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When it comes to flossing...
• You should use about 18 inches
of floss and wind most of it around one of your middle fingers.
Wind the rest of the floss around the same finger on your
opposite hand.
• Use care when guiding the floss
between your teeth; never snap or jam the floss into the
gums. Slide the floss between teeth using a gentle, sawing
motion.
• When the floss touches
the gumline, curve it into a C shape against one tooth.
Slide the floss into the space between the gum and the tooth.
• Hold the floss tightly against the tooth and move
the floss in up and down rubbing motions.
• Don’t forget to floss the
backside of your last tooth.
• You may prefer to use
interdental cleaners if you have difficulty handling dental
floss. Ask your dentist about how to use these special brushes,
sticks and picks properly.
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• What
do tree branches, wild boar hairs and nylon have in common?
The bristles of a toothbrush have been made from these items.
People have been concerned about their dental hygiene since
Egyptian times. Ancient tombs contained small tree branches
whose ends had been frayed into soft fibers. In the 15th
century, the Chinese made toothbrushes from the neck hairs
of a Siberian wild boar. The present-day nylon toothbrush
wasn’t invented until 1937.
• Powdered
fruit, talc, honey, dried flowers, mice, and lizard livers
were all ingredients of ancient toothpaste and powder.
Soap and chalk were suggested components in the 1800’s.
Modern toothpaste in collapsible tubes was introduced in
the 1850’s. Fluoride wasn't added to toothpaste until
1956.
• Toothpicks
haven't always been made of wood. In ancient times,
people used combination "tooth/ear pickers" made
of bone, quills, silver or gold. These "dentiscalpias"
were used freely by even the best-mannered.
• Americans
purchased over 2.7 million miles of dental floss in 1996.
Dental floss was first manufactured in 1882 and was first
made of silk. Recently, some floss has been made of Gore-Tex.
• The popular technique of baking pizza in wood burning
stoves could be harmful to your oral health. The
smoke from wood burning stoves can cause people to have
2 to 3 times the risk of mouth and throat cancers, according
to the International Journal of Epidemiology. Wood stoves
may be responsible for 30 percent of all such cancers. Cooking
and heating stoves are used in more than half the world’s
households and have been shown in many areas to generate
a number of combustion products that are known, or suspected
carcinogenic agents.
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We offer a variety of services and procedured
to help you gain the smile that you've always wanted.
Invisalign: The
clear alternative to braces. Invisalign uses a series of clear
aligners that are custom-molded to fit you. The virtually invisible
aligners gradually reposition your teeth into a smile you'll be
proud of.
* Remove your aligners to eat, brush and floss
* Change aligners every two weeks
* Your teeth move little by little
* Regular progress checks with your dentist or orthodontist
* Results often in 6 months to 1 year
Veneers: Why put
up with teeth that are stained, badly shaped or crooked or have
gaps? A veneer placed over your teeth corrects nature's mistakes
or injury for a beautiful smile. Veneer are a thin, custom-made
shell crafted from tooth-colored materials that covers the tooth
front.
Tooth Whitening (Bleaching):
Everybody loves a bright white smile, and there are a variety
of products and procedures available to help you improve the
look of yours.
You can take several approaches to whiten your
smile:
• In-office bleaching
• At-home bleaching
• Whitening toothpastes
Laser Tooth Whitening:
Using a laser with a whitening gel, this is an in-office bleaching
system. The translucent bleaching gel is applied to the teeth
and a laser light is used to activate the crystals to absorb the
energy from the light and penetrate the teeth enamel to increase
the lightening effect on the teeth.
Root Canal Therapy: Not
so long ago, if you had a tooth with a diseased nerve you'd probably
lose that tooth. Today, a special dental procedure "root
canal therapy" may save the tooth. Teeth contain a pulp that
provides nutrients and nerves to the tooth. This runs like a thread
down through the root. And when diseased or injured, pulp tissue
dies. If you don't remove it, your tooth gets infected and you
could lose it. After the dentist removes the pulp, the root canal
is cleaned out then sealed off to protect the inside of the tooth
from further damage or infection. Finally the dentist places a
crown over the tooth to help make it stronger. Usually, root canal
is a relatively simple procedure with little or no discomfort
involving 1-3 visits.
Crowns & Bridges:
For a great smile you may need crowns to restore a tooth to its
normal shape and size. A crown also makes the tooth stronger and
improves its appearance. And cover and support a tooth with a
large filling when there isn't enough tooth left. Or used to attach
a bridge, protect a weak tooth from breaking, or restore one that's
already broken. A crown is also a good way to cover discolored
or badly shaped teeth and dental implants. Bridges help maintain
the shape of your face as well as improving your bite by replacing
missing teeth. Often referred to as a fixed partial denture, bridges
replace missing teeth and look great. They are usually made from
gold, alloys, porcelain or a combination of these and are bonded
onto surrounding teeth for support. Unlike a removable bridge
or denture that can be removed and cleaned, a fixed bridge can
only be removed by a dentist. An implant bridge attaches artificial
teeth directly to the jaw or under gum tissue.
Oral Surgery: Surgical
services performed for the treatment of disease, injuries and
defects of the jaw, oral cavity and associated structures (e.g.,
tooth removal).
Bonding: The dental
bonding procedure utilizes a composite resin and is used for a
variety of structural as well as cosmetic purposes. One can draw
a parallel between dental bonding materials and a sculptor's clay.
By using dental composite resin bonding your dentist can restore
chipped or broken teeth, fill in gaps and reshape or recolor your
smile.
Tooth Colored Fillings:
Advances in modern dental materials and techniques offer dentists
and patients several choices of materials used to repair missing,
worn, damaged or decayed teeth. Tooth-colored or composite fillings
are a mixture of acrylic resin and finely ground glass like particles
that produce a tooth-colored restoration. They provide good durability
and resistance to fracture in small-to-mid-size restorations with
moderate chewing pressure. Less tooth structure is removed when
a dentist prepares the tooth resulting in a smaller filling. Composites
are "bonded" or adhesively held in a cavity. If chewing
loads is high, composite fillings are moderately resistant to
wear. And are subject to stain and discoloration over time.
Partials: Removable
partial dentures consist of replacement teeth attached to pink
or gum-colored plastic bases connected by metal framework.
Dentures: There
are several types of (complete) dentures according to when they
are made and inserted into the mouth. Immediate dentures are inserted
immediately after the removal of the remaining teeth and the dentist
takes measurements and makes models of the patient's jaws during
a preliminary visit. The advantage is you have teeth during the
healing period. But as bones and gums shrink over time and during
the first 6 months after the removal of teeth. Your immediate
dentures may require re-basing or re-aligning to fit properly.
They will then be replaced by a conventional denture that's fitted
once the tissues heal 6-8 weeks after removal. An overdenture
is a removable denture that fits over a small number of remaining
natural teeth or implants.
Periodontics: services
related to prevention and treatment of periodontal diseases of
the gum (e.g. periodontal cleaning, scaling)
Inlays, onlays, crowns: services used to restore diseased or accidentally
broken teeth, when a filling will not adequately restore the tooth,
by molding an artificial material into the size and shape of the
natural tooth (e.g., caps).
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