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Have Your Teeth Shifted Position?

September 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Shifting Teeth Have Causes and Effects

Did you know that your teeth position are constantly subjected to forces that cause them to shift? Those forces may be due to muscle tension, biting, chewing or uneven jaw joints. The teeth will move in response to those forces. As you age, your teeth wear down and get shorter. Your jaw joints can wear down. You lose a tooth and maybe decide to not replace it. These factors create imbalances in your mouth.

When that occurs, instead of your teeth all sharing equally in the function of chewng, some are forced to work overtime to compensate for missing, broken or shorter teeth.

If you were driving your car with two bald tires and two new tires, it would create a rough ride.The analogy is comparable when it comes to your teeth. If you chew on an uneven surface a tooth can crack, resulting in more chewing force on the remaining teeth.

It’s not only for cosmetic reasons that you straighten your teeth position, get crowns or implants. These treatments improve the way your teeth mesh together. They also balance your bite. They can even enhance or even create entire body balance. You may not notice an immediate effect from imbalance and uneven chewing, but like the “perfect storm,” many health conditions are the result of long-term, non-optimum conditions that have been ignored.

Filed Under: Blog, Dentistry, General Health, Teeth and Gums Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Designer Dentures?

September 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Designer Dentures?
Rather Than Dread Dentures, Views Them as a
Chance to Design Your Own Smile
Morton came in as a new patient asking for a new
set of dentures. In collaborating with him so we
could make him dentures he would be proud to
wear, I asked him questions such as:
Do you want spaces between your front teeth?
What type of smiles do you like?
Who do you want to look like?
Do you want big teeth, little teeth, long teeth,
wide teeth?
• Do you want personalization, such as little
character flaws built into your teeth?
• Do you want perfect alignment?
•
•
•
•
Morton told me he’d never been consulted to that
degree like when getting dentures made previously.
He said for the first time ever, he was excited to get
his new denture appliance.
According to the Center for Disease Control, 1 out of
every 4 adults over 60 have lost all of their natural
teeth due to gum disease and tooth decay. Another
CDC report says 1 out of every 5 adults over 65 have
lost all of their teeth. Once that occurs, your choices
are dentures or implants.
Although dental implants are an excellent alternative
to dentures, not everyone can get them. This doesn’t
mean you have to dread dentures. The biggest
reason denture wearers switch to implants is:
• Their dentures are ill-fitting and uncomfortable;
• They don’t like how their dentures look.
You can dread dentures or view them as an
opportunity to design your smile. If you want to pay
$99 and get “teeth-on-a-plate” then the old adage
“you get what you pay for” applies.
On the other hand, if you want someone to craft an
appliance that feels and looks natural, you can spend
the money and get something that will make you
feel confident.
As an Art Minor in college, I see beyond the science
of dentistry. Although an appliance needs to be
engineered perfectly, the aesthetic appeal must also
be present.
If you need a denture, view it as an opportunity to
design the smile you’ve always wanted.
*BLOG is short for “weblog,” a journal posted online.

Rather Than Dread Dentures, View Them as a Chance to Design Your Own Smile

Morton came in as a new patient asking for a new set of dentures. In collaborating with him so we

could make him dentures he would be proud to wear, I asked him questions such as:

Do you want spaces between your front teeth?

What type of smiles do you like?

Who do you want to look like?

Do you want big teeth, little teeth, long teeth, wide teeth?

Do you want personalization, such as little character flaws built into your teeth?

Do you want perfect alignment?

Morton told me he’d never been consulted to that degree like when getting dentures made previously.

He said for the first time ever, he was excited to get his new denture appliance.

According to the Center for Disease Control, 1 out of every 4 adults over 60 have lost all of their natural teeth due to gum disease and tooth decay. Another CDC report says 1 out of every 5 adults over 65 have lost all of their teeth. Once that occurs, your choices are dentures or implants.

Although dental implants are an excellent alternative to dentures, not everyone can get them. This doesn’t mean you have to dread dentures. The biggest reason denture wearers switch to implants is:

• Their dentures are ill-fitting and uncomfortable;

• They don’t like how their dentures look.

You can dread dentures or view them as an opportunity to design your smile. If you want to pay $99 and get “teeth-on-a-plate” then the old adage “you get what you pay for” applies.

On the other hand, if you want someone to craft an appliance that feels and looks natural, you can spend the money and get something that will make you feel confident.

As an Art Minor in college, I see beyond the science of dentistry. Although an appliance needs to be engineered perfectly, the aesthetic appeal must also be present.

If you need a denture, view it as an opportunity to design the smile you’ve always wanted.

Filed Under: Anti Aging Dentistry, Blog, Dentistry, General Health, Teeth and Gums, Teeth Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Dr. Pete’s Top 5 Dental Health Trends

September 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Trend #1. The explosion of implant dentistry will bring costs down. Like computer technology costs came down with demand, so it is with dental implants. The cost of materials that kept prices high for implants and crowns is coming down simply because more people are getting implants for missing teeth and instead of dentures. 

The American Academy of Implant Dentistry reports, “As the Baby Boomers begin filing for Social Security, they’re replacing teeth weakened from periodontal disease with dental implants instead of bridgework and removable dentures. Further incentive is that highly precise computer-guided dental implant surgery has made the procedure faster, highly predicable and long-lasting with a success rate of 97 percent.”

Trend #2: Teeth straightening will increasingly become the first step in a cosmetic makeover. It’s been a common practice to place porcelain veneers on crooked teeth. While this gives the appearance of straight teeth, it does nothing to address the health conditions caused by uneven teeth. These create uneven bite pressure which can lead to health problems, including headaches and migraines. With more dentists understanding the connection between the bite and jaw joints and head, neck and back pain, concern for health will lead to correcting the uneven bite rather than covering it up with veneers.

Trend #3: Gum Contouring Will Become More Popular. Just like lip plumping or botox improve appearance without surgery, contouring gum lines will become popular as more dentists investing in acquiring and learning how to use laser dental equipment. With laser technology being used in everything from skin care to knee replacement surgery, it was only a matter of time before it would be more routinely employed in your dental care. In addition to gum contouring which, by the way, is also great for men, lasers can disinfect diseased gum tissue. They can also cut into the teeth, making it faster and more comfortable to get fillings.

Trend #4: 3D x-rays will enable more precise dental treatment. Technology called “cone beam” takes two dimensional x-rays and makes them 3D. This allows your dentist to provide more precise dental treatment. For example, with a 3d picture, your dentist can see the nerve tissue surrounding impacted wisdom teeth. This allows for a better surgery. With implants, we’re able to determine more exactly their correct placement.

Trend #5: Teeth whitening will become part of a daily makeup routine for women. Whitening pens like Liquid Smile will make a professional in-offce whitening last a lot longer. Instead of bulky whitening trays sitting in your mouth for an hour with saliva coming out the side of your mouth, pens allow you to touch up the teeth that are visible.

 

Filed Under: Dentistry, General Dental, General Health, Teeth and Gums, Teeth Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Are You Living a 100 Year Lifestyle?

August 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

George Burns, the world’s most famous centenarian, once joked that if he knew he was going to live to 100, he would have taken better care of himself.

Centenarians are one of the fastest-growing age groups in the industrialized world. Anyone today who’s 40 has a good chance of living until 100. But, according to Dr. Eric Plasker of The 100 Year Lifestyle, some people don’t want to live that long due to concerns that they won’t be in good health, or will be broke or both.

Someone once said that tomorrow is made up of small decisions you make today. For example, someone under fifty who has been relying on social security to live on when they retire may not have set aside any savings. They may have spent their money on vacations or electronic equipment like tvs and stereos instead of creating a nest egg. A similar false security on dental insurance might have someone making decisions to postpone dental work because their insurance has annual limits. In either case, the reliance on someone else to determine what you should do today in order to secure your tomorrow might be a leap of faith.

Even if you’ve under-planned your financial or dental future, it’s almost never to late to remedy the situation. For example, Beth Thames, a tax manager in Atlanta, calculated that if a 50 year old started with nothing saved and set aside $500 a month until the age of 75, at 7% interest, she’d accumulate a nest egg over $400,000.

Similarly, many of my patients over 40 are aware of the discrepancy between insurance coverage and the true amount of dental work needed to preserve their teeth. Since they want to have their teeth in their senior years, they are restoring and preserving them. Others are enhancing their smiles with crowns, veneers, straightening, and whitening.

100 year lifestyle planning involves making decisions that ensure you have the quality of life you want in your later years.

Filed Under: Anti Aging Dentistry, General Dental Tagged With: , ,

Suffering From Headaches, Popping Jaws, or Shoulder and Neck Pain?

January 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Although practitioners other than dentists treat headaches and popping and clicking jaws, the real clue to successful treatment is identifying the correct source. It’s not often obvious that head, neck and shoulder pain stem from a dental condition. What I’m about to disclose here might test your credibility, so bear with me. I’ll disclose what’s behind some of these “mysterious” head, neck and dental pains, but first here’s a real life scenario that unfolds in my office regularly!

A 52 year old St Louis woman came to me out of desperation. After suffering from migraines for decades, I was the last resort, so to speak, after a string of failures with other treatments. The popping jaw was the first indication that the source of the pain could be stemming from a misaligned bite caused by a jaw joint that was out of place. With x-rays and extensive diagnosis, I isolated the cause of her condition and we immediately went into treatment with the result of no more headaches.

I follow the school of simplicity. That is, if the solution starts sounding too complex, I know I’m probably on the wrong trail. That approach has enabled me to help patients out of pain and eliminate unnecessary dental procedures.

Another patient came to me having decided to undergo surgery to “fix” the popping and clicking in her jaw that began after an accident. The hospital date was scheduled and a friend suggested she double-check with me before going through with the surgery. After examining her, I diagnosed that her jaw joint was out of place and convinced her to postpone the surgery. I had to twist her arm, but she agreed. Three months later all traces of the condition were gone, at a fraction of the cost and without the trauma.

Another woman came to me with headaches and clicking jaws. Turns out her orthodontic treatment followed by a tonsillectomy had put enough strain on the jaw to throw off her bite. Once a corrective appliance was made to put her jaw back in place, the condition evaporated.

That’s why we always take more x-rays at my office than is customary. I don’t launch into fixing teeth or doing cosmetics before ensuring your bite is correct. It would be like doing interior decorating on a house that’s built on a cracked foundation.

More about this can be found in my free downloadable ebook: Lifetime Smile.

Filed Under: General Health Tagged With: ,

Want To Be In Excellent Health?

April 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Your Drugs May Not Be The Right Prescription
Teeth, gums and bone structure affect and are affected by one’s overall health. So it was fitting to study pharmacology in my dental training, since medications affect the system. In interviews with patients I am increasingly asked my opinion about their prescription drugs.

Such was the case with a new patient in St Louis who admitted he was addicted to an anti-depressant, prescribed for the off-label purpose of handling his insomnia. Another patient consulted me about her teenage daughter’s headaches. Her daughter had seen several specialists who, unable to diagnose the cause of the girl’s headaches, prescribed an antidepressant, another off-label use of this med. Having treated TMJ patients for thirty years with headaches, I was able to discover what was causing them and give the girl relief – without drugs. The information I use has been around since the ‘90s, so isn’t new. But, it doesn’t involve surgery or drugs and so isn’t widely promoted. [Read more...]

Filed Under: General Health Tagged With: , ,

Look Ma’ No Cavities!

August 25, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Look Ma! No Cavities!

For Boomers who grew up with this famous toothpaste advertisement, I have a news flash: At your age, it’s no longer just about cavities!

If you’ve passed the age of forty, you really should have a mid-life diagnosis to evaluate the overall state of your oral health AND to plan a proper course of treatment that will enable you to keep your teeth for the remainder of your lifetime.

Patients over forty have often shortchanged their dental health or just barely maintained their teeth and gums. With the expense of family taking precedence through the previous two decades, Boomer-aged patients coming to me for the first time are often prepared to play catch-up with their own dental health.

Today you can plan a course of treatment that will ensure you’ve got your own teeth to chew with well into your senior years. In addition, nothing is more youthful than a natural-looking white smile. Unlike your parents, if you take care now you can have both.

Filed Under: Dentistry, General Dental, General Health, St. Louis, Teeth Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Got Bloody Gums?

July 25, 2008 By Leave a Comment

OK, this isn’t as fun and sexy to talk about as cosmetic dentistry but it’s time to sound the alarm on one of the most common diseases around. It’s GUM DISEASE folks and 75% of Americans have some stage of it.

Sadly, most people think that it’s normal when gums bleed. If you washed your hands and they started to bleed, wouldn’t you get a little worried? Of course you would, yet most people don’t get worried about bleeding gums because no one is telling them it is serious gum disease that could be deadly!

The news about gum disease and it’s connection to our overall health continues to come up again and again in research and medicine. It’s time to get deadly serious about the disease that most of the planet still does not take seriously.

Here’s the good news! In our office we have the systems and technology to get gum disease under control 98% of the time without specialist surgery.

To schedule a gum disease check, call our St Louis dentist office (314) 576-3000.

Filed Under: Teeth Tips Tagged With: , ,
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