Dry Mouth Syndrome

Did you know that dry mouth can be caused by medications, medical conditions, emotional stress and anxiety, and different products that we use in our mouths. Dry mouth can be a temporary or chronic condition. The dryness can lead to decreased saliva in the mouth. Our saliva plays a very important role in our mouth, it helps with digestion, speaking, chewing and preventing bacteria growth in the mouth. Chronic dry mouth can lead to tooth decay, gum infection, gum disease and other health conditions. If you have dry mouth, you need to follow good dental hygiene habits-brushing, flossing and visiting your dentist regularly.

Some of the signs of dry mouth are:

• Difficulty speaking or swallowing or chewing


• Sore Throat


• Altered sense of taste


• An infection in the mouth


• A burning sensation


• Bad breath


• A rough, dry tongue


• Not enough saliva


• A dry, sticky feeling in the mouth or throat


• Signs of dryness, such as cracked lips, sores, split skin at the corners of the mouth


• Fungal infection of the mouth


• Increased plaque, decay and gum disease

Did you know, there are also other things that you use that maybe are contributing to the dryness in your mouth? Your toothpaste (the foaming agent called sodium lauryl sulfate or SLS) and and your mouthwashes(ones containing alcohol) both have ingredients that can cause the dryness.

There are many things you can do to help with the dry mouth:

• Drinking plenty of water-frequent sips of water


• Make sure you have good dental habits


• Avoid mouth washes that contain alcohol or peroxide


• Stay away from salty foods


• Stay away from drinks containing alcohol or caffeine


• Using over-the-counter rinses and creams (Biotene , Cloysis) to help restore moisture


• Sugar-free candy, sugar-free gum, or gum made to stimulate saliva flow


• Artificial saliva(saliva substitutes)

Dental Sealants

The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry recommends placing dental sealants on the first permanent molars when they come in the mouth(around 6 years of age). They also recommend placing sealants on the second permanent molars( which will come in around 12 years of age). Dental sealants help reduce cavities on the chewing surfaces of the tooth. Tooth decay affects nearly one-fifth of the 2-4 year olds. More than one-half of the 8 year olds, and nearly three-fourths of 17 year olds.

1. Dental sealants are one of the preventative procedures that can be done to reduce the incidence of dental decay. The material is a plastic coating that is applied to the chewing surfaces. The sealants are placed on a clean tooth surface. The application if fairly simple, the technique is important. The tooth is isolated,cleaned, and and then a slightly acidic solution is applied and rinsed to roughen up the surface. This roughness allows the sealant material to adhere better. The sealants are checked on each hygiene visit to ensure that they are still present. On occasion the sealant needs to be touched up to for it to be effective. Sealants can last for years. Even though dental sealants are placed, they do chip and wear off after years, and dental decay can still form. Following good dental hygiene habits along with sealants, will help to the children have healthy teeth and gums.

What your bad breath is trying to tell you

Bad breath (halitosis) can be a serious problem . It's no wonder store shelves are overflowing with gum, mints, mouthwashes and other products designed to help eliminate this problem. But many of these products are just temporary fixes.
Certain foods, health conditions and habits are among the causes of bad breath. In many cases, you can improve bad breath with proper dental hygiene. If recommended hygiene measures don't solve the problem, you may want to see your dentist or doctor to be sure a more serious condition isn't causing your bad breath.

Most bad breath originates in your mouth. There are many causes of bad breath :

• Food- The breakdown of food around your teeth can cause a foul odor. Eating foods containing certain oils is another source of bad breath. Onions and garlic are the best-known examples, but other vegetables and spices also can cause bad breath. After these foods are digested and absorbed into your bloodstream, they're carried to your lungs and are given off in your breath until the foods are eliminated from your body.

• Dental problems. Poor dental hygiene and periodontal disease can be a source of bad breath. If you don't brush and floss daily, food particles remain in your mouth, collecting bacteria and decomposing

• Dry mouth. Saliva helps cleanse your mouth, removing particles that may cause bad odors. Dry mouth can occur during sleep, leading to morning breath. Some medications can lead to a chronic dry mouth, as can a problem with your salivary glands.
  

• Diseases. In about 10 percent of bad breath cases, the bad odors do not come from the mouth . For example, illnesses, such as some cancers and digestive disorders, can cause breath odor as a result of chemicals they produce.

Diabetes and kidney or liver failure can lead to a fishy smell.

Chronic reflux of stomach acids (GERD) has been associated with bad breath.

• Tobacco products. Smoking dries out your mouth as well as having an unpleasant smell

Is sleeping, killing you?

It is well known that sleep is one of the basic human needs. Not getting adequate sleep can negatively effect every aspect of your life. But you may not know that if you are suffering from snoring or sleep apnea you are likely causing harm to your body and shortening your life span while sleeping.


What is sleep apnea? Sleep apnea is a serious sleep disorder that occurs when a person's breathing is interrupted during sleep. People with untreated sleep apnea stop breathing repeatedly during their sleep, sometimes hundreds of times.

When you miss a breath or take an abnormal breath, the amount of oxygen in your blood drops to an abnormal level. The reduced oxygen levels can lead to a variety of medical problems including high blood pressure.

There are two types of sleep apnea:
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA): The more common of the two forms of apnea, it is caused by a blockage of the airway, usually when the soft tissue in the back of the throat collapses during sleep.

Central sleep apnea: Unlike OSA, the airway is not blocked but the brain fails to signal the muscles to breathe due to instability in the respiratory control center.

Am I at Risk for Sleep Apnea?
Sleep apnea can affect anyone at any age, even children. However, risk factors for sleep apnea include:
Having a large neck size (17 inches or greater in men and 16 inches or greater in women)
Certain shapes of the palate and jaw
Having larger tonsils
Having a large tongue
Narrow airway
Nasal obstruction
Having a family history of sleep apnea
Male gender
Being overweight
Over the age of forty


What are the symptoms of Sleep Apnea?
Excessive daytime sleepiness, including falling asleep at inappropriate times
Awakening unrefreshed in the morning
Depression (possibly)
Poor concentration
Loud snoring
Observed episodes of breathing cessation
Awakening with a dry mouth or sore throat
Morning headaches
Difficulty staying asleep
What are the Effects of Sleep Apnea?
If left untreated, sleep apnea can result in a growing number of health problems including:
Hypertension (High Blood Pressure)
Stroke
Heart failure, irregular heart beats, and heart attacks
Impotence


In addition, untreated sleep apnea may be responsible for poor performance in everyday activities, such as at work and school, motor vehicle crashes, as well as academic underachievement in children and adolescents



There are many treatment options available for sleep apnea.

To learn more about sleep apnea, set up appointment to be monitored for sleep apnea or to discuss treatment options please contact Rochester Advanced Dentistry at 248.656.2020

Whats eating your teeth?

Your teeth are made out of enamel, this is the strongest material in your body.

What could have the ability to put holes in this very strong material? Acid.

The holes that I am referring to are cavities or decay. A cavity starts when an area of the tooth is weakend by an acid, once the initial breakdown is started it is easier for bacteria and other acids to attack the tooth and spread deeper into the tooth.

This process is more complicated then this simplified explanation but the short and sweet version is:

• You eat food, or drink a beverage (esentially everything has sugar in it with the exception of water. Milk has lactose, apples have fructose- you can't completely illiminate the sugar)


• To break down the food your body produces acid,the acid begins to breakdown your enamel


• Your saliva rushes in to wash away the food and neutralize the acid

If any of these factors go haywire decay starts to appear

• If you eat and/or sip drinks all day the sugar and acid are allowed to remain on your teeth for longer periods of time allowing them to do more damage


• If your body is allowing too much acid in contact with you teeth-AKA acid reflux it starts to break down tooth structure


• If you don't have adequete saliva, "dry mouth" your body isn't able to neutralize the acid
  

Other factors that effect the decay process

• Home care: If you aren't brushing and flossing daily food and bacteria are allowed to sit on the teeth and eat away at it
  
• Poor dental restorations: If you have failing dental work it is the perfect place for bacteria to hide and eat away at your tooth.

Beverage - Acid*(Low = Bad ) Sugar (per 12 oz.Serving )

Pure Water 7 (neutral) - 0 tsp
Barq's Root Beer 4 - 11 tsp
Orange Juice 3.8 - 9 tsp
Propel Fitness Water 3.4 - 1 tsp
Red Bull 3.3 - 10 tsp
Sprite 3.3 - 10 tsp
Mountain Dew 3.3 - 12 tsp
Diet Coke 3.1 - 0 tsp
Gatorade 2.9 - 12 tsp
Sobe Energy Citrus 2.6 - 12 tsp
Lemonade 2.6 - 10 tsp
Pepsi 2.5 - 11 tsp
Battery Acid 1 - 0 tsp

For additional information visit http://www.rochesteradvanceddentistry.com/

Why Your Dentist May be the Most Important Dr You See This Year

The days of a dental cleaning consisting of a quick "buff and polish" are over.
Today's dental visit is more like a physical. Many findings during a dental visit can have a major impact on your overall health:

1)Blood Pressure
At every cleaning appointment your blood pressure is taken. High blood pressure is a sign
that your heart is working too hard. If your blood pressure it too high a visit to your medical
doctor is suggested

2) Oral cancer detection
At every dental cleaning appointment a thorough oral cancer screening is conducted. Oral
cancers are on the rise and are easier to treat and survive the earlier they are detected

3) Sleep apnea diagnosis
Sleep apnea is a serious condition where a person stops breathing while sleeping.Your dentist
may suspect that you suffer from sleep apnea, at Rochester Advanced Dentistry we are able
to test you for sleep apnea as well as offer treatment options

4) Infection
Dental infections if left untreated can spread into the deeper tissues of the face and neck.
This kind of infection can be life threatening

5) Gingivitis and Periodontitis
Mild gum infections, called gingivitis, may lead to red swollen gums, it can advance into
periodontitis which is a chronic infection that destroy bone around the teeth. If the bacteria
associated with this disease enters the blood stream it can cause infection in the heart.

6) Pregnancy
If you are pregnant or thinking about getting pregnant good oral health is especially
important as many dental problems can cause problems with the pregnancy including
preterm and/ or low birth weight babies

To schedule an appointment at Rochester Advanced Dentistry call 248.656.2020

Want to live longer? FLOSS!

In today's society we are rushed, stressed and over committed, it comes as no surprise that we are all looking for ways we can save time. Many of my patients feel that they just don't have time to floss- while this seems like a valid excuse it turns out you may actually have less time on your hands if you don't floss.

If you start flossing today you could add up to 6 years onto your life!

6 years would be an additional 3.1 million minutes

Lets say you are a really slow flosser and it takes you 5 minutes a day

Lets say you floss every single day of your 100 year life- you would spend 182,500 minutes flossing

This would leave you with an additional 5.6 years to do whatever you want!

The risk of heart disease, diabetes, and respiratory disease is significantly higher in people who have periodontal disease which can be a result of poor home care including inadequate flossing.

Oral Cancer linked to HPV

In years past smoking has been the number one cause of oral cancer. Over the past 10 years the number of people smoking has been on a steady decline while the number or new oral cancer victims has been holding steady if not increasing.
It has now been established that there is another major causative agent in oral cancer; HPV.

The human papilloma virus (HPV) is one of the most common virus groups and it affects skin and mucosa. There are over 120 different types, most are very harmless and easily treatable.
Two types are known to cause a vast majority of cervical cancers.

In the oral environment HPV 16 is linked to oral cancer.
It typically manifests in the back of the throat, at the base of the tongue and tonsil area.
This cancer is effecting a younger group of individuals then we saw with tobacco related cancer.

The CDC is recommending
ANYONE OLD ENOUGH TO HAVE ENGAGED IN SEXUAL BEHAVIORS NEEDS TO BE SCREENED ANNUALLY FOR ORAL CANCER

Oral cancer is easier to treat and survive the earlier it is detected.


To schedule a dental exam including an oral cancer screening please contact Rochester Advanced Dentistry 248.656.2020

Why Choose an Electric Toothbrush?

The majority of dental problems people experience including cavities, gingivitis, and bad breath are caused by the presence of "plaque" or bacteria that lives in the mouth. This bacteria gets more aggressive and harder to remove the longer it is left undisturbed.

For many patients dental cleaning are scheduled twice a year. As soon as the cleaning is completed the bacteria begins to rebuild in your mouth.

So how do we keep the bacteria under control the other 363 days a year?

Good Home Care is the Answer!

• Flossing at least once a day to remove bacteria and food from in between the teeth
• Using a tongue scraper to remove bacteria from crevices
• Brushing at least twice a day for at least two minutes

In recent years electric toothbrushes have proven to be superior to manual tooth brushes.
In studies electric tooth brushes have shown to remove 11% more plaque, reduced gingivitis by 6% and decreased bleeding which is a sign of infection by 17%.

The drastic improvement in oral health can be attributed to a few factors:

• The bristles of electric tooth brushes move much faster then the human hand, the faster moving bristles are more likely to remove more plaque and break up more tenacious bacteria
• A good electric tooth will have a timer that alerts you when you have been brushing for the recommended time
• For children compliance is often better with electric toothbrushes
• For children and elderly patients or patients with medical conditions that effect dexterity electric toothbrushes are often able to clean hard to reach areas more effectively