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Invisalign Treatment Provides Many Benefits
August 20th, 2015
INVISALIGN ISN’T THE PERFECT SOLUTION FOR EVERYONE, BUT if you’re a good candidate, there are LOTS of reasons for choosing Invisalign—and they’re not all simply about going metal-free!
Clear, removable Invisalign trays are a less invasive orthodontic treatment method. With Invisalign technology, your teeth can be straightened without causing inconveniences to your daily life.
Benefits You Probably Didn’t Expect
The most obvious difference between Invisalign treatment and braces is their appearance, but there’s more to it than that. For example…
• Less office visits. We’ll see you only once every 4 to 6 weeks.
• Invisalign trays can sometimes double as whitening trays or protective mouth gear for sports.
• The removable trays allow you to brush and floss normally, which results in better oral health during treatment.
• You can enjoy the foods you choose, without the dietary restrictions of braces.
• The smooth plastic trays are more comfortable, so you won’t deal with the irritation metal brackets sometimes cause.
Straight Teeth Provide More Than A Great Look
Aesthetics aside, having straight teeth is important for a number of reasons. Straight teeth are easier to clean and floss. They also guard against uneven wear, and painful TMD problems. Straighter teeth allow for more efficient chewing and enhance food digestion. Straight teeth can even cause better pronunciation and speech!
Is Invisalign Is Right For You?
Schedule an appointment with us! We’d love to see what we can do to improve and preserve your beautiful smile. Thanks in advance for your trust. We hope to see you soon!
Image by Flickr user Will used under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Image cropped and modified from original
Flying Baby Teeth
August 12th, 2015
You and your child are enjoying a great day at the playground when all of a sudden he falls and you see blood coming from his mouth. You run over and notice a tooth knocked out. You try to soothe your screaming child but you also think, “What do I do now?” Well, you need to think. Is this tooth due to fall out soon anyway? Was it wobbly before? Do you see a permanent tooth starting to stick out where the tooth that was knocked out was? If the answer is yes to any of those questions, you just need to calm your child down and alert the tooth fairy.
If the baby tooth has been knocked out prematurely, the best thing to do is get straight to the dentist. Under no circumstances should you ever try to put the tooth back in it’s socket. NEVER! There’s a good reason to not do that. Within the jawbone, underneath the gum surface, is the developing permanent tooth which is going to eventually replace the lost baby tooth. Before the permanent tooth becomes the hard, white thing we’re all used to looking at, it starts in a sort of “jelly” state. If the knocked out deciduous tooth is poked back into the socket, it’s very easy to damage the soft and squishy developing permanent tooth. The result will be a permanent tooth which is malformed, perhaps dented, or discolored in an area.
Here’s a quick guide on what the right thing to do is:
• Try to stop any bleeding by applying pressure to the area. Sterile gauze is ideal, but a folded up clean wet washcloth works well. If all you have is a clean baby wipe use that., Avoid using anything like tissues, sponge, or cotton wool, as they will draw more blood out which encourages bleeding. If your little one is cooperative, the best way to apply pressure is to get them to bite down on the material.
• If you can find the tooth within a few minutes, grab it. Don’t forget to check your child’s mouth, as it may have been forced back up into the gum, or even lodged itself in a lip or cheek. The dentist will be able to have a look at the lost tooth and determine whether the whole thing was knocked out, or if there may still be a bit of root lodged in the gum. If the tooth can’t be found anywhere, there’s a possibility it was swallowed or inhaled by your child. Your dentist will recommend a chest x-ray to rule out the tooth being stuck in the wind pipe or lungs.
• Get to a dentist ASAP. Your child will need an x-ray to check if there are any bits of tooth left behind, and to check on the permanent tooth underneath. The dentist will also be able to check the other teeth which may have suffered more minor trauma, but still require treatment.
Hopefully this is knowledge that you never need to use, but should your small child knock out a baby tooth at least you’ll know what to do!
Cost, Not Just Fear = Dental Care Avoidance.
January 26th, 2015
It is not just fear of the dentist that can keep people away from visiting the dentist. The fear of high costs can cause people to delay necessary visits to the dentists.
Avoiding routine dental visits which include, cleanings, exams, and x-rays(which help in the diagnosis of cavities or infections), can help find problems when they are small. A small cavity to repair costs a lot less than a larger one. Remember, by not removing decay, the bacteria that is in the cavity can continue to feed on and wear away tooth structure.
Once bacteria is given a chance to get past the harder enamel, it has a pretty easy time at the second layer of tooth structure, the dentin. Your cavity may have started as a pinpoint dot in the middle of your tooth; But, that pinpoint dot can be deceiving. The outside (the enamel) of your tooth may look perfectly fine but for the pinpoint black dot. But, once that bacteria gets into the dentin it can go hog wild and hollow out the inside of the tooth. Your tooth is now basically a shell, with mush in the middle of it. Your cav
ity is now bigger and encompassing more tooth structure. Now your tiny cavity has turned into a large and more expensive filling. If outside walls of the tooth have been compromised, you may even be looking at a crown. This is all assuming of course that the bacteria hasn’t gone straight down into the the part of the tooth where the blood and nerve supply of the tooth is, the root canal space. Once bacteria breaks into that space, you are now dealing with needing a root canal, and possibly an infection in your mouth where you have swelling and pain. Cost now goes up tremendously. You could always take the route of having the tooth extracted, but now you are left with a space that will cause new dental problems, such as tooth shifting which can lead to gum problems. You can always replace the tooth with a permanent bridge or an implant. Cost goes up again. By now, you can see the pattern developing here. Put off a dental check-up visit for fear of cost, and you potentially have a real expensive problem, and potentially a health issue. Remember there are now links between oral health with overall health.
So what to do to? Well, you can use dental insurance to help pay for treatment. What plan to take? If you generally have never had many dental problems, you can go with a cheaper plan that covers basic preventive measures and fillings. If you are someone that has had much dental treatment in the past, odds are you will need more in the future and may want a more expensive plan that includes coverage for major work which includes root canals, crowns, and bridges. Some employers may offer a health savings account. If your employer doesn’t offer dental insurance, or if you are self-employed check out our in office plan.
We are here to help you take care of your dental health. Don’t put off taking care of yourself today, because you may end up dealing with bigger problems tomorrow.
Our Jaws: Precise, Efficient Machines!
December 21st, 2014
Did you know that compared to the average dog’s bite pressure, humans are pretty weak. Bite force of a dog is 320 pounds of pressure compared to 120 pounds for humans. We may not have the power some creatures have—but the complexity and precision of the human bite is simply remarkable.
For example, have you ever taken a Peanut M&M in your mouth and removed the candy coated layer and chocolate, leaving the peanut intact? Think of the the coordination happening between your jaw muscles, brain, tongue, teeth and mouth to make this happen! You are not just chomping down with the thought of pulverization, you have the ability to say, “Hey! I want to keep the peanut intact while I whittle off the coating”.
Our jaws even have the ability to brake and adjust bite pressure to save our teeth from damage. The force of biting into a carrot can chip our enamel, but our jaws slow down during the bite, in order to spare our teeth any damage.
When you look at mechanics, the human jaw is 40-50% more efficient than that of a gorilla. For any bite force humans require, less force is used than that of a gorilla. This is due to the position of the jaw joint(the fulcrum), the length of the jaw, and the placement and arrangement of muscles.
Our jaws might be able to withstand lots of pressure, but our teeth are a bit more delicate, so be careful when biting hard nuts and candy.
Here are some comparisons of bite pressure between humans and certain animals.
Humans: 120 pounds of bite pressure
Domestic dogs: 320 LBS of pressure on avg.
Wild dogs: 310 lbs
Lions: 600 lbs
White sharks: 600 lbs
Hyenas: 1000 lbs
Snapping turtles: 1000 lbs
Crocodiles: 2500 lbs