Milan Dental Associates
Dentist - Milan
519 W. Main Street , Milan, MI 48160
(734) 439-1543
My Blog
Posts for: December, 2014
Recent research has revealed a relationship between overall general health and proper care for your dentures. The evidence shows that oral bacteria have been implicated in bacterial endocarditis (“endo” – inside; “card” – heart), chronic obstructive pulmonary (lung) disease, generalized infections of the respiratory tract and other systemic diseases. This proves what you might not suspect — you need to pay attention to the care of your dentures to achieve optimal health. For this reason, we have put together this list of five great tips for caring for your dentures.
- Daily cleaning at home: It is critical that you thoroughly remove the bacterial biofilm in your mouth and on your dentures. This one tip alone will help minimize the likelihood of your developing inflammation (denture stomatitis) under your dentures.
- Don't boil your dentures: While cleaning is important, you should NEVER place your dentures into boiling water because it can damage and warp them.
- Don't wear your dentures 24/7: To help reduce or minimize denture stomatitis, you really should not wear your dentures 24/7. It is important to thoroughly clean them each night along with your mouth (as noted above), and then leave them out while you sleep. This will also slow down the bone loss that naturally occurs from the pressure caused by wearing dentures.
- Always store your dentures immersed in water: This tip is so important because it helps prevent your dentures from warping. And do not forget to change the water each day, as well as to clean the container in which you store them.
- Annual professional cleaning: Even though you may do an excellent job cleaning your teeth at home, you still need to come to our offices at least once a year for an examination, fit and function check, as well as a professional cleaning. During this cleaning, we will use our ultrasonic cleaners to minimize the biofilm that accumulates over time.
To learn more tips, continue reading the Dear Doctor magazine article “Top Ten Tips For Denture Care & Maintenance.” Or you can contact us today to schedule an appointment to discuss your questions.
Athletic activity can boost your health, but many sports also carry some risk — especially to the teeth. This is something NFL wide receiver Jerry Rice well knows.
“Football can be brutal — injuries, including those to the face and mouth, are a common risk for any player,” Rice noted in an interview with Dear Doctor magazine. In fact, Rice himself chipped a couple of teeth, which were repaired with crowns. “There wasn't a lot of focus on protecting your teeth in high school,” Rice recalled.
You don't have to be a legend of the NFL to benefit from the type of high-quality mouthguard a dentist can make for you or your child. Consider that:
- An athlete is 60 times more likely to suffer harm to the teeth when not wearing a mouthguard.
- Mouthguards prevent an estimated 200,000 or more injuries each year.
- Sports-related dental injuries account for more than 600,000 emergency room visits annually.
- Each knocked-out tooth that is not properly preserved or replanted can cause lifetime dental costs of $10,000 to $20,000.
You and/or your child should wear a mouthguard if you participate in sports involving a ball, stick, puck, or physical contact with another player. Mouthguards should be used for practice as well as actual games.
It's also important to be aware that all mouthguards are not created equal. To get the highest level of protection and comfort, you'll want to have one custom-fitted and professionally made. This will involve a visit to our office so that we can make a precise model of your teeth that is used to create a custom guard. A properly fitted mouthguard is protective, comfortable, resilient, tear-resistant, odorless, tasteless and not bulky. It has excellent retention, fit, and sufficient thickness in critical areas.
If you are concerned about dental injuries or interested in learning more about mouthguards, please contact us today to schedule an appointment for a consultation. If you would like to read Dear Doctor's entire interview with Jerry Rice, please see “Jerry Rice.” Dear Doctor also has more on “Athletic Mouthguards.” and “An Introduction to Sports Injuries & Dentistry.”
For decades, dental x-rays have helped us accurately diagnose and treat a wide array of dental diseases and conditions. But even with recent advances in digital imaging, the traditional x-ray does have one drawback: its two-dimensional view doesn’t always provide the “big picture” that a three-dimensional viewpoint can provide.
But a new type of x-ray technology can do just that: known as cone beam computed tomography (CBCT), these machines record hundreds of digital images as a cone-shaped beam of x-ray energy is projected through a device that rotates around a person’s head. A computer then assembles the images into a single three-dimensional image that can be manipulated on screen to view from various angles. Not only does this provide greater context and detail, it does so with no more radiation exposure than a standard 20-film digital full-mouth x-ray series.
While CBCT hasn’t replaced the traditional x-ray, it’s making its mark in a number of specialized areas of dentistry. The following are just a few of the ways CBCT is improving both accuracy and treatment outcomes.
Orthodontics. CBCT can provide a much more detailed view of the entire jaw; this can help us determine the best locations for realigning teeth safely and effectively.
Dental Implants. With a CBCT scan we can precisely locate nerve canals, sinuses and adjacent teeth before implant surgery to locate the best position for the implant.
TMD Treatment. To help develop the best treatment approach for alleviating the pain and dysfunction of temporo-mandibular joint disease (TMD), a CBCT scan can provide us detailed information on how the disease is affecting a patient’s joints, teeth, sinuses and airway.
Impactions. An impacted tooth can exert damaging pressure against the roots of neighboring teeth. A CBCT scan allows us to observe the impacted tooth from various vantage points to determine the best treatment approach for neighboring teeth, nerve canals and sinuses.
If you would like more information on CBCT technology, please contact us or schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can also learn more about this topic by reading the Dear Doctor magazine article “Getting the Full Picture With Cone Beam Dental Scans.”