Lindsay, before your craziness started,  this is your headshot. You are very cute and your eyes are extremely dynamic.  Your teeth are kind of small, short they are spaced and not aligned.  A lot of people would love this smile. It is healthy and natural.  A cosmetic dentist could pick it apart but all in all – not bad at all.

This is your post op supposedly after whitening – just zoom whitening.  Sorry I have never seen zoom get teeth this white, longer, straighter, do gum surgery like this.  Your smile is beautiful but very very enhanced by ceramic veneers.

Patients seeking whitening seeing your pre and post op shots of your teeth are going to be very disappointed.

When people want whitening in my office – we have a talk about what their expectations are regarding how white they would like to get.  Zoom cannot get you these results. There is no calcium in this product to grow your teeth longer, close in the spaces or fill out the corridor of your mouth.

You’ve had veneers, fess up to the publicity stunt.  Nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed about except for lying about how you got it.  Veneers are awesome – they can change teeth in dramatic ways – get them whiter (yes – as white as yours), change the shapes, fill out your smile and correct the misalignments.

Sometimes nail polish won’t give you the absolutely beautiful nails that you love – same as tooth whitening.

Consider this when you go to your dentist.  Zoom is great and it has its limitations. 

We’re always happy to do a consult based on what you need

OK – here is the deal on them.  I have performed one case in my 20 years of dentistry and to sum it up – I keep the after photo as an example of “not quite so pretty and dentistry I am proud of”. Everyone wants a healthy smile but not everyone is a candidate for these

Why?  It is an additive process. They are very thin – almost the thickness of a contact lens.  They have a tendency to look fake, monochromatic (one color) and bulky. 

Being that it is an additive process – they can look better if your teeth have an inward tilt and to close in some spaces.  From a distance to an untrained eye – they may not look quite so bad. They do have a tendency to stain around them where they are glued to the tooth- usually in a conspicuous spot.

The good thing about them is the require minimal prep (tooth structure removal) so if you do not like them – they can be meticulously removed.

My advice is number one – if you are considering this procedure – make sure you do a wax up and try it on for size to make sure you can deal with the excess bulk, number two – make sure you are ok with the doctor performing them.  Ask for their “after” photos – not stock photography but their actual cases – before, during and after to be sure that they can deliver the goods.  Number three they may interfere with your chewing or speech – make sure you can adapt to the new patter. Number four as always – don’t forget to floss.

Next blog will cover the Snap-On-Smile

Fear is something people battle with on a constant basis in every walk of life.  They are afraid of telling somebody something that might hurt their feelings, so they don’t. 

Acceptance is something we all want to experience.  Acceptance of the reality of the condition of your health and acceptance of yourself and other people.

Dance with the fear – it will take the scary part of the big monster that you have wrestled in your head.  It will take up a lot less space and time in your head and will make your body a whole lot more calm

With the economy, I have seen some people putting off necessary dental treatment until they feel they can afford it or they have enough money saved in cash to perform the treatment.  They tell me, I just have to wait doc.

Teeth do not wait on your circumstances – whether it be time or money.  If they are decayed or infected, I assure you they will get worse.  Decay left untreated will be more expensive and uncomfortable to treat.  It is possible if they can’t be treated they must be removed.

My question is why put yourself in a situation where you will have to pay more money and have more pain?  How important is eating? 

I understand wanting to be frugal and since a lot of times dental disease does not hurt, people will put it off as long as possible.

So, let’s ask another question – How long and how healthy would you like to keep your teeth?  Like car maintenance, it is easier and cheaper to fix when the problems are small. 

Spasms of muscle and pain in the joint are caused by different issues.  Sometimes muscles can get uncoordinated because of how teeth fit together or due to trauma in the joint.   Some times it can be because of overwork like chewing too much gum – the equivalent of runner’s knee.

Back in early 2000, I started using an NTI appliance to treat TMJ pain.  This is a little plastic appliance fitted to your front teeth that is supposed to reduce the muscle activity of clenching.  It worked – somewhat.  I had an team of women that had TMJ pain which the NTI appliance actually did not work.  I needed more information.

Going to Peter Dawson and the Pankey Institute seminars led to a long way of actually learning about bite relationships and how they relate to the joint. 

Long story short, there are different diagnosis for different TMJ pain and someone who is trained in this will be able to help.  To decipher whether it is a muscle problem versus a joint problem involves an exam and possibly some x-rays and range of motion tests which are fairly simple to diagnose but every treatment will be different depending upon the source of the pain. 

For people with joint problems the NTI appliance will be worse. Now that we know this – we can help our patients with a greater sense of certainty .

NTI appliances are great to reduce muscle activity and to help with temporal headaches which are caused by clenching.

I’ll have more about TMJ pain and where is comes from in future blogs.

More information can obtained at www.lindakingdds.com

I love visiting with my college kids when they are back on school breaks, then I see how their independence has effected their teeth and we have to do “the talk”. 

I am setting the stage for what I would like my students to know Be FORE they go to eliminate the talk.

Number one – you will be able to eat and drink anything you want without someone telling you it is bad for you.  You will have late night study sessions requiring caffeine and sugar to keep you awake.  Please be aware these have a lot of acids and sugar.  Watch your frequency.  Don’t sip – chug and chew sugarless gum just for a few minutes afterwards.  This will limit the time the acids are on your teeth.  Coffee – even black is pretty acidic and will cause cavities.  Diet drinks – without sugar has a lot of acid and will create cavities.

Number two – wisdom teeth.  I will always let you keep what you can keep clean.  There is very little space in the back of your mouth for these party crashing teeth to have a home.  They will not erupt fully to keep clean.  They also seem to not be as strong.  When I have to fill wisdom teeth – it is not a fun experience for either of us.  The cavities are deeper and very hard for me to reach.  The other thing is that Spring breaks are notorious for having a lot of wisdom teeth infections. 

So, when we talk wisdom teeth, let’s come up with a plan “when” to get them out.

Number three – floss, please.  Gum disease can be rampant on my students.  Do it while you are studying or texting.  And please don’t forget to brush at the gumline.

All of these things being said, Good luck on your journey and we will always be there when you come home.

I have had many clients have decay starting in between their teeth and watching it get large enough for us to actually do something about.  We recommend flossing, fluoride and very frequent films in order to monitor the progress.

Now, we have discovered something we can do proactively in order to prevent the spread.  We can etch and seal the teeth in between with a new dispenser.  It is a new product from DMG that separates the teeth and etches them for several minutes.  It is dried and sealed with a methacrylate resin.  No drilling, no pain.  There are 18 month clinical trials with this where the cavities have not gotten larger.

It is definitely minimally restorative dentistry that which everyone can be happy.

We can also take care of the spots on the front teeth as shown in the picture above.

Avoiding plastic teeth starts young.  Stay away from too much acids, watch drinking and eating habits and keep going to the dentist to check things even if they don’t hurt.

Rock on Folks, you are the future.

The great news is that there are tests to see if you are high risk for cavities, it only takes 20 minutes and there is treatment. All members of the family should be tested and treated.  Pregnant moms should the first one to be tested.  It is a simple test that involves chewing on wax and placing saliva through different strip tests.  The first test is a buffering capability to see what the pH of your saliva.  The second test will determine how high the Strep Mutans bugs are in your saliva.

What is buffering capability?  Normal saliva is a pH of 7, like water or milk.  Acid are like lemons and vinegar and they have a lower pH below 5.  When the pH of your mouth drops after eating something with carbohydrate or acid (drinks included), the pH of your mouth drops lower from 7 to 5.5 and that is when cavities can occur.  Sipping on drinks or constant eating of carbohydrates will keep the mouth at a lower pH being more at risk for decay.   BUT Wait, there’s more…This is normal saliva with a normal pH.  Some folks with dry mouth (due to medications, menopause, chemotherapy, or just not within normal limits) do not have a pH of 7, it may be 6.2  even when stimulated by chewing on wax to produce more saliva. 

Another scary thing – bottled water has a pH of 5!!!!   If you have decided not to drink tap water and are drinking purely bottled water like Aquafina and Dasani – you are doing more damage than good.  The soft drink companies add Magnesium sulfate as a preservative to the water which lowers the pH where it will demineralize the enamel.

What to do?  Stay tuned for more….