Older Women with Gum Disease Face Higher Risk of Early Death, Study Says

There is certainly a mouth/body connection. Having Periodontal Disease has been related to cardiovascular disease, pre-term birth in women, low sperm count in men and increased complications for those with Diabetes, to name a few. The Journal of American Heart Association just released a study stating that women over the age of 50 with gum disease is linked to higher risk of premature death.

With regular dental visits, periodontal disease screening and good home care can all reduce progression and spread of gum (periodontal) disease.

The link to the article is below:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/29/health/gum-disease-early-death-study/index.html

Toothpaste Guide

What is toothpaste?  Basically fluoride and an abrasive bound by thickeners and flavors Abrasives:  Polishes teeth, removes light surface stains and dislodges food. Fluoride: Makes enamel more resistant to acids produced by bacteria living on your teeth and gums.  Reduces decay.

Whitening Toothpaste

In order to whiten teeth, you need an ingredient in the peroxide family and you have to isolate teeth from saliva so the whitening agent doesn’t wash away.  Whitening toothpastes do none of the above.  They have no peroxide and instead have more abrasives in the toothpaste.  This abrasive will remove light surface stains (i.e. light coffee and tea stains.)  Whitening toothpaste will do nothing to brighten the teeth.

Be careful using if: You have sensitive teeth as the abrasiveness may cause teeth to be more temperature sensitive.

Sensitive Toothpaste

Sensitive toothpaste works by blocking the dentinal tubules (tiny pores) in the teeth.  This blocking does not allow the nerve in the tooth to receive the sensation.  This toothpaste works well for those with mild cold sensitivity.  You have to use a full tube of the toothpaste to determine if this will work for you. 

Be careful using if: You’re on a toothpaste budget.  Sensitive toothpaste is a bit more expensive.  But other than that anyone can use it.

Baby Toothpaste

AKA training toothpaste, it has the look and feel of real toothpaste, but without the fluoride.  This type of toothpaste is ok to swallow.  Sometimes swallowing a lot fluoride toothpaste can cause a belly ache or change the appearance of developing teeth.

Be careful using if:  Your kid is getting a lot of cavities.  Then they need the fluoride to prevent decay.  Switch to fluoridated toothpaste and monitor closely during brushing and use a small smear of toothpaste.

Kid Toothpaste

Aside from the Spiderman and Barbie packaging and perhaps the sparkle blue color, there really is no difference between that and regular ol’ toothpaste. 

Be careful using if:  Your kiddo won’t spit it out.  Swallowing a little toothpaste is fine, but if he is swallowing a bunch of tooth paste every time he brushes switch to baby toothpaste. Or put a smaller amount on his brush.

Prescription Toothpaste

Do you get cavities every time you come to the dentist?  Do you have a dry mouth?  Do you have a lot of crowns and fillings?  Then ask your dentist to prescribe you higher fluoridated toothpaste.   You are more at risk for decay than most and need the protection fluoride can give you.

Be careful using if:  You have a kid accessible toothpaste drawer.  The higher fluoride concentration if swallowed could cause a bellyache or possibly change a child’s developing permanent teeth

What type of toothpaste does Dr. Scott recommend?

For most all you need to do is look for something with fluoride in it.  “AIM” recently was studied as the most effective toothpaste because it had the right amount of fluoride in it, at the cheapest price.

6 Things You Can Do to Help Your Child When They Need Dental Work

1.      Don’t Say the “H” word

“Don’t worry Honey; going to the Dentist doesn’t hurt.”  While this seems like a helpful statement, your child is thinking, ‘Hurt?!  I didn’t even know that was a possibility!’  Queue your child’s anxiety of the unknown, which now they are told could ‘hurt’.

Children are blank slates when it comes to the Dentist, they don’t know what to expect.  Please don’t put the possibility of a hurtful experience in their heads.  No one can predict how your child will feel regarding a dental procedure.  We have had a 3 year old fall asleep during fillings and kids that need giggle breaks.  Your child may surprise you!

 

2       Prep-‘Em

Positive talk prior to the visit is helpful.  Saying things like “The Dentist is fun!” or “When I get my teeth cleaned it tickles.” Or “I just had a filling done at the Dentist; it felt kind of bumpy or buzzy.”  Little things such as: explaining the dental chair goes up and down; telling your child that a light shines in their dark mouth or that a tiny straw sucks up water like a vacuum can all prepare and help your child have an idea of where they are going and what they will see.  Also, consider checking our a book about going to the dentist!

3.     Stop the Horror Stories

Too often we hear Moms and Dads tell their child their dental horror stories.  This in no way will reassure your child and may end up scaring them more.  It is more effective, to explain what a filling is or how a tooth is removed by using facts.  If you are unsure of how the procedure will work for your child, ask us!  We have fun ways of showing you and your child and how a filling is placed or how a tooth is removed.

4.     Empower Them

Perhaps your child will be more cooperative if Mom or Dad is not around them during the dental procedure.  We all know that kids act differently when not around their parents.  They may look to you to get them out of the situation, by acting out or being uncooperative.  If your child comes into the dental chair alone, you are allowing them to become accountable for their own teeth.  Often they finish the procedure feeling brave and proud that they did this all by themselves. 

5.     Consider Laughing

You know your child best.  Is he super nervous about this despite all your best efforts?  Consider using Laughing Gas.  Laughing Gas is very safe and used often in the dental office.  In fact, we use it on our own children.  It creates a state of happiness and relaxes the child.  It’s especially effective if this is your child’s first dental experience.  We want initial dental encounters to be positive, to ensure a lifelong positive dental relationship.  If Laughing Gas is the vehicle for that, then it’s worth a try. 

6.     Reward

We of course have a prize bucket, but a little extra reward from Mom and Dad always helps.

  

So, I Heard I Don't Have to Floss Anymore

Recently, flossing has made the news.  The U.S. departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture recently removed their recommendations on daily flossing, stating that there wasn't enough evidence to support flossing and prevention of dental diseases.  But your Dentist recommends flossing every day, so what gives?

Federal recommendations on daily flossing showed up in 1979 by the Surgeon General and made it part on the National Dietary Guidelines.  But when members of the Associated Press recently asked for more evidence on flossing and its reduction in dental diseases, there wasn't much. 

The few studies that were conducted concluded that there is some evidence that flossing regularly did reduce gingivitis, compared to brushing alone. But most trials were too short to conclusively say that flossing has an impact on tooth decay and gum disease.

So basically, there really aren’t any scientific trials or recorded studies stating flossing is good or bad for you.  Since no one has formally studied flossing, the U.S. department of Health and Human Services can't recommend for or against flossing your pearly whites. 

So yay! I don't have to floss anymore!

Not so fast.

All of us at Stadsklev Dental have seen what happens when patients don't floss.  If you look at plaque under a microscope it is very much alive, multiplying, gunking up the space between your teeth, causing bad breath and infection.  The longer that bacteria stays in your mouth the more adaptable and resilient it becomes.  This does not bode well for a person's mouth or their overall health.

So get it out of there!

We can show you the easy way to floss; it takes less than 20 seconds.

Or don't floss, I have a feeling we will be seeing more of each other.  

Why Do I Need a Deep Cleaning?

A deep cleaning, or scaling and root planning, is needed to remove all hardened bacteria (tarter), from below the gum line.  The goal upon removal is to promote: bacteria reduction, healthy gum attachment to the tooth and stop the progression and spread of periodontal disease.

Periodontal disease is an infection of the gum and bone that holds your teeth in place.  If untreated, it can lead to tooth loss.  Periodontal disease is often painless and you may not even notice a problem until it’s in the advanced stages.   The good news is, when caught early and with scaling and root planning treatment you can stop the disease.

                       Periodontal Disease

• Soft plaque left on your teeth (i.e. not brushing and flossing daily) will calcify and turn hard.
• This hardened plaque is now called tarter or calculus and you can’t brush it off.  You need your dental hygienist to remove it.
• This calculus left on your teeth, causes your body to start the inflammation process.  You will notice: bad breath, bleeding, swollen or puffy gum tissue.
• You now have an infection in your gums.
• This infection will spread, tooth to tooth and infect the bone supporting your teeth.
•  Once the bone is infected you may notice teeth loosening and possibly tooth loss.

What is a deep cleaning or scaling and              root planning?

Scaling and root planning is a method of treating periodontal disease.  Using Novocain to keep you comfortable, your hygienist will remove the hardened bacteria (calculus) from way under your gum tissue.   The tooth’s root surface is the removed of calculus, debris and diseased tissue.  With the root surface now smooth, the gum tissue can heal, gum swelling is reduced and the pocket (space between your tooth and gum) will shrink.  This will make it harder for plaque to settle in under the gum tissue.   Typically scaling and root planning will take 2 visits.

After scaling in root planning is complete and the gums have healed, a re-evaluation appointment will occur.  At that appointment your hygienist will evaluate the health of your gums, home-care, measure pockets and areas of bleeding.  After all information is gathered it is then when, together we will determine how often a dental cleaning is needed.  You are at higher risk and may require closer monitoring to ensure periodontal disease is kept at bay.

You invested time and money in scaling and root planning and we want to make sure periodontal disease doesn’t come back.  Be sure to: floss daily, brush twice a day, quit smoking and maintain regular dental cleanings.

Baby Teeth: Fix or Not?

Baby teeth are very important in your child’s health and development.  They are essential in chewing, speaking and smiling.  They also hold the space for the permanent tooth to come in.  Think of the baby tooth as a puppet string, guiding each adult tooth. 

“My child’s baby tooth has a cavity.  I think I should just leave the cavity alone. Why fill it if he’s just going to lose it?’

A cavity is a hole in a tooth that grows larger over time.  By not fixing your child’s cavity, it will continue to spread throughout the tooth and neighboring teeth.  Once that cavity reaches the center of the tooth, where the nerve is, is when your child will have a toothache.  By then he will need a root canal to repair the tooth.  That cavity has now caused an abscess or infection.  This infection doesn’t know to stop at the baby tooth and continues spreading to the adult tooth forming underneath the gum tissue.  This can result in a malformed permanent tooth.  Baby teeth remain in the mouth until your child is 12 years old.  That tooth, with the cavity, may be in your child’s mouth for years.  It can take weeks to months for a cavity to become an abscess.  This not only will leave your child with a traumatic dental experience, but a painful tooth ache.  Ouch!

“Yikes.  Let’s just pull my child’s decayed tooth then.”

Using x-rays we can determine approximately how long that tooth will be in your child’s mouth.  If the adult tooth is coming in shortly, by all means removing that decayed baby tooth is the best treatment.   More often than not, this is not the case.  If that adult tooth is months to years from coming in, and the baby tooth is extracted, the teeth on either side of that space will move and shift.  Often that moving and shifting will alter the way that adult tooth will come in.  The space reserved for that adult tooth is now compromised and that tooth will now come in crooked, twisted or out of alignment.  This creates a domino effect for other adult teeth to come.  Now they will have to shift and move to come into the mouth.  To correct this crowding, braces will be needed.  Keeping your teeth, whether baby or adult, is always the cheapest and the best option.

 Baby teeth should not be seen as ‘throw away teeth’.  They lay the ground work for adult teeth.  If baby teeth have cavities, adult teeth will come into the mouth in an environment swimming in cavity bacteria. If baby teeth are healthy, adult teeth will have a better chance at remaining healthy throughout adulthood.

Braces Do More Than Just Straighten Teeth.

Braces, no doubt, will provide you with a beautiful straight smile.  But there are many reasons besides cosmetic, that wearing braces is important to your health.

Poorly Aligned Teeth Can Cause:

·         Speech Impediment.  The placement of the tip of your tongue, on your teeth, impacts the proper sounds of “d”, “n” and “t”.  Poor alignment of your teeth will compromise those sounds, making it difficult to articulate certain words.

·         Difficulty Chewing and Tooth Wear.  When teeth do not have a chewing partner that lines up properly, chewing can be a challenge and will result in wear of the teeth.  If a tooth that is meant to rip and tear (i.e. canine or eye tooth) is chewing with a tooth meant to grind (i.e. pre-molar), both of these teeth will wear and flatten in an unnatural way.  Once teeth wear and flatten you can’t get the ‘height’ of the tooth back.  Resulting in more complicated and expensive restorative corrections.

·         Jaw and TMJ Pain.  Like stated above, if the teeth are not lined up properly, it makes it difficult to chew.  In order to chew your jaw and jaw joints (TMJ) have to contort and change to allow for chewing.  Overtime this can cause damage to the joints and result in:  TMJ pain, muscle pain in the jaw and headaches.

·         Gum Disease.  Crowded, rotated and overlapped teeth making brushing and flossing difficult.  Not only in terms of the actual act of getting floss in between tight spaces, but also bacteria is able to ‘hide out’ in more areas.  The more bacteria allowed to stay on your teeth and gums, will create: gingivitis, gum sensitivity and bleeding gum tissue. 

·         Sleep Apnea.  An overbite occurs when the lower jaw and teeth are positioned more towards the back of the mouth.  The upper jaw than appears more forward.  People with an excessive overbite are more at risk for sleep apnea because that lower jaw is pushed so far back that it can pinch the airway.  In fact a lot of many people who snore have an overbite. 

So yes, braces will straighten your teeth, but they also can improve so many other aspects of your dental and physical health.  So if you or your child is experiencing any of the above symptoms of poorly aligned teeth, it may be time to consider braces.