Why Your Child Should See a Pediatric Dentist

A pediatric dentist is dedicated to looking after and preserving the oral health of children from the time they are infants through the various stages of childhood, all the way to their teen years. Over and above the usual four years of dental school, we have received additional training, thus are eminently qualified to focus on prevention, early detection, and treating dental diseases in infants, children, and adolescents. We also have an understanding of child psychology, behavior control, growth, and development and offer the latest techniques in dental and orthodontic care.

Why Is It Important For My Child To See A Pediatric Dentist?

 It is important to get your children an early start in dental care and instill a good oral hygiene routine in them. Your child's initial visit to our office should take place right after their first tooth comes in, but no later than their first birthday. Helping children plan visits to our office from the time they are very little will help establish his, or her, trust in the dentist and will set them on the path to taking good care of their teeth as they get older. Additionally, the earlier your child begins regular visits to the dentist, the earlier,  we will be able to detect, and treat, any budding problems, thus avoiding unnecessary cavities or extensive dental treatment. Cavities that are neglected often times lead to problems which affect permanent teeth that are developing. Without proper dental care, children face possible tooth decay and disease that can cause a lifetime of pain and complications.

Dental caries is now more common among young children that asthma or hay fever. Approximately 4 million preschoolers suffer from tooth decay, a number that has grown by more than 600,000 children in the last ten years, which is a significant increase. More alarmingly, studies have shown that children with poor oral health suffer in school, do not do well socially, and are less successful later in their lives.  Therefore, the importance of early and often visits to a pediatric dentist is critically important.

Prevention Is Key

In addition to seeing a pediatric dentist every six months, there are many basic things you can do at home to prevent your child from developing cavities. If you have an infant, use a clean, damp washcloth or a wet gauze to gently clean the plaque from their teeth and gums at least two or three times a day. If your children are older, brush their teeth at least twice a day. Maintain a healthy diet by avoiding sugary foods and drinks and introduce healthy snacks. Just as the rest of the body needs a well-balanced diet, so does the teeth, gums, soft tissue and bones in a child's mouth.

As a pediatric dentist, we may also recommend protective sealants which can be applied to your child's molars to prevent decay on hard to clean surfaces or fluoride treatments for your child. As pediatric dentists, we have been specially trained to work with young patients, and know how to make a child's visit to our office is, at the very least, a positive experience.

Your Facial Structure Can Improve With Dental Implants

Dental implants can go a very long way to improving a person’s life if they have been influenced by tooth loss. We know that tooth loss is often almost inevitable, even as we make every effort to minimize the chances of our patients losing a tooth. The challenge with tooth loss is that it comes with its own unique set of challenges that can cause a person to have a serious loss to their quality of life. For example, when you lose a tooth you may not be able to eat all the foods you like which can then impact your diet. For some people, it is the ability to have a full and beautiful smile because they are conscious of their missing teeth. It is for these reasons, which are just a small sampling, that replacing teeth has been one of the major goals of dentistry since its inception centuries ago. Today dental implants are the most innovative and effective tooth replacement option available.

Having dental implants comes with another inherent benefit that is rarely spoken about, because very few people realize its importance. Through a process known as osseointegration, the dental implants you have will literally become part of your mouth in every way. Titanium, from which the dental implants are made, can completely biosynthesize with the organic tissue in your mouth. What this means is that the tiny metal screw, the implant in your jawbone, tricks your mouth into believing that it is actually organic matter and must have the same level of support offered to other parts of the body. This bodes well for the implant and also helps maintain the basic functions of the jawbone itself. From a stability standpoint, having a prosthetic device that is completely integrated with the organics of your body is a complete win, and when the device actually helps sustain the organic matter it is an amazing feat.

The jawbone has two basic functions. The first is to support the teeth, and, in essence, support the first step in the digestive process. As long as the teeth are in place they continue to provide stimulation to the jawbone, which in turn gets the minerals it needs from the body to stay healthy. Once you start losing teeth, however, the stimulus wanes and the body gets the signal that the jawbone may have outlived its functionality. As a direct result of this the body will start the process of resorption, or absorbing back the jawbone. To do this, it will start to leach important minerals like calcium from the bone and reallocate it to other bones, which the body considers more mission critical. For you this can be devastating.

The second function of the jaw bone is to maintain the integrity of the facial structure. As long as the bone is not deteriorating or being resorbed, it holds the face in place. Once it starts to deteriorate, however, the jawbone is no longer able to provide the support your face needs which can lead to things like your posterior bite collapsing. The good news is that a dental implant creates the stimulation the body needs to continue supplying the jawbone with its vital nutrients and minerals. For this reason, dental implants are a superior tooth replacement option to that of dentures or a dental bridge. 

Here is Why You Need a Pediatric Dentist for Your Child

As a pediatric dentist office, we understand that pediatric dentistry is vital to the overall health and well-being of all infants, children, and young adults. We are dedicated to the oral health of children from infancy, through the toddler, pre-teens, and teenage years. Pediatric dentists have to go through an extra two to three years of specialized training after they finish dental school, which makes them highly qualified to address all your child's oral health care needs.

Unfortunately, tooth decay is the most common disease found in children and adolescents nationwide, and most go untreated due a lack of awareness or financial reasons. Many parents aren't aware that dental problems usually begin very early in life. For instance, dental caries is a serious condition caused by a child breastfeeding, thumb sucking, using a bottle or a sippy cup for too long. Unfortunately, many parents are unaware that their child is even suffering from any form of dental decay because in the early stages, the decay, is often times not visible without dental x-rays. Another problem that goes unnoticed is about  40% of children that are two to three years old have inflammation of their gum tissues. Instead of regular visits to a pediatric dentist, most children see a dentist only when they are forced to by a toothache, at which point they require more extensive treatment or even the removal of one or more teeth.

Preventative Dentistry For Infants, Children, And Adolescents
The earlier your child visits a pediatric dentist, the better the chances of preventing short and long term problems that can affect things like chewing, biting, speech and appearance. Dental issues identified early on and treated in childhood and adolescence can make a substantial difference in a lifetime of good dental health. Dentists believe that infants, children, and adolescents need more of a focus on preventative care, more so than adults do. Pediatric dentists recommend that, in addition to regular dental checkups, parents should use a wide range of preventative oral care measures at home in order to avoid tooth decay. Monitoring your child's diet, for instance, is one those preventative measures. Most cavities in children are caused by a lack of consistent brushing & flossing and a diet usually high in sugary foods.

Additionally, diets high in carbohydrates and sugars cause children to have thicker saliva, which in turn produces an acid that creates bacteria, causing cavities.  Thinner saliva can wash away food quickly. You should discourage your child from eating sugary foods like candy and fruit roll-ups that are low in nutritional value and avoid sugary juices or sports drinks as well.  It is important that you initiate a well-balanced diet for your child that consists of meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruit, dairy products and cereals low in sugar, so that their teeth develop appropriately. This will also positively affect the healthy gum tissue surrounding the teeth.

Preventative care is only one part of maintaining your child's overall oral health care. The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry recommends parents have their children visit a pediatric dentist every six months, beginning with their first birthday. Routine visits will start your child on a lifetime of good dental health habits.

Family Dentist  >  Dentist

Learn How Invisalign® Aligners Are Created

The Invisalign process starts with an examination at our offices. There are very few circumstances where this product is not recommended to straighten teeth, but we want to make sure you are not one of those few individuals. Typically this is a very short visit, during which we will also make sure that you have no underlying issues that could delay or hamper the straightening process. Once we determine that you are a good fit for moving forward, the next step we will take is to get all the records we need to make the Invisalign aligners. One important point to note is that Invisalign® does not work with children since their teeth are still growing and developing. This product is for teens and adults who have already gotten their full set of adult teeth.

During the first stage, we will take a lot of measurements, x-rays, dental impressions of your teeth, and photographs. The objective is to provide the lab with an ideal scenario of what your teeth look like, and the only way to do that is to give them detailed measurements. Fundamentally the dental impressions are so that a replica of your teeth can be made using 3D modeling. This is where the technicians at Invisalign® take over.

The technicians at the company will scan your dental impressions and using these will create a 3D model of your teeth on their computer. Having it on the computer is extremely useful since it allows us, the dentist, to view them remotely. You can also view them as the patient. On this 3D model, the technicians gradually move the teeth into position, mimicking the exact pattern the aligners will follow in moving your teeth into position. From our perspective, we can make adjustments, giving the technicians instructions on tweaking the movements so that it is exactly how we want the teeth to move. This gives us much more control over the process and gets your teeth into exactly the position that we want them to be.

Once we are satisfied with the movement, and final position of the teeth, the technicians will get the go ahead to fabricate the aligners. This is a critical element of Invisalign. Each patient gets a unique, individualized plan based on their specific teeth. The aligners are then built to move the teeth exactly in keeping with this plan and based on a gradual pressure movement basis. Over the course of your treatment, each new set of aligners will be offset by around 1/10mm per tray. What this means is the tray will gradually force your teeth to be straighter by 1/10th of a millimeter. Once the aligner fits your teeth perfectly, they are to be worn for two weeks and then you will move on to the next aligner that once again, moves your teeth.

It is important to wear the aligners at least 20 hours a day. Since the plan is based on the gradual movement of the teeth and tied to a very tight timeline, not wearing the aligners for sufficient amounts of time can result in the teeth not moving enough and the new aligners not fitting well at all. By following the treatment plan, you will have straight teeth in no time.

Orthodontist  >  Braces

Historical Teeth Whitening and Modern Day Solutions

People have been interested in teeth whitening for most of recorded history and some even before that. Today’s Hollywood culture, with gleaming smiles and perfect teeth, have made an entire industry out of whitening teeth by building off of people's innate desire to look the best that they can. To that end having a pearly white smile, that oozes confidence, has become the virtual Holy Grail of anyone wanting to look their best. 

Believe it or not the desire to have white teeth actually started some really important trends, like tooth brushing. The first tooth cleaning and whitening devices, called chew sticks, can be historically traced back to 3000 BC, and ironically are still being used in some parts of the world today. The Chinese came up with an innovative way to replace the chew sticks by making a brush of bristles. The bristles came from the back of the Siberian hogs and were particularly coarse. This, as one can imagine, evolved into toothbrush of today. They were not, however, very popular with the Europeans who preferred to keep their teeth clean and white using the adopted Roman custom of picking. Hence, toothpicks stuck around. 

Modern technology has certainly improved and today, teeth whitening is safe and comfortable. As with many medical, and non-medical, procedures there are a plethora of swirling myths and urban legends that have developed around the simple task of teeth whitening. When you get your teeth whitened at our clinic, you are in the hands of a medically trained professional performing a task that is in no way dangerous. We bleach the enamel of the teeth so that they are a more pleasing shade of white.  Some patients even take custom fitted whitening trays and complete their treatment at home, given how straightforward it is. Since we can also answer any questions and take care of all your dental needs, we recommend a dentist-supervised teeth whitening instead of an over-the-counter solution.

Here are the questions we get the most of about teeth whitening: 

Will whitening my teeth lead to damaged enamel? 
There had been quite a lot of concern about this, so the short answer is no. In fact, the Journal of American Dentistry recently published a study on this very subject. What they concluded was that there is no connection between a person using a teeth whitening product and their enamel wearing out, so this one is an urban legend that is simply not true. 

Is the teeth whitening process painful? 
Again, the short answer to this question is no. There is no pain associated with teeth whitening. Most patients will experience an increased level of sensitivity in their teeth after a treatment. This is due to the proximity of the whitening chemicals to the soft and sensitive tissue of the gums. However, this sensitivity should last no more than twenty-four hours after the procedure and will never progress to pain. Knowing that excessive use of whiteners, or incorrectly fitted trays can increase this sensitivity is one major reason why we always recommend coming to see us for your teeth whitening.

What To Expect Immediately After Getting Braces

Now that your braces are fitted, you are on the way to a more confident, radiant smile. Getting your teeth adjusted is a big step which takes time and a level of commitment. At this point, you will have come very far and have probably learned more about your teeth than you ever thought possible. Over the course of a number of appointments, we will have measured your mouth, given you x-rays, and discussed your treatment at some length. Some of the things we will have discussed are the steps involved, caring for your new orthodontic appliances, the adjustment phase of the treatment, follow-ups, and a number of other important aspects of getting braces. For most people, this wealth of information, can be slightly overwhelming and can leave you with questions after you are done with your fitting appointment. To help with this, we will give you a packet of information for you to read.  Additionally, we are always available to answer a question over the phone or during one of your routine follow-up visits. 

Adjusting to new braces does take a few days. This initial period can be the most uncomfortable, but the discomfort will fade quickly. During the first few days, your mouth will need to get used to the idea of a foreign substance in the mouth that takes up more space than just your teeth. You could also have some level of pain, which is easily controlled by over the counter medication. This adjustment typically lasts no more than a day or two, and while nobody ever fully gets used to braces, pretty soon your mouth will accept the presence of the braces and they will not bother you at all. 

In order to feel more comfortable we recommend that you use over the counter Tylenol to control the pain, and advise staying away from Ibuprofen. Tylenol contains acetaminophen, usually recommended for pregnant women and children because it is a safer pain reliever. On the other hand, Ibuprofen can slow down the movement of the teeth, which interferes with the treatment, and hence we advise against taking it while wearing braces. Ibuprofen makes up the major ingredient in medications like Advil and Motrin so avoid these as well. You can also feel better by using a cool compress to help ease any swelling.

Immediately after having braces placed you should eat soft foods in order to avoid irritation.  After that, there are some dietary restrictions that come with braces. This is necessary because braces can become damaged or lose if you eat very hard foods or have to chomp down with a great deal of pressure. Ice cubes, popcorn, and sticky candy can all cause this damage, and you will need to avoid these until your treatment is complete. Part of your reading material will include a complete list of foods that you need to avoid, and we always recommend calling us to confirm if you are uncertain about a certain type of food.

Teeth Whitening Products and What You Need to Know Before Using Them

In our dentist office, we speak with a lot of patients about teeth whitening. Many people want to know what products they should try and if they are safe.  It is extremely popular to have bright, white teeth right now so it is understandable that the curiosity level is so high.  It is, however, important to note that with any trend comes a lot of misleading advertising that doesn’t paint the full picture.  While marketing companies have done a great job of bringing awareness to these products, you should be an informed consumer. 

A Warning:
One in twenty-five people that use store-bought teeth whitening products report experiencing some level of pain or discomfort afterwards.  This can be mild and go away with an aspirin, or severe and require follow-up dental care. This is partially why we recommend using products and solutions administered by a dentist.  We can help to prevent much of these problems. 

When you look at products in the store, there are several kinds to choose from.  Whitening toothpaste is by far the easiest to use because you were brushing your teeth anyway.  This is a good way to brighten your smile, but it won’t produce dramatic results.  In fact, most people are fairly disappointed. We do, however, recommend using this after having a professional teeth whitening procedure because it can help your teeth to stay white for a longer period of time. 

Another option, to consider, is whitening strips.  These look like a piece of tape that you apply to your teeth after brushing them.  With the strips securely in place, the solution can start to whiten your teeth.  The biggest challenge with strips is that they can easily slide off, so people find them difficult to use throughout the day, decreasing the chance of sticking with the treatment. 

You can also purchase whitening trays at the store.  This solution carries the greatest level of risk for discomfort because the trays are designed to fit everyone.  This means that they fit no one perfectly.  With that in mind, the solution can easily leak out of the trays and onto your gums, causing irritation.  Anytime that bleach comes in contact with your gums, it will create some level of discomfort.  As a dentist, we can create customized whitening trays so that there is no leakage and teeth can be whitened safely without these risks. 

If you decide to buy whitening products at the store, know that you may be disappointed.  They do work but not as well as a professional procedure so the results are not as dramatic.  This leads many people to use the products repeatedly and expose their teeth to sensitivity and their gums to discomfort. Overuse is the primary reason that so many people report discomfort after using store-bought products.  While it may be tempting to use them over and over again - this is not wise.  Instead, if you don’t like the results, schedule a dentist appointment.