Throwing up is a danger to the health of your teeth. Once you vomit, you introduce stomach acids to the mouth. With time these acids can eat into your teeth’s enamel, leading to even more dental conditions.

However, some situations of vomiting can be chronical, but this will still ruin your oral health. Here is how vomiting affects your oral health.

Weakening Your Enamel

Since the acids eat into your enamel, they will typically leave it weaker than usual. With time, the excess eating of your enamel can make your teeth susceptible to chipping and even cavity formation.

You might start noticing issues with your teeth, as they become weak. In case the weakness exposes the region of your teeth that contains your nerves and vessels, you will experience some sensitivity, especially while taking hot or cold foods and drinks.

Even worse, brushing your teeth right after vomiting might actually contribute to the weakening of your enamel. Instead, you should first rinse your mouth with some water and fluoride-rich mouthwash. In some cases, these acids could also lead to your teeth turning yellow.

Effects On The Rest Of Your Mouth

Stomach acids can also eat into your mouth’s skin. You can start feeling pain as sores form on your mouth walls as well as on your gums. In some cases, it might also lead to the formation of sores on your throat, with the risk of chronic sore throat.

The acids could also lead to the inflammation of your salivary glands. Since the saliva plays a huge role in preventing the formation of cavities, the reduced release of saliva increases the risk of cavity formation. Also, you can easily experience dry mouth, which could also lead to halitosis (bad breath).

The short-term solution for keeping up with your dental health would be to stick to a great dental hygiene routine. However, the more sustainable solution should be to get your chronic vomiting issue fixed. In case you notice the above oral conditions, you may want to contact our office and schedule an appointment.

The tongue is one of the most underrated organs in the body. More so when it comes to oral health, people will spend a lot of time cleaning their teeth and obsessing whether their teeth are the root of their bad breath.

However, most people do forget about their tongue and that it does need to be cleaned just as often and as thoroughly as the teeth. The tongue is an important organ both in speech, sensory terms and in the digestion process. It therefore stands that we should do everything possible to keep it as clean as possible. Here are a few reasons why you should always brush your tongue.

Eliminates Odor

When it comes to bacteria in the mouth, the tongue is the repository for most of it. Although some do stay on the surface of the teeth, most of it is usually resides on the surface of the tongue. As such, you will find that the bacteria that brings about bad breath reside on the surface. When you regularly brush your tongue, you remove them, thereby making it less likely that you will have any bad breath issues or halitosis.

Periodontal Disease

This is a disease that is brought about by an infection in the gums, that’s because of deep pockets between the gums and teeth. When there is a serious build-up of bacteria on the tongue, it makes infecting the gums and other parts of the body that much simpler. Since the tongue is moist all the time, it makes sense that it’s a perfect place for bacteria to multiply.

Oral Thrush

Brushing the tongue thoroughly and even reaching the back is crucial to your oral health. It prevents an oral thrush which should be avoided by all terms. An oral thrush is essentially an infection brought about by overgrown yeast in the mouth. This is often characterized by white patches on the tongue. Although antifungal drugs should take care of it, regular brushing should do the trick.

The tongue is a very important organ in the body. For this reason, we should always do whatever we can to keep it healthy and clean. 

Many people are aware that when a person is sick that you stay far away from them until they recover unless you want to catch whatever they have, but not as many people are aware that the same goes for people with poor oral health. People with poor oral health often suffer from infections in their gums, and gum infections, just like a viral infection, can be contagious.

You wouldn’t want to share utensils with someone who is sick with the flu, and you should feel the same way about someone who has infected gums. Though both sicknesses are caused by different organism, they spread in much the same way.

When someone has a gum infection, it’s possible for the bacteria that have caused their infection to spread to other things. This makes utensils particularly dangerous as they usually get the closest to the infection.

What You Can Do

Avoiding utensils used by a person who has a gum infection isn’t enough. It’s common to see family members occasionally share toothbrushes. It’s not recommended to share toothbrushes for many reasons, but one of those reasons is cross-contamination. If a person has an infection in their gums, their toothbrush will certainly have a lot of the bacteria that caused the infection on it. If you were to use this toothbrush, you would put yourself at risk for infection as well.

It’s always important to practice good oral hygiene in your household, especially when it comes to someone within the home having some type of an oral infection. Long-term gum infection is associated with premature tooth decay and loss, and in many cases, advanced gum disease requires major oral surgery. Luckily, we are here to help you. If you think you or a family member may have a gum infection, please come in for a visit. We’ll be able to offer a solution and tips for a speedy recovery. 

Dental implants are used to restore your mouth’s natural structure by using three parts, an implant, an abutment, and a false tooth. The implant portion is fitted into your gum and binds to your jawbone. The abutment acts a connector between the implant and the false tooth.

Dental implants are important as they can prevent further oral problems from occurring like jaw deterioration and the migration of other teeth which can cause an uneven bite.

Many previous people afflicted with gum disease may have dental implants installed to mitigate many of the problems that stem from the loss of a tooth or teeth. Though dental implants reconstruct the tooth and support the jawbone, they must be taken care of just like normal teeth.

If a person with dental implants forgoes proper dental hygiene, is likely that they will develop reoccurring gum disease. This is why it is always important to take care of your mouth.

Ways to Prevent Gum Disease

Gum disease is caused by the buildup of bacteria in the mouth. Eventually, these bacteria can infect the gums and cause the gums to become swollen, red, and infected. If you have dental implants, getting gum disease is still possible and can actually be more difficult to deal with.

When you have dental implants and gum disease at the same time, there is a strong possibility that your body will reject the implants and they will have to be removed. The process of removing dental implants after they have failed is difficult as they are rooted firmly in the jawbone.

Occasionally, gum disease will cause the implant to loosen itself from the jawbone and put a person who is experiencing dental implant failure at greater risk.

When you have dental implants, it is important to continue with good oral hygiene. Good oral hygiene consists of flossing and brushing twice a day as well as making a visit to our office once every six months. We can help you keep up good oral hygiene with a quick call to our office. We will be able to schedule you in for a teeth cleaning appointment at your convenience. 

To those of you that are always on top of your oral health routine we applaud you. Our office would like to make some suggestions for your after-meal routine.

Brushing and flossing after a meal can definitely be good for your mouth. It’s picking the right time to brush to be most effective that some need a little help with.

Your Teeth and Acid

During the course of eating and drinking, your teeth become coated with food particles and acid from the meal. It is important to remove the food particles, but the acid on your teeth makes that a problem. Following your meal, the acid softens the tooth’s enamel for about 30 minutes.

If you immediately start brushing, you run the risk of brushing the tooth’s protective layer right off of the tooth. By waiting about a half an hour to start brushing your teeth, you allow time for the enamel to harden back up. 

Cavity Fighting Tips While You Wait

Now that you understand the purpose of giving your teeth some time before you give them a good brushing, there are some other things to do to reduce the bacteria’s effects in your mouth. Immediately following a meal, rinse your mouth with tap water. Tap water contains fluoride that fights decay.

Follow it up by drinking a glass. This removes acid and bacteria lingering around. By chewing a piece of sugar-free gum, it is also effective at removing food particles and bacteria by causing your mouth to salivate.

By practicing these small tips you can ensure that the enamel on your teeth stays protected. The American Dental Association recommends that you only brush twice per day, for two minutes. Brushing too often can cause dental abrasion.

The removal of protective enamel. If you are going to brush following a meal, use a soft-bristled brush and light pressure. Our office is here to assist in all your oral care needs. For further questions or information, contact us today. 

Taking good care of your teeth isn’t just about having a killer smile and looking good; it could literally save you from cancer. A study by the Lancet Oncology found that men who have a history of gum disease face a higher risk of getting cancer than those who don’t.

The study was done on American men between the ages of 40 and 75. While the studies didn’t have any similar findings for women and other populations, that doesn’t mean you should slack.

Link Between Cancer and Poor Oral Health

One of the reasons why people with frequent gum infections face a higher risk of cancer, according to the study, could be the increased number of inflammations they suffer. The exact link, however, is still unknown.
It’s good to point out at this point that the overall increase in risk of getting cancer was 14%. That might sound low, but it is only the average of cancer as a whole. When considered individually, some cancers actually had a 30% higher than normal risk of occurring in men with a history of gum disease.

It was found that men with a history of gum disease had a 36% risk of getting lung cancer, a 49% risk of getting kidney cancer, and a whopping 54% percent risk of getting pancreatic cancer.

Why you Should Take Care of Your Oral Health

As you can see, your mouth is more closely linked to your body than it may seem at first glance. Ailments that start in the mouth can easily find their way into the rest of the body and wreak havoc. You should therefore take care of your mouth so that the rest of your body has something to be grateful about.

Make sure you brush and floss regularly and schedule regular visits to our offices. We’ll be able to identify most of the issues facing your oral health before they get serious and solve them immediately.

When getting veneers one of the key factors to take into consideration is the health of your gums. When veneer teeth are put on you still need to practice good oral care or it can cause issues with your gums that are much more difficult to resolve compared to your original teeth.

Your gums play a key role in protecting the veneered tooth as well as the root of the tooth. When getting veneers, the goal is to have a healthy sealed gum line even with your teeth. If the gum line possesses pockets or areas that are unbalanced high or low, we will correct it. 

Gum Contouring

After having veneers put in, occasionally, people can have gum lines that are too high, too low or even misshapen gums. This can affect the overall look of the veneered teeth, making them look skinny, small, or too large. Gum contouring is where the gum is reshaped by our dental office using scalpels and lasers to perform the contouring procedure.

A laser is used to re-contour and then seal the gum tissue, creating the ideal shape and preventing ongoing bleeding. Our dentist can also use the laser to eliminate hollow areas between your gums and teeth that trap bacteria.

Gum Disease with Veneer Teeth

If you do not practice good oral care or you come down with gum disease. The gums can recede, making them look overly long and put you at risk of receiving a cavity down under the gum line. If the root becomes exposed, either the gums will need to be contoured or we must place a new veneer.

If not fixed quickly, cavities can occur and burrow into the tooth and root.
When deciding to get veneers, our staff will need to address any issues that come up with your gums. The veneered teeth should seal perfectly with your gums.

We do gum contouring when needed to avoid any infection and to ensure the teeth look balanced and even. If it interests you in getting veneers but were cautious because of gum problems, call us today to schedule an appointment. Let us look and go over options available to you.

When your teeth become sensitive to hot and cold foods, it’s important to understand what’s causing it. Sweet and sour foods are a common trigger behind sensitive teeth. Understanding this will help you find a solution to your tooth sensitivity.

Why Your Teeth may be Sensitive to Sugar

It’s actually quite common for someone to say that their teeth are sensitive to sweet, sugary foods. This really isn’t much different from any other type of tooth sensitivity that someone may be suffering from. Regardless of the cause, your teeth become sensitive when you’ve lost at least some of the enamel that makes up the inner layer of your teeth.

This is where the nerve center of your teeth resides. You may also be eating too many foods that have a high acidic content – something that will also cause damage to your enamel. Once you’ve damaged your enamel, you’ll feel a sharp pain any time something comes into contact with the nerves in your teeth.

Keeping Your Teeth from Becoming Sensitive to Sugar

Once you notice that your teeth are sensitive to sugar, there are a few things you can do to help yourself feel better. First, make sure that you’re using a soft-bristled toothbrush so you’re not scrubbing your teeth too hard, which will make them feel worse.

Secondly, choose a toothpaste that’s specially designed to help with tooth sensitivity. These will typically contain stannous fluorides – an ingredient that’s been clinically proven to protect your teeth against sensitivity so you can enjoy sugary food without the pain.

Having sensitive teeth isn’t enjoyable. In fact, it can be downright painful. This is why you should contact our office right away to set up an appointment to discuss your sensitive teeth and what we can do to help them. We look forward to helping you feel better soon.

If you’ve been under a lot of stress lately, you may have noticed that you’ve been clenching your jaw more often than normal. If you’re clenching your teeth a lot, you may also be grinding them at night. That means you’re dealing with bruxism, a type of stress outlet that can greatly damage your teeth. Very few people grind their teeth simply to grind them.

Normally, it’s a sign of something else. While we may not necessarily be able to help you with the stress that’s causing your bruxism, we can help you deal with the grinding of your teeth.

Why Is Bruxism and Teeth Clenching Dangerous?

When you clench your teeth tightly together, you’re putting a lot of pressure on them. This isn’t normal pressure like the type you exert when you’re chewing food. Instead, it’s often much stronger, and that can cause your teeth to crack.

If you’ve been grinding your teeth a lot at night, you may have already weakened them because the grinding can wear down your enamel. Without this strong enamel to protect your teeth from pressure, you can cause serious damage when you clench your jaw.

What Can We Do?

One of the ways we can help you deal with bruxism is to give you a special mouthguard to wear at night. This will prevent you from grinding your teeth, so you won’t damage them. Once you’re aware of what you’re doing, you can also make a conscious effort to unclench your jaw if you find yourself doing it while you’re awake.

We will also work with you to help restore the enamel of your teeth and protect your mouth from further damage. If you know you’re clenching your jaw a lot or if you believe you’re suffering from bruxism, call us today. We’ll set up a consultation and help you deal with this damaging condition.