Dr. Siddharth Bhalerao

Hello lybrate-user! You are 23 years old and according to you your upper lateral incisor is tilted. Well tilting or crowded teeth are a part of malocclusion (improper alignment of teeth) and extraction is not always the best line of management. Since you are young and we are looking at the upper front tooth which forms a major component of a persons appearence (smile) I would advise you to see a competent Orthodontist (braces specialist). He will take appropriate measures (xrays, impressions etc.) and help in advising you the correct line of treatment. May be the tooth can be brought out and aligned properly in the arch. Or if there is no space there could be space creation by extraction of a Premolar tooth and subsequently moving the adjacent teeth behind to make space for the lateral incisor. (All this is valid if the tooth you are mentioning is not a deciduous tooth. If it is a milk tooth then your permanent tooth might have been stuck inside the bone and there could be the possibility to bring that tooth out and align it. All in all these descisions can be only made after the orthodontist examines. So please do visit a good orthodontist and he will give you good options to your problem. Thanks, take care, Cheers.

Hello Sir, Deeply saddened by the news. My condolences to the family. Oral Cancer can happen to any one at all and without a reason. But there are certian factors which can increase the risk to getting one, like tobacco usage both smoke and smokeless form, poor general health, poor diet etc etc. Or in rare cases it could be genetic too. We as doctors take it upon ourselves to reach out to people and educate and create awareness regarding Oral Cancer. We propogate timely and regular oral health check ups to catch the problem in an ealy stage and then adequately treat it or maybe even some times identify risk factors and help in preventing it altogether. So my advice, as has always been, to get regular oral Health check up done and consider the recommendations of the dentist. After all as they say "Prevention is beter than Cure" Take care! Cheers!

Hello lybrate-user! The loss of pigmentation (colour fading) as you have mentioned is not a major problem to worry about. This could be a temporary loss of pigmentation, which will appear back slowly. I would suggest you to mean while keep the lip moist and not let it get dehaydrated by using a good lip balm which has a sun screen component to it. The pigmentation will slowly come back. Thank you.

Hello Mr. lybrate-user! Although your blood sugar levels are not alarmingly high, nevertheless high blood sugar levels do have their detrimental effects on the body. The oral cavity (mouth) is not saved either! High blood sugar levels bring down the immunity of the body and minor and small infections also escalate causing a lot of problems. I strongly suggest you to keep your blood sugar levels under control and meet good physician who can help you with that. Oral Health can be kept optimum by timely visits to your dentists and taking his/her recommendations seriously and putting them into practise. A good dentist will always tell you about best practises and tips and tricks about keeping a good oral hygiene. Do not ignore small decays and never ignore gum disease, as these are especially more common in diabetics. Regarding a good toothpaste. Well there is no such thing as the best tooth paste. Any tooth paste is always as good as your brushing habits and techniques. Although I would suggest you to keep away from tooth pastes which have any type of abrasives in it, as long term use of these can be detrimental to the tooth structure. There you go. I hope this was of some help to you. Do take good care of your teeth! Thanks, Cheers.

Oral cancer symptoms are most of the time dicrectly related to habits like chewing tobacco or smoking, or chronic trauma to the tissues which causes cancer like changes. Very rarely does it arise spontaneously. To give you a correct idea about what the diagnosis is I would like a few more details about the wound you have mentioned (a little detail about the history of the problem) or you could provide a photograph of the lesion/wound.

Hi although you brush your teeth twice daily my concern is that I hope you are doing it the right way! dental plaque which forms on our teeth everyday is a biofilm and nobody can prevent that from happening. But this plaque has to be effectively cleaned or else it turns into hard deposits called tartar or calculus which can be removed only by professional cleaning! this what turns your teeth pale and discoloured and causes the mouth to smell bad! please visit a good dentist nearby and get a check up done also ask him the best methods of brushing your teeth and good oral hygiene practises! regards.

Don't ignore gum disease

Why a Dentist takes an X Ray!

Leukoplakia is a condition typically seen in tobacco users. Mainly smokeless tobacco like paan with tobacco, zarda, khaini, pan masala etc. Leukoplakia has a predisposition to turn into oral cancer. But if diagnosed early as in your case the recovery can be complete! I am really glad that you have undergone the biopsy and if biopsy shows squamous hyperplasia with dysplasia it means that we have caught the lesion early and nothing is there to worry as it has not transformed into an oral cancer lesion. How ever you need to get the rest of the lesion treated and that can nowadays be done with a laser which is painless and has fantastic healing capabilities! alternatives would be surgical excision of the lesion and re biopsy of the entire lesion that has been removed to make sure that none of the cells in that area have turned into cancer cells! but before all that what is most important is that you will need to stop the usage of tobacco totally as now you are predisposed to getting these lesions easily! tobacco is now a poison for you and if continued to be used then recurrence can occur and with severe consequences! I there fore sincerely request you to stop this habit instantly and plan for the removal of the lesion after you have gotten over the habit! thank you and take care!

Hello, I am inclined to believe that your father has undergone surgical procedure for a tongue cancer that had progressed to a 2nd stage! well let me try and explain to you in a very simple language about what has progressed and what cab be done. For a tonge cancer in the 2nd stage of neck nodal involvement the surgery involves the surgical removal of the affected part of the tongue with a safe margin of at least one centimeter around the lesion. Also due to the spread of the cancer cells to the neck lymph nodes even those have to be removed. This becomes an extensive procedure and some times the major part of the tongue needs to be removed. So a reconstruction of the tongue is planned where in some other body tissue is used to reconstruct the tongue. Also radiation therapy is also additionally given to the tongue area to completely kill the cancer cells. All these procedures will destroy some health cells also and majority of them which are on the surface are salivary cells which get destroyed. The nerves of the tongue also get affected and hence the loss of taste. The problem of dryness of the tongue will be persistent for a long time to come and there are chances even if very minute that these salivary glands might grow back and get back to normal function. But in the mean while he could use salivary substitutes that are available to keep his tongue moist. His taste sensation should also keep improving over time. Keep up the regular check ups with the doctor and ask him the details of the salivary substitute and the condition of the nerves supplying the tongue. Any queries I am willing to answer after you have given me more details about the procedure that was carried out. Thanks regards Dr. Siddharth bhalerao mds (oral and maxillofacial surgeon)