Tooth Decay: The Primary Cause of a Toothache

Tooth decay is the primary cause of toothaches for most children and adults. Bacteria that live in your mouth thrive on the sugars and starches in the food you eat. These bacteria form a sticky plaque that clings to the surface of your teeth.

Acids produced by the bacteria in plaque can eat through the hard, white coating on the outside of your teeth (enamel), creating a cavity. The first sign of decay may be a sensation of pain when you eat something sweet, very cold or very hot. A toothache often indicates that your dentist will need to work on your teeth.

Self-care tips
Until you can see your dentist, try these self-care tips for a toothache:

• Rinse your mouth with warm water.
• Use dental floss to remove any food particles wedged between your teeth.
• Take an over-the-counter (OTC) pain reliever to dull the ache.
• Apply an OTC antiseptic containing benzocaine directly to the irritated tooth and gum to temporarily relieve pain. Benzocaine has been linked to a rare but serious, sometimes deadly, condition (methemoglobinemia) that decreases the amount of oxygen that the blood can carry. Don't use benzocaine in children younger than age 2 without supervision from a health care professional, because this age group has been the most affected. Never use more than the recommended dose of benzocaine. Direct application of oil of cloves (eugenol) also may help. Don't place aspirin or another painkiller directly against your gums, as it may burn your gum tissue.

Call your dentist

• When you have signs of infection, such as swelling, pain when you bite, red gums or a foul-tasting discharge
• If the pain persists for more than a day or two
• When you have fever with the toothache

mayoclinic.com

Humans May Evolve To Grow An Endless Supply Of Teeth

 

In the future, you--like the pufferfish--could have so many teeth that you'll wear necklaces made out of your spares. It'll be weird.

Friendly Pufferfish Wikimedia Commons

The pufferfish is a very curious animal for lots of reasons; it swallows air or water to make itself larger and more threatening, it combines its combining pectoral, dorsal, anal, and caudal fins into one set of fins (like a seahorse), and it is often super poisonous. But Dr. Gareth Fraser of Sheffield University is focused on the puffer for a different reason: its teeth.

The puffer, like lots of bony fish (meaning, not cartilaginous), constantly regrows its teeth. The puffer doesn't have delineated teeth like most other fish, though; instead, after its first set of teeth have fallen out (like human baby teeth), it grows a solid structure that looks like a beak. This beak is made of horizontally growing layers of dentite, the usual tooth material for fish, but appears as a single band.

Fraser managed to map the specific cells responsible for the constant regrowing of teeth in the puffer. That's of great interest to us, because humans, unlike lots of other animals, only grow two sets of teeth. Your baby teeth fall out, then you grow your adult teeth, and then...that's it. That's all you get. And that's less than ideal, as most any professional hockey player can tell you (through gaps in their teeth).

Interestingly, Dr. Fraser thinks humans may evolve, in millions of years, the ability to regrow teeth past that second set. "With our extended lives and modern diets, the limited supply of human teeth is really no longer fit for purpose," he said. By figuring out exactly how fish regrow teeth, he may be able to accelerate that process of evolution.

So play hockey without fear! A fix for your broken grill may be in the works.

By: Dan Nosowitz
July 12, 2013

Dr. James B. Miller - Offering LANAP (Laser Assisted New Attachment Procedure) for the Treatment of Periodontal Disease.

If you're like 100 million other Americans, you could be one of 50% of Americans who have periodontal disease, the major cause of tooth loss in adults. Periodontal disease starts off as plaque, an opaque film which eventually hardens, forming tartar or calculus.

Calculus deposits harbor bacteria which infect the gums. In early stages, this is called Gingivitis, characterized by red, swollen gums that bleed when you brush your teeth. Many people experience bad breath and an unpleasant taste in their mouths as well. Unchecked, Gingivitis progresses to Periodontitis, a much more serious form of the disease where periodontal pockets are formed, separating teeth from the gums and supporting bone structure. Without treatment, infection becomes severe and the pockets deepen, resulting in tooth loss.

The way to repair the damage is to get rid of the infection and close up the pockets. Until now, that meant surgery and sutures. But today, many dentists offer the LANAP® Protocol, a patient-friendly, minimally-invasive procedure that's a great improvement over standard gum surgery. 

WHY IS THE LANAP® PROCEDURE better for the treatment of gum disease?

• The LANAP® Procedure is about as easy as erasing a blackboard — there's no cutting and no suturing.
  
• There's much less discomfort with the LANAP® Protocol than with standard surgery -- during and after the procedure.
  
• It takes less time than traditional surgery. All it takes is two 2-hour visits to the dentist and two follow up visits. Traditional surgery requires four sessions of about one hour each, with subsequent visits for suture removal and additional check-ups.
• LANAP® gives better, longer-lasting results. In fact, 98% of LANAP® treated patients remain stable after five years.
• Your dentist will probably recommend a soft diet for a day or two, and common sense should prevail, but in most cases, patients feel good enough to eat anything they want right after the procedure.
• Following traditional surgery, recovery can take between to 2-4 weeks during which patients can experience considerable pain and swelling, where they may be restricted to liquid or soft diets.
• There's less than 24 hour recovery period, so you won't lose time from work.
  
• The LANAP® Procedure is safe for patients with health concerns such as diabetes, HIV, hemophilia, or those taking medications such as Plavix or aspirin.  lanap.com

For more information or to schedule a consultation to find out if you are a candidate for LANAP, contact our office at (480) 451-5435.

Now Offering the Newest Teeth Whitening System with ZERO Sensitivity - GLO!

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Call our office to schedule your consultation.

(480) 451-5435