(360) 629-7229

7204 267th St. NW, Suite 102
Stanwood, WA 98292

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Candy Season 2017

It’s holiday season again, or as my hygienist calls it, “cavity season”.  Because candy is so ubiquitous this time of year, I thought I should give some helpful advice for all of us (dentists included) that appreciate something sweet every now and then.

 

  • Try your best to avoid those stickier candies like taffies and Sour Patch Kids. The key is getting the sugar out of your mouth as quickly as possible and these sticky sweets tend to stick around a lot longer.
  • Eat your candy quickly. Sucking on Jolly Ranchers, for instance, for an extended period of time never lets your mouth cleanse itself and will predispose you to a higher risk for cavities.
  • If you have to choose a candy that is best for your teeth, chocolate is a good choice. Although any amount of sweets is hard on your teeth and your diet, there are compounds in chocolate that are antimicrobial and even helps fight plaque!  Additionally, chocolate rinses away quickly and doesn’t linger.
  • Try and avoid hard candies. They stick around longer and you will not be tempted to bite into them which can break your teeth.  Sometimes we can fix broken teeth but sometimes they break so badly that there is nothing a dentist can do for it.  Additionally, if you have existing dental work in your mouth, hard candies are very rough on existing dental work.
  • Rinse after you eat sugar! Try and avoid brushing right away as your teeth will be sitting in an acidic environment and brushing softened tooth structure will erode your teeth a lot quicker.
  • Sugar free gums (especially with xylitol, an alternative sugar) will help bring your risk for tooth decay down! It even works great as a trick or treat bag stuffer.
  • Lastly, a friendly reminder for patients with multiple items on their treatment plans: if you have any outstanding insurance benefits left over at the end of the year, it is use it or lose it season. Most patient’s insurance rolls over at the end of the year so keep that in mind to help maximize your insurance reimbursement!

If you have any questions or would like to schedule an appointment to discuss your personal situation, please give us a call today at 360-629-7229.

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Pediatric Oral Health

Pediatric oral hygiene is the foundation for ensuring a healthy transition for a child into their adult years.   As a parent of a two year old boy, I can say from personal experience that taking care of his teeth is hard but so is nearly everything you do with a child so I would not expect it would be any different. Setting a good example by brushing and flossing your children’s teeth is important to help establish a good routine that they will continue on their own into their adult years.  Oral health impacts children just as much, if not more, than their adult counterparts.

Parents often disregard cavities in their children’s teeth because they feel “it’s a baby tooth” and they feel that it will be replaced in a couple of years.  However, primary teeth serve a larger purpose by acting as placeholders for permanent teeth.  Without them, adult teeth very likely would not have enough room to erupt into their correct locations.  Additionally, baby teeth can also become abscessed, much like adult teeth.  In fact, tooth pain is one of the leading causes for children to miss school and should not be taken lightly.

Here are a few suggestions for any parent looking to implement a healthy routine with their child:

–          For younger children, if they sleep with a bottle, avoid anything in their bottle at night except water.

–          Once their teeth start erupting, set a good example by brushing twice a day and flossing once a day.  Using a smear of fluoride toothpaste before your child can spit it all out will help fight tooth decay.  Once they can spit, a pea-sized amount of toothpaste starts to make more sense.

–          Getting kids in to see the dentist around one year of age for a “happy visit” is a great idea.  We can look at their teeth (if they will let us), let them ride in the chair and check out the gadgets we use for cleanings, like air and water hoses.  It sets the foundation to help kids feel more comfortable visiting a dental office and getting to know their hygienist and dentist.

–          I hear from parents that have had bad dental experiences as a child that they are afraid of passing on their dental phobia to their kids. This is a very real concern.  I recommend avoiding phrases like “it’s not going to hurt” when you talk to your kids about dental work and cleanings.  Children hear what you are not saying and can read between the lines about our own experiences.

–          Get a cheap electric toothbrush!  Oral-B makes all sorts of character electric toothbrushes.  It makes brushing their teeth fun and engaging.

–          You may find that boys need help longer with brushing their teeth.  Let them help with one hand on the brush but you should be doing the work until you are confident that they can do it themselves.  Let us evaluate if necessary!

–          Getting children on a fluoride supplement early is important in non-fluoridated communities like in Arlington and Stanwood-Camano areas.  Fluoride becomes incorporated into their adult teeth and lowers their cavity risk into their adult years by 300%!

If you have any questions, we can help. Please call us at 360-629-7229 if you have any questions or would like to schedule a pediatric visit for your child.

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Alternative Means to Arrest Tooth Decay

If you’re a nerd about teeth like I am, you may be excited about a new FDA-approved product, silver diamine fluoride, that we recently made available at Cascadia Dentistry. The compound, when applied appropriately, works to arrest existing cavities. Because of its ability to stop decay (after multiple applications), it is a great alternative for treating some types of tooth decay that were previously untreatable or were difficult and sometimes traumatic to treat.

One example of an area where this new compound can be used is on root surfaces below the gum line that were traditionally very difficult to treat. These types of cavities tend to affect patients with dry mouth. Known as root caries, these cavities have been notoriously hard to treat due to their location, the need to visualize complete decay removal and the need to keep the area dry when placing a more traditional filling.

Similarly, in children that struggle with longer dental visits or can’t tolerate anesthetic and/or a dental drill, silver diamine fluoride may be another great alternative to slow or stop tooth decay in primary or “baby” teeth because it is so easy to administer. The procedure is fairly straightforward and simply requires isolating the affected area, placing the material and drying. Standard application is at least two applications spread over at least a week period.

Although we are pleased to announce that we now offer this less invasive approach to treat tooth decay, this is not a silver bullet (no pun intended) for all tooth decay. Because this material stains nearly anything it touches dark brown or black, it is not appropriate for many patients with decay in areas that are visible.

If you are interested in learning more, the following article has more information: more here. Please feel free to reach out and let us know if you have any questions about this or any other procedures that we offer. Call (360) 629-7229 to schedule your next visit today!”.

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Back To The Basics

The most common conversation that I have with my patients is on the topic of tooth decay prevention.  I wanted to offer some helpful insight to this topic as it is fundamental to dentistry and oral health. Let’s start with the basics of tooth decay and how it can be prevented.

What is tooth decay? Tooth decay is caused by certain strains of bacteria that eat tiny amounts of sugar after we eat or drink something sweet.  These bacteria metabolize sugar to produce an acid (known as lactic acid) that then sits on our teeth.  This process usually occurs in the nooks and crannies of our teeth, such as the grooves on the biting surface as well as the areas between your teeth.

If you think of how small bacteria are, you start to realize that they probably do not need to eat much sugar at all.  In fact, these bacteria feed on incredibly small amounts of sugar in the range of nanograms.  In addition, they feed on all sorts of sugars.  Sugars are found in many of our foods and beverages and it’s not just the usual suspects, such as candy or soda.  Agave, fruits, juices, breads, etc. all usually have some form of sugar in them.

Since bacteria feed on very small amounts of sugar, any amount of sugar that you consume will be sufficient to start the process of tooth decay.  However, not everyone may develop cavities.  The reason for this involves a number of factors that go into an individual’s risk for tooth decay.  Some of these factors include: what your mother ate and drank while you were in the womb, whether or not you had fluoride as part of your diet when you were a child, what strains of bacteria you received in your oral cavity (which usually run in families), what your oral hygiene is like, the environment in your mouth, etc.  While some of these factors are uncontrollable, the good news is that many of them can be positively influenced by taking steps aimed at preventing tooth decay.

The primary factors that can be controlled for are how well we take care of our teeth and the food we eat. Additionally, tooth decay is not necessarily just about which foods are worse for your teeth than others, but also about how often we eat.  I often ask patients who are prone to cavities if they drink coffee with even a tiny amount of sweetener and how long it takes them to drink their coffee.  This example highlights how drinking sweetened coffee over several hours can prevent your saliva from being able to rinse your mouth, which causes your teeth to sit in an acidic environment and sets the stage for tooth decay.

Tooth decay is really a back and forth process.  For early cavities that haven’t penetrated through the enamel, these cavities are even reversible!  Your saliva has calcium in it and your teeth can harden back up after they start to soften. This is why early detection of tooth decay is key to avoiding larger dental complications that can result in pain, medical emergencies and early tooth loss.  The best advice I can give my patients is to try and reduce the amount of time throughout the day that you are snacking, rinse with water after any sweets and try to maintain good oral hygiene, including topical fluoride.  I also recommend regular exams to identify tooth decay in its early stages before it becomes too much of a problem.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss tooth decay further, please do not hesitate to give Cascadia Dentistry a call at 360-629-7229.

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Fluoride Supplements And Children

I recently had a discussion with a friend of mine as I gave my son his daily fluoride drops. After I was done, my friend looked at me with a puzzled expression and asked me why I would give my son fluoride because she had heard that fluoride is toxic. As a dentist, I hear this view fairly often and it’s frustrating because I immediately want to start presenting all the research touting the major benefits of fluoride supplements in children without coming off as overbearing. In my friends’ case, I very confidently answered her that I was doing my son a favor by giving him fluoride supplements to reduce his future risk for tooth decay because our local drinking water is not fluoridated. Because this is such a common concern, I’d like to take a moment to further explain myself and offer a few points for parents of young children to consider.

So, what is fluoride and why would I give it to my child? What are the plusses and negatives of fluoride consumption? Fluoride is a naturally occurring element that can be found in trace amounts in water sources, some foods and many oral healthcare products. In fact, if you drink tea, you’re probably consuming fluoride and you don’t even know it!

To address my friend’s concerns – yes, fluoride can be toxic at high levels and if you or your child consume too much of it, too quickly, this can lead to a serious medical condition. But, toxicity is a funny thing. Many things such as medications are toxic at high levels and should receive the same warning. Advil, for instance, is a compound known to be toxic to the liver in high concentrations and should be taken as directed. Even table salt contains sodium and chloride; both essential for biologic function but also extremely toxic at high levels. Rest assured, the recommended dosing of fluoride in children is well studied and is far below its toxic level when used as directed.

The most common downside to fluoride consumption is a condition called fluorosis which is a condition that results in white spots in your teeth and bones. This can occur if you are swallow too much fluoride from too many sources such as toothpaste and mouth rinse. However, the fluorosis effect has been accounted for and in 2010, caused the American Dental Association to revise their dosing recommendations lower than they previously had been.

On the other hand, dental decay is endemic and is a very serious health concern that many children and adults face. Dental decay can lead to pain and premature tooth loss and can be debilitating to many children and adults alike. Yet fluoride consumed as a child brings down that persons’ lifelong risk for dental decay in their permanent teeth. Simply put, a child who orally consumes fluoride at the recommended levels, results in fluoride integrating into that child’s adult teeth as they develop which helps reduce future risk for tooth decay – certainly a major benefit to that child as they age.

A lot of research has been done on the benefits of fluoride consumption in children that has led many medical professionals and a handful of surgeon generals to recommend daily fluoride consumption in children. Based on extensive research, fluoride supplements are recommended by the American Dental Association for children under sixteen years of age that do not live in communities already served by fluoridated water – like Stanwood-Camano and Arlington. Additionally, if you consume bottled water or well water, you are also not consuming much, if any, fluoride.

The ADA has recommendations on what the right levels of fluoride consumption are based on age and exposure levels (0.25mg – 1.0mg a day depending on age and exposure). If you are a parent of a child under the age of sixteen, I strongly recommend you consider giving your children fluoride supplements. If you are concerned with the effects of fluoride, I would recommend you take a look at the following website: http://www.ada.org/en/public-programs/advocating-for-the-public/fluoride-and-fluoridation/fluoridation-facts. If you would like to talk about this as well as other ways to reduce you and your children’s risks for tooth decay, please give us a call to schedule an appointment – we’re here to help!