our bodies. It needs to be that hard to withstand a lifetime’s worth of chewing our food, but enamel doesn’t replace itself once it’s gone. That’s why it’s so important to brush, floss, limit our consumption of sugary and acidic food and drink, and schedule regular dental cleanings.

Dentin and Pulp

Underneath the enamel is the dentin, a more bony layer that is yellow and porous. At the very center is the pulp chamber, which contains nerves and blood vessels. The pulp is how our teeth feel temperature changes and pain if something is wrong. Never ignore dental pain; it’s a natural warning sign from the body!

Roots

Beneath the gum line are the roots of the teeth. They’re longer than the crowns, anchored deep in the jawbone and cushioned by the periodontal membrane. Unlike the crowns, roots are only protected by gum tissue and cementum (which isn’t as hard as enamel). Each root tip has a tiny hole, through which nerves and blood vessels connect to the pulp.

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Medieval England Versus Bad Breath

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 21:21:00 GMT

NOT MUCH WAS understood in Medieval England about cavities or gum disease, but they did care very much about keeping their breath fresh. They didn’t know about germs, and they believed that bad smells were infectious on their own, including bad breath.

The Masters of Masking Dental Problems With Smell

How did smell-based dental care work? Mostly by chewing spices. You can even find evidence of this practice in the Canterbury Tales. Chaucer’s characters keep their breath fresh by chewing cardamom and licorice . Women were sometimes recommended a mixture of aniseed, cumin, and fennel.

Rock-Hard Bread and Chipped Teeth

So which dental problems went unaddressed while all the focus was on breath? They didn’t have to worry about cavities too much because sugar wouldn’t enter their diets until the 1400s , but grinding flour between millstones tended to leave tiny bits of stone in their bread. You can imagine how much that could damage their teeth over time, and it was a big reason most adults would lose four to six teeth in their lifetimes.

Toothaches in the Middle Ages

What if you got a toothache? If you were rich, you could treat it with myrrh and opium. If not, you might be instructed to burn a mutton fat and sea holly seed candle very close to your tooth. This was supposed to make the “worms” inside the tooth fall out into a basin of water. (We’re very glad to live in the 21st century, where we know worms don’t cause toothaches.)

Fresh Breath in Modern Times

Today, we have the benefit of centuries more knowledge than people had in the middle ages. We know that bad breath isn’t the cause of dental problems but a symptom of them. The simplest and most common cause is leftover food particles stuck between our teeth after a meal. The bacteria in our mouths break down these particles, and the end result doesn’t smell good. We can combat this with a good daily hygiene routine.

Causes of Chronic Bad Breath

Chronic cases of bad breath (also called halitosis) might not be solved by good daily brushing and flossing habits. Halitosis may be caused by:

Keeping Your Breath Fresh

Even if strict oral hygiene isn’t enough to keep the bad breath completely at bay, it will help to manage it, and treating the underlying cause may be able to eliminate it. If you are a habitual mouth-breather, try breathing through your nose more. Quitting smoking will eliminate a major cause of bad breath. If dry mouth is the problem, chew sugar-free gum and mints to stimulate saliva production, sip water, and use a humidifier to help keep up the moisture.

Finally, get help from the dentist!

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license . Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

What Can Parents Do About Teething?

Thu, 26 May 2022 04:22:00 GMT

SOME OF US remember the soreness and discomfort of our incoming adult molars, not to mention how hard it was to chew. It’s the same for teething toddlers, but there’s a lot parents can do to help them through this phase.

Teething Symptoms

Beginning around six months, babies might start showing symptoms like excessive drooling, reduced willingness to breastfeed, rejecting food they used to like, difficulty sleeping, or general irritability. They might start biting, chewing, and sucking on everything they can reach or avoid it as much as they can. (Note that fever, runny nose, and diarrhea are not teething symptoms but could indicate a virus.)

Helping Soothe the Discomfort

Continuing breastfeeding can reduce teething pain, as can teething toys, which help the teeth cut through the gums faster while soothing discomfort. Avoid teething toys containing PVC, BPA, or phthalates, however, as these chemicals could be harmful if ingested. If the toy is full of gel, make sure it’s sturdy enough that a child won’t be able to reach the gooey center. Toys that can be chilled in the fridge and have clips to fasten to clothing are a good idea.

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license . Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Snoring, Sleep Apnea, and Teeth

Tue, 24 May 2022 20:34:00 GMT

SLEEP APNEA AFFECTS over 18 million adults and up to 20% of habitually snoring children in the United States alone. Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder characterized by brief, repeated interruptions to normal breathing during sleep. It can have many short and long-term effects on a person’s health (to the point of being potentially life-threatening) and is also very harmful to oral health.

Sleep Apnea Comes in Different Types

The most common type of sleep apnea is obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). It is caused by a blocked airway, usually the tongue relaxing back until it collapses against the soft palate, which in turn collapses against the back of the throat, sealing off the airway.

Less commonly, a person could have central sleep apnea, in which the brain fails to send signals to the respiratory muscles to keep breathing during sleep. Some people have a combination of both types, which is called complex sleep apnea.

Whether the airway is physically blocked or the brain isn’t sending signals to breathe, the lack of oxygen causes the brain to react to alarm and force the person to wake up long enough to take a breath. They usually don’t remember waking up because it only lasts a few seconds, but it can happen as many as hundreds of times in a single night, making it impossible to get a restful night’s sleep. The cumulative effect on sleep quality can be severe.

Sleep Apnea and Oral Health

Aside from having to deal with symptoms of sleep deprivation like morning headaches, exhaustion, and difficulty concentrating (all of which can be terrible for kids trying to do well in school), sleep apnea means oral health difficulties.

Sleep apnea is associated with an increased risk of moderate to severe gum disease and temporomandibular joint disorders (TMD). This is because the jaw reflexively clenches in an effort to keep the airway open during a sleep apnea episode. This kind of TMD issue can compound, leading to problems like pain when chewing, neck and shoulder pain, damaged teeth, and chronic headaches.

The Dentist Can Help

It is so common to experience dental symptoms with sleep apnea that the dentist is often the first health care professional to observe the signs and diagnose the condition. That’s one good reason of many to keep up with your and your child’s regular dental appointments — not just for the sake of your oral health, but also your overall health!

Common ways sleep apnea is treated include nighttime dental devices that adjust the position of the jaw and tongue and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines.

Healthier Sleep Means a Healthier Smile!

We all need to sleep well to feel our best. If you or your child have been struggling with the effects of sleep apnea, your next visit to the dentist could change your life. Schedule your next appointment today, and we can see if you’re showing signs of sleep apnea and put you on the path to a full night’s sleep and the healthy smile you deserve.

Wishing a wonderful night’s sleep to all of our patients!

Top image by Flickr user originallittlehellraiser used under Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 4.0 license . Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Chewing Ice Is Bad for Our Teeth

Wed, 11 May 2022 22:28:00 GMT

WE HEAR A LOT that it’s bad to chew ice. It’s because ice can do a lot of damage to our teeth and gums.

Extreme Temperature Changes Versus Enamel

Tooth enamel might be the strongest substance in the body, but it’s also brittle. The issue with ice isn’t just that it’s hard, it’s also that it’s cold. Extreme temperature changes cause tooth enamel to expand and contract, creating tiny cracks and weakening the overall structure. It’s the same thing that happens to pavement in places that get snow.

Gum Injuries and Tooth Damage

While weaker enamel can lead to tooth sensitivity and vulnerability to decay, ice also isn’t good for gum tissue. It’s so cold that it creates a numbing effect, which can make it difficult to notice if it causes an injury to the gums. It’s also hard enough to break or chip teeth.

Where Do the Cravings Come From?

Why crave ice if there are only downsides to chewing it? The scientific term for compulsive ice eating is pagophagia. It could indicate an eating disorder called pica (the compulsion to eat non-food items, or it could be related to iron deficiency anemia. The chill of ice stimulates blood flow, counteracting low oxygen levels in the brain, but that only treats a symptom of anemia, not the cause.

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license . Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

History Includes Some Odd Teeth Traditions

Thu, 05 May 2022 03:48:00 GMT

THERE’S A LOT OF strange stuff buried in the history of dental health and hygiene, but there are a few traditions that really stand out.

Stopping Bruxism With Skulls

The ancient Babylonians had a very peculiar way of treating bruxism (chronic teeth-grinding). They believed the problem was caused by demons, so the solution was to scare the demons away…by sleeping right next to a human skull. Supposedly the grinding habit would leave along with the demon. We suggest consulting a dentist instead.

Mice for Pain Management?

In ancient Egypt, someone who had a toothache could be treated with a pain-killing ointment. One of the main ingredients of this ointment? Mice. We don’t know how effective this was at managing the discomfort of a toothache, but we’re pretty sure we’d rather not find out. You’re much better off scheduling an appointment so the dentist can discover the cause of the pain and recommend treatment.

Pitch-Black Smiles

Modern beauty standards are all about having dazzling white smiles, but that hasn’t always been the case in every culture. Many cultures in Asia historically preferred black teeth instead! In Japan until the end of the Meiji period in the late 1800s, wealthy women and samurai often used the practice of Ohaguro to stain their teeth black. They liked the way it looked and believed it provided some protection against tooth decay. (We don’t advise copying them.)

Sooty Teeth

Thousands of miles away and hundreds of years earlier in England, people were also blackening their teeth. When the sugar trade first reached the British Isles in the Early Modern period, sugar was so expensive that only the nobility could afford tooth-rotting sweets, so black, rotten teeth became a mark of affluence . Sumptuary laws prevented the lower classes from dressing above their station, but there was no law stopping them from using soot to imitate the appearance of a wealthy smile!

Even worse, Elizabethan England thought sugar was a vital ingredient for toothpaste!

Bedazzled Mayan Teeth

2500 years ago, the ancient Mayans would drill holes in each other’s teeth by hand, then use plant sap as glue to attach gemstones inside the holes. They were careful to avoid the nerves in the teeth, but this is still a very risky form of body modification even in modern times . Teeth shouldn’t have holes in them, whether artificial or in the form of a cavity that develops over time, as that’s how bacteria can eventually reach the pulp chamber and cause a serious infection.

What Will Future People Find Weird About Our Teeth?

Can you think of any teeth traditions we have today that future generations might think are very strange? We’re guessing it might be the online (and extremely dangerous) “do-it-yourself braces” tutorial videos or people who follow the Mayan example of embedding jewels in their teeth. We encourage our patients to prioritize their dental health by maintaining good dental hygiene habits, cutting back on sugar, and making it to their regular dental appointments.

Build good teeth traditions!

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license . Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

How to Protect Against Childhood Tooth Injuries

Wed, 27 Apr 2022 08:00:00 GMT

CHILDHOOD IS A TIME of scraped knees and bumps and bruises as kids run around discovering the world. As pediatric dentists, we want to help parents minimize the risk of their kids getting preventable tooth injuries while they’re enjoying what childhood has to offer.

The Main Tooth Injury Risks

For babies and toddlers, the majority of tooth injuries happen from a slip in the bathtub. Keeping a close eye on them while they’re in the tub will help, as will a non-slip bath mat.

Playground equipment is a common cause of tooth injuries in older kids, including monkey bars, jungle gyms, and even swings. Make sure to talk about safety with the kids when they’re playing on this kind of equipment. Balls and frisbees are also a risk, so stress the importance of not aiming for each other’s heads when playing with them.

Plan for an Accident

Even when we’re careful, accidents can still happen, so make an emergency plan. If a tooth gets knocked out and it wasn’t a baby tooth that was already loose, try to put it back in the socket and get to the dentist. Store it in a glass of milk if it won’t go back in.

We can also protect our kids’ teeth by keeping them healthy! Healthy teeth are less vulnerable to getting knocked out than teeth weakened by decay and gum disease.

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license . Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

What Builds Healthy Smiles?

Wed, 20 Apr 2022 08:00:00 GMT

DAILY BRUSHING AND flossing are essential to keep a growing child’s smile healthy, but we already know that. We hopefully also know how important it is to set regular dental appointments. Cutting back on sugar intake and limiting it to mealtimes instead of little snacks throughout the day is another important way to reduce the risk of tooth decay.

These aren’t the only things that go into a healthy smile, however. Certain vitamins and minerals help build and protect them.

Important Vitamins for Oral Health

Saliva is the first line of defense our teeth and gum have against tooth decay and gum disease, and vitamin A keeps the saliva flowing . We can get it from foods like melon, sweet potatoes, beef liver, and spinach.

One powerful antioxidant that helps our bodies fight inflammation and heal is vitamin C. Not getting enough can mean gums that are more prone to bleeding and looser teeth, including for kids. Citrus fruits are great sources of vitamin C, but they’re also acidic, so it’s a good idea to rinse with some water after eating an orange!

Vitamin D is what ensures that we can make good use of the other vitamins and minerals we consume. Vitamin D signals our intestines to absorb them into the bloodstream. Getting enough of it will lead to stronger, denser bones , and we can get it in our diet by eating fish, eggs, and dairy products.

Vitamins B2, B3, and B12 are important for oral health too. They all reduce the risk of oral canker sores , and B3 also helps us convert our food into energy. Good sources of B3 are fish and chicken, there’s plenty of B12 in pasta, bagels, almonds, and spinach, and B2 sources include red meat, chicken, fish, liver, and dairy products.

The Minerals Our Teeth Are Made Of

It’s common knowledge that calcium builds strong teeth and bones and that we can get plenty of calcium from dairy products, but magnesium, zinc, and iron are also important minerals for our oral health. Magnesium helps the body to absorb calcium , and we can get it from leafy greens, beans, nuts, seeds, and whole grains.

Iron helps to maintain the oxygen levels in our cells. Having an iron deficiency results in problems like increased risk of infections, mouth sores, inflammation of the tongue, and more buildup of oral bacteria. We can get iron from red meat and liver.

Finally, zinc makes it harder for plaque to build up along the gum line, making it easier to fight oral bacteria. Foods like wheat, cereal, cheese, wild rice, and beef contain zinc. Cheese is particularly good because it also contains casein, which helps keep our tooth enamel strong .

What about calcium sources for those who can’t eat dairy products?

Building and Keeping Lifelong Healthy Smiles

If your child hasn’t been getting each of these nutrients for building a strong, healthy smile, we recommend incorporating more of the foods we mentioned into their diets. Sometimes allergies or food intolerances can make this tricky, so the pediatrician may be able to recommend multivitamins and supplements. Whatever your situation, don’t forget the brushing and flossing!

We’re looking forward to seeing those growing smiles again!

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license . Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

The Many Dental Career Paths

Wed, 06 Apr 2022 23:03:00 GMT

WHAT DOES A CAREER in dentistry look like? Being a dentist is an incredibly rewarding career, and beyond helping our patients maintain lifelong healthy smiles, we hope our team inspires at least a few budding dentists out there! We want to make sure you know all the different directions you can go within the field of dentistry because there are more options than you might think.

Becoming a Dentist

To become a dentist, you should find out the prerequisites for which courses to take in your undergraduate program to qualify for the dental school you want to attend. Most require several science courses and labs, and a four-year degree is recommended. A year before dental school, you must pass the Dental Admissions Test and apply. Dental school takes four years to complete.

Here’s one example of what dental school is like:

What’s The Difference Between DDS and DMD?

Some dentists come out of dental school with a DDS attached to their name while others have a DMD. DDS means Doctor of Dental Surgery and DMD means Doctor of Dental Medicine, and which one you get depends on which school you go to, but the qualifications are the same . Dentists who want to specialize in a particular area of dentistry will go on to get additional training and certification in their specialty area.

Private Practice Dentists Aren’t the Whole Story

The dental career everyone is most familiar with is the private practice dentist, meaning an individual dentist or a partnership working with local patients in their own practice. That’s the kind of dentist we all go to for our normal dental health needs, but not everyone who graduates from a four-year dental program goes in this direction.

Other Types of Dentists

Academic dentists add a teaching role and help usher in the next generation of dentists. Research dentists get to be on the cutting edge of new advancements in treatments and technology. Some dentists go international and work with organizations like the WHO, UNESCO, and FAO. Finally, there are dentists who work alongside physicians in hospitals.

Dental Specialties

About 20% of dentists undergo additional years of training in one of the nine dental specialties : Dental Public Health, Endodontics, Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, Pediatric Dentistry, Periodontics, and Prosthodontics.

The Team Is More Than the Dentist

Aside from the dentists themselves, other essential roles in the field of dentistry are dental hygienists, dental assistants, and dental lab technicians. Hygienists and assistants interact closely with patients to ensure a high level of care, while dental lab technicians work behind the scenes designing the dentures, crowns, and braces used by dentists. Most of these support roles require at least an associate’s degree or training program.

And, of course, we wouldn’t get far without our office staff!

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license . Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Do Your Friends Know These 6 Mouth Facts?

Wed, 30 Mar 2022 21:05:00 GMT

IF YOU’RE SHORT on fun topics of conversation for your next party, might we interest you in some weird mouth trivia? We’re sure you’ll be able to impress your friends.

1. The Bumps on Newly Erupted Adult Teeth Have a Name

You might remember what it was like when your adult front teeth came in and they had bumps on the ends of the chewing surfaces. If not, maybe you’ve seen those bumps on your child’s teeth. Well, those bumps are completely normal and they are called mamelons. The theory about why we have them is that they help the teeth erupt from the gums , and in most cases, they will wear away over time from chewing.

2. Our Sense of Taste Relies on Spit

None of the ten thousand taste buds we have on our tongues would be any use if it wasn’t for our saliva. That’s because we don’t taste the food molecules on their own; they have to be dissolved in our spit before the receptors on our taste buds can detect them.

3. More on Those Taste Buds

Most people assume that the visible bumps on our tongues are taste buds. Those bumps are called lingual papillae and they contain many taste buds each. Individual taste buds are too small to see with the naked eye. Lingual papillae come in four different types: filiform, fungiform, foliate, and vallate. They serve slightly different purposes, but all types except for the fungiform ones contain taste buds.

Tying this back to oral health, the difficulty with the bumps on our tongues is that they make a rough texture where bacteria love to hide. When we let it build up, it can give us a lingering bad taste in our mouth and make our breath very sour. What’s more, it can actually dull our sense of taste ! This is why it’s so important to clean our tongues every day, and the best tool for the job is a tongue-scraper, not just a quick scrub with your toothbrush.

4. Guess Which Group of Muscles Doesn’t Need Bones to Move

The tongue! It’s the only muscle group we have that doesn’t rely on the skeleton to move, and it has an amazing range of motion. The tongue can curl, uncurl, lengthen, shorten, and some people can even roll theirs. If it couldn’t do all of this, we’d have trouble eating and speaking! The tongue is composed of eight muscles, four of which are intrinsic (the ones that form the tongue itself) and four of which are extrinsic (the ones that attach the tongue to the throat and mouth).

5. The Incredible Stamina of the Tongue

There’s a myth that the tongue is the strongest muscle in the body, and while that one isn’t true, the tongue does have incredible stamina . It has many built-in redundancy systems thanks to being made up of eight different muscles working together, so it doesn’t really get tired after a workout.

6. Our Adult Teeth Start Developing Before We’re Born

As early as six weeks into the development of a fetus, the baby teeth begin developing, and it only takes another six weeks before the adult teeth follow suit . It takes many more months for the baby teeth to finish forming under the gums and years for the adult teeth to become fully formed, but isn’t it wild how early that process starts?

Share Your Weird Mouth Trivia With Us!

As dental health professionals, we love mouth facts, even if that’s not always the most popular trivia category at parties. We’d love to hear any weird mouth facts that you know the next time you come in for a dental exam!

The most important fact: we have the best patients!

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license . Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

The Tooth Fairy Across Time and Cultures

Wed, 23 Mar 2022 21:14:00 GMT

ONE OF THE most prominent figures of the magic of childhood is the Tooth Fairy, but depending on where and when you are, the traditions around lost baby teeth are very different from what we have in our culture!

Baby Teeth in Medieval Europe

Centuries before the Tooth Fairy came along to swap teeth under pillows for quarters, she might’ve needed to dig them up or find them in fireplaces, because Medieval Europeans believed that witches could control people through their teeth, so they would burn or bury theirs.

Kids also burned their baby teeth to help guarantee a peaceful afterlife, because there was a belief that they might be doomed to search for their teeth for eternity as ghosts if they didn’t destroy them.

A Warrior’s Prized Accessory

A little farther north, the Vikings had a very different view: baby teeth were such powerful symbols of good luck in battle that warriors would buy them to put on necklaces! We can’t decide if that would look very intimidating or very strange. Probably both.

The Tooth Mouse

Even today, not everyone pictures a Tinkerbell-type figure. Many Latin and European countries actually have a Tooth Mouse! In France, she’s called Le Petit Souris (the little mouse), while many Spanish-speaking countries have Raton Perez, and the tooth mouse replaces baby teeth hidden under pillows for small gifts or coins.

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license . Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

What’s Your Plan for the First Loose Tooth?

Wed, 16 Mar 2022 22:07:00 GMT

MOST OF US can still remember what it was like to lose a baby tooth, especially that major Big Kid milestone of losing the first one. How did it happen for you? Did it take longer for you to lose a tooth than most of your classmates, or were you the one who knocked a tooth out on the playground before you knew it was loose? Regardless, losing a tooth is a big deal for kids, and now that we’re parents, we want to help that be a positive experience for them.

Establish the Right Mindset First

While losing baby teeth is a perfectly normal part of growing up, it can still be a scary new experience for little kids, particularly the first time it happens when they don’t yet know what to expect. Parents can make it easier by encouraging the right mindset. Emphasize that losing a tooth is part of being a big kid! Help them focus on what an achievement it is to lose a baby tooth instead of dwelling on how it might hurt. This can be exciting!

Helping With a Loose Tooth

The technique is as important as a good mindset. We would discourage parents from chasing their kids down with a pair of pliers or tricking them with that old “I just want to feel it!” ruse to get close enough to pull the tooth. Encourage them instead to gently wiggle the tooth on their own with their tongue, a tissue, or a clean finger. Let them set the pace and only intervene if they ask for your help pulling the tooth.

You can also make it fun by coming up with a creative way to pull it, like this:

Come Up With a Creative Reward

The standard way of giving a child a good incentive to brave the pain of losing a tooth is the Tooth Fairy, but why not make things a little more unique? Your child might be more motivated by a promise of a trip to the ice cream shop or a new toy. What would be the most exciting prize for your child when they complete this rite of passage?

Come to Us With Your Concerns

If you’ve followed all these tips for how to make it fun and exciting but your child is still afraid of losing a tooth, we can help! As a pediatric dental practice, working with children is our specialty. If their teeth don’t seem to be becoming loose when they should, you can also bring them to us so we can investigate why that is.

We’re excited to hear about your child’s adventures with their loose tooth!

Top image by Flickr user Leigh Blackall used under Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 4.0 license . Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Pioneers of Women in Dentistry

Wed, 09 Mar 2022 21:46:00 GMT

MARCH IS WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH, so we’re celebrating two trailblazers for women dentists in North America. They paved the way for women in all dental specialties, including pediatric dentistry, orthodontics, and endodontics.

Lucy Hobbs Taylor

Lucy Hobbs Taylor, born in 1833, was the first woman to earn an actual dental degree in North America. After multiple rejections at dental schools, she found a professor to teach her privately and opened her own practice at age 28.

She was soon recognized by her male peers for her skill and gentle chairside manner and was accepted into the Ohio College of Dental Surgery. She received her degree in 1866, married a Civil War veteran, and trained him to be a dentist too! They established a successful practice together in Lawrence, Kansas.

Emeline Roberts Jones

Like many dentists in the mid-1800s, Emeline Roberts Jones, born in 1836, didn’t receive a formal degree. Because she was a woman, she likely would have been rejected by the newly established all-male dental colleges anyway. At age 18, she married a dentist. He was dismissive of the idea that a woman could be a dentist, but she took that as a challenge and trained herself behind his back using extracted teeth.

Eventually, she became his partner and even continued practicing dentistry after he died to support their children. She traveled around Connecticut with her portable dentist’s chair until finding a permanent home for her practice in New Haven, where she worked until retiring in 1915.

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license . Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Avoid These Canker Sore Triggers

Wed, 02 Mar 2022 21:18:00 GMT

CANKER SORES MIGHT be small, but they tend to mean days of distracting discomfort. They are shallow ulcers that can develop on the insides of our cheeks or lips, and eating or even talking around them can be difficult. There are a few things that are common triggers of canker sores.

The Major Canker Sore Triggers

The usual suspects for causing canker sores tend to be one of the following:

Easy Remedies for Canker Sores

It’s very helpful to identify the main trigger if you are prone to canker sores because that will make it easier to prevent them and fight back. Things like cutting back on acidic foods, using dental wax to protect against poking brackets and wires, and working to reduce our stress levels and give our immune systems a break will all help. If these solutions don’t apply to what’s causing your canker sores (or if you’ve tried them and they don’t seem to be helping), try these tips:

Preventing Canker Sores

As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and in the case of canker sores, it’s better to stop them from forming than having to deal with them once they appear . This includes things like getting lots of B12, iron, and folate, which we can do by incorporating carrots, salmon, parsley, spinach, kale, and yogurt into our diets.

Good oral hygiene is also critical. In the same way that being sick makes us more vulnerable to canker sores, not keeping plaque under control in our mouths can make it harder for our bodies’ natural defenses to effectively prevent oral health issues, canker sores included.

Come to Us With Your Questions About Canker Sores

We hope we’ve addressed your big questions about canker sores, but we’re happy to answer any you may still have. We want to supply our patients with all the information they need to maintain the best oral health possible.

We have the best patients!

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license . Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Training a Generation of Flossing Masters

Wed, 23 Feb 2022 20:08:00 GMT

NEXT TO BRUSHING, the best tool we have for preventing tooth decay and gum disease is daily flossing, which is why it’s important to help our kids develop a flossing habit early on. Here are some great tips for parents with kids who are learning how to floss:

1. Explain what flossing does for their teeth. They will be more motivated to floss if they understand why it’s important.

2. Help them see flossing as one of the coveted Big Kid skills, like tying their shoes or riding a bike without training wheels. They’ll be excited to prove how grown up they are by flossing.

3. If using traditional floss, demonstrate pulling out the right amount (about eighteen inches) and loosely wrapping it around their middle fingers, with just an inch or two left in the middle to slide between teeth.

4. Help them get the hang of good flossing technique. Use a back-and-forth motion and form a C-shape around a tooth to slide the floss down to the gums without snapping. Flossing should be gentle, not painful!

5. Show them how to move the floss along so they’re using clean floss for each tooth. The point is to get rid of plaque, not just move it around!

6. If traditional floss is too challenging, use floss picks or flossers instead.

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license . Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Your Child’s Toothbrush

Thu, 17 Feb 2022 01:59:00 GMT

THESE DAYS, THERE are so many toothbrushes to choose from that it’s hard to find the right one for ourselves, let alone our kids. It’s not as simple as just picking one, because not all children’s toothbrushes are created equal. Let’s go over a few of the factors to consider when searching for the perfect toothbrush for your child.

The Experts on Toothbrushes

Our top goal as dentists who work with young patients is to provide better dental care for families, which includes knowing which toothbrushes will be most helpful for children who are learning how to take care of their own teeth. Here’s a handy guide that can help you navigate the toothbrush aisle the next time you need to replace a toothbrush ( which should be every few months — certainly by the time the bristles look bent ).

Electric Versus Manual

The first big question you might be asking is whether to get a manual toothbrush or an electric one for your child. While both types of toothbrushes have the same capacity to clean teeth, with recent studies showing that electric toothbrushes remove as much plaque as manual toothbrushes, electric toothbrushes might be the better choice for some kids .

A child with a tendency to brush too hard, who has limited dexterity, who needs help getting to their molars, or who has special needs and difficulties may be more effective brushing with an electric toothbrush. If your child is great at brushing and wouldn’t benefit in this way, a manual toothbrush will be just great for them!

Search for the ADA Seal of Acceptance

A good way to narrow down the pool of toothbrushes to choose from is to only look for toothbrushes with the American Dental Association’s Seal of Acceptance . The Seal is awarded to toothbrushes every year by the ADA’s Council on Scientific Affairs, supported by a team of more than 750 leading scientists in fields like microbiology, pharmacology, toxicology, and chemistry. You know you can trust an ADA-approved toothbrush!

Bristle Hardness

This one might seem a little counterintuitive. We tend to think that firm bristles mean more effective scrubbing. However, we’re not trying to scrub out tile grout when we clean our teeth; teeth and gum tissue can be damaged by overbrushing, particularly with hard bristles . This is why we recommend soft-bristled brushes to our patients, especially for young children. Soft bristles are better for gums but still effective against plaque and food debris.

Toothbrush Size

It’s important to find a toothbrush that fits your child’s hand and mouth. They won’t be able to brush effectively with something too big, so make sure it’s a child-sized brush. A non-slip grip might also be a good idea if they have a tendency to drop their toothbrush.

Help your child brush for two minutes with this catchy toothbrush song:

Input From Your Dentist and Your Child

If you’d like our recommendations for great toothbrushes, we are happy to give them, but don’t forget to ask your child which toothbrush they like too! Once you’ve narrowed the options down to a few that meet all the requirements you’re looking for, let them choose their favorite color or cartoon character. They’re more likely to brush with a toothbrush they like!

We love seeing those healthy little smiles!

Top image by Flickr user Niklas Gustavsson used under Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 4.0 license . Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.