Dental Ideas Straight to the Point

My patients always like to ask me can mouth wash replace flossing? What mouthwash is the most effective for my oral health? There are hundreds of different brands of mouthwashes but all of them really just have a few active ingredients- According to the American Dental association these are what they allow in an American mouthwash. Active ingredients that may be used in therapeutic mouthwash include: Cetylpyridinium chloride; - crest prohealth Chlorhexidine;- peridex Essential oils; Listerine Fluoride; ACT  Peroxide. colgate peroxyl mouthwash- Whitening So here is my take on how mouthwashes work. Using mouthwash to to clean your mouth is like using a pouring putting out a candle with bucket full of water. You'll put out the candle but you'll also get everything else in the room wet. When you use antiseptics like chlorhexidine, cetylpridinum chloride and peroxide it kills almost all of the bacteria in your mouth.  That sounds like a great thing doesn't...

Top 6 reasons to bring your child to see the dentist before its too late. My childs teeth are going to fall out anyways why should we treat the cavity? First of all an infection is an infection. I don't care where the infection is on your body . Just because you can not see a stomach or bladder infection does that make the infection any less threatening? When your child is walking around with cavities he/she can develop infections if that cavity remains untreated. Why risk it? Here are a list of ways this can affect your child in the long run Infections can affect/stunt the child's growth and development.   If the tooth has to be extracted or a large portion of the teeth has been decayed the child will tend to have more severe crowding due to inability of the baby tooth to hold the space. This means more expensive orthodontics and less ideal orthodontics in the future.  If the infection reaches the lower tooth bud it can prevent the lower adult teeth from ever...

Every time you drink or eat something cold or hot you feel tiny little shocks go up your teeth? In my last blog I talked about causes of tooth sensitivity. This time I will tell you how to stop and prevent it. Actual tooth problem. If you have an actual tooth problem, meaning the pain lingers (5-10 sec) and is getting progressively worse please come in as an emergency because that tooth needs to be treated asap. This usually means a cavity has progressed to the nerve. Likely you will need a filling or a root canal. Make an appointment with us and we can take you out of pain within an hour of you arriving with minimal discomfort. You can be back in your office or back to your family the same day without any disturbances to your daily life except maybe to avoid chewing on that side until the treatment is completed. We will likely do a "pulpotomy" which is basically a half root canal just to take you out of pain. You will have to return another day to complete the case...

Treating sensitive teeth Teeth sensitivity is a large problem for several of my patients as they get older. How do we determine if you have sensitive teeth vs an actual tooth problem? We need to x ray and inspect your tooth to see if any cavities are present or close to the pulp.  Infections are typically what causes actual tooth pain and not just sensitivity. How can you tell usually? Actual tooth problem Lasts 5-15 seconds with stimulus or without. 3-10 on the pain scale history of infections or deep fillings in the area Gets worse with time. (until the tooth devitalizes then it does get better) Swelling, symptoms with touching the gum above the tooth or biting. Teeth sensitivity. Lasts 1-3 seconds with stimulus, 2-3 pain scale no history of past infections or deep fillings Gets better with time. No other symptoms with touching the gum above the tooth or biting. What Causes tooth sensitivity? - over brushing causing gum recession and small lesions on ...

What dentists hate to hear When you come into the office telling us that you hated your previous dentist. We are a small community of professionals and we understand that everyone has their good days and bad days. We refuse to put one of our peers down. If you talk bad about them, the chances are you will talk bad about us when we have one of our bad days. Dentistry is hard we try to be 100% everyday, but it doesn't always work out that way. We are humans too. When you have a high gag reflex- This one we can not blame our patients for, but it can be frustrating when the patient is uncooperative. Unfortunately, some people just have high gag reflexes; however, if you are willing to work with us and try to work through the discomfort, we will do our best to complete your treatment as fast as possible. When you are late For everyone time is money. If you are late, we will move on to the next patient so be prepared to wait. If we can no longer see you today our staff will...

What your Dentist loves to hear We love when you tell us that your teeth are feeling great.  When we ask how your teeth are doing and you tell us that your teeth are great, we feel like our job here is done. Contrary to popular belief, we are not obsessed with money. We love it when our patients have a clean bill of dental health. We feel like we did our job and are happy to spend the extra time that's usually saved for treatment to talk to you about your life and learn more about our wonderful patients. We love when your teeth are flawlessly clean. Again this gives a feeling like we were able to educate and take care of your mouth to the best of ability. We see the drastic difference in health when you first come into our office to now. We love when you trust in us . I love when a patient tells me "doctor do whatever is best for me." I understand dental treatment is costly but in most cases in the long run doing what is necessary can save you the most amount...

Root canal or implants.   With the new development of implant dentistry dentist have been able to do so much more with dentistry. However conventional dentistry still has its place. The dreadful words of root canal makes people cringe and most people don't understand why it can cost so much for a root canal and crown to protect the tooth. The truth is it takes just as long for a dentist to do a good root canal and crown as it does to complete an extraction implant. In fact it probably takes more time. The truth is your natural teeth is king. If you ever talk to anyone who had a complicated case with implants they will tell you not everyone individual is that straightforwards. Implants can be an easy procedure but when problems arise it is very difficult to fix.   Why natural teeth? Even when we do a root canal and your nerves are dead you still have these nerves called periodontal ligaments which attach to the root of your teeth. These ligaments still provi...