Most people recognize the term, dental plaque, and the fact that it’s something they shouldn’t allow to remain on their teeth for long. However, not everyone realizes the specific threats that plaque buildup can pose to their smiles, or how those threats can manifest long before they realize it. As the basis for many of the most common oral health concerns, including destructive tooth decay and severe periodontal (gum) disease, plaque buildup is one of the most consistent threats your smile faces. (more…)
Relieving Tooth Sensitivity When It’s Minor
When a tooth hurts severely, the only way to relieve it is often to seek professional dental treatment. However, for many people, minor tooth sensitivity can be an early indication that their at-home dental care routines can use some improvement. If addressed early enough, some minor cases of tooth sensitivity might be relieved and reversed with a few at-home strategies to make them stronger. Today, we take a look at a few of these strategies, and why you should take measures to protect your teeth as soon as they start to feel sensitive. (more…)
How to Make Your Teeth Even Stronger
Good dental hygiene is such a well-known staple of maintaining good dental health that most people already recognize its importance. However, some people also believe that all they need is a good hygiene routine to properly protect their teeth, even if they aren’t always exactly consistent with it. The truth is that your teeth have to remain strong in order to remain healthy, and in addition to consistency in your routine, you may also boost their strength with these few everyday tips. (more…)
Could Your Dental Hygiene Be More Effective?
Practicing dental hygiene can sometimes feel like homework. Your task is to brush and floss your teeth every day, and your dentist will grade your efforts the next time you visit. In the meantime, however, that feeling can cause many people to take their hygiene routines less seriously than they should. The goal isn’t to impress your dentist, but to save your smile and oral health from the development of potentially serious concerns. When you refocus your efforts on that goal, the importance of a consistently effective dental hygiene routine becomes much more apparent. (more…)
How to Know if Your Dental Concern Is an Emergency
Sometimes, dental emergencies aren’t what you expect. On one hand, you may think your current concerns are not that serious, and addressing them can be put off. On the other hand, you may think you have an emergency that turns out to be much less serious than you expected. Today, we take a look at how to know if your dental concern is an emergency, and if it warrants an immediate dental appointment and treatment. (more…)
Are There Specific Risk Factors for Sleep Apnea?
For many common oral health concerns, there are specific risk factors to developing that, usually, are easy to control once you identify them. For example, tooth decay and gum disease develop from excessive oral bacteria buildup. Therefore, inadequate dental hygiene and preventive care are two of the biggest risk factors for developing it. Some concerns, however, don’t have singular causes, like oral bacteria, to defend against. For example, patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) can have many varying contributing factors to their condition, and addressing them may require completely different levels of care than it does for other patients. (more…)
How Gum Disease Could Raise Your Heart Health Risks
When your dentist tells you that you have gum disease, the need to treat it can be more serious than you might realize. As one of the most common chronic oral health conditions, many people will have to deal with gum disease at some point in their lives. In addition to some of the more well-known threats that gum disease can pose to your oral health, including tooth loss, there are also more profound ways in which gum disease can impact your overall systemic health. In cases where gum disease has become severe, these can include significant risks to your heart health. (more…)
Things to Think About Before Getting Your Dental Crown
Even in the most advanced forms of dentistry, many of the concepts that guide treatment have been around for centuries. For example, restoring teeth with dental crowns is one of the most traditional forms of restorative dentistry. A dental crown is a custom-designed restoration that’s crafted to match a tooth’s size, shape, contour, and appearance. Placing a crown over a cracked, broken, or otherwise compromised tooth can help restore the tooth’s ability to function without sustaining any further damage. However, ensuring the success of your restoration long after it’s been placed requires care and attention, which you should consider carefully before receiving your custom dental crown. (more…)
What’s a Good Way to Makeover Your Smile?
It’s just the nature of some smile concerns that multiple of them occur at once. For a lot of people, this can make the process of improving their smiles seem difficult, or even impossible, and discourage them from even trying. For many patients, however, we can often create a smile makeover plan that not only address all of their smile concerns, but does so in a way that’s much more efficient and minimally invasive than they expect. The key is to diagnose the specific concerns you have with your smile’s appearance, then devise a plan that focuses on improving your smile as a whole. (more…)
Why Waiting to Fix a Chipped Tooth Is a Bad Idea
Ideally, you would address any concern you ever have with your smile as soon as you notice it. In real life, however, you have a lot more to worry about than just your oral health, and sometimes, even obvious problems might not seem as high a priority as other concerns. For example, chipped teeth are common, but they’re often left untreated because they don’t seem severe. Compared to a significant fracture or break in your tooth, a tiny chip off its edge can seem relatively minimal. Yet, if you wait too long to fix the chipped tooth, that tiny damage can end up having a huge effect on the health and integrity of the tooth’s structure. (more…)
