Archive for August, 2010
OA Links: Do You Lie to Your Dentist?
There are many good dental articles on the Internet, and I would like to share them with you every few weeks in a series I will call, Oral Answers Links. I won’t interrupt my regular Monday/Wednesday/Friday posting schedule for these links, I’ll try to post them on Tuesdays or Thursdays. If you have any feedback [...]
Are You Causing the Cavities On Your Toddler’s Teeth?
It’s sad to see a two year old child with horrible teeth. At such a young age, children don’t really understand oral hygiene. Many times, poor oral hygiene in a toddler is the result of parents who don’t understand oral hygiene. Since most cavities are preventable, this topic fascinates me. With children of my own, [...]
Why You Get Swollen Cheeks After Wisdom Teeth Removal
If you’ve had your wisdom teeth out, the picture to the left probably looks familiar. When I got my wisdom teeth out around ten years ago, our insurance wouldn’t cover all four teeth. Sadly, my family was a little short on cash, so my mom decided that I would get my top wisdom teeth out, [...]
The Vipeholm Study: Learning About Dental Cavities
The Vipeholm Study was a study that dental researchers conducted on a group of mentally challenged residents of the Vipeholm Institution. Dental researchers fed mentally handicapped people lots of sugar for the purpose of studying tooth decay. Unfortunately, many of these patients ended up losing their teeth to cavities. Although the study is tragic and [...]
Rubber Dental Dams: What They Are and Why Dentists Use Them
Have you ever gone to the dentist and had them put a big rubber blanket over your mouth? In 1864 (nearly 150 years ago), a New York City dentist by the name of S.C. Barnum invented the rubber dam for use in dentistry. He was looking for an easy way to isolate the particular teeth that [...]
How Plaque Disclosing Tablets Can Help You Brush Better
Would you vacuum your carpet if it didn’t look dirty? Probably not. Unfortunately, many people look in the mirror and don’t see anything on their teeth so they assume that their teeth are clean. If only they knew the truth! There are millions of bacteria that live in our mouths and cling to our teeth. [...]
Dental Cleanings: Are Ultrasonic Cleanings Better than Hand Instrument Cleanings?
Recently, an anonymous reader sent me a question asking about the differences between the instruments that dentists can use for cleanings. It reads: For cleanings, my dentist uses a plaque scraper and the rotating buffer thing. Other dentists in the area advertise ultrasonic cleanings. What is an ultrasonic cleaning? Does it provide any additional advantage, [...]
Why Dentists Extract Wisdom Teeth
Sometimes, wisdom teeth come in normally and provide the mouth with another set of powerful, food-crushing molars. Unfortunately, that is the exception and not the rule. It seems like pretty much everyone has their wisdom teeth (third molars) extracted before they come in around the age of 18. A lot of people wonder why our [...]
Can You Cure a Toothache by Putting an Aspirin On It?
You can’t cure a toothache by putting an aspirin on it. In fact, if you hold aspirin against a tooth long enough, it can damage your gums and other soft tissues inside of your mouth. Aspirin is able to damage the tissues in your mouth because it is an acid – acetylsalicylic acid to be [...]
Why Don’t You Go to the Dentist?
Recently, a woman with many cavities came to the dental school. Her two upper front teeth were so decayed that we almost couldn’t put crowns on them. In fact, if she had waited any longer, we would have just extracted the teeth. When I asked her why she hadn’t come to the dentist until now, [...]
Are Your Pots and Pans Altering Fluoride Levels In Your Cooked Meals?
Did you know that you could be tripling the level of fluoride in your water just by cooking in a Teflon-coated pot or pan? Similarly, you can also cut the amount of fluoride in your water by boiling it in an aluminum pot for just 15 minutes. You may think that you never boil water. [...]
How to Tell if Your Dentist Has a Good Infection Control Program
I’m a bit of a germophobe. Learning in my microbiology class at dental school that there are literally millions of bacteria living on me has helped me cope a little bit, but I still like things to be clean. When I was a kid, I used to love watching the dentist open a new packet [...]
When a Crown or Bridge Falls Out, Go Visit Your Dentist
A couple of days ago, a middle-aged woman who we’ll call Beth, brought a crown into the dental school in a plastic bag. Her crown had fallen off of one of her molar teeth about six months ago. Unfortunately, she didn’t think it was very urgent to get it back into her mouth. Beth waited [...]
How to Take Care of Your Custom Athletic Mouthguard
There are many reasons to have the protection of an athletic mouthguard. A mouthguard protects your teeth when you participate in physical activities that are potentially dangerous to your teeth and mouth. But, have you ever thought about what you are doing to protect your mouthguard? Your protective athletic mouthguard is always doing one of [...]
Hi, I'm Tom. I'm currently a 4th year dental student in the USA. I started this blog to help people take better care of their teeth. You can 
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