Author Archives: jd

Dry Socket and Its Management

 

What is a dry socket?

Dry socket or also known as alveolar osteitis is a common complication occurring after the extraction of a permanent teeth especially the lower wisdom teeth. The term ‘alveolar’ refers to the jawbone that supports teeth while ‘osteitis’ refers to the inflammation of the bone associated with the extraction socket.

The condition has generally been characterized by degraded or delayed healing associated with breakdown or dislodgement of the blood clot in the extraction socket. It is usually accompanied by persistent, radiating pain in and around the extraction site within a few days after extraction that is not easily relieved by pain killers. The premature loss or breakdown of the blood clot is accompanied by exposure of the underlying bone. Continue reading →

How Can I Care for My Sensitive Teeth?

When you experience sensitive teeth, the first consideration should be to determine the cause of the pain since it may be difficult to differentiate between sensitive teeth or dentin hypersensitivity and a variety of other tooth pains and discomforts. Dentin or pulpal pain (caused by a noxious agent, i.e. dental caries) can be intensified by thermal change, sweet, and sour, all of which could elicit a hypersensitivity reaction as well. A differential diagnosis to rule out other conditions must be established before resorting to treatment. Diagnostic aids include history of pain, percussion and palpation tests, inspection of the teeth and surrounding tissues, thermal and electric pulp tests, and radiographic examination. Once other causes for tooth pain have been ruled out, and dentin hypersensitivity has become the established diagnosis, an individualized management strategy with suitable treatment recommendations should be developed to address your specific needs.

There are numerous treatment strategies and interventions to manage tooth sensitivity. In addition to pain control, long-term management is most successful when treatment strategies include the elimination or reduction of contributing factors. Sensitive teeth are best managed through self-care, professional care, or a combination of the two. Exposed dentin surfaces that do not elicit pain need only be monitored and treated as needed to reduce tooth decay risk. Continue reading →

Causes of Sensitive Teeth

Are you suffering from sensitive teeth?

Tooth sensitivity or known as dentin hypersensitivity is short or transient sharp pain of a rapid onset that arises from exposed dentin layer of one or more teeth subsequent to loss of tooth structure (enamel layer of the crown or cementum layer of the root). It usually occurs in response to stimuli—typically cold, air pressure, drying, sugar, acids, chemicals or forces acting onto the tooth—and cannot be ascribed to any other dental defects or pathology. These stimuli are non-noxious, and are not generally expected to generate a pain response, except as seen in sensitive teeth. In contrast, a noxious stimulus would be the toxins of bacteria within a decay lesion leading to dentinal pain. Areas of exposed dentin at the junction between the crown and the root (cervical area) account for much of the observed tooth sensitivity. Continue reading →

Why do you need Rubber Bands for Braces?

From the beginning, rubber bands were used in orthodontics to transmit force from the upper arch to the lower. These are termed inter-arch elastics. Dental braces work well with rubber bands as rubber bands help with making sure that a bite can be corrected and the jaw can be put into its right place.

 

How do rubber bands work with dental braces?

 

The rubber bands will be attached to the brackets on one’s braces. This is done in that a small latex rubber band that has been given to a patient by one’s orthodontist will attach on one bracket and go vertically or diagonally down to another. Two different bands will be used with one on each side of one’s teeth. The bands will be used to help with applying tension onto one’s teeth that will go onto a bracket and creates the right amount of pressure to move teeth in directions as desired that the braces alone can’t. This tension is also sufficient to correct an overbite or an underbite in the jaw. Over time this will be used as a means of helping to get the teeth to work properly in conjunction with other parts of the jaw. Continue reading →

Thumb Sucking and Development of Teeth

Suckling vs. sucking

Suckling

Suckling is a normal physiological reflex in infants, which consists of small nibbling movements of the lips. The movements stimulate the smooth muscles surrounding the milk ducts of the lactating mother to contract and squirt milk into the infant’s mouth. When the milk is squirted into the mouth, it is only necessary for the infant to groove the tongue to allow the milk to flow back into the throat. The tongue, however, must be placed front to contact with the lower lip, so that the milk is in fact deposited on the tongue. The tongue-to-lip apposition is so common that it is usually adopted at rest, and it is frequently possible to gently move the infant’s lower lip and notice that the tongue tip moves with it, almost as if they were glued together. The suckling reflex normally disappears during the first year of life.

Sucking

Nearly all modern infants engage in some sort of habitual non-nutritive sucking– thumb- or finger-sucking or sucking of a similarly shaped object. A vast majority do so during the period from 6 months to 2 years or later. Continue reading →

Symptoms indicating when you need a Root Canal Treatment

What is Root Canal Treatment (RCT)?

Root canal treatment is the removal of inflamed and/or infected dental pulp tissue from the root canal system, shaping and filling the root canals of a diseased tooth. The key factor in the development of pulpal inflammation and breakdown of the supporting tissues of the tooth (periradicular tissues) is the presence of bacteria. These endodontal infections (infections within teeth) are usually characterized by loss of integrity of the crown, invasion by bacteria, and destruction of enamel, dentine, and eventual pulpal involvement. Dental caries,  trauma, tooth surface loss, and microleakage around tooth fillings can lead to endodontal infection. In situations where there has been periradicular breakdown, root canal treatment will result in the return of the health of the periradicular tissues. Ultimately, root canal treatment preserves teeth as functional units within the dental arch. Continue reading →

What are the teething signs in babies?

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. Continue reading →

Relationship between Gum Disease and Heart Disease

Coronary angiogram of a woman

Image via Wikipedia

The number one cause of mortality in the United States since 1900 continues to be heart disease. And gum disease and heart disease appear to be related, thanks to several extensive studies in the early 2000s which suggested that people with gum disease (periodontal disease) were twice as likely to also have coronary artery disease, along with other heart-related health conditions. Both diseases are complex and share some of the same risk factors including smoking, genetics, increasing age and stress. While these studies have not definitively proven that gum disease causes heart disease, they have clearly shown that there is some correlation between the two. The understanding of this relationship and what to do about it is very important.    Continue reading →