Posts Tagged ‘Dental Health’
Porcelain Veneers / Lumineers
Dentistry has many amazing options to restore and replace teeth, and to improve function, and esthetics. Chewing well and beautiful smiles are both very valuable assets for physically and emotionally healthy individuals.
Porcelain veneers are one way to improve esthetics which are popular due to recent publicity. Lumineers is one brand of porcelain veneer which has patented the particular porcelain which it uses. Lumineers is also the name for a 3 person band which plays “timeless melodies and soul-stirring lyrics”. But I digress, dental veneers are a great oral treatment, in the right situation. Veneers, however, are not the answer to all dental problems. Veneers, in many cases, can restore chipped, discolored, even some crooked teeth. They may also be used to close gaps between teeth. Veneers are ideal in some situations but may not be used in all situations. They can be placed over existing crowns but other options may be better with people who are heavy grinders. A thorough diagnostic exam needs to precede any treatment with veneers or any restorative dental work.
Most dentists are able to place porcelain veneers/lumineers. Take the time to talk to your dentist. Most treatments have pros and cons. Make informed decisions on treatment with your dental professional.
Be sure you understand your diagnosed problems and the treatment options you have for restoring your teeth and smile, both the assets and drawbacks. If you feel a second opinion is needed, don’t hesitate.
Your teeth and smile are very significant assets to your health and self-esteem. Help insure your health and happiness by taking good care of your teeth and smile.
Keep brushing,
Dr. James G. Hood
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Dental Care Associates of Spokane Valley, P.S.
Family and Cosmetic Dentistry Welcomes Patients
from Age 2 to 102!
James G. Hood, D.D.S., M.A.
507 North Sullivan Road, Suite A-1
Spokane Valley, WA 99037-8576 USA
Phone: (509) 928-9100 | Fax: (509) 928-0414
Email: drhood@drhood.com
Websites: www.drhood.com
www.dentalcareassociatesofspokanevalley.com
Blogs: www.drjamesghoodblog.com
www.dentalhealthandnutritionblog.com
www.dentalcareassociatesofspokanevalleyblog.com
www.jamesandkarenhoodfoundationblog.org
www.sjogrensblog.org
Online Store: www.dentalhealthandnutritionstore.com
Straight Teeth – A Precious Gift
Straight teeth can be easily attained in our modern world with orthodontics. Orthodontists are specialized dentists who have the ability to move teeth in the jaws and even to realign the bones involved with chewing. The results of their labors are readily evident in beautiful smiles with straight teeth. Big smiles build self-esteem.
Beautiful smiles and straight teeth may be the end result but, during the process of teeth movement, cleaning the teeth is more of a challenge.
Healthy teeth and gums are important for everyone and good brushing and flossing with well-defined patterns of cleaning can be the difference between disease and health. Frequently, good brushers and flossers are best trained while in braces. The brackets, bands, wires, rubber bands, and general hardware make it more difficult to reach and clean all the nooks and crannies. If a patient is able to clean teeth well, while in braces, he/she will probably have developed the proper oral care to do a good job for life.
However, because of the areas created by this orthodontic hardware, which are more difficult to reach with brushes and floss, such effort becomes more even critical. Plaque is bacteria with all the sticky toxins and waste products it produces while residing on one’s teeth and gums. In orthodontic treatment, reaching all the hidden areas while cleaning becomes a seemingly never-ending challenge. Acids, a waste product that may be left on enamel for longer than 24 hours, begin to etch or demineralize (decalcify) teeth producing, if left unchecked, chalky surfaces or decay on teeth.
Proper brushing and flossing cannot be replaced, but…fluoride can be topically applied to the surface of teeth to recalcify or remineralize tooth enamel. Fluoride treatments, with various formulas, can be prescribed by your dentist or orthodontist to make your teeth “super teeth” and drastically more resistant to tooth decay. Again, just as with brushing and flossing – Repetition is the mother of skill – the more you brush and floss, the more proficient you become. Likewise, the more you apply fluoride to the surfaces of your teeth, the more skilled (if enamel can have skill) your teeth become at resisting decay. Voila! – super teeth!
The results of people who have worn braces without proper oral care is readily evident on teeth with chalky or decayed areas at the gum line (below brackets holding orthodontic wires) once braces are removed.
Dentists can, at the non-brushers’ expense, restore these teeth, but isn’t diligent care while in braces a good investment?
Keep brushing and flossing,
Dr. James G. Hood
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
Dental Care Associates of Spokane Valley, P.S.
Family and Cosmetic Dentistry Welcomes Patients
from Age 2 to 102!
James G. Hood, D.D.S., M.A.
507 North Sullivan Road, Suite A-1
Spokane Valley, WA 99037-8576 USA
Phone: (509) 928-9100 | Fax: (509) 928-0414
Email: drhood@drhood.com
Please join us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/drjameshood and
visit our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/drjameshood
Websites: www.drhood.com
www.dentalcareassociatesofspokanevalley.com
Blogs: www.drjamesghoodblog.com
www.dentalhealthandnutritionblog.com
www.dentalcareassociatesofspokanevalleyblog.com
www.jamesandkarenhoodfoundationblog.org
www.sjogrensblog.org
Online Store: www.dentalhealthandnutritionstore.com
Criss-Cross Let’s Floss
Most people would do well to floss more frequently. Brushing should be done twice daily as a minimum. Flossing however, if done well, is sufficient once daily and preferably done before bed or whenever your clean teeth will go the longest before being exposed to food or drink. I would bet that a simple technique will help the average flosser feel better about flossing, I’ll call if Criss-Cross let’s floss.
Before I describe this technique let me review a few flossing basics:
- The best floss is the one you use most frequently.
- It is estimated that 30-40% of the surfaces of teeth are between teeth where only flossing not brushing can reach.
- The closer you hold your hands together when flossing the tighter the floss, and the better the floss removes plaque (bacteria and the waste products it produces).
- The bigger the spaces between teeth the thicker the floss which should be used (embroidery thread (as floss), can be specifically gauged, for individuals with periodontal disease).
- Never floss haphazardly. As with brushing develop a pattern to insure that all tooth surfaces are thoroughly flossed daily.
- Toothpaste when smeared on teeth before flossing can add an abrasive that supplements the action of the floss as well as increasing the exposure of fluoride on the tooth surfaces between teeth.
A few areas of the mouth are difficult to clean and more prone to calculus build-up. To explain why let me first give a marine biology analogy.
Having taught marine biology for two years before attending dental school I had first-hand experience exploring coral reefs. Coral are tiny multi-cellular marine organisms which live in coastal waters and attach to rocks, shells, even sunken boats. During the life of coral they extract calcium from sea water and incorporate the calcium in to their system which remains when they die. Then all their coral relatives live and die on their back and they also incorporate and deposit calcium. After hundreds, even thousands, of coral generations a coral reef remains. The Great Barrier Reef, a large structure of coral skeletons off the east coast of Australia, can even be seen from the surface of the moon. Wow! But I digress.
In a similar fashion, in the human mouth bacteria live on our teeth, certain salivary glands have more calcium salts dissolved in them. These glands have ducts which empty on the teeth in certain areas. The submandibular salivary gland empties under the tongue (you may have gleeked someone with this gland). Single-celled bacteria on the tongue surface of the lower front teeth incorporate the calcium found in the saliva from these salivary glands much like coral in the ocean. Voila! This is the most common area of the mouth for calculus to form. Calculus forms as generations of bacteria die and leave their skeletons of calcium on the teeth. The parotid glands in each cheek empty next to the outside surface of upper molars. This is the second most common area in the mouth for calculus to build up.
Finally, we arrive at our criss-cross, let’s floss technique. When using floss on the lower front teeth, wrap the floss from the front side of one incisor around the tongue side to the back side of the same tooth. With the floss drawn taut around the tooth now one can shoe-shine back and forth with hands in front of the mouth to polish the tongue side of the tooth. Additionally, when you now criss-cross the floss in front of the tooth you may use the hand with the strip of floss on the top to guide the floss down into the gum. Likewise, the hand with the floss below being shoe-shined back up on the tooth until the tongue side and the front of the tooth is polished. As the flosser gets proficient with this criss-cross technique the tongue can be coordinated to keep the floss from popping off the top of the tooth when shoe-shining up on the tooth.
Now with this criss-cross technique one may not remove reefs of calculus, but once your teeth are professionally cleaned this will keep your teeth clean and slick.
Criss-cross, let’s floss!
Thanks for reading and blogging!
Dr. James G. Hood
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
Dental Care Associates of Spokane Valley, P.S.
Family and Cosmetic Dentistry Welcomes Patients
from Age 2 to 102!
James G. Hood, D.D.S., M.A.
507 North Sullivan Road, Suite A-1
Spokane Valley, WA 99037-8576 USA
Phone: (509) 928-9100 | Fax: (509) 928-0414
Email: drhood@drhood.com
Websites: www.drhood.com
www.dentalcareassociatesofspokanevalley.com
Blogs: www.drjamesghoodblog.com
www.dentalhealthandnutritionblog.com
www.dentalcareassociatesofspokanevalleyblog.com
www.jamesandkarenhoodfoundationblog.org
www.sjogrensblog.org
Online Store: www.dentalhealthandnutritionstore.com
Holidays and Dental Health
WOW! The Christmas holiday is rapidly approaching, which catches people off guard on how quickly 2011 ends and 2012 is upon us.
In the hustle-bustle of the hectic holiday season, many may forget about oral health maintenance. Dental insurance usually is contracted yearly, from January 1st through December 31st. Therefore, if you have dental insurance coverage that you or your employer has paid for, it needs to be taken advantage of before December 31st. Use it or lose it.
Many people think, “I’ll do the dental treatment I need in January, after things settle down.” Well … if you see your dentist and have dental treatment done before year’s end, you could have the insurance benefit of 2 years (one before Dec 31st and one after Dec 31st). Either way, you or your employer have paid for your dental insurance (if you’re lucky enough to have dental insurance), so you surely want to take full advantage of your benefits.
Whether or not you have dental insurance, maintenance is always cheaper than repair. As the conclusion of 2011 approaches, be diligent in assuring that you’ve followed the old adage: Brush your teeth twice a day, and see your dentist twice a year.
Dental health is more than just a dazzling smile. Good oral health can help minimize the effect of diabetes, heart disease, respiratory diseases, osteoporosis, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Enjoy the holiday season. Be aware of all the things that you can do to improve your overall health. We are all exposed to excessive amounts of good and not so good foods during this festive season. Be careful how you fuel your systems and understand that oral health is a most significant part of maintaining overall health.
On a final note, Christmas is a season to reflect on how many blessings we have. But in the interest of keeping Christ in Christmas, it is a time to generously be Christian. With our present economy, more people than ever are in need. Generously help someone in need. Perform random acts of kindness. Go out of your way to put smiles on faces of people you may not even know.
Sharing a joyful holiday season,
James G. Hood, DDS, MA
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
Dental Care Associates of Spokane Valley, P.S.
Family and Cosmetic Dentistry Welcomes Patients
from Age 2 to 102!
James G. Hood, D.D.S., M.A.
507 North Sullivan Road, Suite A-1
Spokane Valley, WA 99037-8576 USA
Phone: (509) 928-9100 | Fax: (509) 928-0414
Email: drhood@drhood.com
Websites: www.drhood.com
www.dentalcareassociatesofspokanevalley.com
Blogs: www.drjamesghoodblog.com
www.dentalhealthandnutritionblog.com
www.dentalcareassociatesofspokanevalleyblog.com
www.jamesandkarenhoodfoundationblog.org
www.sjogrensblog.org
Online Store: www.dentalhealthandnutritionstore.com
Dentistry in a Struggling Economy
by Dr. James G. Hood, D.D.S, M.A.
Dentistry in the United States is second to nowhere in the world in terms of quality. We are fortunate in this great nation to have not only highly trained dentists and oral health specialists, but to have their services readily available as well. However, in these difficult economic times, many people are not taking advantage of the excellent dental care available.
On a regular basis people tell me, “I don’t have dental insurance, so I can’t have dental work done.” However, oral health is crucial to overall health and quality of life and should be considered a necessity, not a luxury. Many of my patients would prefer to complete diagnosed dentistry no matter the cost, no matter whether or not they have insurance coverage. Mind you, I’m not saying that insurance isn’t often a significant help—it is. However, your dental work should not be governed by an insurance company. Each person should spend time with his or her dentist to discuss how to make their dentistry affordable for their situation. Everyone should know what good oral hygiene is and receive instruction in how to practice preventive dentistry. Your dentist and dental hygienist are a wealth of knowledge on how you, as an individual, can best keep, maintain, and restore your oral health.
Oral hygiene is best when practiced regularly and frequently. It should be easy to understand that a person who brushes their teeth twice a day and flosses daily will enjoy better, more stable oral health than a person who brushes infrequently or not at all. Machines run better and last longer when well-maintained; likewise, patients who come in for a twice-yearly professional teeth-cleaning and check up complete with oral cancer screening rarely need restorative dentistry. However, those who do not practice any preventive dentistry are most often seen on an emergency basis only.
I see patients from all walks of life, and I can tell you from experience that the healthiest mouths are not found only in those who can easily afford quality dentistry. The healthiest mouths are found in people who understand and practice preventive dentistry, no matter their income. Frequently, patients cannot afford to have all the necessary, diagnosed dental work to be performed at once. However, we can almost always complete a treatment plan in which the dental work is done in phases for those who truly want to have quality dentistry.
The point is, don’t let financial difficulties or a lack of dental insurance prevent you from taking proper care of your oral health. Preventive dentistry in the form of regularly brushing and flossing will go a long way toward ensuring that dentist appointments are simple, inexpensive affairs, and when you do need more extensive dental work, don’t put it off until it becomes an emergency. By discussing it with your dentist, you can work out a treatment plan that will get you back on the road to full health in a way that won’t burden you financially. Call today to set up an appointment with the Dental Care Associates of Spokane Valley.
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