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Posts for: December, 2019

By Sandusky and Lexington Dental Care
December 28, 2019
Category: Dental Procedures
Tags: dental implants   smoking  
3ReasonsWhySmokingDoesntMixwithDentalImplants

If you smoke, you know better than anyone how a hard a habit it is to kick. If you want to quit, it helps to have a motivating reason—like lowering your risk for cancer, cardiovascular disease or similar conditions.

Here’s another reason for quitting tobacco: it could be making your teeth and gums less healthy. And, if you’re facing a restoration like dental implants, smoking can make that process harder or even increase the risk of failure.

So, to give your willpower some needed pep talk material, here are 3 reasons why smoking doesn’t mix with dental implants.

Inhaled smoke damages mouth tissues. Though you may not realize it, the smoke from your cigarette or cigar is hot enough to burn the top layer of skin cells in your mouth, which then thickens them. This could affect your salivary glands causing them to produce less saliva, which in turn could set off a chain of events that increases your risk of tooth decay or periodontal (gum) disease. The end result might be bone loss, which could make installing dental implants difficult if not impossible.

Nicotine restricts healthy blood flow. Nicotine, the chemical tobacco users crave, can restrict blood flow in the tiny vessels that course through the mouth membranes and gums. With less blood flow, these tissues may not receive enough antibodies to fight infection and fully facilitate healing, which could interfere with the integration of bone and implants that create their durable hold. Slower healing, as well as the increased chances of infection, could interrupt this integration process.

Smoking contributes to other diseases that impact oral health. Smoking’s direct effect on the mouth isn’t the only impact it could have on your oral health. As is well known, tobacco use can increase the risk of systemic conditions like cardiovascular and lung disease, and cancer. These conditions may also trigger inflammation—and a number of studies are showing this triggered inflammatory response could also affect your body’s ability to fight bacterial infections in the mouth. Less healthy teeth, gums and underlying bone work against your chances of long-term success with implants.

If you would like more information on dental implants, please contact us or schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can also learn more about this topic by reading the Dear Doctor magazine article “Dental Implants & Smoking: What are the Risks?”


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By Sandusky and Lexington Dental Care
December 23, 2019
Category: Dental Procedures
MileyCyrussLittleSecretStraighteningHerSmileWithLingualBraces

Miley Cyrus's rise to fame began when she was cast in the Disney series Hannah Montana. She played the title character, Hannah Montana, a famous singing star hiding her true identity, ordinary girl, Miley Stewart. In her real life at the time, Miley Cyrus had her own little secret—she was undergoing orthodontic treatment to straighten her smile.

Like many teenagers (as well as many adults), Cyrus's dental bite wasn't in proper alignment. She could have gone the traditional way by straightening her smile with braces fixed to the front of her teeth. It's an effective treatment, but the metallic hardware can overwhelm a person's appearance.

With her various roles in the public spotlight, Cyrus and her family wanted an effective but out-of-sight method for moving her teeth. They chose a relatively new one called lingual braces. Unlike traditional braces, the hardware for lingual braces is fixed on the back of the teeth (or the tongue side, hence the term “lingual”).

Lingual braces can correct any bite problem labial (“lip”) braces can, just through different mechanics of movement. Its main appeal is that the hardware is hidden behind the teeth, so only you and your orthodontist need know you're wearing braces.

There is also less risk of damage to the mouth or the braces themselves if you're in a sport or profession where you're at high risk for facial blows. And unlike patients with traditional braces, you'll have an unobstructed view of your progress over the course of treatment.

Lingual braces do tend to cost more than traditional braces. Some patients also have difficulty at first with speaking and tongue comfort, though most grow accustomed to the braces within a couple of weeks. Because lingual braces are relatively new, there's been a limited number of orthodontists offering it.

But lingual braces are just one of the ways to straighten teeth. Modern dentistry offers several ways to give you your dream smile. If you have dental problems or would like to improve the look of your smile, please contact us or schedule a consultation, and we can discuss your options. To learn more, read the Dear Doctor magazine articles “Lingual Braces” and “The Magic of Orthodontics.”


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By Sandusky and Lexington Dental Care
December 18, 2019
Category: Oral Health
Tags: oral hygiene   oral health  
YourSmileCanBeYourPassporttotheWorld-TakeCareofItWithTheseTips

Bonjour! Hola! Shalom! December is National Learn a Foreign Language Month, and learning to say “Hello” in different tongues is a good place to start. You could then move on to another set of wonderful words like sonrisa, lächeln and sourire, the Spanish, German and French words for “smile.”

But then again, smiling itself doesn’t need a translation—it’s common to every culture on earth. It’s one of our best assets for interacting with people, both at home and abroad. So, make sure your smile is the best it can be by taking care of the “stars of the show”: your teeth and gums.

Here are a few tips for keeping your teeth and gums healthy and your “international” smile attractive.

Brush and floss daily. It takes just 5 minutes a day to perform one of the most important things you can do for your long-term oral health. Brushing and flossing clean away dental plaque, a sticky bacterial film that causes tooth decay and gum disease. A daily oral hygiene practice helps keep your teeth shiny and clean and your gums a healthy shade of pink.

Get regular dental cleanings. Even the most diligent hygiene habit may not clear away all plaque deposits, which can then harden into a calcified form called calculus. Also known as tartar, calculus is an ideal haven for disease-causing bacteria—and it can’t be removed by brushing and flossing alone. Dental cleanings at least twice a year remove stubborn plaque and calculus, further reducing your disease risk.

Don’t ignore dental problems. While your dentist will check your mouth for disease during your regular cleanings, you should also be on the lookout for signs of problems between visits. Watch for odd spots on the teeth and swollen, reddened or bleeding gums. If you see any abnormalities like these, don’t ignore it; make an exam appointment as soon as possible. The sooner we identify and begin treating a potential dental issue, the less your oral health—and your smile—will suffer.

Consider cosmetic improvements. Keeping teeth clean and healthy is one thing, but what can you do about existing dental blemishes that detract from your smile? Fortunately, there are numerous ways to cosmetically enhance teeth and gums, and many are quite affordable. Teeth whitening can brighten up yellow, dingy teeth; bonding can repair minor chips and other tooth defects; and veneers and other restorations can mask tooth chips, stains or misalignments.

Like the ability to speak another language, a confident, joyful smile can open doors to new cultures, places and friends. Let us partner with you to make your smile as attractive as possible.

If you would like more information about improving and maintaining your smile, please contact us or schedule a consultation. To learn more, read the Dear Doctor magazine article “10 Tips for Daily Oral Care at Home.”


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By Sandusky and Lexington Dental Care
December 13, 2019
Category: Dental Procedures
Tags: porcelain veneers  
ItTakesArtistryandSkilltoAchievetheRightColorBalanceforYourVeneers

Getting a new smile doesn’t have to be an elaborate affair. If your teeth have minor to moderate chips, stains or tooth gaps, dental veneers could be the answer. These thin wafers of dental porcelain mask tooth imperfections and completely change your smile’s dynamic—and without a huge impact to your wallet.

To achieve that effect, though, your personal set of veneers will require the expertise of both your dentist and a dental lab technician to design and create your veneers. And while there are numerous considerations in achieving a truly life-like appearance with veneers, one of the most important is their color.

We always associate the color white with teeth. And while it is the dominant hue, actual tooth color is more complex. An individual tooth is comprised of multiple shades and tints, that range in variation from its biting edge to the gums. Likewise, tooth color in general can differ from person to person.

Your dentist must take these individual color variations into account while designing your new veneers, especially if you’ll be getting them for some but not for all your teeth. In that case, it’s important for the veneer color to blend seamlessly with the color of your natural teeth without veneers.

Your new smile expectations and desires are also important and should be considered when designing veneer coloring. For instance, do you want a more natural look—or would you prefer a smile with more “dazzle”? This could have an impact on color.

Your dentist takes all of this information (including your input) and communicates it clearly to the dental lab technician creating the veneers. That process is a combination of both science and artistry, using a variety of techniques to achieve an accurate, life-like texture and color result. For example, a technician may paint the edges of the veneers with a ceramic paste that when cured produces a life-like translucency.

This meticulous attention to color detail is necessary to create beautiful veneers that look natural. If the color is right, you’re sure to enjoy the change your veneers bring to your smile for many years to come.

If you would like more information on transforming your smile with dental veneers, please contact us or schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can also learn more about this topic by reading the Dear Doctor magazine article “Porcelain Veneers: Your Smile—Better Than Ever.”


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By Sandusky and Lexington Dental Care
December 08, 2019
Category: Oral Health
Tags: fluoride  
FluoridatedDrinkingWaterHelpsCurbToothDecaySafely

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls it “one of the ten most important public health measures of the 20th Century.” A new vaccine? A cure for a major disease? No—the CDC is referring to the addition of fluoride to drinking water to prevent tooth decay.

Fluoride is a chemical compound found in foods, soil and water. Its presence in the latter, in fact, was key to the discovery of its dental benefits in the early 20th Century. A dentist in Colorado Springs, Colorado, whose natural water sources were abundant with fluoride, noticed his patients' teeth had unusual staining but no tooth decay. Curious, he did some detective work and found fluoride in drinking water to be the common denominator.

By mid-century, fluoride was generally recognized as a cavity fighter. But it also had its critics (still lively today) that believed it might also cause serious health problems. Ongoing studies, however, found that fluoride in tiny amounts—as small as a grain of sand in a gallon of water—had an immense effect strengthening enamel with scant risk to health.

The only condition found caused by excess fluoride is a form of tooth staining called fluorosis (like those in Colorado Springs). Fluorosis doesn't harm the teeth and is at worst a cosmetic problem. And it can be avoided by regulating the amount of ingested fluoride to just enough for effectively preventing tooth decay.

As researchers have continued to learn more about fluoride, we've fine-tuned what that amount should be. The U.S. Public Health Service (PHS), which sets standards for fluoride in drinking water, now recommends to utilities that fluoridate water to do so at a ratio of 0.7 mg of fluoride to 1 liter of water. This miniscule amount is even lower than previous recommendations.

The bottom line: Fluoride can have an immense impact on your family's dental health—and it doesn't take much. Excessive amounts, though, can lead to dental staining, so it's prudent to monitor your intake. That means speaking with your dentist about the prevalence of fluoride in your area (including your drinking water) and whether you need to take measures to reduce (or expand) your use of it.

If you would like more information on how best fluoride benefits your family's dental health, please contact us or schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can also learn more about this topic by reading the Dear Doctor magazine article “Fluoride & Fluoridation in Dentistry.”


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