Tetrick Family Dentistry

The Problem With One-Use Plastic Straws

Did you know that 500 million plastic straws are used daily in the US? It may or may not count the unknown number that are washed up into our oceans and do much damage to the marine environment. And to think that these one-use plastic items are not degradable, at least in the next 300 years. Also, these products fill up our landfills, consuming space and wasting resources for disposal. While disposable plastics feed our growing desire for convenience, millions and millions of homes, restaurants, hotels and others the world over are contributing to a major environmental hazard that is already upon us.

Plastic Straw Ban

Many cities have already banned the use of plastic straws at public establishments, yet there are quarters of dissent. For example, many people use straws to drink their sugary beverages, including coffee and tea and wine, to prevent staining their teeth. What do dentists say about that? Dentists once believed that drinking from straws reduces the contact between liquids that stain and the teeth, which prevents teeth going yellow. However, things have changed a bit.

Some dentists point out that sipping with straws can avoid direct contact between the drink and the teeth, other activities or habits can discolor teeth as well. Eating curry, tomato sauce, soy sauce can stain teeth, as well as smoking and chewing tobacco, and treatments like chemotherapy. So drinking with a straw certainly isn’t going to prevent discoloration itself and can’t be said to protect teeth entirely.

Aftercare is more important than resorting to straws. Rinsing your mouth with water immediately after drinking something that stains is much more helpful and must be habitual. Tooth brushing, mouthwash rinses and chewing on sugarless gum remove stains better.

Plastic disposable straws are much more beneficial to people who have disabilities. If you need to drink with a straw, for convenience, then use an eco-friendly straw or your own personal straw that’s reusable. Or better scrap it all together, and know you are saving our oceans doing that.

Helping The Environment Bellingham Way

So if you think using plastic straws can help your teeth from staining, get into the healthier, eco-friendly habit of mouth-rinsing and tooth brushing instead. It’s so much more chic, says your Bellingham dentist.

Daily Habits to Better Oral Health

You might not be aware that some small everyday items can assume major roles in your dental health if you just let them.

Sugar-free Gum

Chewing sugar-free gum for 20 minutes after meals and snacks has been proven to help keep teeth healthy. According to the Oral Health Foundation, chewing on sugar-free gum stimulates the production of saliva which in turns helps to neutralize plaque acids. It increases the amount of saliva we produce, which is the body’s natural defense system for our mouth and teeth. It helps wash away food particles before they become trapped on, around or in between our teeth. It also helps remineralize tooth enamel, which helps to strengthen our teeth. Gives fresh breath, too.

New Toothbrush

Replacing your toothbrush at least every 3 months or as soon as you start to see wear on the bristles can do your health a lot of good. A new, good quality toothbrush can do better work. Dentists sometimes recommend using an electric toothbrush as it has proven to be quite effective in helping clean our teeth. Remember to be gentle on your teeth and gums. Hard brushing can destroy enamel and bruise soft tissue.

Fluoride in Toothpaste

Fluoride helps prevent tooth decay by slowing the breakdown of enamel and increasing the rate of the remineralization, thus strengthening the teeth. It helps to discourage the growth of bacteria. Check the presence of fluoride in the toothpaste you buy and have regular mouth-wash with fluoride in them also. Know if your community water supply is also fluoridated; studies show that there is lowered incidence of cavities and decay in areas where the water system incorporates fluoride.

Flossing

This is another simple, everyday tool that contributes to oral health. At least once-a-day flossing before retiring to bed can assist your tooth-brushing routine. With proper flossing, you remove food debris stuck in-between your teeth as well as under the gumline. This removes the chances of bacteria starting in surfaces your toothbrush cannot reach.

Knowledge is Power in Bellingham

Know more about simple stuff that play major roles in good oral health. More importantly, keeping your dental appointments enables you to really be on top of things where your teeth and gums are concerned.

COPD Patients Ignoring Oral Health

A small observational study published in the Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Journal of the COPD Foundation found that people with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have poor dental hygiene practices and reduced quality of life that is oral health-related. In the context of poor dental health, the greater number of patient’s teeth involved correlated with worsened daily respiratory symptoms.

Patients with COPD are reported to have poor oral hygiene and dental problems. With worsening symptoms, patients are unable to obtain adequate dental care possibly due to impaired mobility due to illness, use of oxygen, continued smoking, or poor access to dental insurance.

The small 60-day study included healthy controls and patients with COPD. Participants were 40 years or older. The COPD group had to have specific spirometric findings and at least a 10 pack-year smoking history. The healthy controls had to have no airflow obstruction and no current smoking. 30 participants were recruited (10 healthy controls, 20 with COPD). All 10 healthy participants completed the study, and in the COPD group, 3 dropped out.

Both groups had similar teeth brushing habits, at least once a day. More of the healthy controls had more frequent dental visits. Healthy controls also usually flossed once per day, while COPD participants, none. They also had a history of more dental infections, tooth extractions and higher prevalence of dentures, as well as fewer teeth. The COPD group had higher average amount of plaque on tooth surfaces but not statistically significant. Breathlessness was also positively correlated with the number of teeth had a positive correlation with percentage of days with cough, and wheeze, and sputum production.

The researchers noted that the microbiome of the lungs resembles the oral microbiome. The more diseased teeth a patient has potentially provide a large reservoir of pathogenic bacteria, such as Haemophilus influenzae, in saliva, which could create worsened respiratory symptoms. In addition, chronic periodontitis is a common inflammatory disorder and has previously been described in patients with COPD, but was not measured in this study.

Knowing Your Health

Bellingham dentistry is well aware how dental health can be impacted by certain medical conditions as serious as COPD. We monitor patient’s medical conditions whilst we treat their dental concerns. It’s always good to let us know health concerns or issues, especially history, before treatment.

Understanding the Connection Between Sleep Apnea and Dental Care

Sometimes patients are surprised that dentist ask them about the quality of their sleep. Many Americans don’t get enough sleep they need, and some don’t know why. Snoring and sleep disturbances are often signs of obstructive sleep apnea, and these are usually blamed on oral health. The dentist is often the earliest diagnostician of sleep disorders.

What happens if I have sleep apnea?

Sleep apnea will cause the patient to have repeated breathing interruptions throughout the night. These interruptions last from a few seconds to minutes and may occur 30 or more times per hour. This is due to the muscles in the back of the throat becoming flaccid, the tongue is too large, or the jaw is too small, causing airway obstructions. The patient experiences restless sleep and feel unwell or fatigued waking up in the morning.

If sleep apnea is the root cause, there are several options to care for it, including oral appliance therapy, such as the CPAP machine. CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure and is considered the “gold standard” for treating obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and has been available for 30 years. While it is the primary option for care, it’s a mask that must be worn at night, and some patients don’t want to sleep wearing one.

The director and some of his colleagues at the Dental Sleep Medicine and Orofacial Pain at the UTHSC (University of Tennessee Health Science Center) are coming up with a solution to stabilize the whole mechanism, the jaw and everything else, to prevent the jaw from dropping back.

The appliance is custom fit to the patient’s mouth and holds the lower jaw in a slightly forward position, much like a retainer or a sports mouth guard. Some are attached a little, some are not attached at all, but they still have some mechanism to prevent that collapse. The device can also help to prevent snoring in some of its patients. The patient is fitted with the device that best suits the mouth shape and the breathing issue. Follow-up visits ensure it sits properly and is relieving the problem.

Sleep Apnea Treatment Options in Bellingham

Learn more about sleep apnea from your Bellingham dentist and know that the condition can be managed by oral appliance therapy. Sit down with us and let’s talk your sleeping disorder.

Under Stress? Examine Your Mouth

Stress is prevalent and is encountered in different ways. Short-term stress is more common and often viewed as helpful. It can stimulate creative thinking and enhance problem-solving skills and poses little risk to the overall health. Chronic stress is often more problematic and has been linked to significant changes in hormonal and nervous systems. It can also adversely affect the health of the mouth and its structures. Here are some ways it can do that.

Your teeth can chip. You might be grinding away your enamel with constant grinding, especially at night time when you are not even aware of it. It can also happen in the day time. Do your teeth edges seem to appear of the same length, or do you notice jagged edges? Any existing fillings may chip or break caused by grinding and suddenly you’d feel tooth sensitivity. It can end up as extreme erosion, exposing dentin and nerves, and can be painful.

Grinding your teeth can also lead to headaches, neck pain and upper back pain, possibly even developing into migraines. If you consistently wake up with headaches or neck pain you may well be grinding your teeth in your sleep. It can also cause jaw pain when you wake up, as your temporomandibular joint bore the tension of constant grinding in the night.

Chronic stress can affect gum health. Chronic stress lowers your immune strength and can result in sore, inflamed gums that bleed every time you brush. It also likely raises your chances of getting canker sores inside your mouth, small spots with a white or grayish base that have red borders. They show up in pairs or in greater numbers. Also, when you’re feeling upset, it can trigger an outbreak of cold sores on or around your lips. They’re filled with fluid, sometimes called fever blisters.

How can stress lead to bad breath?

Stress can result in dehydration, leading to lack of saliva flow. With less saliva, acid and sugar interact on the enamel and can cause tooth decay and cavities, which means bad breath. Apart from these, people under extreme stress tend to forego oral cleaning habits. With their moods affected, they may tend to skip brushing, flossing, and rinsing. This raises the chances of getting cavities or gum disease.

Dental Care in Bellingham

If you’ve got any of these oral manifestations, talk to our Bellingham dentist soon. Early intervention can stop the progress of these conditions. For stress, we might have to advise you to consult with your doctor.

Know What Your Teeth are Telling You

Beginning cavities are notoriously difficult to spot by the untrained eye, hence, they are considered a wide-spread condition. Unattended cavities can cause the spread of tooth decay and tooth loss with attendant gum disease and bone destruction.

So it is important that the first signs be recognized right away and treatment sought. Dentists were asked what signs should alert common folks that they have a tooth cavity or cavities. They agree that these five common signs point to the presence of a cavity in your mouth.

You have a toothache, and you don’t know why. You suddenly experience a toothache and nothing else about your health has changed, it could be due to a cavity. A cavity starts at the outer surface of teeth, the enamel, considered the strongest material in the body. It can bore down to the next layer, which is the dentin. If it reaches the pulp chamber with its rich nerve supply, you may feel pain already.

You feel sensitivity or pain with certain food and drinks. When you eat or drink acidic, cold, hot, sticky, or sweet items, you may have sensitive teeth. When a cavity finds its way down to the dentin, hollow canals known as microscopic tubules within can allow these foods to stimulate the nerves and cells inside. Dentin is yellowish tissue and makes up the bulk of teeth. It is harder than bone but softer than enamel. It is sensitive to pain, pressure, and temperature as the tubules connect to the pulp chamber.

You see a hole or pit on your tooth. If you see a small white spot on the surface of your tooth, a cavity is just forming. As the erosion gets worse and the cavity begins to burrow into your tooth, it forms a hole or pit that might be visible to the naked eye.

You notice a spot that has stained brown, black, or white. A discolored spot of a different hue from the rest of your teeth, can be a sign of tooth decay. Although cavities typically first look like little white marks, they can eventually pick up stains from the foods and beverages you consume, turning them a different color.

You feel a sharp jolt of pain when you bite down. This is another sign that your tooth’s pulp is inflamed or has actually died due to infection and is pressing down on the root underneath enclosed in bone. Any pressure downwards would hurt. There might be a crack in the tooth, allowing entry of outside elements.

Not Ignoring Warning Signs in Bellingham

Know the warning signs of cavities on your teeth. If you encounter any of these symptoms, do not delay seeing us at Dr. Tetrick’s. Early intervention is key.

Where The Problem Lies

Without a doctor or dentist’s guidance, some parents don’t follow national recommendations for early dental care for their children, a new national poll discovers. According to a recent C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health, most parents believed children should delay dentist visits until age 4 or older – years later than what experts recommend. This clearly doesn’t connect with the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Dental Association recommendation of starting dental visits around age one when baby teeth emerge.

The national poll is based on responses from 790 parents with at least one child aged 0-5. More than half of parents did not receive guidance from their child’s doctor or a dentist about when to start dentist visits. The reasons cited by some parents whose child has not had a dental visit are that the child is not old enough, the child’s teeth are healthy, and the child would be scared of the dentist.

Another factor that may delay dental care is that healthcare recommendations for early childhood are often focused on well-child visits with medical providers, and parents seemed to strictly follow through. They are well guided as to first visits after birth, immunization schedules, vitamins and milk formula instructions, and other such preventive care measures. Parents get much less guidance on when to start taking their child to the dentist. Less than half say, though, they have received professional advice. This lack of guidance may mean many parents delay the start of dental visits past the recommended age.

Welcoming Infants and Toddlers at Tetrick Family Dentistry

By the time your baby is one year old, visit Tetrick Family Dentistry for your child’s first visit.

New Study Proves the Connection

Studies have shown that dental health problems, like periodontal disease, are related to inflammation, diabetes, smoking and a not-so-healthy diet, according to a study, out of the department of epidemiology at Tulane University in New Orleans. Previous research has pointed out that there’s an association between dental issues and cardiovascular disease risk. If you had dental issues which eventually led to loss of teeth, it equates with an increased risk of this type of health problem.

However, most of that research looked at cumulative tooth loss over a lifetime, starting as early as childhood tooth loss. It is the tooth loss in middle age that’s more likely related to inflammation, but it hasn’t been clear how this later-in-life tooth loss might influence cardiovascular disease risk.

Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health collaborated in this new study analyzing the impact of tooth loss in large studies of adults, aged 45 to 69 years. Participant recorded their number of natural teeth at the onset with a follow-up of reported recent tooth loss. They didn’t have cardiovascular disease at the beginning. Researchers followed up in the next 8 years, afterwards followed an incidence of cardiovascular disease among those with no tooth loss, with one tooth lost, and two or more teeth lost over 12-18 years.

Cardiovascular disease risk among all those studied (regardless of the number of natural teeth) increased among those losing two or more teeth during the study period, compared to those who didn’t lose any teeth. Those with less than 17 natural teeth at the beginning were 25% more likely to have cardiovascular disease.

With the knowledge that tooth loss in middle age can signal elevated cardiovascular disease risk, adults can take steps to reduce the increased risk early on. Regular dental visits should be a crucial practise by younger adults in order to spot potential issues. Oral hygiene is also integral to preservation of one’s dentition.

Early Tooth Preservation in Bellingham

As early as possible, have your oral health overseen by your trusted dental experts here at Dr. Tetrick’s in Bellingham. Reduce your chances of tooth loss early and lessen your risk for cardiovascular disease.

Your Brain and Your Tooth Ache

Most people are so tuned in to pain they exactly know where it hurts – a knife cut in the middle finger or a splinter caught under the thumb nail, even if the fingers involved are near each other. It is not so readily easy with toothache in the mouth. A new study from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany is one of the first to address the puzzle of toothache localization.

Researchers analyzed brain activity in healthy volunteers as they experienced tooth pain. They delivered short electrical pulses to the upper left canine tooth or the lower left canine tooth in the subjects. These bursts of electrical stimulation produced a painful sensation similar to that felt when biting into an ice cube and were tuned such that the subject always rated the pain to be about 60%, with 100% being the worst pain imaginable.

The researchers used fMRI to monitor changes in activity when the upper tooth or the lower tooth was electrocuted. Many brain regions responded to top and bottom tooth pain in the same way, for the signals came from two branches of the trigeminal nerve . The V2 branch carries pain signals from the upper jaw, and the V3 branch carries pain signals from the lower jaw. Regions in the cerebral cortex behaved similarly for both toothaches. These brain regions are known to play important roles in the pain projection system, yet none showed major differences between the two toothaches.

Though the stimulation was more or less the same, the experiments might have missed subtle differences that could account for why some tooth pain can be localized and some can’t. The person couldn’t tell where the pain was coming from, so dentists should be aware that patients aren’t always able to locate the pain source. There are physiological and anatomical reasons involved.
These findings are consistent with what dentists see in practice – the brain is unable to tell top-tooth pain from bottom-tooth pain.

Understanding the pathway from tooth to brain may help researchers devise better treatments for acute tooth pain, such as cavities or infections, and more-chronic conditions, such as phantom pain that persists in the mouth after a tooth has been removed.

Understanding Tooth Pain Locations in Bellingham

Are you experiencing tooth pain and can’t exactly tell us which or where? No worries. It’s a common enough dilema. Come to us in Bellingham for a consult and let us look you over and help.

Pros and Cons of Alternative Toothpastes

The Los Angeles Dental Society talks about the pros and cons of some of the popular alternative toothpaste in the market today. Like most commercial health and beauty products, toothpaste has been industrialized over the years. Fluoride is still a popular ingredient and its benefits well studied. To curb excessive use of fluoride, the ADA lends its seal of acceptance on those brands that conform with the safe and proper proportions of fluoride. Question is, do these other alternative oral care products actually clean teeth and prevent cavities?

Charcoal

Synonymous with “black”, charcoal is claimed to help whiten your teeth. The abrasiveness of charcoal helps remove stains, helps raise the pH in your mouth which in turn helps neutralize acids. While there’s no proof that it’s a better option than regular toothpaste, charcoal-based toothpaste may be too abrasive if the quantities are too high.

Baking Soda

Although baking soda does help to remove plaque, it doesn’t kill any bacteria, and that can actually increase cavity formation in your teeth. Its abrasive properties that help clean your teeth can also damage the enamel, so it’s best to use baking soda and baking soda-heavy products only occasionally.

Cinnamon

It is known to be anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory. If you use cinnamon in too strong a concentration or too frequently, you may wind up with red and white patches in your mouth that burn. With a condition called cinnamon-induced oral mucosal contact reaction, you’ll need to stop using cinnamon-flavored products, including toothpastes and gum.

Coconut Oil

It has been shown to help prevent and treat oral candida infections or thrush. However, whether it will reduce cavity-causing bacteria in your mouth is still in question. Some small studies suggest its antibacterial ability helps reduce plaque and gingivitis, but more research is needed for a solid conclusion.

Sea Salt

Sea salts can temporarily raise the pH in your mouth, which makes it more difficult for bacteria to thrive. That’s why it’s also a top ingredient in homemade toothpastes.

Recommending Best Toothpaste Ingredients

Alternative toothpaste with their cleaning effects have their own benefits to boast. It just may be more safe for consumers to use them in moderation. Ask your Bellingham dentist about them.