Dental tip:  Cap the toothpaste but not the toothbrush.  Covering encourages the growth of bacteria.  Don't forget to floss!

iPad Giveaway

We are so appreciative of all of you that refer your friends and family to us, thanks for helping us become successful!  We are going to have our second annual Patient Appreciation Barbecue on Saturday, September 29, 2012, on the patio next to our office.  Come, bring the family and an appetite!  From now until September 28, we are having a contest for a brand new iPad.  This is how it works:  refer one new patient and you get one ticket in the drawing, two tickets for the second etc.  We will be holding the drawing at our barbecue and you need not be present to win.

A Myth

Dental Myth: Once a tooth has a filling or a crown, additional care is no longer needed for that tooth.
Dental Fact: In order to keep the tooth and the rest of your teeth healthy, twice daily brushing and once daily flossing as well as maintaining regular professional dental cleanings and examinations are needed. If proper brushing and flossing are ignored, the tooth will get decay under the filling or crown. This will require a new filling or crown and possibly create the need for a root canal.

Brush 2 minutes twice a day...yes, I said 2 minutes (not 1 minute or 30 seconds or once a day). It really does take that long to clean the majority of surfaces your mouth decently.

2012 New Years Resolutions for Your Smile

1. Stop eating sweet snacks! Although we all crave sweets,snacking on them definitely make us predisposed to tooth decay, and even make us more at risk for developing diabetes. Constantly dosing yourself with sucrose can cause tooth decay since will tend to make your teeth exposed to a more acidic environment since the bacteria coating your teeth easily metabolize sucrose. Acids are a byproduct of their metabolism.

2. Have at least two dental cleanings a year. I find that the majority of patients although they mean to, actually do not achieve this goal. It turns out that on the average they have about one cleaning every 8-10 months. For this reason, I and other dentists avdvocate pre-appointing our patients recall appointments. Although many patients prefer a six month call to remind them that it is time, this practice is more likely to result in cleanings scheduled less frequently than every six months.

3. Go ahead and restore that tooth that your dentists keeps reminding you to crown. Why wait until it starts hurting? Although few patients looking forward to having a crown done, procrastinating is not a good idea.

4. Stop chewing on hard things that can result in chipped or cracked teeth. Chewing on ice cubes, bones, hard candies, pens, pipe stems or finger nails can definitely damage your teeth.

5. Stop smoking. Aside from the obvious health problems associated with smoking, its bad for the health and appearance of your teeth. It is associated with bad breath, yellowing of teeth, staining of teeth, periodontal disease and oral cancer.

6. Start using a good electric tooth brush. Although many people feel that a standard tooth brush is all they need, most benefit from using a good electric model. Most require less time and technique to do a thorough job.

7. Although most people would benefit from wearing a night guard few choose to wear one. As a dentist practicing for over thirty years that the majority of patients experience wear and chipping of their teeth associated with bruxism. Most are unaware of this night time activity but wear patterns of anterior teeth are a definite tell tale sign of this nighttime activity. If your anterior teeth are displaying wearing at the edges then most likely a night guard would be beneficial.

8. If you have whitened your teeth more than a year ago then its time to perform a touch up. These can easily be performed in a night or two if you have a set ofcustom whitening trays.

9. Start cleaning the plaque from between your teeth. Forty percent of tooth surfaces are not cleaned by brushing alone. Using floss, stimudents or a small interdental brush will clean the areas that your brush misses. Reducing interproximal plaque will definitely lessen gingival inflammation and give their gums a healthier appearance.

10. Improve your smile. Although this sounds like a blatant plug for cosmetic dentistry I truly believe it is not without merit. I have witnessed the change in patients after having some minor cosmetic modifications of the their anterior teeth. Once whatever was making them self conscious about their smile is fixed they seem to smile more easily and more frequently. There are plenty of articles proposing that happy people are probably healthier. Stress and worry can cause us to lose sleep, weaken our immune systems and develop health problems. If having an attractive smile encourages us to smile more then just possibly we will experience more happiness. If minor tooth movement, whitening or minor bonding might help, why not go ahead and treat yourself to a better smile this year.

Healthy Snacks!

The average 17-year-old in this country has more than three decayed teeth!

How do sugars attack your teeth?

Invisible germs called bacteria live in your mouth all the time. Some of these bacteria form a sticky material called plaque on the surface of the teeth. When you put sugar in your mouth, the bacteria in the plaque gobble up the sweet stuff and turn it into acids. These acids are powerful enough to dissolve the hard enamel that covers your teeth. That’s how cavities get started. If you don’t eat much sugar, the bacteria can’t produce as much of the acid that eats away enamel.

How can I “snack smart” to protect myself from tooth decay?

Before you start munching on a snack, ask yourself what’s in the food you’ve chosen. Is it loaded with sugar? If it is, think again. Another choice would be better for your teeth. And keep in mind that certain kinds of sweets can do more damage than others. Gooey or chewy sweets spend more time sticking to the surface of your teeth. Because sticky snacks stay in your mouth longer than foods that you quickly chew and swallow, they give your teeth a longer sugar bath. You should also think about when and how often you eat snacks. Do you nibble on sugary snacks many times throughout the day, or do you usually just have dessert after dinner? Damaging acids form in your mouth every time you
eat a sugary snack. The acids continue to affect your teeth for at least 20 minutes before they are neutralized and can’t do any more harm. So, the more times you eat sugary snacks during the day, the more often you feed bacteria the fuel they need to cause tooth decay. If you eat sweets, it’s best to eat them as dessert after a main meal instead of several times a day between meals. Whenever you eat sweets - in any meal or snack - brush your teeth well with fluoride toothpaste afterward.

It may come to a surprise to you that drinking sport drinks like Gatorade is not better than drinking soda. Here is basically why: Gatorade amongst other sport drinks have acidic content which are bad for your enamel by eroding your dentin and can damage your teeth. According to New York University College of Dentistry, the sport drinks (soft drinks) have high acid content which has a weakening effect on your teeth enamel thus allowing bacteria to get into the cracks and crevices in the teeth. What’s worse is that if you brush your teeth after having a sports drink, you are risking abrasion against already softened enamel, thus irritating the teeth even more. Avoid Soft Drinks/Sodas and be healthy!