I’ve practiced dentistry long enough to now treat the grown children of patients that I’ve cared for since first opening my practice. Which brings me to Margaret, a patient who had escaped our Chicago winters for the Florida sun slightly more than 20 years ago. I’d completed a smile makeover on her mouth when she lived here. Her daughter would brief me about mom’s activities when she came to my practice, but hadn’t mentioned that Margaret might move back to Illinois.
One Tuesday, I had a new, elderly patient in my schedule and I really appreciated the dental work that someone had completed on her teeth. The margins, or edges, of the crowns fit so well and the gums were healthy. She flossed daily. So, told her that she had the teeth of a 50-yr-old! Then I commented on the workmanship and asked her how long she’d had these crowns. She replied, “well you tell me”. It turns out that Margaret, now using the name “Marge”, had moved closer to her daughter. However, each woman had assumed that the other one told me about the move! I was admiring my own work. Embarrassing – yet rewarding! With thousands of patients over the years, I didn’t recognize Margaret because she’d aged, changed her hair color and style, and had shifted her weight to other locations. But her smile still lit up her face.
It is not often that a dentist is treated to a Deja Vu experience. But it points out the fact that the investment in a Smile Makeover can continue to deliver big returns, sometimes for 20 years, with proper home care and check-ups. Marge could easily pass for someone much younger. That’s the amazing effect of a healthy smile, that I’ve seen again and again.
Contact Winterset Dental today to find out which treatment is right for you.
I’m always humbled when existing patients refer their friends and family to our dental practice. So often, these new patients are as delightful as those who sent them! That’s why Sheila stands out from the ordinary. She was a handful, because she refused to believe that our comprehensive first exam had revealed nine cavities. She’d seen her former dentist eight months before, and insisted that they skip x-rays because she wanted to delay the expense. He told her that she had no cavities.
As is customary for a complete exam, we took x-rays and found decay under fillings and between some teeth. These spots go undetected, without x-rays. When they go undetected long enough, they lead to root canals – an infected nerve that must be removed. Once the blood supply from the nerve is gone, these teeth tend to become brittle and require a crown to hold up under biting pressures.
There was a pattern to Sheila’s decay pattern, so I started asking about her diet. I also asked about her job. She was an executive secretary who handled the details for many manufacturing projects. For breakfast, she grabbed a breakfast sandwich and large coffee at the drive-thru and ate it at traffic lights. Nursing the sweetened coffee all morning, she felt proud that she kept her energy and focus to maintain 3-4 balls in the air, simultaneously. She tried to keep her weight down by skipping lunch and/or walking around the block a few times. By 2pm, she’d make a run to the vending machines for a couple bags of chips and a carbonated beverage, to tide her over. Dinner consisted of frozen dinner in the microwave, because she was too tired to cook. Her favorite beverage? White wine. Then she crashed in bed by nine, usually too tired to floss. I hope this doesn’t sound familiar to any of you…
Sheila’s decisions created a continuous attack of acid to her teeth most of the day. Beverages sipped over time just coated the teeth with sugar, over and over. They already have an acidic pH. Bread and chips are carbohydrates that convert to sugar in the mouth. White wine tastes sweet for a reason, and processed meals are often packed with flavor enhancers that could have a sugar base. Americans love their sugar. Few of Sheila’s food choices were raw, often considered “detergent foods” that displace the sugar coating on teeth. And the toothbrush passed by for a minute each bedtime.
That sugar was remaining between Sheila’s teeth and around existing fillings for 18-24 hours each day. If you are a “Sheila”, or know of one, please realize the impact your choices have on your dental health and share it with someone in your world.
Contact Winterset Dental today to find out which treatment is right for you.
If you ever want to gross someone out, do an internet search for “Bacteria on Tongue”. Do another for “Geographic Tongue”, simply the name for a tongue with deeper crevices and some bumps. This isn’t harmful. Like carpeting, stuff sticks on the surface of your tongue.
Since humans don’t compare tongues very often after the age of seven, most of my patients don’t think anything about the appearance of their tongue. Tongues can take on coatings from food recently eaten, so it is best to brush your tongue, from back to front, daily. It has long been believed that this reduces the risk of bad breath. At minimum, it reduces the amount of cavity causing bacteria!
Smokers often have a brown coating on their tongue, but the colors can range from white to yellow to orange. Our office pays particular attention to their tongues and the surrounding tissues, since the incidence of oral cancer is higher in users of all types of tobacco.
When a tongue coating is white, it could be “Leukoplakia” or “Lichen Planus”. The former is painless and most often harmless, though there is some research demonstrating that the area could turn cancerous many years later. Lichen planus is related to the long-term immune system but the exact cause in unknown. White patches might form and exist painlessly for years, or they could turn red and be painful until treated with mouthwash and steroids. The condition that concerns me most is Thrush, a yeast infection that is caused by a fungus. It looks white but it is bright red underneath, if disturbed. Folks with diabetes or a weakened immune system are more prone to this, as are denture wearers and the very young or old. If someone has deficiencies of iron or B-vitamins, or takes prolonged doses of antibiotics, they are also at greater risk of thrush.
Syphilis is a bacterial infection that can manifest in the mouth as a painless sore, ten days to 3 months after exposure to a carrier. If left untreated, it can lead to white patches on the tongue. Your physician will treat this.
So, your mom was right. Don’t stick out your tongue at anybody…but it wouldn’t hurt if you stick your tongue out at yourself, in front of a mirror, from time to time.
Contact Winterset Dental today to find out which treatment is right for you.
Have you seen all the happy people with straight white teeth in ads and commercials? Aside from photo-retouching, there are 4 ways to get “whiter” teeth. There are two ways to get “straighter” teeth.
1. Whitening agents in toothpastes are often just abrasive particles. They may remove some stain from tartar, foods, or tobacco, but the stain returns shortly if habits aren’t changed. They don’t remove tartar (also known as calculus). There is some debate that the abrasive also creates miniscule scratches on root surfaces, making a rougher surface that attracts more stain and bacteria.
2. Regular dental cleanings remove all surface stains, using hand or mechanical methods, and often end with a paste that decreases in abrasiveness as it is applied. At the same time, tooth-strengthening fluoride is applied with an effective polishing motion.
3. Tooth bleaching is another process but it doesn’t mean that one can spread laundry bleach on their teeth! To be effective on every surface, custom molds are required from our practice, as well as a bleaching product that will not harm you or your teeth and gums. Please be aware that commercially-available molds are often advertised as $20 solutions to unsightly teeth. These are problematic, “one-size-fits-most” trays that give no guarantee that the bleaching product will remain in contact with all areas of each tooth, so the improvement may look spotty. There is also a greater risk that the product won’t remain in trays if they don’t fit properly.
4. Finally, I can create cosmetic crowns for teeth. The shade of these crowns is determined by a joint decision with the patient, taking one’s complexion and surrounding natural tooth color in to consideration.
To achieve straighter teeth, both children and adults need orthodontic treatment to guide their teeth into place, sometimes with removable structures that “guide” teeth into place. At times, minor adjustments are made made to cosmetic crowns which narrow or broaden an existing space. Should you hope to see your smile in pictures, we can discuss your specific options at any time!
Contact Winterset Dental today to find out which treatment is right for you.
Part of my responsibility, to patients, is to make sure that they successfully grip and maneuver their toothbrush and floss. This may seem like a silly phrase, until one considers my patients with arthritis. Their front 12 teeth are clean, and the rest are marginal. Patients rarely tell me or my hygienists about their limitations, they just tell me that they “can’t” or “don’t” floss. Or else they avoid guilt by stating that they only floss the teeth they can easily reach. With further probing after this response, almost 40% of these patients have joint tenderness or coordination issues. Here’s what we suggest:
To grip a toothbrush and have better control, cut a narrow rectangle out of a bicycle handlebar grip where there is customarily a small hole. Then place the toothbrush handle into the rectangle and you now have a larger handle, specifically designed to have great gripping power. In contrast, electric toothbrushes sometimes have ergonomic handles but the toothbrush heads are large. Use a child’s toothbrush head and close your mouth a bit to reach back teeth.
One of the better solutions for holding floss is one that keeps not-so-nimble fingers outside the mouth. It looks like the letter “Y” with a knob in the center. Wrap some floss around this knob, feed the floss down one branch of the Y, across the gap, and back up the other branch until returning to the knob, where you wrap it a couple more times. Now secured, you wiggle the floss back and forth with a slight pressure toward the gums and it passes between the contact point of two teeth. Push against one side and move the floss up and down, then repeat on the other tooth. It is okay, and recommended, to take the floss gently under the gums.
The other solution for flossing is an interdental cleaner. Once again, arthritic patients must have something substantial to grip. Picture a miniature bottle brush for cleaning narrow jars and baby bottles, found in the Oral Care aisle of the “Wal” stores. It comes in a few sizes and two shapes. I always suggest a smaller size unless our hygienists feel you need something larger, usually cone-shaped. This brush cleans between teeth and under dental bridges just by inserting it with its wire core parallel to the ground and moving in and out, from both the cheek-side and tongue-side of each tooth. Like a toothbrush, you just rinse it between uses and allow it to air dry.
When in doubt, bring in a flossing aid that seems difficult to use and tell the hygienist that you want to get a grip on adequately caring for your teeth. They are my Pros.
Contact Winterset Dental today to find out which treatment is right for you.
I accidently discovered a website with a Mouth Germs quiz that I think you will enjoy:
www.webmd.com/oral-health/rm-quiz-germs-your-mouth
It poses fourteen commonly-held beliefs about your mouth, then lets you choose whether they are true or false. I missed a couple, I must admit. To me, it demonstrates how people just hear some statements often enough to now believe them. For example:
How many times have you heard that a root canal is always painful?
How many people claim that a tooth disappears when soaked overnight in soda?
Have you heard that a woman loses a tooth for every pregnancy?
None of these are true.
As a provider, I’ve heard some interesting explanations for tooth-related problems, including why they cannot be resolved, just because “Aunt Jane” could never get her tooth trouble under control. I enjoy teaching people more about their teeth, and welcome questions. Don’t hesitate to ask me whether a solution exists for your long-standing dental issue.
Contact Winterset Dental today to find out which treatment is right for you.
No, I’m not going to lecture you on the merits flossing. But if you are flossing, I want you to get the most benefit from the activity. There are three common “errors” that I detect from patients who routinely use dental floss:
1. They are afraid to go under the gum line.
2. They do not clean underneath their dental bridgework (several connected crowns)
3. They snap floss through the contact, where two teeth touch each other, and immediately snap it back out. These folks are particularly fulfilled when a piece of last night’s dinner hits the mirror (just kidding).
If you ever need a topic for a Science report, look no further than the types of bacteria that adhere to structures in a mouth. While some over-the-counter mouthwashes slow down their activity, the very best method for removing these trouble makers is “manual action” in both big and itsy-bitsy spaces. I’ll focus on the latter.
1. Gum tissue is not attached at the exact spot where it appears on to touch a tooth. The first 2-3 mm form a “turtleneck collar” around a tooth, and it is your job to clean under “collar”. In general terms, this collar is called a “sulcus” for us dental care providers. The area is warm and moist, so microorganisms multiply quickly, when undisturbed.
2. If you’ve lost a tooth and had it replaced with a length of 3 or more teeth, connected to bridge the gap, the space near the gum line of the false tooth is prone to collecting seeds, certain vegetables, and stringy food. You often can’t feel it. Use the Sunstar/Butler brand of a floss threader or Proxabrush to clean under this space, daily, or leftovers will attract bacteria and create mouth odor.
3. Flossing is not a race. If it takes less than 30 seconds, you aren’t performing at your best. While flossing the contact does reduce the risk of decay in that one spot, it misses all the bacteria that need to be removed between the teeth, and closer to the gum line. Bristles just aren’t narrow enough to reach where floss excels.
If there’s a spot that you can’t seem to reach, let us know and we’ll gladly show you how.
P.S. Please don’t use a toothpick instead of floss or floss threaders.
Contact Winterset Dental today to find out which treatment is right for you.
According to the American Diabetes Association, research now suggests that the relationship between serious gum disease and diabetes is a two-way street. Diabetics are more susceptible to gum disease, and serious gum disease has the potential to affect blood glucose control. Uncontrolled, this contributes to the progression of diabetes. People with diabetes are often more susceptible to bacterial infections and have a decrease capacity to fight off the bacteria that contributes to gum disease. Other oral problems include a dry mouth and thrush, an infection that is caused by a fungus that grows in the mouth.
The publication Preventing Chronic Disease, states that “nationwide data on dental health among 37,609 adults ages 25 and older from 1971 through 2012 show that, while tooth loss is declining overall, it remains higher among people with diabetes”. It goes on to add that, by 2012, the average number of missing teeth was 6.6 for those with diabetes, compared with 3.4 for those without.
Diabetics who wear dentures or partial dentures must remove them nightly, and clean them before re-inserting them the next morning. A great gift for the denture wearer in your life is a new denture brush, cleansing tablets, and a container to soak them in!
Contact Winterset Dental today to find out which treatment is right for you.
There have been scientific studies about periodontal disease (commonly referred to as “gum disease” to patients) and specific populations. A recent study in Cancer Epidemiol Biomark Prev, published online on August 1, 2017, examined almost 66,000 post-menopausal women (mean age 68 yrs.) and demonstrated that women with a history of periodontal disease, including non-smokers, are at “significantly increased overall risk for cancer as well as site-specific cancers, including lung, breast, esophageal, gall bladder, and melanoma skin cancers”. This study showed that the risk appears whether a person has ever been a smoker. There have also been earlier studies that suggest that periodontal disease is a risk factor for breast, oral, and esophageal cancers.
For this reason, we conduct a thorough oral cancer exam on each patient seen in our practice. We recognize tissue changes and, honestly, are the most likely providers to spend an appreciable amount of time looking at all the structures, even underneath the tongue. So please bear with us when we poke and palpate. We’re trying to save your life.
Contact Winterset Dental today to find out which treatment is right for you.
At social get-togethers, I’m often asked about my profession. I tell them that I like to help people, building their self-esteem and improving their health, by creating a beautiful smile. The conversation often leads to their past experiences with dental pain, missing or losing teeth, or their natural fear of the unknown. But what is the value of looking back? I prefer to look forward, at the possibilities. I explain the importance of replacing teeth permanently to ensure comfortable, pain-free chewing – for life – while designing a natural smile that matches their complexion and smile line. Once people think about their dental care from this perspective, I know that I am in for an enjoyable, but long, conversation - until my wife rescues me. I always consider it a privilege to educate people so they make informed decisions.
To earn the title of Prosthodontist, I completed three additional years of rigorous training at Northwestern University Dental School, after working as a licensed dentist for 3 years. While there, I focused on the form and function of each type of tooth in the mouth, plus their integration into healthy, stabile bone. I spent hours constructing tooth replacements in wax, plaster, and metal castings. Each was critiqued by several instructors in excruciating detail. Why did I bother?
Since elementary school, my favorite subjects were Science and the creative aspects of Art. I liked to draw things and participated in every science fair that came along. In fact, I’m told that my 200-page Dried Leaf project, which won first prize in a national competition, is still on display at the school! To the amazement of my family and friends, I’d catch frogs with my bare hands (no one else could!) and bring them back to our family’s pond, where I maintained the proper conditions for 10 of them. This developed my problem-solving skills, and helped me pay attention to even minor details. It also made frogs easier to study.
My family heritage includes four generations of Civil Engineers, so I was exposed to many creative projects that served a vital purpose. Sometimes I went to work with my dad, and saw drawings and designs for the construction of roads and bridges. I especially liked the bridges. Of course, I got “snickers” when offering solutions from a kid’s perspective, but I also learned how to visually take apart the components to create a better design – right inside my mind! It helped that my mom allowed me to take apart and re-assemble at least five family radios, the main source of entertainment in an era prior to the current Electronics Revolution. You can probably imagine the parts, pieces, and experimenting that she endured. I was on my way to becoming an engineer! Then came high school and those summer breaks.
When my cousin attended dental school, I got to visit her every summer. I was fascinated by her work in the dental lab. There, I discovered other ways to develop creative designs and solve problems. The thought processes resembled the process for designing public infrastructures in my father’s career, except that dental work didn’t focus on convenience and safety. It focused on function and esthetics, which improved the quality of life for others. Throughout my career, I have had the privilege of pursuing my passion and the joy of helping patients EVERY day that I work, because my work involves science, the creative aspects of art, and engineering for long-term function.
Contact Winterset Dental today to find out which treatment is right for you.
Missing teeth can impact daily life in many ways, making it difficult to enjoy your favorite foods or smile without feeling self-conscious. Fortunately, there are treatments to replace missing teeth and restore confidence. Mini dental implants provide restored dental function with a shorter recovery time than traditional dental implants, making them a popular choice for many patients. Although mini dental implants allow those with missing teeth to enjoy an improved quality of life, they are not right for everyone. At Winterset Dental Care, our team of dentists provides thorough dental examinations to determine which patients are suitable mini dental implant candidates. Schedule a consultation at our Chicago, IL practice to find out which treatment is right for you.