175
Grange Avenue
P. O. Box 629
Molalla, OR 97038
Phone:
503-829-9734
Fax: 503-829-9375
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FAQs
Is it
possible to keep teeth and gums healthy for a lifetime?
Certainly,
many preventive measures and advanced methods help to keep the
dentition healthy as long as possible. Starting from toothbrushes,
there are now several different types available in the market ranging
from manual to electrical, with different designs.
Tooth pastes with fluoride, help to strengthen tooth enamel making them
resistant to the acids of bacteria and food fermentation. Several types
of fluoride mouth gels and rinses prevent plaque accumulation,
destroying bacteria and making the exposed root surface resistant to
caries as the human being ages.
Flosses now are manufactured with more acceptable tastes, waxed,
un-waxed or even satin tapes that slide very easily between the teeth
to clean them. Inter-dental brushes do the same job as the flosses, but
used for larger spaces, and areas that are hard to reach, like under
the bridges. Mouth washes with or without jets streams, are other
means.
Fissure sealants (fluoride-releasing paste applied on the tooth by the
dentist) are a lifetime barrier against caries attack, when applied at
the right time (as soon as the tooth "molar "erupts ).
Regular visits (either six monthly or yearly) to the dentist for a
check up, will eliminate any disease at its start.
Now available is a a device quite advanced and new, the Ozone
application cessions, that hardens the caries inside the tooth mostly
with out the need for drilling the tooth and making a filling. All the
filling procedures now are made less extensive, and even if the tooth
is affected to an advanced stage, it is still possible to be filled and
maintained. Lost gums and bones supporting the teeth are now being
re-generated to support the teeth for a longer time.
Most important also is a balanced diet since early childhood is very
essential in this process. "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" is a
very true saying, especially for teeth. When you minimize sugar intake,
and make vegetables available with each meal, they will act as a
natural tooth brush rich with fibers and water content, and the
vitamins that they supply the body, make the gums very healthy, strong
and capable of healing and fighting the bacteria in a battle that
happens during the whole day.
When you have the will to succeed in this, you will find all the
methods mentioned above are simple facts, and easy to use, and when you
practice them daily, you will be a pro with no time. Remember it is
never too late to start, just find your right dentist and he or she
will definitely help you to reach your aim.
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What does it mean when
gums bleed while brushing and flossing?
"It means that it is
time to visit the dentist".
It is possible that you are not using the brush and floss properly and
you are inducing an injury to the gums when you clean, then you need
the dentist to show the right way to do it. It is also possible that
you have a case of gingivitis (gum inflammation) that needs to be
sorted out before the condition advances, and this is certainly done in
the dental office.
What are the signs of gum disease?
Signs of gum disease are plenty, and could be briefed as follows:
Bad breath.
Bleeding when brushing or biting hard food like
apples.
Swelling ( increase in size) of the gums,
sometimes big enough to almost cover the tooth.
Loose gum margin.
Painful gums.
Teeth are tender to bite or touch.
Red (rose-red) gums
Blue gums.
Teeth are becoming longer with time (gum
recession).
Teeth become mobile without a trauma, and move
from a point to another distant point.
Teeth become sensitive to cold and hot drinks.
Spaces between teeth recently developed.
Gum
boils. An eruption on the gum occur in the mid way from the gum line at
the neck of the tooth, to the base of the gum, this usually give rise
to pus discharge (yellowish color nasty in taste.).
Always
with calculus and plaque accumulation there is some sort of gum disease
going on even if it is in early stages, and without the above mentioned
symptoms.
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How often should one have the teeth
cleaned?
At Home:
Using the brush
(at the rate of 2 min in each time)
- Minimum three times daily, maximum after
each meal and snack, using the brush alone.
- If
you drink sour (citrus) drinks or eat citrus fruits too much
frequently, I advice waiting for a half an hour and then brush. This is
to allow the saliva to neutralize the acidity. If you clean directly,
you will rub the tooth surface with the remnants of the acidic drink
or fruit.
Using the floss
(preferably with tooth paste and before brushing)
- Minimum every two days
- Maximum twice daily
- Preferably once at night before bed.
At The Dental Office:
- Regularly: every six months.
- If you have dental bridges, every four
months
- If you have braces fixed on your teeth,
every orthodontic cession is necessary.
- If
you had had a periodontal (gum) surgery or you suffer from active
periodontitis (gum disease), then every three months you should go for
professional cleaning.
Do you
recommend buying special "Whitening" toothpastes?
That depends on what your expectations are by using whitening
toothpaste!
Usually special whitening tooth pastes are prescribed after an
in-office dental bleaching cession, or associated with a home bleaching
set, in order to support the bleaching procedure by maintaining the
last shade achieved in that particular procedure at a fixed level,
provided that you take care about what you eat or drink (food
pigments), or smoke!
The regular ones that you find on the shelves at the supermarkets,
eventually work as weak whitening agents depending mainly on how good
and how often you brush your teeth, rather than on the action of the
active ingredients, which usually are either sodium bicarbonate or
peroxides.
So ultimately, it is your choice!
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How to
choose the right tooth brush?
Usually the right tooth brush should provide the following objectives:
Small enough to reach far places.
Soft, so that it can bend to cover the wider area of tooth surface when
cleaning, and can reach under the gum line without difficulty.
It should have a bunch of tughts at the tip higher than the rest, in
order to reach to back of the furthest teeth, and in-between the teeth.
The handle should provide a flexible angle to control movement and
accessibility.
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What is
Cosmetic Dentistry?
Cosmetic Dentistry is a branch of the dental practice that aim at
restoring aesthetics of the existing dentition. It involves procedures
done on front as well as back teeth like:
Changing the metallic restorations (like amalgam, gold crowns, full
metal crowns) into whole ceramic ones that can match the natural tooth
color or even changing old composite fillings (tooth colored fillings)
into newer composites or substituting them with ceramics.
If in a case of crooked teeth and orthodontics are too expensive or
cannot be achieved due to a dental cause, root canal treatment is done
on teeth that are malposed and either crowns or bridges are made, and
this is especially applicable in the front region of the dentition.
Certain tooth forms, that the patient is unhappy with, can be changed
as well into a more pleasant form, or teeth that are broken by
accidents, as well as caries.
Tooth discolorations that are hard to bleach can be eliminated using
ceramic crowns.
Some cases of diastimas (opening between the tow upper central
incisors), or even space between the teeth can be eliminated by crowns
and/or bridges.
Bleaching is a part of cosmetic dentistry, as well as orthodontics, and
dental implants.
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Should
an impacted wisdom teeth be removed if they are not bothersome? Should
a specialist be considered for having them removed?
Most of the general practitioners are well trained and can handle most
of the cases of impacted wisdom teeth, unless the case forces itself,
there is no need to see a specialist for that.
Impacted wisdom teeth are useless teeth, non functional. Some of them
when left buried in the jaw might give rise to cysts or tumors in the
coming future. And some might stay quite for a very long time. They
will stay buried in the jaw until the cause of impaction is removed
such as another adjacent tooth.
Some of them appear in the mouth when the person becomes edentulous
(without teeth) due to alveolar bone resorbtion (decrease in the
vertical dimension of the tooth bearing part of the jaw).
When you choose not to extract the impacted tooth if they are not
causing any trouble at the time being, they should be examined
regularly every year with x-rays to exclude any changes in the
surrounding bone and tissues.
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Which is
the right time to start cleaning a baby's teeth?
During infancy, it is advisable to start cleaning his gums with a piece
of cotton at least once daily at night, and after he starts to have his
first milk tooth to erupt, wipe those teeth with cotton, or at least
give him a sip of water after bottle or breast feeding. As soon as the
child is able to hold a spoon with his hands give him a tooth brush to
hold, and there are some that have a rubber tip to be given to those
children at the time of early tooth eruption. This will help him to get
used to the feeling of brushing and introducing a tooth brush into his
mouth. At the age of one year, the baby will have most of his front
teeth erupted, and these are enough to establish this cleaning habit.
Use tooth brush with or without baby's tooth paste.
Introducing a child for the dental clinic should be at his first
birthday, the dentist will start to motivate the child with your help,
teaching a child at this age to the correct form of oral hygiene habits
although simple the measures are, it is essential to make him used to
the feeling of clean teeth, after that every thing will be easy because
you have given him the will to have healthy clean teeth.
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What
causes baby bottle tooth decay?
When you allow the child to sleep after feeding him milk with a bottle
without washing his mouth, or without wiping his mouth with a wet
cotton, or even not brushing his teeth, the sugar in the milk consumed
will ferment, the result of fermentation (that occurs with the help of
bacteria action that inhabit the mouth naturally) is acid that attack
the mineral component of the enamel ( the strongest tooth layer) and
causes demineralization of the teeth, like dissolving the tooth surface
and rendering it weaker. The inner layers of the tooth are weaker when
exposed to acid and its action will be faster leading to tooth
destruction and actual cavitation.
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What is
a space maintainer?
A space maintainer is an appliance given to the child after extracting
a milk tooth, when the successor permanent tooth is far from its time
of eruption.
The appliance is used in a way to keep the space created by the
extraction of the milk tooth until the time the permanent tooth will
erupt when the appliance is removed by the help of a dentist.
Space maintainers are of different shapes, and designed from different
types of materials to suit each case individually, but the aim of each
design is one. The appliance could be fixed to the adjacent existing
teeth, or could be fixed to existing teeth far away from the extraction
site, or it could be removable such as dentures.
Early extraction of teeth like deciduous molars (baby molars) or even
permanent molars during early childhood, at the time of active rapid
growth, will lead to movement of the neighboring teeth (teeth
surrounding the space created by the extraction) into this space either
by tilting within the space, or actual occupation of the whole space by
those teeth.
This will lead to decrease in the dimension of the dental arch (teeth
bearing part of the jaw) and the teeth that didn't erupt yet will not
find the proper space that they should naturally occupy when they are
in the mouth. So they will either come out in the palate, or towards
the tongue or the cheek, or they will not erupt ever and stay in the
jaw.
The child will definitely have a shorter or smaller jaw, or will have
crooked teeth, or might suffer from serious bite problems. Problems
such as these will not be corrected by themselves with out the
interruption of an orthodontist.
Avoiding extraction by fillings is the proper choice of treatment when
applicable.
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What
should be done if a child's permanent tooth is knocked out?
Place the tooth in a cup of milk, or your child's saliva, without
rubbing the dust of it and go to the dentist as soon as possible.
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What
should be done if a child has a toothache?
Always consult a dentist.
When the consultation is done in the proper time, many complications
could be avoided.
Pain is a sign of an ongoing disease, when you give the child medicines
from the shelves of your home, you can't discover by your self what is
the cause of this pain. Only a dentist can know what is going on, and
he can manage the case very much better when you consult him at the
right time, saving the child a complication that might cost him his
tooth, and a bad experience.
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