Sugar: Not The Number-One Enemy
You are probably aware that some foods, especially sweet and sticky ones, are bad for your teeth. But research has revealed new culprits! Foods like potato chips, crackers, breads, cakes, and even a healthy rice dish can be as damaging to teeth as candy. The habit of all-day snacking is causing dental disease.
Starches found in these foods are broken down by saliva into maltose, a sugar as harmful to your teeth as table sugar. When this sugar comes in contact with plaque, it turns into an acid powerful enough to dissolve the hard enamel protecting your teeth, and that’s how cavities start.
Fortunately, there are foods that don’t promote tooth decay and can actually boost your dental health. Snacking on cheese, crunchy fruits and vegetables, lean meat and fish, and low-fat dairy products can help keep your mouth healthy.
You can also reduce the acidity of the saliva on your teeth by rinsing your mouth with water after eating. Avoid sticky or chewy foods that cling to tooth surfaces, and definitely keep away from hard candies or cough drops that stay in your mouth for a long time. If you must have sweets, have them with a meal rather than on their own. And finally, ask your pharmacist if the medicine your family is taking has sugar in it! If it does, rinse well with water afterwards.
We can provide you with further nutritional information on which foods will ensure better oral health and less dental disease.
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Your Smile Has A History
Does your smile say it all? Most people think so. In a recent survey, 92.4% of North Americans agreed that an attractive smile is an important social asset, and 74% thought that an unattractive smile hurts a person’s chances of career success. But only half of us were satisfied with our smile!
Your smile is without doubt one of your most powerful possessions. Smiles are such an important part of communication that we recognize them far more than any other expression: we can pick up a smile at a distance of 100 yards – the length of a football field! At one time this kind of “pattern recognition” talent, as research scientists call it, was a survival skill our ancient ancestors had even before they could speak.
Before humans learned to talk, our smiles could literally mean the difference between life and death. Researchers believe that our smiles developed as a means of avoiding aggression. For instance, if your lips were pulled back to reveal all your front teeth (our ancestors were uniformly in need of braces), this would mean you were ready for a fight.
But we learned to stretch our lips sideways, and thereby partially cover our teeth to indicate a peaceful, non-aggressive greeting ... and guess what? The smile was born!
Those were innocent, if dangerous, times. Today, for police officers (and poker players) there are few things worse than a cool liar with a fake smile. Smiles are so complex that a new computer system has been developed at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, specifically to read the rapidly changing expressions in the human face, most notably the smile. One day we may have the technology to enable us to decipher the emotions that lurk behind our smiles. At our office, we’re smile experts as well, and we can certainly help to make your smile the best it can possibly be – for you and your self-esteem. Or even for your next poker game!
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Dental Age Erasers
Secrets to the Fountain Of Youth The Fountain Of Youth! All through the centuries people have longed for some elusive elixir that will turn back the clock for them and reverse the inevitable process of ageing. One sip and those wrinkles will slip away forever. Wouldn’t it be nice if it were so easy?
From best sellers like “Age Erasers,” to fast one-liners (at twenty, you’re hot, at forty you’re not, at sixty you’re shot), our society sends out a strong message to both men and women that we should fight as hard as we can to reverse, or at least slow down, the inevitable signs of ageing. As well, increased awareness of fitness and nutrition has made us much more knowledgeable about the link between lifestyle and appearance.
There are lots of ways to spend your money on trying to look younger: anti-wrinkle gels; cosmetics; skin treatments; plastic surgery; facials; spa treatments; and on and on. But we often overlook one of the simplest and most effective ways to shed a few years – just improve your smile. It’s hard to overestimate how important our smiles are to the general impression we make. A smile that reveals discolored or cracked teeth, a receding gum line, or just a generally dull look has a subtle but profound effect on how old we look.
Most adults don’t realize that as time passes, our smiles are not as bright as they used to be. Coffee, tea, smoking, red wines, and certain antibiotics are all contributors to dull, stained teeth. Time and periodontal disease can shrink the underlying bone and gum tissue that hold our teeth in place, and this can add years to your appearance.
We’re your smile experts, and we can help to improve all of these conditions. Whitening treatments, replacing existing silver restorations with white composite fillings, and porcelain veneers can all be part of your smile makeover. We can’t promise the Fountain Of Youth, but a new and improved smile can be the next best thing. Come and see us soon for a smile analysis as a first step towards a bright and youthful appearance.
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Those Teenage Years
Teenagers rebel. That’s what they’re supposed to do. But if yours gives brushing the brush-off as part of his or her rebellion, a lifetime pattern of dental neglect can be established. If you have a child who is susceptible to cavities or gum disease, serious trouble can gain a foothold.
Many teenagers go through a period of months, maybe years, when their brushing habits aren’t good, and may even be nonexistent. Some teens don’t realize they have brand-new molars in the back of their mouth that need brushing and flossing attention. In the early teenage years your child may well benefit from a refresher course on brushing and flossing techniques. You can also speak in terms that a teen cannot mistake: “Plaque looks totally gross and makes your breath reek!” Because of all this, routine visits to our office are more important than ever. Also, teenagers will often take advice to heart much more readily from a health professional than from a parent. But as a parent you must practice what you preach, and by example maintain good oral care habits.
Braces, oral piercing, and mouth guards can also cause conflict. Many teens reject braces. Here again, we can be of help. More than 90% of the time, reluctant teens will agree to braces once their dentist has explained the pros and cons.
Oral piercing, to be blunt, is a really terrible idea. Piercing of the tongue, lips, cheek, or other oral sites carries serious risk of infection. Other effects can be bone exposure from rubbing contact, nerve damage, prolonged or permanent drooling, altered speech, even toxic shock or stroke. If your teen can’t live without it, the one thing you must ensure is that the piercing is done under scrupulously clean circumstances, and maintained that way as well.
Mouth guards are an effective way to prevent teeth from getting chipped or broken during athletic activities. We can make a custom-fitted mouth guard that will be comfortable and will work. And since accidents can happen anytime, make sure your teen wears the mouth guard during both practice sessions and games ... just like the pros.
Parents should also be aware that academic stress can take its toll on your teen’s oral health, particularly the gums. Stress reduction exercises, a balanced diet, and plenty of rest are helpful.
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Your Teeth Have A Past
Where Did They Come From? About 460 million years ago, when sea creatures began to develop lungs and crawl onto land, their skin contained calcified tentacles, the forerunners of our teeth. To get around in this new world, tough bone and muscle were needed. To accommodate a new diet, the tentacles began to fuse together and eventually changed into teeth very similar to those of the Catarrine apes who inhabited the earth about 40 million years ago. And the descendants of those apes had the same dental formula as our teeth today. What Do They Do? Humans have high body temperatures and need to be able to digest food as efficiently as possible. Teeth stab, crush, grind, slice, and chop food in hundreds of different ways. Besides helping us to eat, teeth help us to talk, and with our smiles, they help us to communicate on many levels with our fellow human beings. Where Do Dentists Come From? Concern about oral health has been around for at least 5000 years. The Chinese used acupuncture around 2700 BC to treat pain caused by tooth decay. We know from the Greek historian Herodotus that by the 5th century BC, Egyptian medicine had evolved to the point where some doctors treated only diseases of the teeth. Your Magic Teeth Many cultures had odd beliefs about teeth. The earliest toothpicks, called siwaks, had a religious ritual significance in Arabia and India. Prayers were made while brushing. In India the cuspid of Buddha was enshrined in a famous temple, and prayed to during fertility rites. Westerners offered prayers to saints for the relief of oral pain. Not wishing any disrespect, we suggest you come and see us on a regular basis for reliable, modern oral health care, just as Persian physician Rhazes recommended in 900 AD.
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The Cosmetic Boom
Introducing your best and brightest smile! The importance of a bright healthy smile to a person’s self-image and self-esteem has perhaps never been as great as it is today. Therefore it’s no surprise that cosmetic dentistry is one of the fastest growing areas of oral health care.
Many patients who have had cosmetic dental treatment gain the confidence to pursue careers, and even relationships, that never seemed possible before. And just as important, it now appears that a patient’s general oral health benefits when their smile is improved – many people are more concerned about maintaining their teeth after cosmetic dentistry because they’re proud of the way they look.
Cosmetic dentistry is also much more affordable than even a decade ago. Improvements in technology provide a wide variety of cosmetic dental options.
Here are some procedures that are available to improve your smile.