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Spies in comic books use miniature cameras to secretly take pictures. We, too, have a miniature camera, but we use it to show you exactly what is happening in your mouth. This new technology is called an intraoral camera. Gone are the days of using a mirror that gave you only partial glimpses of your teeth. Also gone are the concerns of potentially missing a problem area that can easily be overlooked when we do a visual examination. An intraoral camera uses a tiny video camera at the tip of a wand that is about the size of a ballpoint pen. The camera is powered by electricity; there is no radiation. As we slowly move the wand throughout your mouth, the large, full-color images instantly appear on a TV screen or a computer monitor.
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Dentistry is ever-changing, with better technology popping up like shopping malls. To make your dental experience more pleasurable, we can restore a tooth in just one visit when we use CEREC CAD/CAM technology. In the good old days you would have needed at least two office visits for us to replace a filling, fix a broken tooth or cover stained or misshapen teeth with restorations such as crowns or veneers. We no longer need to take messy impressions and send them to a dental lab where the restoration is made. Any restoration created in a lab can take two or more weeks before it is finished and back in our office, and it may need to be sent back to the lab for additional refinement. In rare instances, it may need to be remanufactured from scratch. This is an inconvenience to you.
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You may have heard an older person humorously referred to as being “long in the tooth.” This old idiom refers to a way to determine the age (and decreased value) of a horse because its gums recede as it ages. First and foremost, it is a myth that receding gums is a natural part of the human aging process. Second, your teeth stopped growing when you were young. Receding gums might be funny on a horse, but they are no laughing matter to an elderly person. Being called long in the tooth is unflattering, but most importantly, it can indicate that you have a serious dental problem. If you have noticed over time that your crowns seem to be getting longer, it is wise to have us examine your teeth to rule out any existing problem that needs to be corrected so that you do not risk losing your teeth.
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Smoke detectors. Flashing lights. Speed bumps. Warning labels. These are all ways of providing important information to people to keep them from harm. Warning labels, for example, appear everywhere—on food, medications, laundry soap boxes, and on oral care products. We recently came across information about using denture cleansers that made us shudder and wanted to share that information and some advice with you. According to the Food and Drug Administration, some people incorrectly use denture cleansers and are damaging their health—and worse. Denture cleansers are not intended to be used directly in your mouth because they contain an ingredient that can cause an allergic reaction.
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Energy drinks are a $10 billion business, and you are getting more than your money's worth of energy. You are getting tooth decay from the corrosive acids in those drinks.
Dental erosion and decay occurs when acids leach calcium and phosphorous out of your tooth's enamel, the strong cover that protects the visible part of your tooth. Dental erosion is irreversible. Once the enamel is gone, it is gone forever.
Dental erosion is an epidemic amongst our youth because their teeth are not yet hard enough to withstand constant acid attacks.
Teens and young adolescents are the biggest group of soda consumers, and advertisers target this market. A spokesperson for the Academy of General Dentistry states that his teen- to 20-year old patients are flirting with needing full mouth reconstructions to repair their damaged teeth unless they change their beverage of choice.
Dental erosion from sports drinks and non-colas can be 11 times greater than drinking other beverages. The worst offenders are energy drinks, canned iced tea and bottled lemonade. Exposing teeth to those beverages for only 14 days produces damage equivalent to 13 year's normal beverage drinking exposure!
Stopping dental erosion and decay can be done by limiting how much and how often you drink acidic beverages.
- Drink an acidic beverage only with a meal.
- Wait at least 20 minutes before brushing because your tooth enamel will be soft and vulner...