Periodontitis

Periodontitis is a condition where the gums and bone that surround your

slowly deteriorate to to large amounts of, unremoved, bacteria.

I have seen perfectly healthy teeth be pulled out of someones mouth with

their own fingers because the gums and bone could no longer support them.

It is an absolute must that you get into your dentist at lease once a year to

get the bacteria plaque and other contaminants removed from your teeth

to maintain good gum and bone health.

Here are some healthy gums.

Here are some gums that are in trouble.

One of the symptoms of periodontal disease is swollen, red, painful gums.

This patient is also in trouble.

Another symptom of periodontal disease is that your teeth will begin to loosen up.

As the bone looses its ability to hold the teeth in

you teeth will shift and, or drop out of the gums.

Please please please get to your dentist for a good cleaning BEFORE your

mouth begins to resemble one of these last two pictures.

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Saliva, Spit, and Drool.

Whatever you call it the wet stuff in your mouth ( I will call it saliva),

is a very important part of your overall health.

Saliva is produced from 3 major glands in your mouth and plays two major roles in the body.

#1 Saliva helps to lubricate food before it goes down your throat

so that harder foods will not damage your insides on the way to the stomach.

#2 Saliva helps to wash harmful sugars and bacteria off of you teeth.

One of the most damaging things to your teeth is a dry mouth.

Dry teeth are dead teeth.

A dry mouth can be caused by a number of things.

The largest cause of dry mouth that I see is from medications.

Specifically heart regulating and mood altering medications

have the greatest effect but it can be any medication.

Dry mouth can also be brought on by age.

Just as your eyes aren't as moist as they used to be, so to

may your mouth begin to dry out over time.

If you feel like your mouth is drier then it used to be please contact

your dentist right away. There are things you can do to help.

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What's wrong with your tongue?!

It's called geographic tongue.

Geographic tongue is a condition where the tissue of the tongue will vary in

appearance from one section of the tongue to another.

The location, size, color and duration of the variations is different from person to person

and can even change within the same person over time.

There is no real threat with geographic tongue. Most people with geographic

tongue don't even know they have it. All they know is that they have always

had this funnysection of their tongue that changes texture and color from time to time.

The only main side effect coincidental with geographic tongue is a heightened

sensitivity to spicy foods form time to time. These episodes will occur as

the spots of the geographic tongue go through their phase of appearing and

then disappearing.

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I see a little cavity

If you ever look in your mouth and are able to SEE any color other then the white of your teeth you need to get it looked at.

It may just be stain or last nights dinner. But it could be a sign of something much more.

When a dentist looks at your teeth he/she uses color change as one of the indicators to take a closer look at any particular area.

The pictures below are a case that we did.

The patient came in with a little darkened area on one of his molars.

After we got done getting out all of the decay out he was as close as you would ever want to come to getting a root canal. Once the decay gets down into the tooth you are no longer able to get to it with your toothbrush, floss or mouthwash. The bacteria simply sets up shop in your tooth and start to multiply. The tooth was saved and things should be okay but the patient had to go through a lot more drilling then they bargained for.

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Morgan Valley Marathon

Okay guys and gals.

Not really a dental thing here but its something our office is very involved in.

Its the Morgan Valley Marathon.

It is July 30th.

It should be one heck of a time.

This is their first year doing it so they need support.

They have a full, half, and 5k.

AND, yours truly will have a sweet booth at the finish line to give stuff away.

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Tori

Tori.

Ever heard of the word?

A tori is a lump of bone that resides in the mouth.

Most people that have tori think nothing of it because they have always had it.

Well, not everyone does have it.

But even if you do have it it really not that big of a deal.

Its just bone and likely wont ever cause you any problems.

One of the only time that it may cause you problems is if you need a denture.

Dentures are very hard to fabricate over the top of tori.

It is only a minor problem however due to the fact that tori can be removed.

So if you have a hard boney lump that has been in your mouth forever,

it may not hurt to get it checked out, but more often then not its simply just a tori.

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Fixin the Gap.

This is Trent.

Trent did not like the gap that he had in his teeth.

30 minutes later.

No shots

No drilling.

Trent is a happy guy.

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The Cosmetic Dentist Myth.

There is a myth out there in the dental world.

It is the myth of the "Cosmetic Dentist".

There is no such thing. Tune into this video and

I will explain.

(I know the audio is a little off from the video)

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A changed smile

There are some things in life that we can not change.

But there are some things you can.

This is Camille.

Camille did not like the way her teeth looked when she smiled.

Camille decided to get 8 crowns placed across her top teeth.

These are state of the art zirconium crowns.

No chance of a black line ever showing through at the gums.

No chance of porcelain cracking off of the crown.

Beautiful beautiful crowns.

Camille is a very happy lady.

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Missing tooth and peg lateral case.

Kristi is a patient that came to our office with a couple of problems.

First off, one of her four front teeth was missing.

The tooth never came in.

Secondly, the matching tooth on the other side did not form completely.

It is what we call a peg lateral.

We did a couple of things for Kristi.

We placed an implant in the spot where the one tooth was missing.

After that healed we placed crowns on both the implant and the small tooth.

Here are the before and after pictures and x-rays.

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