Dental Blog

Professional dental exams and a regular homecare routine do more than keep your mouth clean – they might just save your life!

Taking care of your mouth, teeth, and gums are important to your overall health and can prevent cavities, periodontal disease and infections while lowering your risk of heart attack and stroke. As an added bonus, you get to keep your natural teeth as you age!

Root canals might get a bad rap, but they are one of many options to save your natural teeth. Thanks to advances in technology, they are more comfortable and successful than ever.

Years ago, the mere thought of a root canal would cause people more pain than an actual toothache. But now, advances in digital imaging, materials, and techniques make the procedure almost as quick and safe as a filling.

Bad breath isn’t fun for anyone. Here are a few causes and some ideas to keep your breath fresh.

Sometimes bad breath is the result of a garlicky dinner or morning coffee but sometimes it’s caused by a chronic condition called halitosis.

If you have persistent bad breath that doesn’t go away even after brushing and rinsing with mouthwash or if bad breath returns even when you avoid foods known to cause it, you might have halitosis.

If you’ve lost some or all your natural teeth, your dentist will recommend dentures so you can speak and chew properly and keep your bite correctly aligned.

Dentures can be removable or fixed appliances that replace missing teeth and keep your smile looking healthy. They can rest on your gums or on implants to keep them in place. Technology has advanced a lot in dentistry in the last 20 years, and you are no longer stuck with ill-fitting dentures that make you sound like you have a mouthful of marbles.

If you haven’t been to the dentist in a while or if you have difficulty sticking to a regular brushing and flossing routine, your hygienist or dentist might recommend root planing and scaling. While it might sound scary, scaling and root planing is simply a deep cleaning below the gum line to help treat gum disease.

Extractions are necessary for many reasons. By following some simple tips, you can avoid many post-op complications and lessen your healing time to get back to normal as quickly as possible.

If a tooth is cracked below the gum, has a root fracture, or is periodontally involved and can't be saved, an extraction might be recommended to preserve nearby teeth or to prep the area for an implant or dentures. Sometimes a tooth or teeth need to be extracted before orthodontic treatment to make room for other teeth to shift into a better alignment.

Do cold foods make your teeth feel like a hot mess? Do hot foods give your teeth the chills? You’re not alone. Read on for some tips to keep your mouth (and you) happy.

Tooth sensitivity is a common problem, but you don’t have to suffer in silence. There are many treatments available that can have you enjoying your favorite foods again in no time.

After you eat, sugar bugs go crazy over the sugar on your teeth, like ants at a picnic. The sugar bugs turn the sugar into acids that eat away tooth enamel, causing holes called cavities. The sugar bugs also cause gingivitis, which is gum disease that can make your gums red, swollen, and sore. Your gums are the soft pink tissue in your mouth that hold your teeth in place.

The holiday season is over, and everything is slowly returning to normal. Now is a great time to focus on your New Year’s resolutions. Instead of making general resolutions like wanting to lose weight or saying you want to be healthier, why not get specific and resolve to support your oral health by brushing at least twice a day, flossing at least once a day, and eating foods that are healthy for your teeth, gums, and bones!

There comes a time when the tides change, and we become a caregiver to those that raised us, drove us to soccer practice, dance recitals, and music lessons. They helped us brush our hair and taught us to brush our teeth. Now we are the ones helping with shopping, shuttling loved ones to doctor’s appointments, assisting with errands, and balancing checkbooks. One often overlooked (but just as important) task is helping your loved one maintain their oral health.