Smile with Confidence: A Comprehensive Guide to Dental Health and Care

dental health

Common Dental Questions, dental care questions and answers, dental health and hygiene tips, cosmetic and restorative dentistry, dental technology, ask a dentist

Daily Dental Health Tips

When you visit the dentist, they will have lots of advice on how to protect your oral health. There are several oral hygiene habits that are worth developing and maintaining in your daily health routine. These daily activities can help prevent periodontal diseases and cavities and help you maintain good oral health.

What Teeth say about Overall Health

Next time you visit your dentist you may tell him more about yourself than you realize. Your dentist might learn a lot about your overall health simply by performing a routine dental exam. A client who has teeth that the enamel has worn down on might be stressed out and grinding their teeth during the night. Your teeth, gums and the tissues found in the mouth can share a lot about the state of your overall health. Sometimes the dentist might be the first health care professional who warns you of health conditions. Here are a few things your mouth might be saying about you.

Dental Care for College Students

College can be one of the most fun and most rewarding times of your life. You are finally out of the house and on your own, there are plenty of social activities and you are probably going to make some life long memories and friendships. It’s also a very defining time of your life and you get to discover many things about yourself that you perhaps didn’t know before. With this hurried and busy campus lifestyle filled with social events and studies it can be far too easy to get out of some of your routines. Not only might you gain the infamous “Freshman 15” but you can also develop a variety of other health conditions. One thing you can do to ensure your health is to maintain your daily oral regimen. It will ensure your teeth remain healthy despite the craziness of college and it can protect your overall health as well. Here are some tips recommended by your dentist. Prior to heading off to college you should visit the dentist for your routine check up and you should continue to see your dentist regularly when you come home for breaks. Maintaining a good oral hygiene regime with the help of your top dentist can ensure that your teeth stay healthy when you are older.

Dental Care for Smokers

It’s no secret that smoking has its accompanying problems, not the least of which is challenges with dental hygiene. The use of any and all tobacco products can lead to teeth that are dull, discolored, and decayed, especially if a good oral hygiene routine is not observed. But the truth is that a good oral hygiene routine is only the half of it. If you’re a smoker, you need to go above and beyond in your dental hygiene regimen just to keep up with the folks who don’t use tobacco products at all. Here are some tips from family dentists and throughout the country for smokers and users of other tobacco products about going the extra mile to keep your teeth healthy.

Are Sports Drinks Harmful for Your Teeth?

Walking through the drink aisle at the grocery store might draw your eyes to the 6 pack of mini sports drinks for $10. It’s even more appealing if you’re still holding on to your New Year’s resolution of going to the gym. There has been a lot of buzz about electrolytes and other benefits to drinking sports drinks. We have been over saturated with commercials of major league athletes drinking these drinks.

Have you stopped to ask if they actually do the trick? After all, if my favorite sports teams can win the game from drinking them, maybe I should give them a try. There are a few things about sports drinks you need to know before you buy.

What Are Wisdom Teeth?

Why are they called ‘wisdom teeth’? Do they make you wise? Or are you already expected to be wise when they come in? There isn’t a whole lot of recorded history about why wisdom teeth, or as they were once referred to, ‘teeth of wisdom,’ are so called. But linguists seem to agree that they were nicknamed for wisdom because they appear in the mouth later in life than other teeth, typically between the ages of 17 and 21. Formerly known as third molars, wisdom teeth are the last four teeth to erupt in the mouth. Oftentimes they come in unnoticed. However, when there’s just not enough room to fit them in the mouth, or when they become impacted, wisdom teeth seem anything but wise. In fact, if you’re someone who’s suffered with an impacted or crowding wisdom tooth, you likely thought how stupid it was for that thing to try to muscle its way into your already cramped chops. So what are wisdom teeth anyway? What purpose do they serve? And what happens if you’re having problems with them? Here’s some information about wisdom teeth and what can be done with wisdom teeth that that are not coming in correctly. For more information about wisdom teeth contact a top dentist today, and they will be happy to answer all of your questions about dental health.

What Is a Root Canal?

You’ve heard it likened to just about any painful process that life has to offer. How many of us have uttered these words when faced with a difficult situation, “I’d rather have a root canal!” So just how painful is a root canal? Statistics show that most folks don’t experience much pain at all. In fact, the American Association of Endodontists recently conducted a survey, in which it was learned that root canals generally are only feared by those who haven’t had them. The survey showed that folks who had a root canal performed were actually 3 times more likely to say they didn’t fear another root canal over those who’d never had it done. What’s to be gleaned from this survey? That root canals aren’t nearly as bad as you think. Following is information from a good dentists about what a root canal is and what to expect during the procedure, as well as a checklist of actions you can take following your root canal to recover and speed up healing.

What Is Tooth Erosion?

Teeth have four layers. The first layer  is the enamel. The second layer is the dentin, or the inner layer. The third layer is the pulp, which contains blood vessels and nerves. The fourth layer of teeth is the cementum, which is a calcified substance that covers the tooth root. The layer that is most affected by tooth erosion is the first layer, the enamel. When teeth erode, loss of enamel occurs that is irreversible. Tooth enamel is a pretty hard substance. In fact, it’s the hardest tissue in the human body. It’s mineralized hard tissue that covers the tooth and protects it. However, tooth enamel can become chemically dissolved by too much acid. Following is information from top dentists about tooth erosion, as well as recommendations on how to prevent its occurrence.

Diabetes and Dental Health

As with the sufferers of many health conditions, individuals who have diabetes must contend with numerous potential complications. If you’re a diabetic, you already know that you need to keep your blood glucose at the proper level in order to keep your diabetes under control and avoid complications that can be associated with your condition. What you may not realize, however, is that one of those complications can be dental health problems. In recent years, research has shown that poorly controlled diabetes can be linked to a greater risk of developing serious oral health problems such as gum disease and lost teeth. Diabetics are now shown to be more likely to develop these dental health problems than are non-diabetics. By the same token, dental health conditions such as gum disease are also associated with developing diabetes. Top dentists want both diabetics and non-diabetics to learn more about the link between oral health and diabetes.

What Is Oral Thrush?

If you notice a white coating inside your mouth, you may have oral thrush. Oral thrush is an infection of the mouth caused by yeast. It’s estimated that upwards of 35 percent of newborns develop oral thrush in the first few months of life. Additionally, oral thrush is fairly common among children in their toddler years, as well as elderly patients who wear dentures. But oral thrush doesn’t just occur in children and the elderly. People who smoke are at particular risk for developing this mouth infection, as smoking can weaken the immune system. Pregnant women and patients who have compromised immune systems from medical conditions such as HIV, diabetes, and cancer also are at greater risk of developing oral thrush. Following is information from top dentists about oral thrush, its causes, symptoms, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment.