Useful Dental Information
Are Your Roots Showing?
Have you watched a child trying to walk on stilts? They wobble and sometimes fall down. If your tooth is on stilts (has an open furcation), your tooth also wobbles and may fall out.
A furcation is the spot on the tooth where the roots diverge into two or more roots. It is a common condition that begins with periodontal disease. This is a chronic infection that caused your gums to recede and destroyed the jawbone and other supporting structures around your tooth. As the gums receded, a furcation (gap) formed under the tooth where the roots divide away from the body of the tooth.
It is impossible to keep the area clean. A furcation provides decay-causing bacteria and yeast a cozy hiding place to grow.
When periodontal disease reaches this stage, it can be difficult to save the tooth.
In the past, the only treatment was to extract the tooth. Today, we can sometimes use non-surgical procedures to save the tooth and restore your oral health.
We might be able to fill the furcation with a white restoration product that contains fluoride. If necessary, we could also use a tissue regrowing procedure to build up the gum so it covers the roots.
But, what is most important is to get the periodontal disease under control. This disease is unforgiving. Once you have it, you will always have it; so you will need to maintain a rigorous home oral care program after we treat the infection.
Having a happy smile means having good oral health.
Call today if you are experiencing a dental issue, and leave wobbly stilts to kids.
Hooked on Hookah
It’s a social thing, especially for young, hip urbanites and young professionals living close to a college campus. Smoking a hookah, or waterpipe, is gaining in popularity in the U.S. and is just as dangerous as smoking tobacco or other forms of tobacco. 
One user compared a hookah bar or cafe to being at home, but with cooler people. Oral cancer is not cool. And it’s no longer an “old man’s” disease.
The hookah is a water reservoir with a tobacco heater, pipe and attached hose(s). The user sucks flavored tobacco smoke into the reservoir that acts somewhat like a filter, then sucks the smoke out through the hose and into his or her lungs. Even with a “filter,” the hookah is an effective nicotine and carcinogen delivery system.
The belief that smoking a hookah is safer than smoking a cigarette is bogus. Here’s why.
It takes from 5- to 10-minutes to smoke a cigarette. A hookah session is 45 minutes to one hour, during which time the hookah smoker breathes in smoke equivalent to 100 to 200 cigarettes! That smoke delivers at least 100 times more nicotine, heavy metals, carbon monoxide and cancer-causing chemicals than is delivered by one cigarette.
The hookah smoker has 13 times the risk of developing cancer of the larynx and a nearly 4 times higher risk of developing throat cancer. The longer exposure increases the smoker’s risk of dental diseases, heart disease and lung and stomach cancer.
Tobacco use is the most preventable cause of death, but we need your help. We perform an oral cancer exam as part of your regular hygiene check-up. Please make and keep your check-up appointments.
Is bone loss permanent?
Is bone loss permanent? The answer is yes and no. Unlike a crab that can regrow an appendage, humans cannot regrow new bones on their own, but we do have ways to encourage the bone tissue in the jawbone to regenerate. This procedure is called bone grafting or ridge augmentation.
There are several factors that can cause jawbone loss, including a tooth extraction, dental injury, oral disease or a developmental defect.
Ridge augmentation is necessary for some restoration procedures. For example, your jawbone must be thick enough and tall enough for us to place a bridge, crown or denture that will be supported by an implant. An implant is a tiny metal screw that is inserted into your jawbone; then, an abutment (a special attachment) is placed on top of the implant so that a bridge, crown or denture can be secured to it.
When you don’t have adequate jawbone, we can take bone tissue from one of your other bones or another source and add it (a graft) to the short or thin jawbone. The graft encourages your own bone to produce new bone tissue. Your body doesn’t reject a bone graft like it would an organ.
Ridge augmentation is a common procedure that is typically done in our office.
With healthy jawbone and an implant restoring the function of your dental arch, you can once again eat nutritious foods and talk without the embarrassment of a loose denture or displaying a gap caused by a missing tooth. An implant can give you back your confidence and your beautiful smile.
If you need a restoration, we will thoroughly discuss your options.
Your Mouth and World War I
Could your mouth be fighting World War I? Commonly called “trench mouth,” Vincent’s stomatitis is a severe gum infection that plagued soldiers during WWI. Many soldiers were confined to trenches while fighting the War; their bodys’ resistance was low, and they couldn’t take care of their teeth.
Vincent’s stomatitis typically affects people up to about 35 years of age. This is a serious condition also known as ANUG—acute necrotizing ulcerative gingivitis.
Your mouth contains millions of bacteria, most of which keep the bad bacteria under control. Vincent’s stomatitis is an indication that the bad bacteria won the war in your mouth.
These bacteria attack and destroy your gum tissue. Trench mouth produces ulcers filled with bacteria, food particles and dead gum tissue. As you can imagine, this results in very bad breath and extreme pain. If the infection is not halted, it spreads rapidly and destroys other soft oral tissues, such as your cheeks and tongue. You could even lose teeth. If these bacteria enter your bloodstream, they will travel to other parts of your body and do more damage.
You could be at risk of having trench mouth if your oral hygiene and diet are bad, if you chew or smoke tobacco, or your immune system is weak because of an illness. Emotional stress and insufficient vitamin C also have a major impact on the health of your gums.
WWI soldiers didn’t have any options. But you have many oral product options to help you have clean teeth and gums.
If you have trench mouth, we first have to get the infection stopped, which can be done only with a professional cleaning and treatments. Then, it’s up to you to maintain a rigorous oral homecare routine: Brush twice each day with a soft-bristle toothbrush, and floss at least once each day. We may recommend a special mouthwash for a period of time so that you don’t irritate the healing tissues.
Call us right away if you are experiencing anything out of the ordinary in your mouth. The quicker we can intervene, the faster we can return you to good health!
Oral Care and Daycare: A dilemma
It’s a difficult decision to leave your youngster with a childcare provider while you are at work. One dilemma is making sure your child gets appropriate oral hygiene care away from home. 
It is vitally important to protect baby teeth from decay and pre-mature loss. Baby teeth preserve space for the permanent teeth to erupt and move into position, and they help your child to chew and develop speech.
Not all childcare providers have oral hygiene programs.
There are many valid reasons for a childcare provider to not provide oral care: controlling infection, lack of appropriate facilities and public health issues, for example.
If your childcare provider includes oral hygiene care, ask to observe how it is performed to know if your child is receiving the quality care he or she needs. Also, look to see if toothbrushes are air-dried naturally and the brushing methods are hygienic.
However, if your childcare provider does not have an oral care program, you need to make a commitment to maintain a regular brushing and flossing routine at home.
As soon as you get home, brush your child’s teeth with fluoride toothpaste, and floss (if your child cannot brush and floss unassisted).
Lastly, regular dental check-ups are equally important. We use caries detection technology that can spot trouble before decay begins, and we can identify other dental issues that will affect your child’s health.
Caries is the number one chronic childhood disease in the U.S. We don’t want your child to be in that statistic.
Remember, when you need us, we’re only a phone call away.
Date posted: Monday, March 15th, 2010 11:10 pm | Under category: Uncategorized
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