A dental checkup can reveal early warning signs of serious illness in your body.  Avoiding the dentist even when you don't seem to have dental problems may be detrimental to your overall health.  During the last 18 months we have discovered two blood cancers in Stage 1 during our routine oral cancer screening.  Both of these patients were able to get treatment early and it may have saved their lives.  Furthermore, Periodontal Disease and Tooth Decay are likely only diagnosed by your dentist until you have a much larger and more expensive problem.  Delaying treatment may decrease your prognosis and increase your cost.    Make an appointment today for an examination:  Appointment Request

February is Children's Dental Health Month and I would love to take the opportunity to talk about the importance of children's teeth.  I will address the most common questions we get from parents.

1) Should "baby teeth" with cavities be repaired since they're not permanent?

Parents often ask if their child's cavity needs to be repaired since the tooth will eventually be lost.  The answer is mostly yes, depending upon how soon the tooth in question will be lost.  If the adult tooth will replace it soon and the cavity is small then it may be worth the risk to wait.  However, if it will be sometime before the adult tooth erupts then the cavity should be filled.  A cavity when left untreated will progress to the point where the nerve of the tooth dies and/or the tooth is not fixable.  If the nerve dies an abcess may result. An abcess is an infection that will likely cause pain and swelling, and the tooth will have to be removed.  Removal of a "baby tooth" prematurely may cause crowding and shifting of the teeth, and can cause problems with the eruption and bite of the permanent teeth.  This may create a need for orthodontics (braces) or make the treatment with braces more complicated. In addition, no child should suffer from the pain of a tooth abcess.  

There are remarkable amounts of children who don't sleep well because of dental pain.  These children also can't perform well in school.  This is entirely preventable.  

2) When should I bring my child in for a "cleaning"?

All children should have a "well" exam when their first tooth erupts (usually around 6 months), or no later than one year of age.  We will check for cavities and other problems, discuss homecare and diet.  Most children are ready for a "cleaning" by the age of 3.  

3) What are sealants?

When your child's permanent first molars erupt (around age 6) we recommend sealants to help prevent cavities from forming on the biting surfaces of those teeth.  A sealant is a resin that we place in the grooves on the biting surfaces of back teeth.  The sealant acts as a barrier to food and bacteria that could cause a cavity in the hard to clean grooves.  

Your child's teeth are important for chewing, speaking, and smiling.  They are there for a reason:  for a healthy mouth and body until their replacement adult teeth are ready.  No child should suffer from unnecessary tooth pain.  

Since 2004 we've been providing many crowns in just one visit.  That means no temporary crown.  One visit crown means less time from your busy schedule sitting in our beautiful chairs.  A one visit crown is also completed without a traditional impression.  These are obvious advantages.  However, there is more.

CAD/CAM technology allows many teeth to be crown in one visit.  The crown is designed on the computer and milled out of a block of ceramic right in the office. The crown is entirely ceramic and contains no metal.  This means that the tooth doesn't need to be prepared all the way to or below the gumline to hide the metal that is under many crowns.  This means we remove less tooth structure. Less removal of tooth structure means the remaining tooth is stronger and its prognosis better. 

Since I'm a scientist and believe in an evidence-based practice of dentistry, I would like to share some science with you. In the book Mindfulness, An Eight-Week Plan For Finding Peace in a Frantic World, authors Mark Williams and Danny Penman site a study published in 1988.  The reference for the published paper is:

Strack, F., Martin, L. & Stepper, S. (1988), "Inhibiting and facilitating conditions of the human smile:  A nonobtrusive test of the facial feedback hypothesis." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54. pp. 768-77.

This is taken directly from the digital book Mindfulness on page 103:

"the psychologists Fritz Strack, Leonard Martin and Sabine Stepper asked a group of people to watch cartoons and then rate how funny they were.  Some were asked to hold a pencil between their lips so that they were forced to purse them and mimic a scowl. Others watched the cartoons with the pencil between their teeth, simulating a smile.  The results were striking:  those who were forced to smile found the cartoons signficantly funnier than those compelled to frown.  It's obvious that smiling shows you are happy but it is, admittedly, a bit strange to realize that the act of smiling can itself make you happy...Smiling is infectious too.  When you see someone grin you almost invariably smile back.  You can't help it.  Think about that for a moment:  just the act of smiling can make you happy (even if it's forced); and if you smile, others will smile back at you, reinforcing your own happiness.  It's a virtuous circle."

So you see the smile is powerful.  Try smiling a bit more and see what happens.  Make sure your smile and body are both healthy with routine complete examinations. 

A recent study suggests that dental procedures were not associated significantly with subsequent risk for an infection in a prosthetic joint. Thus the importance of taking antibiotics for those who've had a joint replacement prior to dental appointments should be further studied and reconsidered. Until a definitive conclusion can be made the decision to place a patient on antibiotic prophylaxis remains with the Orthopedic Surgeon.  You may read the article from the Journal of the American Dental Association:  http://bit.ly/rQTWSd