I’m a dentist. My job is to protect the health of your teeth (and your overall health to the degree I am capable and qualified). I took an oath. I know that sounds weird, but it literally happened. I took an oath to protect your teeth. I haven’t taken that many oaths in my life, but that’s one of the ones I have taken. That’s a weirdly specific oath to take, but that’s where my weird-ass life has led me. I stand by my oaths. Partially because “oath” is a fun word that makes me feel just a little bit like Gandalf, but also because it’s important to keep your promises and stuff.
Read MoreDental and/or oral health (the health of your teeth, gums, tongue, jaw muscles, jaw joint, etc.) is largely influenced by our daily habits. Most of the problems that affect your mouth and jaw joints are BEHAVIORAL diseases and injuries. That means that they are PREVENTABLE if you know the right habits to use in your life. You don’t have “bad teeth.” Establishing the right HABITS for dental health EARLY IN LIFE is key. Parents have the power to empower their children to experience a lifetime of dental health. PARENTS are by far MORE IMPORTANT than dental care providers in influencing their child toward a healthy mouth lifestyle.
Read MorePregnancy does wild stuff to the human body. Puberty was weird enough for me. I don’t know from experience, but pregnancy is almost like round two of puberty or something. On top of everything else, there’s a whole ‘nother human involved? Of course, they’re just getting geared up to experience consciousness for the first time, so that can’t be easy for them either. So yea, it’s a miracle and a mystery and all that, and surprise, surprise, just as it can change-a-roo many other areas of the body, that little mystery miracle metamorphosis can affect your teeth.
Read MoreFull disclosure up front: I don’t do orthodontic treatment myself. I’m a general dentist in the United States. That means I graduated from a four-year dental college after I finished four years of undergraduate education. General dentists are allowed to perform orthodontic treatment. However, to do it well, you need to take continuing education courses to learn the intricacies of moving teeth around in someone’s jawbones. It’s not covered in enough detail in the typical dental school curriculum. It may not be rocket science, but it is a very specialized area of knowledge, and if you don’t know what you’re doing, a lot of things can go very wrong. I do not want a lot of things to go very wrong, so this is not a treatment I perform on patients.
Read MoreThere are LOTS of potential reasons to use a night guard. There are TONS of options for what night guard to use and how long to use it. Every patient is unique and different.
When you put a guard in your mouth, it can influence four primary structures:
Your Teeth
Your Jaw Muscles
Your Jaw Joint
Your Airway
Your teeth can look the bomb.com in terms of being bright and white, but that doesn’t mean they are healthy. Therefore, let it clearly be stated: I strongly advise seeing a dentist to make sure you have a clean bill of health before whitening your teeth. You don’t have to see me. In fact, I would prefer you don’t see me. I can kinda already tell that I don’t like you. You probably smell weird.
Read MoreIs it sage advice to remove your wisdom teeth, or not so much? This is a hotly debated issue within the dental community. It divides families and eviscerates friendships. You could lose a tooth getting walloped by a dentist if you blaspheme in the wrong company. Currently, most American oral surgeons strongly recommend the prophylactic (meaning pre-emptive strike; get it out of there before it causes a problem later) removal of wisdom teeth for the majority of patients. It’s sort of a right of passage in our culture. But should it be?
Read MoreI’m here to protect your chompers from the tobacco and sugar industries if it’s the last thing I do. I found out about a great book that helped a bunch of degenerate comedians quit smoking, and if a bunch of no good bottom of the societal barrel low-brow “artist” degenerate comedians can quit smoking, then so can you. The author of the book is Allen Carr. He was a smoker for 33 years. He typically smoked between 60 and 100 cigarettes each day during that time. I’m not a smoker, but that seems like a lot of cigarettes to me. I think he has some credibility considering he was able to rid his life of smoking and live happily tobacco-free for 23 years.
Read More“Floss Like a Boss” is a common catchphrase you will hear among dentists and hygienists. We’re strange people. Apparently, it is also the title of a hot new single from a Berlin-based pop star. Never be surprised by how bizarre our world is. It’s infinitely strange and full of serendipity if you’re willing to look around. She’ll even teach you how to brush your teeth. What do you need me for? There’s also this, so I don’t even know why I’m trying. The rest of the internet seems to have this covered.
Read MoreIf you spend any time googling “fluoride,” you will come across lots of information about how you are being lied to by people like me.¹ As a dentist, I’m a drug pusher for the corporations and the government. I want to trick you into ruining your children’s teeth with fluoride poison so that you have to pay the big bucks for me to white knight in and save the day. Maybe you’ve protested the fluoridation of the water supply in your city. “Government overreach! What’s next? Microchips in my brain to tell me to quit smoking cigarettes?!”
Read MoreYou’ve probably read online that you can swish coconut oil around in your mouth, and it will cure all your dental ills. No more cavities. No more gingivitis. No more bacteria. Huzzah! Just spend 10–20 minutes 3–5 times a week oil pulling (at first, I thought it was “pooling” as in a swimming pool in your mouth, oh well), and your teeth will be beautiful and perfect. No more need to listen to awful nasty dentists like me about brushing and flossing, right?
Read MoreIf you expose teeth to acid, they will dissolve. The surface of the teeth breaks down into little particles that erode away. The teeth lose their color and shape. If you look at many older peoples’ teeth, you will often notice they have lost their luster. They are:
More yellow
Shorter
Rounded off/flattened at the edges or even chipped/cracked
More transparent/thin looking
Scooped out/worn/dented
What happened to those beautiful pearly whites of our youth? ACID.
Read MoreDry mouth can:
Increase the chance you get cavities by A LOT
Increase acidic erosion of your teeth
Reduce taste and enjoyment of food
Contribute to bad breath
Cause all kinds of difficulty chewing, breaking down food, and swallowing
Lead to mouth sores, sore tongue, sore throat, cracked and chapped lips
Disrupt your ability to speak clearly.
Make you susceptible to infections
Disrupt sleep due to a lack of comfort
Impair proper fit of your dentures
Make it really difficult to win loogie hocking contests.
When you leave food in your mouth for bacteria to munch on, they go poo poo in your mouth after they are done eating. Bacteria are very inconsiderate, much like a newborn baby. Except they don’t have any diapers. Your mouth is their diaper. Some of the bacterial poo poo includes volatile sulfur compounds. Volatile sulfur compounds smell like rotten eggs.
Read MoreThere is so much effort being put into toothpaste in our world. Ready to read something wild? Here is a 2016 systemic review (that means a bunch of science folk looked at lots of studies for evidence of something) that explains that toothpaste does not enhance plaque removal. If brushing and flossing are so awesome, why even bother buying toothpaste?
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