This holiday season, why not celebrate healthy smiles for yourself and your loved ones? Flashing a healthy smile can bring joy to loved ones and strangers alike, boost your self-confidence, and brighten your mood, as well as those you share your smile with. Our wish this holiday season is to help you experience the joys of a healthy, appealing smile.

Keeping your mouth safe means practicing good daily oral hygiene: brushing and flossing without skipping a day, no matter how busy you are or whether you are traveling and celebrating with loved ones. Giving the gift of a healthy smile also has long-lasting, life-altering benefits. Check out these tips for celebrating the holidays in tooth-protecting style!

Drinks on the Naughty List

– Drinks with pigments from dark-colored drinks damage and stain teeth (think coffee, tea and red wine). Red wine has enamel-damaging acid and staining tannins. But white wine has even more acid than red wine, causing enamel erosion and leading to tooth discoloration and staining.

– Hot chocolate contains chromogens, pigment-producing substances that stick to enamel and stain it and is often loaded with sugar and marshmallows that lead to tooth decay and cavities.

– Soda is sugar-laden and highly acidic and holiday punch is hazardous to teeth as they are often made from highly pigmented berries like cherries, pomegranates, blackberries or blueberries with tooth-staining chromogens, as well as sugar and soda. Limit your teeth’s exposure to these beverages and drink plenty of water to keep your mouth hydrated for healthy, cavity-fighting saliva levels.

Foods on the Naughty List

Part of festive holiday traditions includes treats like candy canes, cookies, cakes and pies that are bad for your teeth, not just your waistline. Avoid sticky treats like caramel corn and toffee, as oral bacteria can feed off their sticky residue, creating damaging acids that wear down tooth enamel. All hard candies, including candy canes, peppermints and peppermint sticks, are filled with sugar, and biting into them can crack a filling or weak tooth. Toffee and peanut brittle are both hard and chewy, which can end up chipping a tooth or dislodging a filling. Even candied nuts are risky to your teeth.

Foods on the Nice List

– Serve all the turkey and ham you and your family love. Both have healthy protein, and while turkey has phosphorus, ham has potassium that allows your pearly whites to utilize calcium more efficiently.

– Cheeses like Monterey Jack, cheddar, Brie, Camembert, Roquefort and Gorgonzola are loaded with calcium and protein, and they neutralize acidity in your mouth to protect against cavities.

– Soft nuts like cashews, walnuts, butternuts, hickory nuts, pecans, pine nuts, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts and Brazil nuts are high in calcium and protein and low in sugar.

– Create a colorful raw vegetable platter loaded with vibrant crunchy carrots, celery, radishes, broccoli, bell peppers and jicama or salads made with leafy greens like kale, spinach, chard or collard greens to nurture teeth and gums.

– Fruit platters: ‘Tis the season for fresh, colorful fruit like apples, pears, grapes and kiwis that do not stick to teeth.

Gifts and Stocking Stuffers on the Nice List

You can further protect your loved one’s teeth by giving gifts that keep teeth healthy and strong! Some tooth friendly gift-giving ideas include:

– Sugar-free chocolates and sugar-free gum that tempt the taste buds.

– Floss picks to help that person who needs to floss more.

– Electric toothbrush with cartoon characters or fun colors for kids or tasteful aesthetics for teens and adults.

– Take-home teeth whitening kit for teens and adults.

– Mouth guard for the athletic child, teen or adult in your life.

– Fun toothbrush case for traveling or sleepover-loving kids.

– Cute toothpaste dispenser that is animal-shaped for kids.

– Toys and books for kids or gag gifts and books for grownups.

– Gift certificate for orthodontic treatment.

The Gift of a Healthy Smile

This holiday season, why not give gifts that promote a healthy, beautiful smile all year round? Whether it is a state-of-the-art toothbrush or oral irrigator that will make them look forward to brushing and flossing every day, whitening toothpaste or a gift certificate for our in-house teeth whitening treatment, all these presents are sure to create healthier, beautiful smiles!

November isn’t just Thanksgiving: It’s also National Diabetes Month. This disease affects around 37 million Americans, including adults and young people. Oral health is closely linked to health issues, including diabetes, and vice versa. Along with your primary care doctor and other specialists, your health care team should also include your dentist!

People with diabetes are more prone to cavities and infections of the gums and bones which keep your teeth in place, as diabetes lowers the blood supply to those areas. If you are a diabetic over age 50, your risk will be even greater, mainly because aging alone increases dental problems if you are not taking good care of your smile. If you notice sore or bleeding gums, constantly get infections and have chronic bad breath, you may have diabetes and dental issues that need treatment.

Common Oral Conditions in Diabetics

• Dry Mouth: Age isn’t the only factor that causes dry mouth: Diabetes does too. Women in particular are vulnerable to lower saliva levels, which lead to dry mouth (or xerostomia). Healthy saliva levels secrete enzymes that attack harmful oral bacteria.

• Gingivitis: This early stage of gum disease arises as oral bacteria make your gums bleed, redden and feel sore. This bacteria thrives on sugar, creating oral acids that damage your teeth. If you have unmanaged diabetes, your saliva will contain more sugar that will mix with saliva and bits of stray food particles, turning into plaque.

• Periodontitis: If you leave gingivitis unchecked, it will eventually worsen, ending up as periodontitis, a severe version of gum disease wearing down bone density and oral tissues that hold your teeth in place. Unless you brush and floss diligently, gum pockets will form, a condition where your gums pull away from your teeth. Unlike gingivitis, periodontitis cannot be reversed, only managed.

• Oral infections: Fungal yeast infections, referred to as “thrush”, often shows up as white or red patches in the mouth for people with diabetes. Yeast feeds off of excess sugar in your saliva and shows up more in people who wear loose-fitting dentures and smoke.

• Wounds taking longer to heal: This is common in people as they age, as well as in diabetics. It also increases your risk of infection. This is bad news if you have gum or tooth issues, as healing takes longer.

Protecting Teeth and Gums in Diabetics

Understanding the link between oral health and diabetes will hopefully help you work to prevent problems from developing to begin with. As with most things, an ounce of prevention is so much easier than a pound of cure!

Tips To Keep Your Mouth Healthier

• Manage your blood sugar as recommended by your doctor with diet and exercise.
• Practice good daily oral hygiene care, which includes using a soft-bristled toothbrush, flossing twice a day and rinsing with an antibacterial mouthwash.
• Protect the enamel on your teeth by waiting half an hour before brushing to dilute oral acids.
• Remove and clean your dentures every night; no sleeping in them!
• If you still smoke, now is the time to stop.
• Come in for regular professional dental cleanings every six months or as recommended.

Healthy Body, Healthy Mouth

The good news is diabetes-friendly foods are also tooth-friendly, so it’s a win-win. Feel free to consume the following dietary choices. Your doctor and dentist will likely approve!

• Avocados
• Almonds
• Beans and other legumes
• Berries
• Broccoli
• Cabbage and Brussels sprouts
• Cottage cheese
• Eggs
• Fish
• Kiwis
• Nonfat yogurt
• Non-starchy vegetables
• Nuts
• Oatmeal
• Shrimp
• Spinach
• Wild salmon

This Thanksgiving, we hope to give you something extra to be thankful for with these timely tips. If you have diabetes, we hope this helps you maintain better oral health as simply and effectively as possible. We welcome you to give us a call today if you would like to schedule your next dental visit or speak with our dental team!

A healthy, appealing smile starts with a clean mouth. October is National Dental Hygiene Month, where we honor our hard-working, dedicated dental hygienists and the care they provide to protect your smile! Their goal is simple: helping you achieve greater oral health by helping you keep away cavities and gum disease.

A Dental Hygienist’s Typical Day

A typical day in the life of a dental hygienist may involve any of the following:

Perform dental cleanings: When you come in for your routine dental cleaning, we will clear away harmful dental plaque containing bacterial toxins, including tartar (hardened plaque). If you are having a deep cleaning done, we will smooth the rough areas on your root surfaces to prevent plaque and tartar formation under the gum line. A deep cleaning helps affected gums to heal and will also check for sores, lumps, or swelling in your oral tissue.

Take dental X-rays: We may use X-rays of your teeth, bones, and soft tissues to spot potential dental issues like tooth decay and bone loss. For growing teens, these X-rays can track their jaw and tooth formation to also spot problems early. If you come in experiencing pain, these radiographs can help us see if wisdom teeth might be the issue.

Take dental impressions: We can create impressions of your teeth as models (casts) for our dentist to asses what dental treatments you might need for optimal oral health.

National Dental Hygiene Month

As you can see, our dental hygienists aren’t just here to clean your teeth and make them shine; they are part of your dental team that routinely monitors your dental health to spot developing problems. So what can you do to observe National Dental Hygiene Month? We have some ideas to help you keep your smile on track!

1. Floss daily. Not just once in a while and especially not just when you have your next dental visit (you know we can tell if you are not flossing regularly)! Flossing is important because it cleans the parts of your teeth that your toothbrush can’t, namely, between teeth and below the gum line. You would never just brush your teeth before a visit to our team, so don’t do that with flossing either! Your teeth, gums and pocketbook may pay the price.

2. Brush long enough. Two solid minutes of brushing per session are ideal, not too much, not too little, a strategy Goldilocks would approve! A clean mouth means brighter teeth, healthier gums and better breath!

3. Don’t skip an oral rinse. Rinsing with an ADA-approved antibacterial mouthwash is a great way to wash away lingering oral bacteria that are destructive to your smile while freshening your breath.

Practice Proper Brushing

One of the things our hygienist can do for you is to help you brush up on your brushing proficiency. First, you want to aim the soft-bristled toothbrush at a 45-degree angle to clean the most effectively. Move the brush gently back and forth in short, tooth-wide strokes. Clean all tooth surfaces: top, bottom, inside and outside surfaces. Your flossing tool will brush away food particles and plaque between teeth and the gumline. Finally, complete your brushing session with a gentle cleaning of your tongue, where bacteria like to collect.

Treat Your Smile Every Day

If you want to recreate the amazing feeling of smooth teeth at home, brush your teeth twice a day following these tips (your “fangs” will thank you). While our hygienists can give you a fresh start during your regular cleanings, the best way to treat your toothy grin is to clean your teeth and gums every day, twice a day. Trust us, you’ll notice the difference at your next dental cleaning, and so will we!

Do you put off routine dental care or much-needed dental work because of anxiety? Anxiety is how your body reacts to what you perceive to be stressful or unfamiliar situations. So that sense of distress or dread you have before an event manifests itself as anxiety. While a bit of anxiety can be useful, keeping us alert and aware in certain situations, it can also be debilitating when you are in need of dental care and delaying treatment.

Routine dental appointments allow us to help you keep your teeth and gums healthy, and avoiding this treatment can cause small problems to deteriorate your oral health, leaving you with bigger problems to deal with later.

Signs of Dental Anxiety

• Aggressive behavior
• Crying
• Extreme sweating
• Feeling faint
• Heart palpitations
• Low blood pressure
• Panic attacks

Dental anxiety is hard to ignore, so it’s important to recognize and address it. While dental anxiety impacts around 36 percent of the population, we can work together to make your dental visit comfortable and pleasant so you get the care you need!

Working Together

1. Schedule your visit in the morning as it tends to be the least busy time in the office. Fewer patients being treated mean less noise in the background and spending less time stressing over your upcoming appointment time.

2. Communicate with our dental team in advance about your dental anxiety. We can make your visit easier, whether by explaining what you can expect during your treatment or discussing dental sedation.

3. Bring a friend or family member with you to support and distract you and elevate your mood. They can even drive you home afterward so you can decompress and bask in the aftermath of completing a successful dental visit!

4. Relax when you get here by using noise-canceling headphones (or earbuds) to block out unnecessary stimulation. Listening to music, your favorite podcast or a meditation app can also destress you while you are here.

5. Speaking of a meditation app, listen to your favorite calming meditation while you wait in the dental chair. Beginning with your head, relax your muscles, one body part at a time, slowly moving down your body until you reach your feet.

6. Do some slow, deep breathing. Those calming breaths help ease your mind, so you feel more relaxed. Block out external stimulation by closing your eyes, then breathing in slowly through your nose, holding, and slowly breathing out through your mouth. Repeat until you feel the difference.

7. Practice some guided imagery. It is a good time to picture happy thoughts as you lie back in the dentist’s chair. Enjoy your favorite or funniest memories. Reminiscing about those wonderful moments feels like you’re reliving those moments all over again!

8. Request a break during your treatment. Work out a signal with our dentist and assistant that means “pause” so you can catch your breath and calm yourself for a moment. Knowing this can help you feel more empowered instead of helpless.

Don’t Delay, Call Today

Dental anxiety interferes with getting the dental care your teeth and gums need to thrive. Whether you’re anxious because of a past traumatic dental experience, fear a loss of control as someone is working over you, or you’re scared it will be painful, we can work together to make your dental visit great. We welcome you to call our team to address your concerns and take a confident leap by scheduling your next dental visit! Your smile will look and feel better, and you’ll be glad you did!

If you are brushing your teeth twice a day as recommended but not flossing between them, it’s not just your smile that will pay the price. Your toothbrush can’t reach in between teeth to remove dental plaque (a sticky bacterial biofilm). That’s where flossing comes in, because it can reach between teeth and below the gum line where bacteria accumulates to stop it in its tracks.

Dental Plaque

This harmful bacteria leads to cavities and periodontitis (inflamed, bleeding and receding gums) from bacterial infection. Without flossing those crucial areas around your teeth, your toothbrush will only be cleaning three out of five tooth surfaces! Brushing and flossing work together to clean all tooth surfaces and flossing is the only way to actually scrape plaque away from the teeth.

Bacterial Infection

If you have an infection inside your mouth, it will spread to the rest of your body through your bloodstream. Your teeth, gums, cheeks and tongue are all connected to your bloodstream where they can spread to your organs, potentially leading to diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, arthritis and Alzheimer’s.

Flossing is a key part of your daily oral hygiene routine that helps keep your smile and your body healthy. Flossing only needs to take around a minute of your time, so all you need to do is find a flossing tool that you like using and then just do it every day. Here are some flossing ideas to help you make the most out of your flossing efforts.

Flossing with Dental Floss

Take out about 18 to 24 inches of floss and wind it around your middle fingers. Take 1 to 2 inches and hold the floss taut between your thumbs and your index fingers. Next, slide the floss gently between each tooth. Be gentle while flossing to protect your gums. Keep sliding the floss up and down to clean plaque out of those areas. Floss right below your gum line in an up-and-down movement, rubbing it against both sides of each tooth. Avoid gliding the floss into your gums, and after you have cleaned one side of your mouth, pull out a new section of floss so you can clean the other side of your mouth.

Flossing Options

If working with dental floss isn’t your thing, you still have flossing options to choose from!

• Tiny interdental brushes clean between your teeth and work really well on removing plaque from dental bridges and are great for people with joint issues or mobility issues.
• Pointed rubber tips or wooden plaque removers that you slide back and forth to loosen debris.
• Water flossers/irrigators that shoot a thin, pressurized stream of water between your teeth and at the gum line.
• Pre-threaded flossing picks to help you scrape away food particles and plaque.

Who Should Floss?

Everyone! But flossing every day is especially important if you have abnormally tight spaces in between your teeth or you have individual dental prostheses like dental implants, bridges, crowns, dentures or dental veneers. Getting your teeth straightened with an orthodontic appliance, whether it’s braces or a clear aligner, also requires diligent flossing. You want to make sure dental plaque doesn’t build up and leave you with tooth and gum issues when the orthodontic treatment is complete.

When to Floss

Ideally, you want to floss before brushing your teeth because flossing helps pick up and release food and plaque that is stuck in between your teeth, while brushing removes these particles from your mouth. If you brush first and floss afterward, the food particles and plaque will remain until your next brushing session.

The American Dental Association encourages everyone to floss at least once a day and brush twice a day. Follow these flossing tips and the next time you come in for a routine dental cleaning and exam, your hygienist will be proud! We look forward to helping you have better oral for better overall health!

Join us in celebrating National Teeth Whitening Day on June 17th! We are tempted to observe this innovative dental treatment for the entire month because when it comes to boosting your smile, one of the quickest and easiest ways to accomplish this is through teeth whitening! And while there are a lot of over-the-counter teeth whitening options out there, we are solid proponents of professional teeth whitening for those who love having whiter, brighter teeth. It is mainly because of the effectiveness and safety of the product being used.

Why Whiten Your Teeth?

You might consider whitening your teeth for a variety of reasons:

• Attending a wedding, honeymoon or graduation
• Going on a summer vacation
• Wanting to boost your self-confidence and dating life
• Having professional portraits done
• Have a job interview coming up and want to make the best first impression
• Wanting to put your best face forward every day

Tooth Staining Culprits

Maybe your teeth are less than stellar because it has been a while since you have gotten your teeth cleaned. Perhaps it is from your daily coffee, tea, or wine habit. These beverages can refresh our mood, help us relax, or keep us powering through a busy day, but they can also take a toll on your teeth’s appearance. While tooth enamel is strong and protects your dentin and tooth chambers below it, it is also porous, making it vulnerable to tooth staining agents like chromogens.

These pigment-creating substances are found in red wine along with staining tannins in red wine, coffee and tea. Chromogens are highly pigmented compounds that cling to tooth enamel when they mix with similar stain-causing agents like tannins. Tannins in black tea stain teeth even more than coffee and, to a lesser extent, in white, green, and herbal teas. But even your favorite soda, sports drink, and alcohol are highly acidic, eroding tooth enamel and leading to discoloration. The same goes for the tooth-staining foods you love, like marinara sauce, balsamic vinegar, berries, curry, and citrus.

Your teeth can also stain because of frequent tobacco use, whether it is cigarettes, pipes, cigars, or chewing tobacco. Or maybe you took antibiotics like tetracycline that discolored your teeth with unsightly gray or brown stains. There is also wear and tear on tooth enamel from brushing harshly over the years.

Tip: Brush gently using a soft-bristled toothbrush. Your teeth and gums will thank you!

Cosmetic Dentistry and Teeth Whitening

So, what can a person do without giving up their favorite foods and beverages? Professional teeth whitening can quickly and effectively get rid of unsightly tooth stains and discoloration. It safely bleaches teeth by targeting the enamel and the dentin layer underneath it. The results are often immediate and dramatic, making your smile look brighter and better than ever.

One of the first things teeth whitening can do is make you feel better about showing off your smile. You will feel like smiling more as whiter-looking teeth make your self-confidence skyrocket! And the more you smile around others, the greater your success. Teeth whitening can even boost your mental health because smiling releases your brain’s endorphins! Teeth whitening makes you want to smile more, so you will likely feel more committed to brushing and flossing diligently. Good oral hygiene habits are a great way to keep your smile healthier and more appealing!

Celebrate Teeth Whitening Day

Now that you know how great your smile can look with professional teeth whitening, you will want to keep them nice after you do. It means getting rid of your worn-out toothbrush (once the bristles fray, it is time to replace it!). Limit the foods and drinks that stain your teeth, and keep up on all routine dental checkups and exams! And if you are inspired to brighten your smile with professional teeth whitening, call to schedule an appointment with our dental team!

Between May 16 and June 16, the Oral Health Foundation raises awareness of important health concerns by celebrating National Smile Month, and our dental team is here for it! We invite you to join us in making a positive difference in the oral health of the people around you. Everyone deserves the chance at a healthy smile, especially since dental health is a crucial part of good overall health. Here are the basic but essential strategies for creating healthy teeth and gums:

• Brush teeth for two minutes twice a day using an ADA-approved toothpaste.
• Floss between teeth daily to remove cavity-causing dental plaque.
• Limit sugary foods and drinks that feed harmful bacteria.
• See your dentist twice a year for routine checkups and dental cleanings.

Five Mood Lifting Smile Facts

1. It takes 62 muscles to frown but only 26 muscles to smile, so enjoy this relaxing and wrinkle-reducing habit!

2. Babies flash their smiles around 400 times a day, while grown-ups typically smile only around 20 times.

3. Smiling does so much for your wellbeing; it helps you relax, boosts your immune system, lowers blood pressure, releases endorphins, and relieves stress.

4. Smiles are contagious, and that’s one contagion you don’t want to hide!

5. Workers who cheerfully spread smiles are more likely to get a promotion, and if that doesn’t make you want to smile, we don’t know what will!

National Smile Day on May 31

On National Smile Day (celebrated annually on May 31), smile your brightest while boosting your serotonin (a natural stress reliever) and spread good cheer to help those around you smile! Tell jokes, volunteer at your favorite charity and take a moment to feel deep gratitude for something in your life. These are all ways to bring a smile to your face and those around you. Protect your dental health by coming in routinely for cleanings and checkups. Your routine visits make us smile because we love helping you get a healthier, more beautiful smile you will love spreading!

Smiling makes you and those around you feel good. If you’re at work, smiling can increase productivity and creativity in you and your colleagues while making you look more competent and trustworthy. Enjoy the health benefits of smiling, which makes your brain healthier by lowering stress, blood pressure, heart rate, and pain. Smiling also increases endurance, strengthens your immune system and even helps keep the cells in your body healthy. Some might even say a smile is your best accessory and doesn’t cost a cent! Do you feel moody? Try a smile. You will not only feel happier but more confident, too!

World Laughter Day on May 1, 2022

Smiling isn’t the only way to feel better. Did you know that both spontaneous and self-induced laughter increases your body chemistry and brain function? Laughing more can help you live longer by boosting your immune system while reducing stress, anxiety and brain fog.

Boost Your Smile

By taking good care of your smile, you can improve your dental health. This month, we encourage you to make the most of your dental and overall health with good oral health habits. If you feel self-conscious about your teeth, our dental team is always here to help you create your best smile! Give us a call to schedule a visit to care for your smile, so you can laugh and smile more!

If you have missing teeth or tooth issues, opting for a dental implant is one of the best tooth replacement options you can choose – whether you have lost teeth due to tooth decay, periodontal disease, or injury. Now is a great time to spring into action with a dental implant restoration to complete your smile and put your tax refund to good use!

Bridges and Dentures Make Way for Dental Implants

Before implants, bridges and dentures were the only tooth restoration choices you had. Thanks to today’s advances in dental technology and techniques, you can opt for a dental implant restoration to complete your smile! Did we mention that dental implants generally have a success rate of up to 98%?

One of the biggest dental implant advantages is it becomes a part of you. It replaces not just the top of the tooth (crown) but your tooth roots as well. It means you get a solid foundation to hold your fixed (permanent) tooth or removable tooth replacement that blends in naturally with your teeth.

Why Choose Dental Implants

Aesthetics:They look and feel like your natural teeth in size, shape, and color and work the same way, being fused within your bone to give you exceptional strength and sturdiness.

Better speech: If you wear dentures and they constantly shift when you speak, that worry will be eliminated with a dental implant.

Comfortable: Once your implant has fused in your mouth, you will never need to worry again about uncomfortable removable dentures, feel embarrassed about removing your dentures, or apply messy denture adhesives to hold them in place.

Easy to chew: Your implant works like the rest of your natural teeth, so it doesn’t slide around like dentures often do. Your implants allow you to bite and chew your favorite foods without worrying about slippage.

Greater self-confidence: With dental implants, you can, once again, smile with confidence!

Better dental health: With bridges, you tend to need to have some surrounding teeth worn down, but with implants, you don’t. Instead, the teeth can stay the same size, and the dental implant allows access between your teeth so you can floss them more easily.

Longevity: Your implants can last many years (sometimes a lifetime) if you take proper care of them like you do your own and keep gum disease away.

What To Expect With a Dental Implant

• Once approved for an implant, your treatment plan will be created involving oral surgery and restorative dentistry.
• Next comes the biocompatible titanium tooth root implant that is surgically placed into the bone socket of your former tooth.
• Then, healing must take place in a process called osseointegration. It can take up to three months while the jawbone fuses with the metal implant post so it will sit solidly in your jaw, just like your natural teeth.
• After that, an abutment (or small connector post) will be attached to the post, anchoring the new tooth securely.
• Impressions will then be made to create your new tooth (or teeth) with a model of your bite so the tooth replacement can be created.
• Finally, your replacement tooth or crown will be attached to the abutment, and the tooth will be made to match your surrounding teeth.

Call for Consultation

Once your dental implants are in place, taking good care of them is no different than your usual daily oral hygiene to protect your natural teeth. Simply brush, floss, rinse with a good antibacterial mouthwash and see our dentist regularly for exams and cleanings. If you are thinking about replacing a tooth with a dental implant, there’s no better time than tax season if you’re expecting a refund! Give us a call to learn more!

Taking the time to recognize your dental team once a year is important because they seek to go above and beyond to take the best care possible of you and your family’s smiles. Our dentist works hard all year to improve your quality of life so you can eat, smile and speak with confidence.

Recognizing Dentists

March 6 is National Dentist’s Day, a day we celebrate these dedicated dental professionals whose goal is to protect your smile and help it flourish. We love raising awareness about how important it is to practice better daily oral hygiene for healthy teeth and gums in-between routine dental cleanings and exams!

The Origin of Dentists

There is a rich history of when dentists started to be acknowledged. The first recognized dentist was Hesy-Re, an Egyptian scribe who lived around 2600 B.C. While Chinese dentists were the first to use fillings made of amalgam as early as 700 A.D., it was in medieval Europe that texts on performing and regulating dental surgery were first identified. By 1210 in France, dental surgeries were fairly routine. In 1859, 26 dentists officially formed the ADA and had developed anesthesia for oral surgery. Dr. Lucy Beaman Hobbs became the first woman to graduate from an American dental school in 1866. In 1869, Dr. Robert Tanner Freeman was the first African American man to earn a dental degree.

Dentists Today

Today’s dentists work hard all year round to make sure your teeth and gums are healthy and strong. They help you prevent smile-destroying cavities and gum disease, fix or replace problem teeth, check for developing conditions to treat early, and generally give you things to smile about when you are in treatment. We not only do our best to help your chairside experience be as positive as possible, but we also protect your general health. It is because oral health is closely tied to the rest of your body. Thanks to oral bacteria, untreated tooth decay and periodontal disease can lead to serious health issues like cardiovascular disease, stroke, and diabetes.

Celebrate Your Dentist

You can celebrate National Dentist’s Day with us by sending a thank you note to our dentist or taking a photo with them to post on your social media with the #NationalDentistsDay hashtag. You can also recommit to better dental habits like brushing at least two minutes twice a day, flossing daily, consuming a balanced diet and scheduling your next dental check-up. These would all make our dentist smile for days!

Recognizing Dental Assistants

March 6-12 is Dental Assistants Recognition Week (or DARW) and is celebrated annually during the first full week in March. This year’s theme is Dental Assistants: Passionate About Our Patients, Dedicated to Our Profession. The American Dental Assistants Association encourages everyone to acknowledge and recognize their hardworking dental assistants! They come in every day ready to perform a variety of duties to help patients get the quality care they deserve for a healthier, more attractive smile.

Our dental assistants support the practice by helping you improve your oral daily hygiene habits, preparing you for your dental treatment, taking dental impressions and X-rays, maintaining infection control, recording patient notes, and scheduling your next appointment. That is a lot of responsibility, and they work hard to make sure you get the quality care your smile deserves!

The Origin of Dental Assistants

Historically, dental assistants officially date back to 1885, when Dr. Edmund Kells, a dentist in New Orleans, pioneered the dental assistant profession by having his wife assist him. He then expanded his practice by hiring another woman, Malvina Cueria, as a full-time assistant. By 1917, the first dental assistant society was founded in Nebraska, and another was established in New York in 1921. The American Dental Assistants Association (ADAA) was founded in 1925. Eventually, the ADAA created Dental Assistants Recognition Week, proudly recognizing the contributions of dental assistants to dentistry and the health of people’s smiles!

Celebrate Your Dental Assistants

Help your dental assistants feel valued the next time you come in by telling them how well you practice your oral hygiene routine. It helps them know you listen to their advice when you come in for cleanings. You can also thank them for their diligent help and advice on how to keep your smile healthy in between visits! We welcome you to celebrate our dental assistants! We are thankful for the vital role they play in supporting our practice and helping us better patient satisfaction. Call us today to schedule your next visit!

The purpose of Gum Disease Awareness Month in February is to raise awareness of what causes it and to encourage you to adhere to better oral health habits to keep it from developing in your smile. Sadly, periodontal disease affects 47.2% of adults over 30 in the U.S. and at an even higher rate (70.1%) for adults over 65 years! Gum disease doesn’t just affect your smile; it can also impact your general health. It can link to health conditions including diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and premature births or low-birth-weight babies.

What is Gum Disease?

Gum disease is an infection of your soft oral tissues that become inflamed. Often this is caused by poor oral hygiene care. You want to brush and floss your teeth and gumline each day to remove harmful dental plaque. While gum disease typically starts slow, if the conditions causing are not addressed, it will generally worsen over time.

In the beginning, you may notice red, swollen gums, but unless treated, it can eventually cause the gums to pull away from your teeth. When this happens, you have advanced gum disease (periodontitis). At this stage, vital bone is lost, making your teeth become loose and even fall out!

The problem with poor oral hygiene habits is that plaque quickly hardens and spreads underneath your gums, where you can’t easily remove it. This is when our dental team has to remove this tartar accumulation and take additional steps to keep periodontitis from permanently damaging your smile.

What You Can Do to Keep Gum Disease Away

Like most things, the best approach is prevention and then tackling gum disease in the early stage (gingivitis). All you need to do is brush and floss consistently every day as recommended by our dentist and follow up with our office for routine dental cleanings and exams. Once the disease has progressed to periodontitis, you will need more invasive treatments like cleaning the tooth roots under the gums (scaling) and root planing. Sometimes medication or gum surgery can help with treatment.

Recognizing the Stages of Gum Disease

• Stage 1: It is easy to spot because your gums will look red, swollen, and inflamed, often bleeding when you brush and floss your teeth.
• Stage 2: You start to lose bone density around the teeth.
• Stage 3: Untreated, advancing periodontitis results in further bone loss and diminishing gum tissue (receding gums) and damage connective tissue around teeth, causing the teeth to feel loose.
• Stage 4: If you ignore periodontitis, your symptoms worsen as well. Your teeth feel loose, and it might hurt to bite and chew your food. You may have the loose teeth extracted and replaced with a dental restoration at this stage.

Preventing gum disease is essential to keeping your smile healthy and beautiful! Thankfully, treating gum disease in the early stage can often reverse gingivitis altogether! Once it progresses, however, it won’t be reversible. Be sure to brush and floss every day as recommended by our dentist and hygienist, and stay on top of your routine dental cleanings and exams. Delaying professional dental care invites trouble with your teeth and gums and potentially harms your overall health.

Call Our Team Today!

Our team is ready to help you keep your teeth and gums as healthy as can be! We welcome you to join us in recognizing Gum disease awareness on social media and by helping your family realize how important daily dental care is to their confident smile and oral health. Call us today to schedule dental cleanings and exams for your best gum health!