My gums bleed when I floss.

This is something that I hear a lot around the office.

I find cavities in folks and I ask them how their flossing is.

They say that they don't floss because every time they do their gums bleed.

The philosophy of not doing something to your self because it makes you bleed,

is normally a very good one to live by. 

For instance I don't stab myself with forks because

 if I did it would cause me to bleed.

However, when it comes to flossing the opposite may apply.

Lets take learning to play the guitar for a comparison.

When you are learning to play the guitar it is not uncommon for the ends

of your fingers to bleed a little bit.

This is because you fingers are not used to the stress you are putting them through.

But does this mean that you weren't meant to play the guitar and that you should quit.

No. It means that you are a newbie to guitar playing and that the more you play

the LESS your fingers will bleed as they become accustomed to your playing.\

The same can be said for flossing.

If your gums bleed does that mean that you

 just weren't meant to floss and that you should stop?

NO.

It means that you are a newbie (or recently returned after a long vacation) to flossing.

The more you floss the LESS your gums will bleed.

This will continue until they do not bleed at all anymore.

So for all you aspiring guitar players, and flossers, out there my advice is 

that you just keep going.

Things will get better and it will become more comfortable as you go.

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Is there and easy way to floss?

Asking if there is an easier way to floss is like asking if there is an

easy way to do a sit-up. Both of them simply are what they are.

There are little tricks and tips and things out there that you may

think make it a little easier to do, but in the end it just comes 

down to just bucking up and doing it.

Here are 2 examples of good old regular floss.

There are some differences in widths but this floss is pretty standard.

Here are 2 examples of floss on a handle.

These types of floss are becoming pretty popular due to the fact

that you don't have to wrap floss around your fingers and 

cut off all the blood flow during flossing.

And here are some examples of companies trying to do whatever they can

to make money (oops, I mean, Help you floss).

 Bottom line is you just need to do it. 

There is no replacement for flossing. 

If you hate going to the dentist to get cavities filled

then any one of these should become one of your best friends.

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The junk that builds up behind your teeth.

Your teeth are all meant to have some space in between them.

Some teeth have only a tiny space and may be very hard to floss.

Some teeth have more space and may be very easy to floss.

But all teeth are supposed to have space between them.

Take your tongue and run it along the back side of your bottom front teeth.

Does it feel like a wall of teeth or does it feel like individual teeth?

If it feels like a wall of teeth with very little space

 in between then you might need a cleaning.

Below is a picture of some front lower teeth before and after they were cleaned.

The yellow stuff in between the teeth is build up that is too hard to

be cleaned off by your tooth brush alone.

The only way to get this stuff off is by a trained dental hygienist or dentist.

It doesn't look very good but that is not the worst part.

The worst part is the bacteria that can be harbored in your mouth

and thus pose health risks, some severe, throughout your entire body.

Before the cleaning.

After the cleaning.

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My child grinds their teeth, SO LOUD! Can I do anything about it?

Does your child grind their teeth at night?

Do you go in to check on them and hear that horrible grinding sound?

Does your child's teeth look like little nubs that have been ground down

from what used to be good looking little teeth?

Can anything be done about it?

Will it end up hurting their teeth?

Here are some answers to your questions.

No there is nothing you can do about the grinding.

In adults we can do things like make mouth guards to wear

at night so you grind on that rather then the teeth.

But we really don't want the chocking hazard with kids so that option is out.

Grinding is a subconscious habit so its not like sucking your thumb

where we can monitor the child and remind them to stop.

Grinding is just something you are going to have to live with.

There are only very rare cases where childhood grinding

has ever caused any real damage to a child's teeth.

A child's teeth only are around for a few years anyway.

So the teeth that are being ground on usually are not around

long enough to have any real damage done to them.

do they look a little shorter? Yes. Is it a big problem? No.

And the best thing about this entire issue is that almost all of the

kids that grind their teeth when they are young will stop doing so

as they enter the teenage years. No one knows why for sure

but by the time they are teens most kids have kicked the habit.

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There are lots of myths out there.

The Lochness Monster, Bigfoot, etc.etc.

Mine is the myth of the cosmetic dentist.

There is no such thing as a cosmetic dentist.

Here is a list of the specialties that are recognized by the ADA. Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, Endodontics, Dental Public Health, Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Pediatric Dentistry, Periodontics, and Prosthodontics.

Each one of these specialties is strictly regulated. Each doctor that practices in one of these fields must go through advanced licensure requirements and advanced schooling even beyond dental school. These doctors carry with them advanced knowledge that is strictly regulated by the ADA.

If you noticed none of those specialties that I just mentioned was called the specialty of cosmetic dentistry. That's because it doesn't exist. And as a matter of fact it is illegal to advertise yourself as a cosmetic dentist.

The idea of being "cosmetic" simply means that you try to make things look better. Well, there isn't a dentist, or specialist, out there who DOESN'T do this. Everyone in the dental field has the goal to make things look better. Its what we do.

Now, is it true that a dental professional can go to courses, after dental school, that focus solely on cosmetic procedures? Absolutely. And I have been to many of them. But that does not mean that I am a specialist in cosmetic dentistry. Because, once again, no one can be. It doesn't exist.

If you have things that you would like to see changed about your teeth then ask around. Find a dentist that has a good reputation for that kind of thing. Then when you meet him/her ask to see some of their work. If it looks good then you are probably at the right place.

Here is a case that we did in our office.

Before

After

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I have too many missing teeth for you to fix.

Sometimes folks come into the office and tell me that their teeth

are so bad and that they have so many missing ones that there

is no way that I could possibly fix all of them.

Well almost 100% of the time they are wrong.

Take Jenny for instance. 

Jenny had several missing teeth all on the same side.

She thought there was nothing that could be done.

Below you will see a picture of a bridge that we made for jenny.

This bridge goes from her very back tooth all the way up to

one of her front four teeth.

(Sorry its a tad blurry)

Its all one piece.

It will get cemented in place and won't need 

to be removed on a nightly basis.

It looks fantastic.

And its a way to replace 3 of Jenny's missing teeth at one time.

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Ex-girlfriend pulls out all of ex-boyfriends teeth.

Dentist removes ALL of her ex-boyfriend's teeth to get him back for dumping her. HAVE GOT TO READ!!  Taken from Yahoo news.



If you're planning a trip to the dentist, it might not be the wisest decision to make your appointment with the person with whom you just broke up.
A Polish woman is facing three years in prison after she removed all of her ex-boyfriend's teeth during dental surgery just days after their breakup.
"I tried to be professional and detach myself from my emotions," Anna Mackowiak, 34, told the Austrian Times. "But when I saw him lying there I just thought, 'What a bastard' and decided to take all his teeth out."
Marek Olszewski, 45, reportedly showed up at Mackowiak's dental office complaining of toothache just days after he broke up with her. She then allegedly gave him a "heavy dose" of anesthetic, locked the door and began removing all of his teeth one at a time.
"I knew something was wrong because when I woke up I couldn't feel any teeth and my jaw was strapped up with bandages," Olszewski said.
"She told me my mouth was numb and I wouldn't be able to feel anything for a while and that the bandage was there to protect the gums, but that I would need to see a specialist," he said.
"I didn't have any reason to doubt her, I mean I thought she was a professional."
Adding to his trauma, Olszewski said his new girlfriend has already left him over his now toothless appearance.
"And I'm going to have to pay a fortune on getting indents or something," he said.
Mackowiak is currently being investigated for medical malpractice.


I know there is a moral to the story here somewhere but I am just too blown away by the story to find one.

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