Nightguards and Grinding

The statistics are not good. Some studies show that an estimated 20 percent of the population during waking hours and 8 percent during sleep grind. Grinding professionally known as Bruxing and its close cousin Clenching cause a lot of pain, suffering , and cracked teeth among other things.The symptoms can range from none and the only reason you know is that the person you share a bed with tells you make noise grinding (Described sometimes as two bricks rubbing together) or the dentists notices wear marks on your teeth (known as wear facets)to debilitating migraine like headaches. The treatments can range from soft diet and NSAIDs(anti inflammatory drugs) to narcotics (with all the dependency baggage and the loss of efficacy).The first step is soft diet, Nsaids and fabrication of a Nightguard. Stress reduction cut down on caffeine. These are mostly straightforward.Night Guards come in different types. The NTI covers only the front 2-4 teeth small and unobtrusive.The standard night guard is a U shaped mouth guard looking device which covers the chewing surfaces of one arch of the mouth. Then there are others that cover just the chewing surfaces.These appliances keep the teeth from touching.that is their function I even have some patients that must wear them during the day. These are made to be more comfortable and discrete.It is not well understood what the cause of grinding is. It was thought that stress was the cause. The problem is that not all people under a lot of stress grind and clench. Not everyone who grinds will grind all the time . They might grind in stretches and then stop. It might have something to do with Dopamine. I read an article in the New York Times years ago which did a pretty good job describing grinding .

NTI covers Only Front four lower teeth

Standard Night Guard

This is a picture I found on the internet illustrating what happens when you have GERD, more commonly known as Reflux. This when the stomach acid backs up into the esophagus( tube from mouth to stomach). It is all to common to have a patient come into the dental chair telling me that they have tooth  sensitivity and they wake up in the morning with congestion.  They might have really good hygiene but constantly have cavities.  These could be signs of GERD.  I tell them to take a Tablespoon of apple Cider Vinegar every morning.  They have to brush their teeth with baking soda and use MI Paste(super concentrated Calcium gel). This usually clears up the problem.  Just to make sure I send them to a GI specialist.

Effects of Poor Dental Health on Your Body

   I love this graphic about oral disease.  Sometimes dentists and patients talk about the mouth as if it is not connected to anything else.  Here is what can be effected by not cleaning well/regularly.

Oil Pulling

Oil pulling is the process of swishing an oil such as sesame or coconut in the mouth to prevent decay and gum disease.  It is said to treat diabetes and heart disease.It is an ayurvedic practice that has been around for thousands of years.   The research is a little thin ,but, theoretically it should work.  There is a link between Heart disease and gum disease.  Diabetes is tougher to link to being helped by Oil Pulling  First off lets be serious and realize that a double blind large scale study is never going to be done.  No one is going to pay a researcher a ton of money to investigate a substance that is inexpensive to buy. That being said there is no reason it shouldn't work for the mouth.  Both of these oils have antibacterial properties and coconut oil might have antifungal effects.  If exposing your mouth to xylitol can prevent cavities(see earlier post) then using other substances probably will work as well. I guess the trick s finding out which ones work,  which ones don't work, and which ones do harm. So if you swish oils around your mouth everyday and it has an enormous effect awesome, if it only  a slightly beneficial effect good.  It is an easy enough thing to do and if combined with good oral hygiene keeps you out of the dental/ medical office then it is a win.  Therefore I would give it a thumbs up,I wonder what the other four dentist would say?

Keep Your Mouth Shut

It's funny I've heard the saying "close your mouth or you'll catch flies".  I never really thought that  keeping your mouth closed would have medical implications. Perhaps if you were a member of the mob.  Now that I am a dentist I realize that mouth breathers usually have permanent gingivitis.While this is not as bad as it sounds it still gives the person  red and bleeding gums.  This is the extent to which I was taught mouth breathing affected people.
   It now seems that mouth breathing has other and more serious considerations. There is a strong correlation between  breathing rate and a number of diseases Asthma being one.  It also has effects on posture- the head and neck are extended creating muscle stress. The abdomen and diaphragm are impacted.  Which causes a loss of muscle strength.  There is Long Face syndrome which is pretty much what the name implies... a long face which was thought to be genetic but the culprit is mouth breathing. It also turns out that nasal (through the nose) breathing supplies more oxygen to the blood than mouth breathing. This is a brief overview a more indepth analysis of breathing is found by reading Patrick McKeown and the seminal works of Konstantin Buteyko.

The End of Root Canals!?

The news is filled with advances of all sorts.  Smart phones have more computing power than the computers used to put men on the moon.  Cars are smarter than the mainframes used at MIT in the fifties. Face, hand, arm transplants used to be science fiction, now while not routine, are not uncommon.
    Dentistry has also come a huge way in a short period of time.  Digital x rays, scanning teeth instead of impressions with purple gooey stuff that not only makes you gag, but tastes disgusting. Just around the corner is three D printing of fillings.
  What is on the horizon is the end of the Root canal.  Looked at it objectively, a root canal is really no ones idea of a great treatment. Cleaning out the nerve knowing that you will never be able to get it all out.  Doing a procedure that I can't see what I'm doing, with a ton of anomalies and deviations. Then having a dead tooth that can't tell you if anything is wrong.  Don't misunderstand, it is a great procedure in that you get to save teeth that would need to be extracted.  Hopefully I can look back and put root canal in the category of "it was the best we could do at the time".  Research in stem cells has been going on in dentistry.  Instead of removing the nerve and putting in a filler researchers are trying to use stem cells to regenerate the nerve.  This is a whole new world where instead of doing something that is almost as good, you get to have a tooth that is as good as new.

Stop Cavities Chew Gum

People want to know-What can I do to prevent cavities?  Well, there is the brushing and flossing of teeth.  That's kind of obvious though.  There is eating candy. I know this sounds counter intuitive, Even crazy.   If the candy has Xylitol as a sweetener though, then eat away. Xylitol prevents decay and slows down the progress sometimes even reversing a cavity that is already present.  First off what is Xylitol? It is a sweetener derived from  fibers of many fruits and vegetables, and can be extracted from various berries, oats, and mushrooms, as well as fibrous material such as corn husks and sugar cane bagasse, and birch. It has 33% less calories than sugar and is the only sweetener that reduces decay, remineralizes tooth, and helps prevent ear aches. If an expecting mother eats it regularly the child has a lower rate of cavities. It has no deleterious effect on the developing baby.  It is best as a hard candy but can be chewed in a gum.  It has been studied extensively and shows no side effects in clinical doses.  Children are more than happy to eat it. It has no problems with long term use.  It is pretty much a win- win, which is a rare thing in dentistry.



Sources: Wikipedia, Dentaltown