The Tragedy Of The Boston Bombing

I was going to talk about how to prevent tooth injuries today, but in light of the tragedy in Boston, it just doesn't feel right. The injury to take note of today is the unimaginable devastion of the attack on innocent people, the loss of life, the tragic injuries sustained by so many, the impact on family and friends. We are so saddened by this horrifying act and that there is so much hate and anger in this world.  Our hearts are heavy and injured by this violent attack, but we must not succumb to fear and must stand courageous in the face of such violence. We will continue sharing about tooth issues from here on in and refuse to be terrorized into silence.

Our heartfelt sympathy and compassion is extended to the victims of the Boston bombing.  On a certain level we are all affected by this horrifying act, yet I pray that we find strength within and hold on tight to whatever higher power we may believe in, so we radiate this strength to those who are living with the devastation of this violation of humanity and brotherhood.

Dental Office Safety Practices

You have an expectation of dental care in Short Hills NJ that includes sterile or surgically clean instruments, properly working equipment, drugs and medications that are not expired, and doctor and staff who are licensed to provide services.  From time to time this expectation is not respected, and we hear about dentists in the news who have violated the publics’ trust and did not provide safe and sterile care.  At such times it is natural for there to be a heightened sense of anxiety about the cleanliness and sterilization practices of the dental office we visit.

Cleanliness and standardization of infection procedures is a top priority in our dental office and in the majority of dental offices.  Dentists and their staffs take many precautions to prevent the spread of infection from doctor to patient and from patient to doctor.  We shield our patients and ourselves from infections by using what is called universal precautions.  Therefore, we wash our hands before and after each patient is seen, we use a new pair of gloves for each patient, and we use masks and protective eyewear.  If the dentist leaves the room for any reason, a new pair of gloves is put on before resuming patient care. 

During treatment, high speed suction is used, often barriers are placed in the patient’s mouth to isolate the area treated.  Sterile instruments are kept on sterile trays during treatment.  Needles and sharp instruments such as scalpels are discarded into a special medical waste container after a single use.  Before the next patient is seated, all surfaces in the treatment area are wiped down and disinfected, instruments are routed for the sterilization process, and disposable items are discarded.  Instruments that aren’t disposable are sterilized with steam under pressure in an autoclave, or with dry heat or chemicals.

Cross infection, in general, is exceedingly rare because dentists follow strict guidelines for the safety of our patients, staff, and ourselves.  The risk of your health being affected by not seeing the dentist is far greater than the risk of cross infection.

For information about other dental topics visit www.TavorminaDentistry.com

Can New Dentistry Really Make You Look Younger?

Last week we discussed deteriorated silver fillings and how they can age you.  Today, let’s look at dental crowns.  Even if you don’t break or “pop” a porcelain crown, it won’t maintain its original appearance forever.  For example, the gums often recede with age.  This can produce a thin gray or black line between the crown and the gum.  Also, the materials and laboratory procedures for making porcelain crowns have evolved and improved over time, resulting in crowns that look more natural than crowns made in the past.  The solution is easy if there is a gray or black line between the crown and the gum.  In some locations of the mouth, it’s easy enough to use a low-cost option of using tooth-colored filling material to fill the gap.  It isn’t as durable or as attractive as a new crown, but it’s a good choice for patients with limited funds, or if the dark line is not in the front of the mouth.  The best solution is a new crown using the wonderful new porcelains available.

Have you heard of the gummy smile?  A gummy smile is when the gums are disproportionately prominent.  Changes in the shape and health of the gums can make the teeth appear longer.  Or they can make the gums disproportionately prominent.  Either of these changes can compromise your appearance and make you look older.  You can have a “gum lift,” which is a procedure called a gingivectomy or gingivoplasty.  In dentistry, we can use a laser and/or scalpel to give your gums a more even appearance that’s in harmony with your face.

Poor denture fit can age you, too.  Even if your partial or complete dentures fit perfectly when they were new, they tend to become loose or misaligned as your mouth changes.  It’s normal for the gums and underlying bone to change over time.

Poorly fitting dentures can sometimes give you jowls and wrinkled skin as your muscles work overtime to keep the dentures in place.  Also, as the dentures wear and the bone that supports them deteriorates, the lower third of the face decreases in height.  Making new dentures can sometimes have the effect of looking like you’ve had a facelift, because of the transformation that is possible by increasing the dimension of the lower third of the face.  Most people find that it is worth replacing dentures every 5 to 10 years.

We hope you enjoyed this journey to explore looking younger with dentistry.  For more information about other dental topics please visit www.TavorminaDentistry.com

Looking Younger With Dentistry

In last week’s blog we began looking at how modern dentistry can make you look 15 years younger, and as promised, we are going to continue exploring this topic.

Did you know that sometimes people with temporomandibular disorder (TMD) will sometimes experience changes in the jaw joint that cause the chin and lower jaw to move to an abnormal position.  This can distort the normal appearance of the face.

Some patients can correct a TMD problem by wearing a splint – sometimes known as a night guard or a bite guard – when they sleep.  This is called occlusal splint therapy.  Splints made from a type of durable plastic, usually slip over all or some of the teeth.  They cause changes in the joint that can reposition the lower jaw and both relieve pain and restore a more normal appearance.

Splints are relatively inexpensive, but they can take years to work, and they don’t work for every patient.  It’s important to know not to bother with over-the-counter boil-and-bite splints.  They are not effective for a receding jaw.  You need a splint that is customized by a dentist to fit your specific teeth and jaw shape.  MRI or a CT scan may be needed during the diagnosis stage.

If you’re middle-aged or older, you probably have one or more silver amalgam fillings.  These don’t last forever.  The edges can open up and allow bacteria to get under the fillings, leading to decay, or eventually the need for root canal therapy.  Also, the metal fillings in teeth can darken and appear as gray shadows that are visible through the tooth enamel, imparting an old and unattractive appearance.  Depending on the size of the silver filling, the solution can be replacing silver fillings with tooth-colored composite fillings, or lab-processed porcelain “fillings” called inlays or onlays.  Inlays and onlays are needed when too much tooth structure needs to be replaced to use composite and have it be effective.  There is a great difference in the cost of the two types of restorations to replace silver fillings.  Composites can be a few hundred dollars a tooth, and porcelain can be over one thousand dollars a tooth.

We’ll continue exploring the youth restoring qualities of dentistry in our next blog.  For now, please visit www.DrTav.com for information about other dental topics.

Can Dentistry Make You Look 15 Years Younger?

Teeth show your age just as much as drooping muscles or sagging skin.  Even if you get regular dental care and keep your teeth white, you might want to consider other dental enhancements.  Age-related changes can dim your smile and even change your facial structure, making you look far older than your age.

What are some of the conditions in your mouth that can age you?  Decades of chewing or tooth-grinding or clenching can wear down the upper and lower teeth.  As the teeth get shorter, the distance between the chin and nose also shortens, resulting in a shorter face that makes you look older. 

The solution for worn teeth is veneers or crowns that restore natural tooth shapes and dimensions.  Veneers are ultrathin pieces of porcelain that, when attached to the surfaces of existing teeth, become extremely strong.  A crown goes over the entire tooth and is a better choice if your teeth are structurally weak because of fillings, root canal, etc.  Sometimes increasing the length of only the upper teeth can create a dramatic improvement.  Crowns and veneers can last at least 10 to 15 years and often longer.

Missing teeth can also age you.  People often don’t realize that the shape of the face partly is determined by the teeth.  This is particularly true in the cheek areas because the muscles are supported by the side teeth.  If you have one or more missing teeth, your cheeks can cave inward and create an older, drawn appearance.  Even one missing tooth can cause a “sunken” appearance if you have a small, narrow face.  It will be less apparent if you have a large, broad face.

A dental implant is ideal to replace a missing tooth, as long as the underlying bone is healthy and enough to hold the implant.  The dentist places a titanium cylinder in the dental bone.  This cylinder replaces the missing tooth root.  After the implant becomes part of your jawbone, a connector called an abutment is attached to the implant and then a crown is placed on the abutment.  Dental implants typically last just as long as your natural teeth, and in many cases, even longer.

We’ll continue exploring how dentistry can make you look younger in our next blog.  In the meantime, please visit www.TavorminaDentistry.com for other dental information.

Famous People Were Dentists

We hope you found last week’s blog interesting, and, as promised, here are some more famous X-dentists!

Zane Grey is famous for writing Western novels.  Before writing over 80 books, Pearl Zane Grey was a practicing dentist in New York.  Unfortunately, he lost his love of dentistry – it just decayed, and he quickly abandoned the field when he became a published author.  Zane Grey went on to become one of history’s first millionaire authors.

This next famous person’s story is very interesting.  It may seem ironic that the creator of a company specializing in sugar-laden fruit juices was also a dentist, but it’s true.  Thomas Welch was the founder of Welch’s, and he was a dentist before he retired and became famous for inventing a pasteurization process for grape juice that kept it from fermenting.  Welch’s intention was to create a non-alcoholic wine that could be used at the sacrament in churches.

Paul Revere is famous as the Revolutionary War hero who made his midnight ride to warn people that “The British are coming!  The British are coming!”  He was a skilled silversmith who also advertised his services as a dentist and was known for making false teeth for his patients.

We hope you found this dental trivia interesting.  For information about a full range of dentalservices visit www.TavorminaDentistry.com

What Is The Silent Killer?

Close to 40,000 Americans will be diagnosed with the silent killer this year.  It will cause over 8,000 deaths, killing about one person per hour, every hour of every day.  Of those 40,000 newly diagnosed individuals, only slightly more than half, or approximately 57%, will be alive in five years.

What is this silent killer?  Oral cancer!  The death rate for oral cancer is higher than that of cancers which we hear about routinely, such as cervical cancer, laryngeal cancer, or lung cancer, and so on.

Statistics show that a younger age group, including those who have never used any tobacco products, is being diagnosed with oral cancer.  There is a viral based cause, the human papilloma virus, particularly version 16, which has been shown to be sexually transmitted between partners, and is conclusively implicated in the increasing incidence of young non-smoking oral cancer patients.  This is the same virus, along with other similar viruses, that is the cause of 90% of cervical cancers.  The Oral Cancer Foundation’s data in the last few years suggests that this virus may even be replacing tobacco as the primary cause of oral cancer in people under the age of 50.

Early stage oral cancer is often painless and goes undetected.  If dentists and patients wait until symptoms arise, sadly it might be too late.  Over the last few years technology with oral cancer screening has become more advanced.  At Tavormina Dentistry we offer  the Vizilite oral cancer screening test.  Many of our patients tell us the small fee is worth the peace of mind and they appreciate that we offer this diagnostic life-saving tool.

For information about other dental topics visit www.DrTav.com