Smarter Oral Care
t is tooth decay (dental caries)?Tooth decay or cavity, also known as dental caries, is a disease where bacterial processes damage hard tooth structure (enamel, dentin, and cementum). These tissues progressively break down, producing cavities in the teeth. Continued…
Posted in Oral Care.
Snoring statisticsAny person can snore when they sleep at night. That being said, people do not snore on purpose just to irritate you. Trust me; I am a very loud snorer myself. Studies estimate that 45% of men and 30% of women snore on a regular basis. Most people try to seek out a way to stop snoring at night naturally rather than opting for invasive procedures like nasal or oral surgery.
When we are asleep, the area at the back of the throat sometimes narrows. The same amount of air passing through this smaller opening can cause the tissues surrounding the opening to vibrate, which in turn can cause the sounds of snoring. Different people who snore have different reasons for the narrowing. The narrowed airways can be in the nose, mouth, or throat.
Posted in Oral Care.
Have a problem with tooth decay? Tooth decay or otherwise called caries has been a vast predicament that affects most dentate people. According to the United States Surgeon General’s report, caries is stated to be the most common chronic childhood disease of children aged 5 to 17 years and is five times more common than asthma and seven times more common than hay fever.
How does our tooth get caries?
Tooth decay is a demineralization process of hard tissues in our mouth that are contributed by four major factors namely bacterial microorganism, sugar (carbohydrates), tooth surface and time. Without this four factors decay would not occur. A community of haphazard collection of bacteria on your tooth is called plaque.
This bio film of plaque is capable of fermenting carbohydrate substrates (sugars like sucrose and glucose) and producing acid causing the plaque pH to fall below 5 within 1-3 minutes. Repeated falls in pH results in demineralisation of tooth surface and leads to carious lesion formed.
Posted in Oral Care.
http://www.infobarrel.com/Media/healing_cold_sore
Cold sores are also known as fever blisters which are caused by Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV). There are two types of HSV, Type I is associated with infections of skin and oral mucous membranes, where as type 2 virus is associated with genital infection. Normally Cold sores are caused by HSV Type I. Cold sores is a recurrent infection and there is no permanent cure , so once you are infected with herpes simplex virus, it will remain in your body with or without symptoms. Transmission of virus can still occurs from a person who is infected with herpes simplex virus but without any visible symptoms. Reactivation of virus maybe is due to various stimuli, such as ultraviolet light, menstruation, stress, immunosuppression, and etc. You can get transmitted with HSV virus through droplet spread or contact with the lesions , such as activities like kissing, or sharing utensils.
Posted in Oral Care, Sore Treatments.
This is a Oral B Toothbrush with blue indicator bristles
How often should you change your toothbrush
Some people can use their toothbrush repeatedly until they misplace it. The average American only change their brushes 1.9 times a year. The American Dental Association recommends that you change your toothbrush at least four times a year, approximately 3 months and every time you are sick. If the bristles of your toothbrush start flaring before three to four months, then you are using too much pressure to brush your teeth. Dentist believes toothbrushes should be thrown out after roughly 40 to 50 uses. Healthy people should change brushes every two weeks. People with gum problems, other oral diseases, or weakened immune systems should change toothbrush more often. People with a respiratory illness or other infectious disease should change their brushes at the beginning of the illness, again when they first feel better, and once again when they are well. Toothbrush replacement should also be practiced every day for patients who are recovering from major surgery because susceptibility to infections is higher at that time.
The easiest way to know when to change your brushes nowadays is to look at the indicators on the toothbrush. Usually the indicators consist of two or three rows of bristles which are blue in color, when the blue color fades; it is time to change a new toothbrush.
Posted in Oral Care.
Avoid odorous food © TresSugar
‘Grab yourself a mint’ or ‘Sit back my friend, your breath is bad!’ is the common things we hear among people suffering from bad breath. Bad breath or halitosis in its medical term occurs due to various reasons; namely poor saliva flow at night resulting in so-called ‘morning breath’ which is repulsive when we wake up, eating pungent foods such as garlic and onions, poor brushing and dental care, sucking on a thumb or other objects and a range of oral diseases. A common misperception is that bad breath arises from the stomach but it actually arises from the back of the tongue where food collects bacteria living in the mouth, they rot and release chemicals throwing out a bad odor. These chemicals are usually volatile sulfur compounds such as hydrogen sulfide. Continued…
Posted in Oral Care.
Tooth Brushing
Tooth brushing is indeed a vital daily activity for a good oral health. Besides that, tooth brushing protects the teeth against dental caries and it also helps prevent bad breath and gum disease. Gum disease is a fatal condition as it may lead to serious diseases. Therefore tooth brushing is important in children and special attention is needed to be given to those with disabilities. Continued…
Posted in Oral Care, Toothbrushes, Toothpaste.
Arthritis related joint deformation
Arthritis is a complicated disease, which affects the joints of the body. There are more than a hundred different described conditions, with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis being the two most common ones. Osteoarthritis involves degeneration of the synovial cartilage and bony overgrowth on the joint articulating surfaces. Rheumatoid arthritis on the other hand has an autoimmune origin, involving self-production of auto-antibodies in the body which circulates in the blood and can attack the joints which are deemed foreign by the immune defense system. Although osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis have different causes and risk factors, they are often present with similar symptoms, such as constant joint pain. Both diseases can be debilitating and adversely affect your oral health if not managed accordingly. Continued…
Posted in Oral Care.
When will my baby start teething?The process of teething often follows hereditary patterns, so if the parents teethed early or late, your baby may follow the same pattern. However, the most babies have their first teeth come in when they are between 4 and 7 months old. In rare cases, a baby’s first tooth is visible at birth. We call this kind of teeth as neonatal teeth. Those teeth that emerge through the gum during the first month of life are called as natal teeth. Rarely, their presence is just one of several unusual physical findings which make up a syndrome. If the possibility of a syndrome exists, consultation with a pediatrician and/or geneticist can be helpful. The tooth is often loose and is commonly removed prior to the baby’s hospital discharge to prevent aspiration into the lungs. It is good to mention about teething during prenatal counseling because it most likely will be the first postnatal oral issue that parents confront. Continued…
Posted in Oral Care.
Maxillary sinus @ wiki
Everybody will experience dental pain of some sort at some point in their life. When pain occurs at the region around your cheeks, you could bet that it is most likely due to some dental problems; or perhaps probably some gum related disease. However, it does not necessarily mean that teeth/gums problems are always the cause of pain in the cheek region, thus in this article, we’ll discuss about one of the possible indirect cause of toothache – through sinus infection. Continued…
Posted in Oral Care, Toothache Relief.
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