Beyond the Brush: Free Seminar May 4 from 10 to 11:00 am at Roselle Park Dental

Join our Beyond the Brush Team on Sunday, May 4 from 10 to 11:00 am to learn what you can do in addition to brushing and flossing to keep your smile healthy. 

 

(Click on the flier below for more information.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Sticky Situation?

Is gum chewing a healthy or dangerous habit? This is a question we are asked quite often. And the answer is…..both! Here are some facts about gum chewing, and we’ll let you decide the answer!

RISK:

Many gums contain sugar, which may taste great, but cause tooth decay (cavities) and other health-related problems. Why would anyone choose to smash sugar directly against their teeth?

BENEFIT:

Sugar-free gums don’t contain any ingredients which rot your teeth, and the chewing stimulates the flow of saliva, which may actually help prevent cavities.

RISK:

Gum chewing can cause inflammation and discomfort in the temperomandibular joint (TMJ) – the joint which connects your lower jaw to your skull. This can trigger a syndrome which includes pain, headaches, earaches and toothaches!

BENEFIT:

Gum can help freshen the breath after eating stinky foods such as onions and garlic, and relieve dry mouth, which also can promote gross mouth odors. (Bad breath that is present on a constant basis is usually a sign of a more serious dental problem.)

RISK:

Gum chewing can cause some unwanted and embarrassing problems at the other end!  “Chewing gum can contribute to Irritable Bowel Syndrome, as excess air can be swallowed, which contributes to abdominal pain and bloating,” says Dr. Patrick Takahashi, chief of gastroenterology at St. Vincent Medical Center, Los Angeles, California. In addition to swallowing air, artificial sweeteners such as sorbitol and mannitol can cause diarrhea in otherwise healthy people.

BENEFIT:

According to studies performed by the British Psychological Society, gum chewing increases blood flow to the brain and actually can help with alertness and memory! 

RISK:

While many think that gum chewing curbs the appetite, a recent study in the Journal of Eating Behavior reports that chewing minty gum makes one reduce the intake of healthy foods such as fruit, and increase consumption of potato chips and other junk food. (We wonder what a Doritos flavored gum would do!!)

BENEFIT:

Chewing sugar-free gum can actually reduce the amount of plaque on your teeth and neutralize harmful mouth acids, causing a reduction in cavities.

So what do you think? At my office, we feel that chewing sugar-free gum in moderation can be a healthy habit as long as it doesn’t cause TMJ discomfort or other side effects. Whether you should chew gum during your next job interview – well that’s your call!!

If you have any questions about this or any other dental issues, or would like to make an appointment for a dental exam, cleaning, or consultation, please give us a call at 908-245-1745. We are here for you!

Is Your Bite Homeless?

“My bite doesn't have a home!”

This is a very common complaint from many of our patients. If your bite does not have a "home," you may be suffering from chronic headaches, migraines, clicking and popping when you chew, and even pain in your jaw. A homeless bite may be the cause of some wrinkles and may even speed up the aging process.

What does it mean when we say a "homeless" bite? Similar to a budget and a diet, your bite needs to be balanced. You may hear dental professionals refer to a patient's bite as occlusion. Unbalanced occlusion can be caused by head trauma, crooked teeth, premature loss of primary teeth because of decay, or grinding your teeth.

Think about an unbalanced occlusion like having a pebble in your right shoe. You would most likely try to avoid walking on your right side, putting more force and stress on your left side. This may cause problems such as muscle or back pain, sciatica, and joint pain.

This is the same thing that happens in your mouth when your bite doesn't have a home. Think of the damage that may happen if you favor one side of your mouth to chew-- you can damage the hinge or joint that the jaw sits on, which causes certain muscles of your face to work harder than others and wears some teeth faster than others. Since your teeth give your face proper structure, when they wear down, faces look sunken in.

An unbalanced bite may be the cause of headaches or migraines.  The nerve that gives your teeth feeling is also the nerve that is in the headache center of the brain.  If your occlusion is off, this may trigger a response in the brain, resulting in a headache.

There are steps we can take to give a bite its proper home. Adjustments, therapy, orthotics, and repairing old dental work are all steps that we can take to keep your bite at home.

My Time, Like Yours, Is Valuable!

At Roselle Park Dental, we do our best to accommodate all of our patients' schedules, while trying to be on time for our patients. We are open early in the morning and until 8 pm during the week. We also offer two Saturdays per month for those who find it hard to come during the week. There are many ways we try to stick to our patient schedule:

1. We book one patient with one provider so that provider has enough time to work with a patient

2. For visits that require a patient payment, we reserve the appointment time with the provider with a payment (much like a hotel.)

3. We send appointment reminders via e-mail, text and phones to make sure our schedule is efficient and optimal.

4. We reserve the right to not offer future appointments to those who habitually no-show for appointments.

I know you may be thinking--"I had to wait at the doctor's office once for more than 20 mins!" Yes, that sometimes occurs, but we try our very best to make sure we see our patients at their appointment time. However, some things are just unforeseeable. For example, we may have a patient who is in the office with an emergency: an infection, broken tooth, extreme pain, etc. We must be available for these patients to relieve their pain as best we can, and we cannot rush through dental treatment.

Other times, we run behind because a certain procedure turns into something else that takes much longer. For example, we may be doing a filling, but while removing the decay, we see that it has reached the nerve, and now we must do a root canal. Or, we may have a patient who is fearful of the dentist, and may need more time relaxing or being coached through the appointment. When we see children, it is hard to know how they will behave each time they are here.  Lastly, sometimes a patient is late to his/her appointment and it has a domino effect on the patients who have appointments later.

I feel really badly when I keep a patient waiting. We want to stay on schedule just as much as you, but if certain circumstances arise, we cannot rush one patient to see another.

A dental office’s schedule is similar to traffic. There is going to be a rush hour so please be patient.  If you absolutely need an evening appointment, please understand that there may be a small delay, but we are moving as fast as we can.  However, you can significantly reduce any unnecessary delays for you or any other patients by booking your appointments in the morning and being as punctual as possible. 

Bottle Tooth Decay (Baby Bottle Rot)

Our pediatric dentist, Dr. Geoffrey Gonzales, knows the importance of keeping baby teeth healthy. Often times, parents are unaware that the same things (like sugar) that cause decay in adult teeth do so in baby teeth as well. Even though children will eventually lose their baby teeth, keeping them healthy will help them to chew properly, speak and smile. Healthy baby teeth also allow for children's adult teeth to come in correctly.

Dr. Gonzales has seen several cases of children with bottle tooth decay or baby bottle rot, which often occurs in the front, upper teeth. This decay occurs when the teeth are exposed to sugary drinks (like milk) very frequently and for a prolonged period of time. Parents can prevent bottle tooth decay by avoiding giving their baby a bottle full of milk or other sugary drinks at night.

Once the child's teeth come in, be sure to brush them with a child-sized tooth brush and a pea-sized amount of fluoridated tooth paste. If the child's teeth are touching one another, help your child with flossing. There are fun floss colors and shapes to make flossing more fun!

Dr. Gonzales recommends that children should have their first dental appointment by the age of 1. Establishing good hygiene habits at a young age will help protect their teeth for years to come.

Jump Like Kobe Bryant After Dental Treatment!

More than likely, none of us will ever jump like Kobe Bryant, but if you get an implant done at Roselle Park Dental, you will have access to the same surgical care that he received.

If you have wondered how professional athletes heal so fast without the use of steroids, one way is through the use of their actual blood, through a process called platelet rich plasma (PRP) therapy.  Surgeons use the athlete’s blood to create a protein-enriched plasma that contains positive growth factors and inject it into a surgically-repaired body part.

In dentistry, we are able to draw a patient’s blood, centrifuge it, and create a similar plasma for most implant and bone grafting procedures. The studies show that the use of PRP will help maximize and speed healing, form more solid bone and reduce inflammation, which reduces the pain a patient may experience from surgery.

Here is more information about the, "new treatments [that] use the body's own cells to fight pain and speed healing."
http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/the-body-that-heals-itself-20140217

Do I Need To Do Anything Else?

After I provide a dental service to a patient, I often hear the question, "Do I need to do anything else when I get home?" When compared to other medical fields, dentistry can usually fix a specific problem with a definitive treatment, and you won't have to do anything special when you get home.

Typically, patients will not have to wait longer than a week before they completely forget they had a dental procedure done.  This is actually pretty remarkable since many other ailments such as muscle pain, diabetes, and high blood pressure require long-term treatments, medications, and time-consuming appointments. See? Visiting the dentist is not all that bad!

Even if you have not received any dental treatment, keeping your checkup/cleaning appointments is a must! Our mouths are a cesspool of bacteria that can cause tooth decay and gum disease. The two ways to stop the bacteria is regular professional cleanings and good home care, which includes both flossing and brushing.