The following information will help you through the physical and emotional adjustment that accompanies new dentures. Each mouth is unique and no two people’s experience will be identical, but we have attempted to answer questions most commonly asked by denture wearers.
What to Expect From Your New Dentures:
Despite all the time and effort they took to make, dentures aren’t your natural teeth. Learning to use them will require practice and patience. Dentures are a foreign body and at first their presence will create excess saliva, forcing you to swallow more often. Usually missing or badly broken-down teeth have been replaced, or a new denture replaced a badly worn one. This will result in some change in appearance. A tendency to gag and some initial soreness may also be present. Looseness, especially in the lower denture, will be a problem at first. All of these are normal, early sensations with new denture wearers. Don’t be alarmed by any of them. Patience and practice are all that’s required to overcome them.
Speech:
The new dentures will feel foreign to your tongue and this may cause initial speech difficulty. Practice reading out loud, repeating difficult words and speaking slowly and deliberately. You may have to control your tongue’s tendency to thrust out and dislodge the lower denture at first.
Eating:
* * Ideal dentures restore 1/3 of the biting ability of natural teeth. You learn to compensate for this by:
* * At first avoid hard or sticky foods.
* * Bite with your knife & fork — i.e. — cut food and place it between your back teeth. Learn to chew on both sides of your mouth at once.
* * Cut food into small bites and chew straight up and down.
* * Eat slowly.
* * Be careful with hot food and drink. It’s easy to burn parts of your mouth when dentures disguise the heat at first.
* * Avoid biting on front teeth as much as possible, as this is damaging to the mouth. When you must bite something off, push the food in toward the teeth and bite, don’t pull it away.
Soreness and Adjustments:
There may be some initial soreness. If you can’t come to the office that day, take your dentures out and rest your mouth. The following day wear your dentures until you feel some soreness again. Call our office and you’ll receive care that day. Don’t repair or adjust dentures yourself or you may damage them. There is no fee for adjustments for one year after insertion. Any adjustment fee after this period will depend on the care required.
Once natural teeth are removed, there is a continual change in the mouth’s shape. This occurs to varying degrees in all denture wearers, most rapidly after insertion of immediate dentures (dentures put in the day your teeth are removed.) These changes require periodic adjustments and possibly relines. Mouth changes will be minimized if dentures fit properly and are kept clean.
Care and Cleaning:
Clean dentures are a must for healthy, pleasant-smelling mouths. Brush them twice daily with a special denture dentifrice and brush. Hold dentures over a sink full of water or above a wet towel while cleaning to avoid breakage if they are dropped.
Stain and odor can be reduced by soaking dentures for 30 minutes in 1 cup of warm water, 1 teaspoon Calgon and 1 teaspoon Clorox, once or twice a month. Food debris gets inside dentures too, so brush the insides and the outsides of dentures. Use a soft, regular toothbrush to brush and stimulate your gums and tongue, and rinse with a mouthwash to freshen your mouth.
Dentures should be left out of your mouth 8 of every 24 hours to allow blood to return to the tissue and keep them healthy. Nighttime is best, as many people clamp their teeth together in their sleep, and this is more damaging to dentures and your mouth than eating. While resting your tissues, leave dentures submerged in water with a little mouthwash added for freshness.
Looseness:
You’ll discover dentures will feel looser or tighter at different times of the day. Lower dentures are much harder to control due to less bone to hold them, and the perpetual movement of the tongue and lips. Practice placing the tip of your tongue on the inside of the lower denture and teeth to help seat it. Bite down and swallow to reseat upper dentures.
Coughing and sneezing will dislodge most dentures, so cover your mouth to avoid embarrassment and damage to teeth. If you are ill and feel you may vomit, remove dentures to protect them.
Use a denture adhesive only when advised to by our office. ‘Gluing” dentures in to create excessive tightness can damage the mouth. As with most denture problems, practice and patience are better permanent answers.
When you need help or have questions, never hesitate to call us. We’ll be glad to assist you.
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Now Everyone Can Enjoy the Smile of Their Dreams!
Modern dental science has created a cornucopia of cosmetic wonders. For example, tooth whitening is possible by numerous methods and has become a safe, predictable procedure. A new product called Go-Smile can whiten teeth several shades by simply rubbing the material on one’s teeth twice daily for a week. Go-Smile is a safe, effective, comfortable, and inexpensive ($89 in our office) way to quickly enhance one’s smile.
Bonding is the art of employing a dental resin to change the shape and color of teeth without numbing shots or drilling of tooth structure being required. For two decades dentists have been able to repair fractured teeth, close unsightly spaces between teeth, make rotated teeth appear straight and countless other cosmetic wonders thanks to these marvelous materials that bond so tenaciously to tooth structure.
Veneers are thin layers of durable porcelain (less than a millimeter in thickness), that are three times stronger than enamel. Veneers are bonded over teeth to create whatever tooth shape or shade is desired. With the assistance of veneers, we can straighten crooked teeth, close gaps, and permanently lighten one’s smile. Within three weeks’ time (one appointment is needed to shape the teeth and take a model of them, a second to insert the veneers after a dental laboratory has fabricated them), veneers can create a cosmetic dental miracle that is sometimes referred to as “instant orthodontics.”
All-ceramic crowns repair teeth weakened by decay or fillings. Due to a filled or fractured tooth’s more vulnerable condition, more tooth structure must be removed than is needed for veneers. But all-ceramic crowns contain no metal, so they look naturally wonderful in any light. Never again need darkness around the gumline revealing the presence of existing crowns.
Valplast partial dentures have no metal clasps or frame. They are made entirely of a durable resin guaranteed by the company for life. They are incredibly light, flexible, and almost undetectable in a wearer’s mouth. They require no more work or expense than conventional metal-frame partials do to fabricate.
Cosmetic dentistry has something for every need and for every patient. Smile makeovers are no longer the exclusive right of the ultra-rich or movie stars. Today it is possible for everyone to have the smile of their dreams!
Healthy Gums for Healthy Babies
Our children are our future, so enlightened individuals and/or societies do everything possible to protect this most precious asset. But even in our affluent United States 12.3% of children are born preterm. According to an article published in the Journal Pediatrics, preterm infants are 75 times more likely to experience an early death. Long-term disabilities for surviving preterm children include lung abnormalities (such as asthma), cerebral palsy, neurological and developmental disabilities (such as low I.Q. and poor motor skills). Not surprisingly, surviving preterm children’s medical costs over their first five years of life average $20,000 greater than non-preterm children’s expenses.
There are many causes for preterm births, such as tobacco, alcohol, and drug use by the mother, mothers under the age of 18 or over 35, being underweight or overweight before pregnancy, and low socioeconomic status. But a less well-known and preventable risk has been identified over the past decade. This is an infection of the genitourinary tract called ‘ bacterial vaginitis. ‘ This condition leads to an inflammation of the maternal-fetus membranes (called chorioamnionitis) that may initiate preterm labor, or rupture of the involved membranes.
This inflammatory state has been linked to periodontal disease in mothers. A pregnant woman with active gum infections has been shown to experience 7.5 times, more adverse pregnancy outcomes than periodontally healthy mothers.
Studies have shown no risk to the fetus or mother if dental care is offered during the second or third trimester, but the ideal situation is to establish exemplary dental health before becoming pregnant!
If you are pregnant and have sore or bleeding gums, please seek the help of a dental professional. In addition to the risks detailed above, pregnancy gingivitis can become painful, and hamper one’s ability to eat and even sleep properly at this critical time in a mother’s and fetus’ life. If you are considering having a child, I’d urge you to be certain you have attained ideal oral health before conception. This is a marvelous gift, for you and your baby.
Teeth Whitening
The patient had moderate staining on the upper teeth. Pre-treated with whitening trays and patient had one-hour in-office whitening. Whiter teeth by 8 shades!
Veneers
The patient had moderate staining and decay. She received five porcelain veneers to complete this beautiful new smile.
Bonding/White Filling
Removal of amalgam/silver fillings and replacement with natural tooth-colored fillings.
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Approximatlely 20 years ago medical and dental researchers began to probe the link between chronic infection and systemic diseases ( illnesses effecting the entire body). In a nut-shell they found that if one has infection anywhere, thanks to thecirculatory system’s function, one has it EVERYWHERE.
It makes no difference to the body where the source of infection is located, but few people will tolerate red, swollen, tender and bleeding feet or hands, for example. Yet many allow the same symptoms to exist in their gums. Gingival tissues are also a form of ” skin” that protects our body from invasion by pathogens. When our bodies’ defenses are over-run, redness, swelling, pain and bleeding result.
Here is a current list of illnesses suffered by those who tolerate chronic infections: Seven times the strokes, three times the heart attacks, being more prone to oral and pancreatic cancer, lung disease, diabetes, dementia, rheumatoid arthritis, premature and low-birth-weight babies (who average three hospitalizations in their first year of life), Osteoporosis, gastric ulcers, and even obesity.
Quite a list of stuff nobody wants, huh? How does one avoid this fate? By elimination of all chronic infections (Usually periodontal disease is our primary villain). So let’s consider what must be done to restore one’s mouth to health, beauty, and function for a lifetime (and make it smell good, too!).
1. Meticulous oral hygiene is essential. Brushing takes 2.5 minutes. Most people brush for around 30 seconds. And even excellent brushing cleans only 70% of tooth surfaces. The area where the teeth touch must be cleaned separately, using floss, or an outstanding electric brush ( Called Rotadent, which boasts soft nylon 5000 bristles, compared to a manual brush’s 250. Rotadent also has a lifetime guarantee, and multiple heads, so several people can use the same brush).
2. If gum infection is caught early, a stage called gingivitis, only a professional cleaning and the above-described hygiene are needed. (Be aware that BLEEDING GUMS ALWAYS INDICATES THE PRESENCE OF AN ACTIVE BACTERIAL INFECTION!)
3. With more serious infections, the pathogens (destructive germs) that cause gum disease and decay hide beneath a rock-like substance called calculus or tarter, and in deep spaces below the gum-line called pockets. They exist in a community (called a biofilm) which must be broken up for the germs to be destroyed. Tartar removal and “community disruption” is what our excellent hygienist and her able assistant do while cleaning teeth.
This process is referred to as a “deep cleaning” as the pathogens are located well below the gum-line. Often a gel that numbs the gums is employed to make this comfortable, and occasionally local anesthesia might be needed, but these destructive germs and calculus must be removed.
4. In cases of severe infection, even deep cleaning can’t restore oral health. But these anaerobic pathogens (bad germs) have a deadly nemesis: Oxygen. If a sufficient quantity of oxygen can be forced below the gums for a long enough time these germs are goners. Until recently this simply wasn’t possible, but it is now, due to a revolutionary, and FDA-approved technique called Perio-Protect. If such care is needed for your periodontal infection, we have literature that describes the technique in detail.
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The Invisalign system (sometimes referred to as “clear braces” or “invisible braces”) is a proprietary method of orthodontic treatment whose unique set of features often makes it a very attractive alternative to traditional braces. Unlike dental braces composed of brackets and wires that are firmly attached to a patient’s teeth, the Invisalign system produces tooth movement by way of the patient wearing a series of clear, removable plastic aligners that fit snugly over their teeth.
Your Invisalign treatment will consist of a series of aligners that you switch out about every two weeks. Each aligner is individually manufactured with exact calculations to gradually shift your teeth into place. Since your Invisalign system is custom-made for your teeth and your teeth, with a plan devised by you and your dentist or orthodontist, you know you’ll end up with a smile that truly fits.
If you’re ready for a smile that transforms your appearance, Invisalign is your answer. Although there are many choices out there, no other works as effortlessly as the Invisalign system.
History:
Invisalign is a series of clear, removable teeth aligners that both orthodontists and dentists use as an alternative to traditional metal dental braces. Invisalign is designed, manufactured, and marketed by Santa Clara-based medical-device company Align Technology, Inc. Align says that over 35,790 doctors are trained to provide Invisalign treatment in the U.S., with 48,130 doctors worldwide. The company has 133 patents.
Align Technology was in a legal battle with the makers of a competing product, OrthoClear, from early 2005 until September 2006. Zia Chisti, one of the founders of Align, had started OrthoClear to compete against Invisalign. In a complaint filed with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) on January 11, 2006, Align alleged that OrthoClear utilized Align’s trade secrets and infringed twelve Align patents, comprising more than 200 patent claims, in the production of OrthoClear aligners at a facility in Lahore, Pakistan. On September 27, 2006, Align Technology settled its litigation with OrthoClear. OrthoClear has stopped accepting new cases and discontinued its aligner business worldwide. Align acquired all disputed intellectual property. Contrary to some reports, Align did not purchase OrthoClear.
Align Technology is also defending a class-action suit on behalf of dentists and orthodontists who were suddenly dropped as approved Invisalign prescribers because they failed to meet a never-before-mentioned quota requirement. After prescribing doctors paid thousands of dollars each for Invisalign training, Align Technology unilaterally implemented a requirement that every prescriber start at least 10 new cases a year. The doctors are seeking a refund of the training cost because the training has no utility except in the prescription of Invisalign products.
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