Many patients don’t exactly welcome the news that one of their teeth has to be extracted. Even if the tooth hurts because it is severely damaged or infected, losing it can seem more devastating than dealing with it. As far as your dental health is concerned, however, the opposite may be true. In some cases, extracting a tooth is the only way to preserve the rest of your smile, especially when trying to save it could place other oral structures at risk of infection or damage. (more…)
How Smoking Destroys Your Oral Health
The dangers of smoking and tobacco use are no longer really debatable. Over the last few decades, numerous studies have uncovered the link between smoking and several chronic, potentially fatal health issues, including a variety of cancers. Your oral health also suffers from the habit, and not just your breath or the color of your teeth. Besides the physical effects of tobacco use (which are significant), smoking can also destroy your oral health no matter what precautions you take. (more…)
A Look at the Types of Dental Implants
It may surprise you to learn that the idea of dental implants dates back as far as 1,350 years ago. An excavated Mayan burial site in Honduras unearthed the remains of a woman believed to be in her twenties, with three shells placed where her lower incisor teeth should have been, and compact bone formation surrounding them. In modern times, dental implants have evolved into three different types, based on their placement on the jaw. They are designed to fuse with the jawbone in order to support a dental prosthesis, such as implant-supported bridges and dentures. (more…)
How Dental Surgery Can Help You
Unlike dental checkups and cleanings, which you should attend consistently, you might never have a need for dental surgery. When it comes to your dental health (like with your general health), dental surgery is only called for when a routine dental treatment will not suffice. Depending on your exact needs, such circumstances may include removing impacted wisdom teeth, placing dental implants, performing biopsies to detect oral cancer, and more. (more…)
Better Hygiene for Less Sensitive Teeth
Sensitive teeth can be caused by a number of oral health issues, including cavities, small fractures or cracks, exposed roots, and worn tooth enamel, to name a few. The treatment for sensitive teeth depends on what the cause is, but there are measures you can take to prevent them from becoming an issue. For instance, practicing better hygiene can alleviate many cases of sensitive teeth by helping the enamel around them regain their strength. (more…)
What the PH Scale Says About Your Dental Health
Literally, pH stands for the potential of Hydrogen, and it measures the hydrogen-ion concentration of a substance. Empirically, the pH scale measures and classifies a substance’s acidity or baseness (opposite of acidity). A healthy mouth usually hovers around a pH of about 7.1, which is slightly above the neutral pH of seven. However, acids introduced through your diet are constantly lowering this number, endangering your teeth and dental health. (more…)
Can Your Oral Health Affect Your Brain Health?
As experts continue to study the complexities of human oral health, your mouth’s connection to your systemic wellbeing becomes more intricately understood. While this mouth-body connection is often discussed for the complications it can pose to your heart health, there are other arms to the connection that can affect various parts of your body aside from your heart. Today, we discuss how the state of your oral health can affect your brain health and cognitive function. (more…)
Oral Pathology: Looking for Oral Cancer
Oral pathology specifically focuses on diseases—usually serious ones—that begin with or revolve around various oral tissues and structures. In some cases, this may involve severe periodontitis and the destruction of your teeth’s supportive tissues, while in others, it may involve functional issues in the jaw’s joints and muscles. Often, however, oral pathology is the route through which we often can detect subtle abnormalities that mark the beginning and early stages of oral cancer. (more…)
Do Wisdom Teeth Make Other Teeth Hurt?
If you’ve ever experienced a toothache, then you may have an idea what the cooler weather has in store for sensitive teeth. Hot and cold temperatures notoriously aggravate sensitive teeth, and in some cases the sensitivity may be severe enough for a simple breath of cold air to send wracking waves of discomfort throughout your entire mouth. This discomfort is one motivating reason for people to opt for wisdom tooth removal before the errant molars have a chance to make their presence known. (more…)
Q&A: Think Sedation Isn’t For You? Think Again
When we speak with patients about the many benefits of sedation dentistry, we tend to discover that they assume this relaxing solution is strictly for individuals suffering from severe dental anxiety. And while this is true, sedation does provide a wonderful solution for patients who fear dental care, this treatment also offers advantages to a wide variety of patients with additional concerns. If you thought of sedation as a luxury and something simply not for you, you may need to think again. Look ahead to find out if your experience may become even better by asking about your candidacy:
