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All About Toothpaste
Toothpaste: It's something most people use every day, but rarely give much thought to — except, perhaps, when choosing from among the dozens of brands that line the drugstore shelf. Is there any difference between them? What's toothpaste made of… and does it really do what it promises on the box? To answer those questions, let's take a closer look inside the tube.
The soft, slightly grainy paste that you squeeze on your brush is the latest in a long line of tooth-cleaning substances whose first recorded use was around the time of the ancient Egyptians. Those early mixtures had...
Cracked Teeth
Firmly anchored in your jaw and protected by an outer coating of tough enamel, your teeth are remarkably strong — yet it's still possible for them to chip, crack, or even break. In fact, there is some evidence that today, our teeth are developing cracks at a record rate. This may be due to the fact that people are living longer (giving teeth more time to accumulate damage), or that our stress levels are increasing (which may cause teeth clenching and grinding).
Biting on hard objects, receiving a blow to the mouth, or having large cavities (or old amalgam fillings)...
Antibiotic Premedication for Dental Treatment
Antibiotics are widely prescribed to control bacterial infections. Sometimes they are given before a medical or dental procedure, to prevent a possible infection from occurring; this practice is called “antibiotic prophylaxis.” In the recent past, physicians and dentists advised that people with certain medical conditions — including a number of heart problems and several types of bone or joint replacements — should always take antibiotics before many routine dental procedures. Today, their advice may be different.
A growing body of evidence now indicates that far fewer patients need to take this preventive step than was previously thought. As a result,...
Covid-19 Dental-Related Complications
The pandemic has had a monumental impact on a variety of aspects of life, and dental health is not an exception. Unfortunately, many people have reported symptoms associated with COVID-19 that have impacted their oral health. There are a variety of reasons why this can happen, but the most common reasons are due to the avoidance of seeking routine dental care during lockdown, as well as side-effects from prolonged mask wearing and pandemic-related stress.
What is Mask Mouth?
When wearing a mask has a negative impact on oral health, this is called mask mouth. Mask mouth develops due to a...
Professional Teeth Cleanings
Even if you brush and floss your teeth faithfully, it is important that you have your teeth professionally cleaned on a regular basis. (Of course, if you aren't quite so meticulous about your oral hygiene, it's even more important!) After a thorough cleaning, your teeth will feel smooth and squeaky-clean, and they will probably look a lot brighter too. But professional teeth cleanings aren't done for looks alone.
Why do your teeth need this kind of attention? Essentially, it's because over time they tend to build up a layer of plaque (a sticky, bacteria-rich film) and hard deposits (called tartar,...
Kathy Bates
The Academy Award-winning actress talks about safeguarding her smile, surviving cancer and living with lymphedema
When Kathy Bates won her first major screen acting award at age 42 — a best actress Oscar for her leading role in the Stephen King thriller Misery — she was fulfilling a prophecy of sorts.
"I was told early on that because of my physique and my look that I'd probably blossom more in my middle age, which has certainly been true," the veteran performer told Dear Doctor magazine during a recent interview. "I'm what's considered a character actor. In a way that's been...
Teeth Grinding and Clenching
Teeth grinding and clenching are common habits — but that doesn't mean they are harmless. Stresses from the powerful forces generated by grinding and clenching (also known as “bruxing”) can wear down teeth and even loosen them. When enamel is worn away by this repeated rubbing action, teeth may become sensitive to hot or cold. Dental work such as crowns and fillings may also be damaged. In addition, bruxism can lead to jaw pain and/or headaches.
Even if you have experienced some of these symptoms, you may not realize you are a bruxer — particularly if the behavior occurs at...
Diabetes And Oral Health
Diabetes is a group of chronic inflammatory diseases that affect the body's ability to process sugar. If you have diabetes, it is particularly important to maintain excellent oral health. That's because diabetics are more prone to oral infections such as periodontal (gum) disease, which can result in tooth loss if left untreated. Conversely, the presence of gum disease can make it harder for people with diabetes to control their blood sugar levels.
Periodontal disease is a chronic ailment that is also associated with an elevated level of systemic (whole-body) inflammation. Like diabetes, it may have wide-ranging consequences outside the mouth...
Stained or Discolored Teeth
Is there any feature more appealing than a sparkling white smile? Unfortunately, our teeth don't always stay as white as we'd like them to. What causes teeth to become stained, discolored, or darkened — and what can you do about it?
Tooth discoloration can be caused by several factors, both intrinsic (internal) to the tooth, and extrinsic (outside). Intrinsic factors create changes in the structure of tooth material itself, causing it to lose its pearly translucency. These changes may occur as a result of wear and aging; as a side effect of certain medications, such as tetracycline; and they can...
Gum Injuries
When dental emergencies and pain occur, our attention is often focused on diseases and injuries related to the teeth. However, it's important to remember that the soft tissues of the mouth — the gums, tongue, lips and cheek lining — may also be affected. While they are tough enough to stand up to the oral environment, these tissues can be damaged by accidental bites, falls, sports injuries, and scalding liquids. They may also suffer injury from foreign bodies that become lodged below the gum line, and they can develop painful and potentially serious abscesses.
First Aid for Soft Tissues
Soft...
Bone Grafting for Dental Implants
Replacement teeth supported by dental implants function so well and last so long because, like natural teeth, they are securely anchored in the jawbone for maximum support. In order to benefit from this remarkable technology, however, you need to have enough tooth-supporting bone in your jaw to hold a dental implant in place. Unfortunately, after tooth loss, the surrounding bone almost always deteriorates — decreasing in width, height and density — and this process starts immediately. The longer a tooth has been missing, the more the bone that used to surround it resorbs (melts away). If you want a dental...
Common Dental Problems
Just as you go through different stages in life, you may have different concerns about your dental health at various times. Some problems — tooth decay and dental injuries, for example — may be an issue at any time; others tend to occur more often at certain ages. Let's look at some of the most common dental concerns, from childhood through the golden years.
Children
Tooth decay, caused by oral bacteria, remains the most prevalent chronic disease of childhood (and adulthood). Yet it is highly preventable with good oral hygiene, a diet low in sugar, and regular checkups at the...
Osteoporosis and Oral Health
Osteoporosis is a condition that weakens bones and makes them more prone to fracture. Worldwide, osteoporosis causes more than 8.9 million fractures annually, which is a fracture every 3 seconds. Osteoporosis can affect any part of the body — including the jawbone that supports the teeth.
This may be of particular concern if you are considering certain dental procedures — for example, getting dental implants to replace missing teeth. Implants are today's gold standard for tooth replacement, because they look and function so much like real teeth. But their success depends on a process known as osseointegration, by which they...
TMJ Disorders
If you experience ongoing pain in the area near your ear, your jaw or the muscles on the side of your face, possibly accompanied by a clicking or popping sound or restricted jaw movement, you may be suffering from TMD — an abbreviation for Temporomandibular disorders. Sometimes people incorrectly use the term TMJ to refer to these problems, when in fact TMJ is the abbreviation for the temporomandibular joint — or jaw joint — itself. So while you definitely have a TMJ (two of them in fact), you may or may not have TMD.
TMD, then, describes a group of...
Oral Cancer
Cancer is a scary word, but the more you know about it, the better able you will be to protect yourself and the ones you love. This is particularly true of oral cancer, which is very treatable if caught early. Unfortunately, about two-thirds of oral cancers are not caught until the late stages. You may think that if you are a non-smoker, particularly a young one, this topic is not of concern to you. If so, please think again.
While most oral cancer patients are smokers, the fastest-growing segment of newly diagnosed cases is young, non-smoking adults. The culprit is...
