I told you so!!

There is something that I hate to see and hear at my office.

It is to see a parent tell a child "I told you to brush your teeth"

while they are shaking their finger at them.

This phrase is said by parents whose children have cavities

and will need to get their teeth filled.

Now, I am a parent of 5 children myself.

And I am all for natural consequences.

If I tell you to bring a jacket and you don't and you get cold,

well then that is the child's fault and a little cold air won't do any harm.

But the whole scene in the dental office is different.

If we are putting fillings into permanent teeth, then your child

is bound to need fairly extensive work on these teeth later in life.

A tooth that has no filling is MUCH better of long term then

a tooth that has even a small filling that is placed very young.

I know dentistry does not seem like a serious health issue, but it can be.

Its like taking your kids to get immunized.

They cry and say they don't want to.

You then say, "Fine but you'll regret it."

Then 10 years down the road your kids gets some life threatening disease

and you just shake your finger and say "See. Told ya you should

have gotten those immunizations."

You would never do that.

Some things are just too important.

You force your kids to take vitamins.

You make them get their immunizations.

You SHOULD make them brush their teeth.

Either under your supervision or you do it for them when they are young.

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Are pacifiers bad?

Well, like most things, the answer is ............ it depends.

Sucking is a very natural and calming thing for a baby to do.

I have given each and every one of my 5 kids a pacifier.

None of them are delayed in their teeth coming in, have any speech problems, or had any thumb sucking problems due to using a pacifier.

There are some obvious thing you should be concerned with.

If you use a clip and a cord to keep the pacifier attached to your child's clothes make sure the cord is short enough that can't choke the baby.

Once your child gets to kindergarten make sure that they only use the pacifier at home. Being known as the only kid that had a pacifier in kindergarten could seriously damage your child's chances at getting asked to junior prom.

Seriously though, allowing your child to have a pacifier for the first few years of life is, in my opinion, not a problem.

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My tooth just tipped over!

Most people think that its no big deal to get a tooth taken out. they will say things like "its just one tooth" and "I've got a ton more". Well, you do have a lot more teeth then just that one but this does NOT mean that getting a tooth out will not create many other problems in the mouth.

Some of the problems that can occur are as follows.

#1 The tooth that chews against the tooth you just took out will move up, or down, into the spot just vacated by the extracted tooth. This top tooth is moving down into the mouth.

#2 The teeth right next to the extracted one will begin to tip into the spot just vacated by the extracted tooth. These next two pictures were taken 5 years apart. The patients tooth tipped completely over and needed to be extracted.

Both of these can cause your bite to be thrown completely off and make chewing uncomfortable.

#3 As you chew hard and crunchy foods, they will pinch up against the gums where the tooth used to be.

Moral to the story is

if you can fix your teeth, then do it.

If you can't, then get the hole filled where the tooth used to be ASAP.

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Will my fillings and crowns bleach?

Lots and lots of people bleach their teeth.

Lots and lots of people have fillings and crowns.

The big question that people have is

what happens when you combine the two?

Will the fillings bleach too?

Will the bleach hurt the crowns?

Etc. Etc.

The answer to these questions, and the solution to the

problems they present is fairly simple.

First, no, neither your crowns nor your fillings will be damaged by bleaching.

Second, no, your fillings and crowns will not change color with the bleach.

The solution to this is to bleach your teeth, as white as you want to go, then get

your crowns and fillings changed out to ones that better match the color

that your teeth have become by bleaching them.

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Just take em out!!

Every once in a while we will get someone who asks us to take

all of their teeth out and just give them dentures.

In almost all cases the answer to this is no.

The reason for this is because these people are looking for a fix.

A fix to all of their dental problems.

They figure that if they have no teeth then they can't have anymore mouth problems.

Oh how wrong that is.

Dentures come with their own set of problems.

Do they fit?

Will they stay in?

Can I chew with them?

Etc.

Etc.

Now, for some people a denture is absolutely the right way to go.

But for most there are other options.

And once you go with a denture you can never go back to real teeth.

Its kind of a, the grass is always greener on the other side mentality.

Do dentures work?

Yes.

But they require work, cleaning, and care just like teeth do.

If you aren't willing to work on your teeth then the problems you

had with your teeth will follow you to your dentures.

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Tongue Piercing = Bad Idea

Tongue Piercing

You see it all the time.

People with barbells sticking out their tongue.

You may even have one yourself.

But is it safe?

In a word...... NO!

Can you feel a stray hair on your arm? Probably not.

Can you feel a stray hair on your leg? Again, probably not.

Can you feel a hair in your mouth? Absolutely.

The reason for this is because the tongue has more nerves contained in it then almost any other part of your entire body. It is very sensitive and very precise. Therefore, ramming a large steel rod through it will certainly damage these nerves. Piercing the tongue can lead to a loss in ability to feel your tongue and ability to taste food.

Besides loss of taste and feel there are also other dangers.

Since the mouth can not be kept sterile, as other parts you may pierce,

the chance of infection is greater. The above picture is a very nicely infected tongue.

Cracking your teeth on a tongue ring is also a very real concern. I have treated many cracked teeth from people biting down on tongue rings.

Want another reason?

How about this one.

If you catch your tongue ring on something. You can actually pull it out of your tongue and cause, this......

Look Fun????

My suggestion, DON'T DO IT!!!

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Does a root canal hurt?

If the conditions are right a root canal absolutely does NOT need to be

any more uncomfortable then any other dental procedure.

There are a ton of stories out there about root canals that were so terrible

that the people don't ever want to go back to the dentist.

Most of the stories about painful root canals comes from root canals that

were done many many years ago.

Technology has changed and root canal procedures

today are much better then they once were.

The second biggest reason why people have tough

times with root canals is they wait too long.

Please do not wait until your face is swollen to come into the dentist.

The swelling, and infection associated with it, make it very hard to get someone numb.

Being in some discomfort is okay. Just don't wait until it is agony before coming in.

A root canal is simply cleaning out the inside of the tooth.

Teeth are hollow. The inside is filled with nerves and blood vessels.

A root canal is a procedure where we clean out the inside of the tooth.

Since the tooth then no longer has any nerves it can no longer

feel pain and you are back to your old happy self.

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