(360) 629-7229

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

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New Technology Announcement

Sample CBCT Software Analysis

We are excited to announce the installation of a new digital cone beam CT machine at Cascadia Dentistry!  Cone beam CT (CBCT) technology is a great tool for diagnosing a variety of conditions as it gives us a three-dimensional view of the hard tissue of your skull allowing us to map critical areas such as your trigeminal nerve and maxillary sinus without exploratory surgery.  A CBCT scan is instrumental in treatment planning for any implant placement and restoration and has quickly become the standard of care.  Once a scan is obtained it even allows us to fabricate surgical guides for surgeries like sinus lifts and implant placement(s) which ultimately makes your surgery easier. 

Previously we utilized a third-party service to acquire CBCT scans which required scheduling and payment through a mobile service which was just another hurdle to get through when planning for your surgery.  The ability to take CBCT scans on site will remove that hurdle altogether and provides us easy access to obtaining any scans as we need them.

We are very pleased and excited to announce this new development at our office.  We always strive to balance the need for advancing our technology with the timing that will best serve our patients.  If you would like to discuss how this change may serve your dental needs, please do not hesitate to contact us at 360-629-7229.

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Dental Insurance

With the end of the year rapidly approaching, it’s a good time to discuss dental insurance as you may be considering enrolling in a new plan or looking to maximize your dental benefits.

Generally speaking, with the exceptions of Medicaid, Medicare and Apple Care plans, patients have a choice between PPO and HMO plans. If you are considering a new plan, you should know that PPO plans offer the most flexibility. These plans allow you to choose whichever provider you want to see, as opposed to HMO plans, which require that you choose from a list of their pre-approved providers.

Although you can choose any provider you would like with a PPO plan, you will get the best value and lower rates if you select a dentist that is on your insurance providers’ list of “preferred providers”. This is because a preferred provider has agreed to a lower reimbursement from your insurance company than what they might otherwise charge someone that does not have insurance or does not have that same plan.

Now, dental insurance tends to be fairly limited. It functions very differently than medical insurance. Medical insurance, for instance, can have a much higher deductible that must be reached before your plan really begins to assist with coverage. Dental insurance, on the other hand, usually has very low deductibles (if any) and will pay a much bigger percentage of procedures up to a much smaller maximum. This is a general outline, of course, and does not include the dental plans that are only meant to cover hygiene visits and nothing else.

Most dental insurance plans offer maximum coverage of approximately $1,500-$2,000 annually. These maximums have not increased for many years, although premiums have continually increased. When it comes to dental work, especially if you have extensive work, this maximum is used up fairly quickly. This has led many patients to consider whether dental insurance is even worth having. Although the answer to that question depends on your personal situation, something to consider is that preferred provider rate mentioned previously. Even if you reach your dental insurance maximum, if you are under a PPO plan with a preferred provider, you still will receive lower fees for services – which can amount to thousands of dollars in savings!

Having dental insurance also creates an incentive to seek regular dental care which, hopefully, will help you to avoid small concerns from becoming much larger and costly dental issues. However, dental insurance companies know that many patients may avoid dental visits and will have multiple problem areas. While an emphasis on routine care is important, we can also focus on scheduling your treatment into more manageable phases to minimize the cost impact and maximize your insurance benefits. If you have any insurance-related questions, please do not hesitate to call us. Our team is highly skilled in helping answer any questions about the best insurance for your needs.

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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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Alternative Means Of Whitening

Recently, we have been hearing questions from our patients about alternative means of teeth whitening.  I wanted to discuss two of these alternative options specifically: apple cider vinegar and activated charcoal.  In general, teeth can stain over time due to the hardships we place on them.  Drinking coffee, tea, soda and other harsh foods can take a toll on our pearly white smiles.  Staining happens in two ways, which are known as extrinsic staining and intrinsic staining.  Simply put, extrinsic staining occurs on the surface of the exposed enamel while intrinsic staining occurs deep down.

When we talk about whitening our teeth, we are usually referring to attacking that extrinsic staining.  Many products have been created for consumers to try to eliminate staining and most of these products work by the process of abrasion.  In other words, products like whitening toothpastes are very abrasive and can actually remove minor amounts of tooth structure when used – but will sometimes also result in whiter teeth. Although there haven’t been many studies on the success of activated charcoal in toothpaste, the mechanism by which it works is similar to the same mechanism used in other abrasive toothpastes.  However, in contrast to tooth whitening toothpastes, activated charcoal toothpastes have not been examined or approved by the ADA and too much abrasion can damage your teeth if used as a prolonged alternative to recommended toothpastes.

When considering apple cider vinegar as a mouth rinse and tooth whitening agent, the studies are also absent and its use is strongly discouraged.  Vinegar is a common name for its proper name, acetic acid.  Just like any other acid, anything acidic should be avoided as a long-term rinse as acidic food and drink will shift the environment in your mouth that may lead to the softening and subsequent erosion of your teeth, which may predispose you to a higher risk for tooth decay.  If this is the last thing you do before bed, you are letting your teeth sit in an acidic environment while you sleep.  Additionally, if you are brushing your teeth afterwards, the effects can also be damaging as you are gradually brushing your teeth away.

If you are interested in tooth whitening, both in terms of continued use and long-lasting results, custom-fitted whitening trays remain the gold standard.  Although whitening gels can cause temporary sensitivity, the mechanism used does not damage your teeth and the results last much longer than other over-the-counter alternatives.  Additionally, Cascadia Dentistry offers products than have been shown to reduce or eliminate even the smallest amount of post-whitening sensitivity.

If you’re interested in whitening your teeth, we are here to discuss it further and help you get started!

To schedule an appointment, please call Cascadia Dentistry in Stanwood:  (360) 629-7229

 

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Antibiotics For Treating Dental Patients With Artificial Joints Are No Longer Recommended

In December 2012, the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) and the American Dental Association (ADA) collaboratively announced revised guidelines on the use of antibiotics as a means to prevent the infection of prosthetic joints.  The most recent guidelines no longer recommend the routine use of antibiotics in most cases of patients with artificial joints. This revision to existing best practices has been slow to reach the general public.  In summary, based on considerable research (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3927664/), antibiotics before dental procedures has not been found to be beneficial for the vast majority of patients with artificial joints and in many cases can actually be harmful.

This topic comes up fairly often in the dental chair as many of my patients have artificial joints.  For years the guidelines have been moving toward the reduction of the use of prophylactic antibiotics before dental visits and the frequently changing opinions can often be confusing.  The idea was that bacteria can enter your bloodstream during invasive dental procedures that could, potentially, after a torturous path, end up making their way into the joint space, resulting in a harmful infection of that prosthetic joint.  If this theory were correct, the use of antibiotics as a means to prevent it could make sense.  However, after years of research, they cannot find any cases where this has actually happened.  At the same time, they have also found that simply brushing your teeth can also result in bacteria from your oral cavity entering your bloodstream; and yet, there are no recommendations for the use of preventive antibiotics before brushing teeth.  After years of ongoing research, the AAOS and ADA have finally eliminated the general recommendation for the use of antibiotics in the case of prosthetic joints.  Ultimately, however, their recommendation defers to the patient and their orthopedic surgeon to make the final decision.

If this topic applies to you, the Cascadia Dentistry team continues to defer to you and your surgeon and recommend that you talk with your surgeon about the revised guidelines.  In both personal experience and in doing our own research, we have found evidence that scaling down the overuse of antibiotics is beneficial, as instances where they are over-prescribed can reduce their effectiveness or even lead to life-threatening digestive issues.  As a result, we follow the guidelines of the ADA and the AAOS and do not routinely recommend the use of antibiotic prophylaxis for prosthetic joints.  If you have any questions or concerns, please let us know at your next dental visit. We would be more than happy to discuss this with you further.

To schedule an appointment, please call Cascadia Dentistry in Stanwood:  (360) 629-7229