Basic Dentistry 101

Neglect

2010-11-29T18:35:00.000-08:00

As a budding dentist I have already seen way too many young people with really poor teeth, due mainly to neglect. This post is not to make you feel bad (entirely) but to encourage you. I tell all my patients the importance of brushing and flossing, and already I am starting to feel this is futile. We all hear it, we all know it: brushing and flossing is very important to oral health. So why don't we do it as much as we should? I'll be the first to admit that I myself don't do it quite as much as I should. I believe we, in general, don't do these two simple acts as much as we should for the simple fact that for the most part our teeth don't bother us. Cavities and gum disease don't hurt (until it's too late). As a dentist, I wish they both caused pain much sooner than they do, but we live in reality (well most of us do anyway). So, back to my first point of seeing too many neglected teeth. I've seen plaque so thick you can't actually see the teeth, I've had to extract teeth from teenagers and pre-teens because the decay is so deep and extensive that it prevents the tooth from being restored. This is sad to me every time it happens, yet as a condition of being a professional in this field I am becoming more and more numb to the sadness. This numbness is a basic survival skill for myself (or I should go mad!) However, I am keeping in touch with my empathy so that I should be able to help without casting judgement on the person in my chair. Every person who tells me, "Oh, doc, I've got horrible teeth, I'm so ashamed." I return with this, "at least you are here now, and that's what matters." I really believe this, it is never too late to get the dental care you need. We are none of us immune to dental issues. Some of us fight gum disease and don't have many cavities, some have cavities and not much gum disease, and a some have both. Be encouraged that you are not beyond hope. If it has been a year, 3 years, 5 years or even 20 years since you've seen a dentist remember this --- it is NEVER too late!

Please don't neglect your teeth. If you wait until you have a perceived problem then it is already worse than it would have been if you saw me before the pain started. Even if you don't have insurance, it is MUCH cheaper to see me twice a year for and exam and cleaning than to wait for the pain and spend a few thousand dollars to try to save one tooth.

Call me now and make an appointment, it is never too late!

360-694-7070

Pain….oooooohhhh it hurts!!!

2010-08-25T16:29:00.001-07:00

We’ve all had pain in our mouths. A lot of us have had tooth pain and most of us have had canker soars & fever blisters. Why the aversion to pain?…Because it hurts! Most people I speak with tell me they hate “the needle”. If you’re reading this, you are among 99.9% of the population, it’s okay to not like needles (heck I don’t like them either). But a small needle prick feels much better than a massively infected tooth. That reminds me about one of my patients I had during dental school. Imagine with me, if you will, a rough looking character, Vietnam Veteran, hands that you know have hundreds of stories and eyes that have seen the worst. He told me something that day I will never forget, “Doc, this tooth pain is unbearable! I’ve been shot twice, and I still have shrapnel in my butt, and this hurts worse than all of that…combined!” This made me think, ‘how can I help people to seek help before they get to this point?’ [I’m still looking for an answer to that question.] But it made me painfully aware (no pun intended) of how painful tooth pain really is.

Why do teeth hurt? The answer is not a simple one liner. The answer (quite a lot like most things in life) is, “it depends”. There is usually only one thing going on with the offending tooth, but some times it can be more than one. Maybe there is a cavity (we in the biz call it caries), maybe it’s gum disease (our special name is periodontitis), or maybe it’s just some exposed root surface that is more sensitive. The take home message is that it’s hard to know and we all need to go to the dentist to determine what the actual cause is. But it goes beyond that, why wait until you have pain? Your dentist is trained to spot areas of concern and launch a counter attack before you are aware of the problem. It is much better to get a small pin prick now that have tooth pain so bad it is worse than a gun shot!

When we turn 6 years old, we get our first permanent tooth, it is from then on we don’t get a second try with our teeth, and at that age we are not able to appreciate this fact. Please, take care of your chompers you only have one set left, the set that’s in your head right now. Once you loose those, it becomes quite pricy to replace them. So do yourself a favor, make an appointment for yourself and your loved ones, see your dentist at least every 6 months, sit in the chair and open wide! Believe me, an exam and cleaning every 6 months is a lot less painful!

http://www.chinookfallsdental.com/

Where have I been?

2010-06-26T21:20:00.001-07:00

I had a nice thought to run this blog as a “self-help” guide to everyone who would like to know more about dentistry; to know more about their own teeth. My last post was in November, since then I’ve been slightly busy with finishing school, graduating, taking my Board Exam’s, getting my license, moving, and oh yes, that one minor item: finding a job. I am happy to report that I have passed my board exam, found a part time job, graduated, and done the paperwork for my license. At this time I am just waiting for my school to finish my transcripts at which point the school will mail them to the Board of Dentistry and I will have my license about a week later. To bide my time, I’m packing, playing video games, watching movies and just trying to rest after the last four years of hel…um, I mean school :)

I hope to start blogging again on topics that will aid you in learning about your own teeth, how & why to take care of them, and maybe improve what we in the field call your “dental IQ”.

Thank you, and may your teeth never leave you and your smile never fade!

Brush & Floss…Why?

2009-11-27T17:25:00.001-08:00

Why? Every dentist, hygienist and mother tells you to do this, but why? Why do we need to do this?

You may think the reason is to remove small pieces of food from between your teeth. The basic fact is that your mouth is FULL of bacteria, little germs….LOTS of them. There’s nothing you or I can do about this, so we have to fight them on a daily basis, twice a day for the rest of our lives. What is the best way to defeat an enemy? Well, I don’t know much about military maneuvering, but if you were able to prevent the enemy from building a base and fortifying themselves in a bunker you would have a great advantage. This is what brushing and flossing does. All bacteria in each of our mouth’s spend their lives trying to build bunkers for themselves. You may know the word that what we in the dental field call it: Plaque. You may notice that if you don’t brush for a few days your teeth will feel “furry”. This furry feeling is the plaque that is built by the germs. It is this plaque that acts as the germs bunker. But it does not stop there! Plaque, if left undisturbed will begin to get hard by a process called: Calcification. Once this process starts there is nothing you or I can do about it on our own. This is the time we need our friend the hygienist to go in there and blow away this enemy with a special miniature dental jack hammer that only harms the germs and their newly built bunker. Even when we do brush and floss twice a day we all need to see our friendly dentist and hygienist at least every 6 months because there are area’s that we will just plain miss, no matter how good we are. (Even dentist’s need cleanings on a regular basis.)

“But when I floss my gums bleed!” This is a very common concern made by people just like yourself. Don’t worry, bleeding gums are a sign to you that the germs are fighting back, and what do you know we have a name for this too: Gum Disease (and yes it is a disease). There is a simple way to stop the bleeding…floss every day. After about a week of daily flossing your gums will no longer bleed. (If they continue to bleed go see your dentist because you may have a more serious underlying condition.)

So be encouraged to brush and floss regularly (at least twice a day) and see your dentist and hygienist at least every 6 months and you are well on your way to winning the battle against gum disease!

Tune in next time when I will share the proper way to brush and floss!

Thanks for reading! May you be dentally healthy.

The Start

2009-11-24T19:31:00.000-08:00

This blog will be dedicated to posting basic information related to dentistry to aid in informing you, the general public, about dentistry and your dental health!

Click on follow!

Thanks, and I look forward to spreading the knowledge I have unto you! Maybe I can learn something from you too ;)