Receding Gums
Janie from Portland has a problem. She is 17 and her gums hurt around her lower front teeth.
When she came in, her gums were very sore and swollen around her lower right incisor and the gums (or gingiva for those dentally inclined) were receded down the tooth root about 3 mm below the other teeth. I noticed that the small muscle attaching her lip to her jaw was pulling on the gums right next to the recession area.
Dental Fears
Many of the young children I see are coming to the dentist for the first time. They have no experience of dentistry yet they are often fearful. Why?
I believe that children pick up both verbal and non-verbal messages from parents, siblings, friends, and even TV shows that make fun of how scary a dental visit is or how badly a root canal hurts.
The Best Toothpaste
There are so many types of toothpastes available that I often get asked by parents, “Which toothpaste should I use?”.
These basic types of toothpaste are available:
- non-fluoridated
- fluoridated
- highly fluoridated
- sensitive formula
- tartar control formula
- whitening
- with or without sodium lauryl sulftate soap
All toothpastes have pretty much the same ingredients, but try to make themselves stand out in various ways. The most common ingredients are:
Dietary Supplements for Dental Health
Today a mother of a six year old girl from West Linn told me that she would not give her daughter any food that had aspartame in it because it accumulated in brain cells and could not be removed. Since only natural sugar would do, naturally her daughter has many cavities.
In addition to regular sucrose sugar, she also used Stevia - a very sweet plant with leaves 300 times sweeter than regular sugar! Now that got my attention.
Baby Juice Bottles
Parents who come into my Portland, Oregon pediatric dental practice often tell me, “My baby loves juice and I just cannot take it away, so I water it down.”
These parents love their babies and want them to have all the good things in life. Juice is sweet and delicious and healthy too. Right?
How Braces Move Teeth
Kids that suck their thumbs often have buck-teeth. Why?
A girl from Gladstone, Oregon asked me why her front teeth stuck out so far. She was a first grader who found it very hard to stop being a thumb sucker.
Teeth are connected to jaw bones by thousands of tiny fibers that surround the roots and permit slight movements of the teeth during chewing and prevent the teeth from being dissolved away by the bone cells called osteoclasts.
Expanding Your Palate
If you are an artist, your palatte may be very messy and colorful. If you are a gourmand, then your palate describes your appreciation of smell and taste. Anatomically, your palate as the roof of your mouth.
Some people have a narrow palate for a variety of reasons:
- thumbsucking
- pacificer use
- low tongue posture
- birth defects like a cleft
- mouth breathing
- unknown reasons
Crossbites
Let’s get some definitions out of the way. Upper teeth that bite inside lower teeth are called:
- crossbite
- cross-bite
- cross bite
An anterior crossbite involves the front teeth and a posterior crossbite involves the back teeth.
Rarely, the upper posterior teeth bite completely outside the lower teeth in a condition called a scissor bite.
A posterior crossbite can involve either one side, called a unilateral crossbite, or both sides, called a bilateral crossbite.
Saving Space
Orthodontists are always worrying about space. When we are lucky, and this is most of the time, there is just the right amount of space for the top teeth and the bottom teeth to come together properly when all the teeth touch and are nice and straight.
The primary baby teeth are important for chewing and biting and speaking and especially for maintaining the space needed for the future permanent adult teeth.
Treating Portland Pulps & Root Canals
“Root canal? Ouch!” That is what most of my Portland patients tell me, but luckily root canal treatments take away toothaches to make you feel better.
Usually dentists prefer to treat infected root canal pulps before they start to hurt because this is the most comfortable way to go. Waiting for a tooth to hurt before starting root canal treatment is usually less comfortable.
Permanent teeth with infected pulps need root canal treatment.
- GreatGood to see everyone. Keep working on Dorian's dad, to get Dorian in. Sad that he would let his teeth go!
- ReviewGreat Grins is a great place and have wonderful employees! Always a pleasure to go in and both my kids are very comfortable when there.
- We love going to the dentist!You are all so great. Very good with kids of all ages. Everyone is friendly and patient.
- Five stars!Very caring staff. Dr. Mark gave me great motivating advice for caring for my teeth. Appreciate the video games in the waiting room, toys and books for young children, coffee and magazines for parents. ~Jared (age 15)
- Bailey's Visit TodayYou guys always do an awesome job. I wouldn't take my sons anywhere else!
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