Star Ranch Dental

Preventive dental care starts with the patient, as every decision you make affects your dental health! How you care for your teeth and gums, how often you care for them and how effective you are at caring for them. What you eat and what you put in your mouth (e.g. pencils, ice, nuts, popcorn etc.). The type(s) of fillings you get – which can affect tooth wear opposite the filled tooth, affecting the forces in your bite. Also your lifestyle – how you sleep, your posture, and how you handle stress. All of this, in between how often you see your dentist or hygienist.

Good dental hygiene visits include:

• periodontal health exams
• plaque and tarter level evaluations and removal
• elimination of bacteria in the mouth
• oral cancer screening
• cavity assessment
• evaluation of existing restorations for breaks, leaks, cracks, and fractures
• evaluation of both soft and hard tissues in the mouth
• evaluation of your Temporomandibular Joints (TMJ), your jaw joints, to evaluate health and function

So, what should a patient do to give themselves the best chances to stay healthy?

The basics are the same as what your mom told you:  eat right, get plenty of sleep, drink plenty of water, exercise.  These things apply equally to oral health as they do in your overall health.  Good nutrition for your body’s systems, good sleep habits (which can be adversely affected by your weight, body shape, muscle tone, lack of exercise, stress, clenching of your jaws, grinding of your jaws), hydration levels and muscle tone all contribute significantly to a person’s state of health. But there are more specific things that one can do to stay dentally healthy, and happy.

First and foremost, remove plaque on your teeth at least every 24 hours by brushing and flossing – use an electric toothbrush. We recommend Sonicare (and we carry them in our office).

The two things that, by themselves, contribute the most to the level of your oral health are:

A)  Have a dental checkup at least twice a year.

Make sure that your visits include at the least the types of things that are listed above.

And,

B)  Be proactive!

Many of us have lots of restorations, fillings, crowns, etc.  Nothing that is used in the mouth is strong enough to last forever; we just don’t have materials that can stand up to the strength of the forces in our mouths.  We never want to wait until something breaks and then fix it. Plan ahead and start to address things in increments before they break or cause pain. This will also help you budget for your necessary dental health plan, without the unnecessary pressure of issues that could have been prevented!

In addition, all these restorations can cause gum recession and abfraction – the breakage of tooth structure at the gum line (the notching) that some people develop; and also contribute to a breakdown in the balance of our bite forces.  For most people who have grinding (bruxism), clenching, TMJ (jaw joint) issues, the inequality of bite forces is a major component of the head and neck pain caused by these issues.  Braces (moving teeth), trauma, and restorations all mean that our teeth may no longer fit together the way nature intended – and that creates inequality, a disequilibrium, of muscle function.  In other words, some muscles pull more than others or in ways that they weren’t intended to do so and thereby create painful situations.

Being proactive means that making a choice to replace older restorations in groups enables us to achieve healthier results by creating ideal functionality in the way your mouth and teeth work.

So what’s your quick and to the point “need-to-know” list on oral health prevention?

10 Ways to Keep You Out of the Dentist Chair

1. Clean your mouth every day.
2. Be careful what you chew. The wrong things can break something or loosen something.
3. Be careful how you eat.  Not eating sugary foods is probably not realistic, but concentrate the time in which you do.  It is far better to eat lots of sugar in a short time frame than it is to eat a little bit but take hours to do so.
4. Pay attention to your body. Aches, pains, sensitivities all mean something; talk to your dentist about them.  If you find a bump, a swelling, a sore that isn’t healing, tell us.
5. Don’t just fix something when it breaks. Think ahead! Doing so may provide a significant improvement in function and less likelihood of pain. It may very well mean less dollars into treatment when planned for and taken care of ahead of time.
6. Follow good overall health habits by exercising, eating right, sleeping right, and keeping your weight down.  By doing so you can keep your muscles toned, your posture good and your muscle balance good.  These things provide balance in your life that greatly contribute to higher levels of health.
7. Be critical of your sleep habits. If you are always tired, don’t stay asleep at night, fall asleep at inopportune times, you may have a problem that needs to be evaluated.  Sleep apnea is an epidemic in our country that is critical to your health.
8. Remember bleeding gums are not natural.  You wouldn’t expect the skin on your arm to bleed if you rub it – your gums shouldn’t either.  Ridding your body of this infection is critical to your health.
9. Fixing broken teeth is important to ensuring that your muscles are kept in balance so that your bite forces don’t create more imbalance.
10. We love seeing every one of you – but let’s make it a planned thing! Come in for routine cleanings and exams at least once a year. We’ll keep you up to date and out of unexpected trouble with your oral health.