Studies have shown that as many as 75 out of every 100 people fear dental visits; and for 10 to 15 of them, the fear is so great that they never get treatment — leading to serious dental problems and worse. Untreated disease in your teeth and gums can negatively affect the health of your entire body.

How can you conquer your fears so you can get the treatment you need? The answer includes (a) working with us to overcome your fears and have a positive experience while undergoing dental treatment, and (b) using oral sedation or anti-anxiety medication to help you quell your fears and relax.

Overcoming Your Fears

People develop fear of the dentist when they have a bad dental experience themselves, or sometimes when they hear of a bad experience someone else has had. The more you are afraid, the more you feel the symptoms of fear, and the more you connect those symptoms with the experience. You need to stop this negative memory sequence and replace the feelings of fear and loss of control with memories of good experiences and feelings of being in control.

It helps to know that you are not alone in your fears and that you can do something positive about them. First, make an appointment to discuss your fears with us, your dental professionals. Start with small procedures that cause only mild anxiety, and give yourself adequate time to get over your fears.

Using Oral Sedation

You have already gradually reduced your fear through your discussions and previous appointments. When you are ready to go to the next step, consider using oral sedatives or “anxiolytics” (meaning that they dissolve anxiety) to help you feel relaxed and comfortable.

Oral sedation — so called because you take it by mouth — allows you to let your guard down and focus on feeling peaceful, yet you remain awake and in control. The medication is either placed under your tongue and dissolved there (sublingual) or swallowed whole. Since it is taken by mouth, it does not require an injection, so it is easily taken by people who are afraid of injections.

The oral sedative and anxiolytic medications dentists use have been subjected to rigorous research and testing and have a long safety record after decades of use.

By using this two-step process you can reduce your fears and begin to get the care you need. And we, your dental professionals, are able to work more efficiently because we can focus on the work at hand, knowing that you are comfortable and relaxed.

Contact us today to schedule an appointment to talk about any fears you may have. You can also learn more by reading the Dear Doctor magazine articles “Overcoming Dental Fear & Anxiety” and “Oral Sedation Dentistry.”

A recent study revealed that on average there are 22,000 dental injuries in children under the age of 18. This alarming reality makes it clear that parents, caregivers, and coaches need to understand the risks for dental injuries so that they are best equipped to prevent them...or at least be prepared to manage one should it occur. The four most common categories for measuring risks associated with sports injuries are:

• Age: Age is an important factor when accessing risk. Sports-related dental injuries tend to spike during the teenage years. Recent research shows that children under the age of 13 tend to not be injured as often.
• Gender: Gender is probably the second most influential factor. The facts are that males top the list for experiencing dental injuries during sports or vigorous activities. However, more and more females are playing highly competitive and contact sports or activities; thus, their risk of injury is increasing.
• Shape and position of your teeth: Both the condition and positions of the teeth affect their risk of injury. More prominent or “buck” teeth are considered a higher risk for injury than teeth in a more normal position. Furthermore, 80% of all dental injuries involve the upper front teeth.
• Sports type: This last category is the one most often asked about, as parents, caregivers and athletes want to know which sports or activities have the highest risks for dental injuries. And while baseball and basketball top the list, the American Dental Association (ADA) has put together a comprehensive list of sports and activities. To review this list, read the Dear Doctor article, “Athletic Mouthguards.” The ADA also urges athletes to wear professionally-fitted mouthguards to protect against dental and facial injuries.

Knowing the above categories can help you assess your risk for a dental injury while playing in a sport or recreational activity. To learn more about sports-related dental injuries, read, “An Introduction To Sports Injuries & Dentistry.” Or if you have a traumatized, damaged, chipped or missing tooth from a sports or any other type of injury, contact us to discuss your situation or to schedule an appointment.

How many of these questions can you answer correctly? The more you know about nutrition and oral health, the healthier you are likely to be.

What are free sugars?
“Free sugars” is a term for sugars including refined cane, beet and corn sugar, which are added to foods or occur naturally in honey, syrups or fruit juices.

You probably know that foods with added sugars are not healthy for your teeth. What is the maximum recommended sugar intake for oral health?
The recommended daily limit for free sugar is 10 teaspoons per day. Note that one can of soda contains over 6 teaspoons.

If a sugary snack is bad for your teeth, what could you substitute that would be better?
Fresh fruits and vegetables would be a better snack. Fresh fruits contain fructose, a sugar that has not been shown to be harmful to teeth if eaten in reasonable amounts.

How can you get enough fluoride to guard your teeth against decay?
If your water supply does not contain fluoride, or if you usually drink bottled water, you may or may not be receiving enough fluoride from your toothpaste. We can assess if you are receiving enough fluoride by examining your teeth, testing your plaque and reviewing your past history of tooth decay. If you are having a problem with tooth decay, we can create fluoride trays for you so you can apply a fluoride solution to your teeth daily.

What is dental erosion and how is it different from tooth decay?
Some acidic foods, particularly drinks such as juices and sodas, wear away your teeth's outer coating (the enamel) when exposed to the teeth's surface. Erosion does not involve bacteria, the cause of dental caries (tooth decay).

Can certain foods stop acidity from attacking your teeth?
Yes, there are foods that reverse the increase in acidity that comes from eating free sugars. One of these is cheese. Cheese stimulates saliva in your mouth, and it contains high levels of calcium, allowing calcium to be added back to your teeth. Many vegetables and starchy whole grain foods require thorough chewing, which also stimulates production of saliva and guards against tooth decay.

We hope you learned some useful facts from this nutrition quiz. If you modify your habits so that you eat less free sugar; drink more water (preferably fluoridated), drink fewer juices and sodas; and snack on fresh fruits, vegetables, and cheese, you can count on having healthy teeth and gums.

Contact us today to schedule an appointment to discuss your questions about diet and oral health. You can also learn more by reading the Dear Doctor magazine article “Nutrition & Oral Health.”

For many people, starting a chewing tobacco habit begins as something you do with “all the guys” to be cool and fit in. It often starts when playing sports such as baseball. And because it is smokeless tobacco, many people think it is harmless; thus they slowly start “dipping” more often until they are chewing tobacco throughout each day, every day.

The truth about chewing tobacco is that it isn't harmless. It is extremely dangerous and contains more than 30 chemicals known to cause cancer. It also contains nicotine, the highly addictive-forming drug found in cigarettes. Sure, it may not have the odorous (and dangerous) impact of cigarettes, cigars and pipes that can negatively impact others nearby, but it can destroy both your oral and general health and even kill you.

Steps You Can Take to Quit

Once a person decides to stop using chewing tobacco, it can be a difficult process and even more difficult to quit cold turkey. If the latter describes your situation, try a smoking cessation program or talk with your doctor about prescription medicines available to help you kick the habit. You may also find free counseling (via telephone) or other groups and organizations created to help people break free from their tobacco addiction. This is often a great way to start the quitting process.

Two of the most important steps you can take are to involve your physician and our office in your strategy to kick this habit. In addition to encouraging and supporting your decision, we can closely monitor your oral health during the process.

Florence Henderson has inspired generations of people through her portrayal of America's most beloved TV mother, Carol Brady, on one of the longest running situational comedies, The Brady Brunch. Today Florence is still a role model but for a much different audience: senior citizens.

Henderson created the FloH Club as an organization to assist senior citizens with understanding and embracing technology, as she described in an interview with Dear Doctor magazine. “I was inspired to create the FloH Club because of my own fear of technology and because I didn't want to keep asking my children for help,” she said.

And while Henderson was blessed with naturally straight teeth and has had no cosmetic work done, she is not opposed to it. “I wouldn't care how old I was, if I had misaligned teeth or felt I needed cosmetic dentistry I would certainly do it!”

One teeth-straightening option many adults consider is clear orthodontic aligners. They are an excellent way for self-conscious adults to align their teeth without feeling that they will appear as an awkward “brace-faced” youth — a look that is commonplace for the teenage years.

But what are clear aligners? They are an alternative system to traditional braces that use a sequence of individual, custom-fitted trays that are clear and removable to gradually straighten teeth. They are usually recommended for correcting mild to moderate spacing problems or crowding of the teeth, and for cases in which there are no major issues with your bite (i.e., your back teeth fit together properly and biting forces are distributed evenly on all of your teeth).

To learn more about this method of aligning teeth, you can continue reading the Dear Doctor magazine article “Clear Orthodontic Aligners.” Or you can contact us today to schedule an appointment so that we can conduct a thorough examination and discuss what treatment options will be best for you. And to read the entire interview with Florence Henderson, please see the Dear Doctor article “Florence Henderson.”