Dontia Dental Care

Often massage your teeth with baking soda (food grade). This helps to reduce acid environment of mouth and keep teeth protected, clean and shiny.

Always wear a full-face helmet or a mouth guard while playing sports. It will protect your mouth from any unnecessary injury.

As summers are setting in, do increase your water intake. But be aware that too much of lemon also erodes teeth like areated drinks. If your intake of areated and citrus drinks is more then use a staw which will lessen direct exposure of  teeth to chemicals. Rubbing lemon slices on teeth. Vodka drink is also very harmful for teeth. Take care of your teeth.

A healthy set of teeth is essential for good living. However, teeth problems are widespread and you are susceptible to it at any age, at any time. Though there are medications available for tooth problems, sometimes extraction of the tooth remains the only plausible solution. 

You may have to undergo tooth extraction for multiple reasons. Some of them are:

1. Unaligned teeth: In case you are suffering from unaligned teeth, chances are that you may suffer from what in technical terms is known as "crowded mouth." In such a situation you have difficulty in eating as there is not enough room for the teeth in the mouth. Extraction of tooth, in this case, is the only way to rectify it and align the teeth in a better fashion.
2. Infection: Sometimes if you suffer from a tooth infection, it tends to quickly spread to the pulp, affecting and damaging the blood vessels and different nerves. Though medications are available, if the intensity of the infection increases, extraction of tooth remains the only option.

Procedure: There are different steps that are involved in the extraction of teeth. They are:

1. Local anesthesia: Like all other surgeries, administering a local anesthesia is the first step. If you are undergoing a tooth extraction, the dentist or the surgeon will inject anesthesia that will create numbness and soothe you of the ensuing pain.
2. Cutting away gum and bone tissues: After the anesthesia, the dentist will proceed to extract the infected tooth. In order to do this, the doctor cuts away the gum and the tissues covering the tooth. After the root of the infected tooth has been exposed, the dentist would then with the help of forceps, sever it from the jaw.

After the surgery, you must observe certain precautions to expedite the recovery process. Some of them are:

1. Take painkillers: After the tooth extraction, the possibility of suffering from an ensuing pain is incredibly high. Therefore, in most cases the dentist prescribes certain painkillers and you must take them regularly.
2. Change the dressing: The operated area will be covered with bandages to preclude any infection. However, the dressing must be changed from time to time. If the same dressing remains for a long time, chances of an infection increase.
3. Complete rest: After the extraction, you must take complete rest and not engage in any form of physical activity.
4. Avoid certain foods: Just after the surgery, the operated area remains tender. Therefore, you must eat food that requires less effort to chew like soup, pudding, ice cream etc. You must also abstain from smoking and drinking for some time.

Small painful mouth sores can be anywhere in the mouth lips, soft palate, hard palate, cheeks, gum base, tongue and even on the roof of the mouth. When situated  inside the mouth, they can cause pain during eating or swallowing, especially with hot or spicy foods. A bigger cause for concern is that these mouth sores or mouth ulcers or canker sores could be an indication of an underlying health condition. A lot of chronic diseases, including HIV, herpes, and syphilis, manifest themselves as mouth sores. The following are some of the health conditions to watch out for when you have mouth sores. Each disease has characteristic appearance and so very often are easy to identify.

1. Herpes simplex (HSV1): The herpes simplex virus causes sores on the lips only which are usually painful with red blisters that last about 10 to 14 days. These are caused by herpes simplex virus type 1 and the sores appear about 20 days after contracting the virus. Also, once they enter the system, they can cause recurrent attacks especially when the immunity is low.

2. Canker sore: The most common type of mouth ulcer, they are also known as aphthous ulcers and are usually seen on the soft tissues of the mouth (not the hard palate or the gum base). These are generally innocuous and heal within 5 to 7 days. Do reach out for medical help if there are more than 5 to 6 bouts of canker sores in a year.

3. Oral thrush: Also known as candidiasis, this is where there are whitish lesions on the tongue and the insides of the mouth. Candida is a fungus that is normally present in the mouth, but when the immune system is weakened, it can lead to an infection, orally manifested as white lesions. These are typical and appear in toddlers and in patients with anemia, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, or cancer patients on chemotherapy.

4. HIV/AIDS: Another disease which first can be diagnosed in the mouth is HIV/AIDS. In the first stages of infection, known as acute retroviral syndrome, where the first symptoms of the disease begin to manifest, oral ulcers are one of the first symptoms. With the other associated symptoms, more workup for diagnosis should be done followed by appropriate treatment.

5. Oral cancers: The lining of the inside of the mouth can develop cancer and usually it appears in the form of chronic non healing ulcer that just does not go away. Seen anywhere in the mouth, nonhealing ulcers are a cause for concern and should be investigated and treated.

As seen above, mouth sores may be harmless often, but in some cases, may have something more to tell about the health in some cases. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a dermatologist.

There are a lot of ways that tooth enamel (hardest substance in the body) can wear off – decay and erosion being the most common. While decay is an infectious process with bacteria playing a significant role, erosion is nowhere associated with bacteria. The tooth gets ‘eroded’ in small amounts with the various food substances that you eat. These include the sodas that wash down the burgers and pizzas, the various sports drinks that are used to boost performance, the lime and oranges that are constantly sucked, and other acidic and sugary foods.

It does not mean you should not have an occasional soda or a sports drink or a citrus fruit. It is the constant and overuse of these that is damaging. The oral pH goes to a very acidic level (below 5.5) with these which then leads to demineralization of the enamel. The environment that is usually produced by the bacteria is caused by the acidic and sugary foods.

In some cases, acids could come from an internal source too. People with gastroesophageal reflux disease may have the acid coming from the esophagus, which also can lead to erosion.

However, there is nothing to be disheartened about as the lost enamel can be replaced to restore both tooth function and appearance. The most commonly affected teeth are the inner surfaces of the upper incisors and the biting surfaces of the lower molars. The result is tooth sensitivity, darker teeth, and increased chances of tooth decay and fracture.

Repair Mechanisms: Treating erosion has two components to it – to repair the lost tooth structure and to prevent further damage. The second is equally or rather more important than the first one.

Treatment-

1. Restorations: In mild cases of erosion, the lost tooth structure can be rebuilt with composite resins or glass ionomer cement which usually restores lost tooth structure to its earlier version. Usually done in one sitting, it should not take more than an hour. The results would last longer if further erosion is prevented.

2. Crowns: In cases where a lot of tooth structure has been lost and the remaining enamel weakened, a new crown will need to be done. This offers protection against further decay and also restores esthetics and function quite effectively.

Prevention-

1. Avoid overuse of acidic, sugary drinks like sports drinks and aerated beverages.

2. Avoid sucking on oranges as they prolong the effect of the citric acid on the tooth.

3. Include toothpaste and rinse with fluoride.

4. Improve dairy intake, thereby providing sufficient calcium.

5. Follow oral hygiene habits including brushing, flossing, and regular dental visits.

Lost tooth structure unfortunately cannot be regained; however, further loss can be prevented.

If you wish to discuss about any specific dental problem, you can consult a specilized dentist and ask a free question.

DONTIA SMILE STORY...a girl who dreamt of flying but her smile came in between.We gave wings to her wish and  now is ready to fly.

 

DONTIA SMILE STORY...a girl who dreamt of flying but her smile came in between.We gave wings to her wish and now is ready to fly.