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From Gums To Heart: Unraveling Oral And Cardiovascular Health

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Sat, 03 Feb 2024 09:14:40 GMT

February is not only the month of love but also an opportune time to pay attention to matters of the heart, quite literally. As we celebrate Valentine’s Day and American Heart Month, it’s a good time to delve into the intricate connection between oral health, specifically periodontal health, and cardiovascular wellness. Recent studies have shed light on the profound impact that the condition of our gums can have on the health of our hearts, highlighting the importance of maintaining optimal periodontal health for overall well-being.

1-Inflammation: The Link Between Periodontal Disease and Cardiovascular Conditions

Recent research tells us there is a strong connection between periodontal disease—a persistent inflammatory ailment impacting the gums and nearby tissues—and a heightened susceptibility to cardiovascular conditions like heart attacks and strokes. The association between gum disease and heart health hinges on inflammation. When the gums become inflamed due to infection, bacteria or inadequate oral hygiene, the body’s immune system is activated, prompting systemic inflammation. This prolonged inflammation not only harms the gums but also impacts blood vessels across the body, fostering the emergence and advancement of cardiovascular problems.

One significant study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology found that individuals with periodontal disease had a significantly higher risk of experiencing cardiovascular events compared to those with healthy gums. The researchers observed that the presence of gum disease was associated with a 20% increased risk of developing heart disease. These discoveries emphasize the significance of prioritizing oral health within a comprehensive strategy for cardiovascular well-being.

2-Controlling Periodontal Bacteria and Plaque

So, how exactly do healthy gums promote a healthy heart? The answer lies in the intricate interplay between oral bacteria, inflammation and systemic health. Consistent proper oral hygiene practices, like regular brushing, flossing and routine dental check-ups, allow us to better control the accumulation of plaque and bacteria that contribute to gum disease. This, in turn, helps reduce inflammation in the gums and lowers the risk of systemic inflammation and its adverse effects on cardiovascular health.

3-Adopting Oral and Heart-Healthy Eating Habits

In addition to proper oral hygiene, adopting heart-healthy lifestyle habits can further support periodontal and cardiovascular wellness. A nutrient-dense diet rich in fruits, vegetables, lean proteins and whole grains delivers vital nutrients that promote gum health and diminish the likelihood of heart disease. It’s equally important to restrict sugary foods and beverages, as they can foster bacterial proliferation and inflammation in the mouth, thereby impacting gum and heart health.

4-Reducing Gum Inflammation with Exercise

Regular exercise is another cornerstone of heart health that can benefit the gums as well. Physical activity helps improve blood circulation throughout the body, including the gums, which promotes healing and reduces inflammation. Adopting stress-reduction techniques such as meditation, yoga or deep breathing exercises can also be beneficial, as chronic stress has been linked to both gum disease and cardiovascular problems.

Call To Learn More

If you are having problems with your gum health, our skilled periodontal team offers a variety of effective treatments that can help. Scaling and root planing meticulously remove plaque and tartar buildup, while antibiotics may be prescribed to combat bacterial infection. For more severe cases, surgical interventions such as flap surgery or tissue grafting may be necessary to repair damaged tissues and restore proper gum architecture. We welcome you to give us a call today. Remember, there is no better time to protect your gums and heart health!

A New Year’s Commitment: Nurturing Gum Health In 2024

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 10:53:31 GMT

As the calendar turns, it’s an ideal time to contemplate your well-being and establish resolutions for the year ahead. While health enthusiasts often focus on fitness and nutrition, the foundation of overall health—especially the gums—should not be overlooked. There is no better time to make a conscious effort to prioritize periodontal care as part of your annual resolutions, ensuring not just a beautiful smile but lasting health.

Pledge to Overall Wellness

Setting goals for improved gum health goes beyond a popular New Year’s resolution; it’s a pledge to your overall wellness. Scientific studies consistently underscore the link between gum health and systemic well-being, connecting gum disease to serious medical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and respiratory ailments. By making your gum health a resolution, you are not merely aiming for a confident smile but actively shielding your body from potential debilitative health challenges.

Improve Oral Hygiene

Achieving optimal gum health requires the adoption of effective oral hygiene practices. Regular brushing and flossing remain essential pillars of preventive dental care. Strive to commit to brushing at least twice daily using enamel-boosting fluoride toothpaste and a soft-bristled toothbrush to protect your gums. Additionally, daily flossing is crucial to remove harmful plaque and debris from between your teeth, preventing the formation of tartar, which can harm your gums.

Enhancing your oral hygiene routine with an antimicrobial mouthwash is another step towards better gum health. Select a mouthwash containing ingredients like chlorhexidine or essential oils, known for their plaque-fighting and bacteria-reducing properties. Consistency is vital, so integrate these practices into your daily routine to witness tangible improvements in your gum health.

Periodontal Check-ups and Cleaning

While diligent at-home care is pivotal, scheduling regular periodontal check-ups and cleanings with our periodontal team is equally crucial. Unlike routine dental cleanings, periodontal cleaning targets deeper areas of the gums prone to inflammation and infection. The objective is to prevent and manage gum disease, a condition that, when untreated, can lead to tooth loss and impact your overall health and well-being.

During a periodontal cleaning, our periodontal hygienist will perform scaling and root planing, meticulously removing plaque and tartar from beneath the gumline. This process eliminates harmful bacteria and smoothes out tooth roots, encouraging gum reattachment. These specialized cleanings address the unique needs of those struggling with gum disease, forming a vital aspect of effective periodontal care. Regular periodontal check-ups enable our team to monitor your gum health, identify potential issues early, and offer personalized advice. There is no better time to prioritize these check-ups to ensure your gums receive the attention they need and deserve.

Resolve for Optimal Gum Health

Now that a new year is unfolding, it is wise to make gum health a focal point in your resolutions for the coming year. Through consistent oral hygiene practices, regular periodontal check-ups, and understanding the significance of specialized periodontal cleanings, together we can cultivate a healthier, happier smile throughout 2024 and beyond. Remember, a small investment in your gum health today promises substantial dividends in your overall well-being tomorrow. We look forward to helping you with all of your periodontal needs!

What Is The Role Periodontists Play For Dental Implants?

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 10:54:39 GMT

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Restoring Your Smile: How A Bone Graft Can Rejuvenate Your Jaw

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 10:59:20 GMT

A beautiful smile is often considered one of the most valuable aspects of a person’s appearance. However, many people may not realize that maintaining a healthy smile involves more than just having bright, white teeth. The foundation of an ideal smile lies in the strength and health of your jawbone. When trauma, tooth loss or advanced gum disease (periodontal disease) take their toll on your jawbone, a bone graft can be the key to restoring your smile to its original form and function. Today we’ll explore the remarkable journey of how a bone graft can help transform your smile by rejuvenating your jaw to better health.

The Importance of a Strong Jaw

Your jawbone serves as the critical support system for your teeth. When it is damaged due to injury, tooth loss or periodontal disease, it can lead to significant oral health problems. The jawbone not only anchors your teeth but also provides structural integrity to your entire facial framework. A compromised jawbone can result in facial deformities, sunken cheeks and a weakened bite function.

Causes of Jawbone Deterioration

Tooth Loss: When you lose a tooth, the jawbone in that area begins to deteriorate. Without the stimulation provided by those missing tooth roots, the bone begins to resorb and lose its normal density.
Periodontal Disease: Advanced stages of gum disease can lead to the destruction of the bone supporting your teeth, resulting in loose teeth and the weakening of the jawbone itself.
Facial Trauma: A facial injury or accident can cause fractures or damage to the jawbone, leading to long-term issues if not properly treated as soon as possible.

The Role of Bone Grafts

A bone graft is an innovative periodontal procedure that can help reverse the damage to your jawbone. This involves taking bone tissue from one area of your body (or using donor bone material) and then transplanting it to the affected site. There are several types of bone grafts, including autografts (your own bone), allografts (donor bone), and xenografts (animal-derived bone).

How Bone Grafts Restore Your Smile

Enhancing Bone Density: Bone grafts stimulate the regeneration of new bone tissue at the graft site, building up your bone density and strength. This can provide a stable foundation for dental implants, ensuring you a natural and lasting smile.
Implant Success: If you are missing teeth, dental implants are often the ideal solution. To accomplish this, a strong jawbone is crucial for the successful placement and long-term stability of dental implants. A bone graft can help improve your chances of a successful implant procedure.
Cosmetic Improvement: Restoring your jawbone through a bone graft can also have cosmetic benefits. It can help maintain the natural contours of your face, preventing the sunken appearance that often accompanies jawbone deterioration.
Improved Oral Function: A weakened jawbone can lead to difficulty in chewing and speaking. By restoring your jaw’s strength, a bone graft can notably enhance your oral function, making it easier to enjoy the foods you love and communicate clearly with normal speech.

Consultation

Your smile is a reflection of your overall health, self-esteem, confidence and the foundation of a beautiful smile. Trauma, tooth loss or periodontal disease can compromise this desired foundation, potentially leading to serious oral health issues. Thankfully, with the help of a bone graft, your smile can be revitalized by restoring your jaw to its original form. If you have experienced jawbone deterioration, we invite you to consult with our periodontist to explore your options. A bone graft may be the solution to help you regain your smile’s beauty, function and overall oral health.

How Scaling And Root Planing Offers Early Gum Disease Intervention Benefits

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 11:02:03 GMT

When it comes to your oral health, it is tempting to focus on your pearly whites while overlooking the crucial role your gums play. However, gum health is integral to your overall health and well-being, and gum disease is a prevalent issue that often goes unnoticed until it reaches the damaging advanced stages.

Since gingivitis is the earliest stage of gum disease, the good news is that early intervention through scaling and root planing (SRP) can be an absolute game-changer for you. Let’s explore the importance of early detection and treatment of gum disease, delve into how SRP can effectively address your gingivitis symptoms, and highlight the numerous benefits of seeking treatment at this stage of development.

Gingivitis: The Early Stage of Gum Disease

Gingivitis is the initial stage of gum disease, characterized by redness, inflammation and bleeding of your gums. It is primarily caused by the accumulation of plaque (a sticky film of bacteria) on your teeth and along your gumline. Thankfully, gingivitis is reversible if detected early and treated promptly. This is where the importance of early intervention becomes evident. Regular dental checkups are essential for identifying gingivitis in its early stages, often before symptoms become severe. That’s when it is most easily and least invasive to treat.

What Is Scaling and Root Planing (SRP)

SRP is a non-surgical dental procedure designed to treat gingivitis and halt its progression. It involves two main steps: scaling and root planing. Scaling involves the removal of plaque and tartar (hardened plaque) from your tooth surfaces, both above and below your gumline. This step eliminates the primary source of the infection. Root planing, on the other hand, smooths out your tooth roots, making it more difficult for plaque and bacteria to reattach to them. These procedures are typically performed by our periodontist and may require multiple visits depending on the severity of your gum condition.

Benefits of Seeking SRP Treatment for Gingivitis

Prevention of Gingival Progression: Early intervention using SRP halts the progression of gingivitis into more severe forms of gum disease, such as periodontitis. This prevents potential tooth loss and other complications common in advanced gum disease.
Improved Gum Health: SRP not only removes harmful bacteria but also allows your gums to heal. This results in healthier and pinker gums, reduced inflammation, and a lower likelihood of bleeding during your brushing and flossing sessions.
Preservation of Teeth: By addressing gingivitis early on, you can preserve your natural teeth. Conversely, untreated gum disease can lead to tooth mobility and loss, which can be costly to replace with dental implants or other restorative options later.
Enhanced Overall Health : Emerging research continues to reveal a connection between gum health and systemic health. Treating gingivitis with SRP may help reduce your risk of serious medical conditions including heart disease, diabetes and respiratory infections.
Cost-Efficiency : Early intervention is not just better for your health but also for your wallet. As with many health conditions, preventive care like SRP is generally less expensive than treating advanced gum disease along with any potential tooth replacement procedures.

We Can Help! Call Today

As you can see, the benefits of early intervention through scaling and root planing for gingivitis cannot be overstated. Detecting and treating gum disease at its earliest stage can save your smile, preserve your overall health, and save you money in the long run. Protect your gum health by scheduling regular dental checkups and maintaining good oral hygiene practices to ensure catching gum disease in its infancy. We invite you to give our periodontal team a call if you suspect you have gum disease. With timely treatment, we can help you enjoy a healthy, beautiful smile for years to come!

Gum Care And Age: How To Navigate Oral Health Through The Years

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 11:04:37 GMT

For the month of September, we welcome National Gum Care Month, a timely reminder of the importance of maintaining healthy gums during every stage of life. Our gum health, like the four seasons, evolves with age, requiring varying degrees of care and attention. From childhood to adulthood and into the senior years, our gums go through transformations, each with their unique challenges and solutions. Let’s explore the ever-changing landscape of gum care, emphasizing the importance of adapting our oral health routines as we grow older.

Childhood: Laying the Foundation

In childhood, our gums are in their early developmental stages. This is a crucial time as parents to guide our children’s dental care. Regular dental checkups, maintaining a balanced diet, and following proper brushing and flossing techniques are also vital to help your child’s smile thrive. Taking the time to teach your child good oral hygiene habits from a young age helps set them on the path to a lifetime of healthy gums.

Adulthood: Balancing Act

As we enter adulthood, our lives become busier, and the challenges to gum health evolve. Stress, dietary choices and lifestyle factors can take a significant toll on our gum health. It’s vital to maintain regular dental checkups and practice consistent oral hygiene routines. Brushing twice a day, flossing, and using mouthwash can all help combat the effects of a busy lifestyle on our gum health.

Seniors: Unique Considerations

In our senior years, our gums face unique challenges. Aging can lead to a higher risk of gum disease, tooth loss, and other oral health problems. It doesn’t help that reduced saliva production, medication side effects, and medical conditions can all impact our gum health. Seniors should prioritize regular dental visits, pay attention to denture care (if applicable), and stay vigilant about unusual oral health changes. Soft-bristled toothbrushes and gentle dental floss can help protect those delicate gums.

The Importance of Adaptation

Throughout our lives, our gum care routines will need to be adapted to take into account our ongoing needs. Here are some general tips you will want to consider implementing in your day-to-day oral hygiene regimen.

Regular Dental Checkups : No matter what your age, routine dental visits are essential. Our dentist can detect early signs of developing gum disease and offer effective guidance on maintaining your best gum health.
Proper Nutrition : A balanced diet that is rich in fruits, vegetables, and calcium is vital for good gum health. Staying away from excessive sugar and acidic foods can help prevent gum issues from gaining a foothold.
Hydration : Staying hydrated is essential for maintaining healthy gums. Water helps wash away stray food particles and bacteria that can contribute to gum disease formation.
Oral Hygiene Products : Choose oral hygiene products tailored to your age and specific needs. Specialized toothpaste and mouthwash can be beneficial for seniors, while children often benefit from protective fluoride treatments.
Avoid Tobacco : Smoking and chewing tobacco are known to impair gum health. Putting a stop to these habits can seriously improve your gum health.

Conclusion

National Gum Care Month reminds us that gum health is not a one-size-fits-all aspiration. It evolves with age, requiring different forms of care and attention at each stage of your life. Whether you’re a parent guiding your child’s dental care, a busy adult juggling responsibilities, or a senior facing unique oral health considerations, adapting your gum care routine is crucial. By staying proactive and embracing age-appropriate practices, you can ensure a lifetime of healthier, more appealing gums. As you can see, it’s never too early or too late to invest in your gum health!

How A Frenectomy May Be The Key To Better Periodontal Health

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Tue, 22 Aug 2023 11:07:43 GMT

Good oral hygiene and periodontal health play a crucial role in our overall well-being. Periodontal health involves the tissues that support the teeth, including the gums, ligaments, and bones. Untreated periodontal issues can lead to tooth loss and even impact systemic health. A frenectomy is a periodontal treatment that may be needed to treat lip-tie or tongue-tie.

Understanding the Frenectomy Procedure

This minor surgical procedure performed by our periodontist addresses abnormal or restrictive frenula in the mouth. These small folds of tissue connect various areas of the oral cavity, like the tongue to the floor of the mouth (lingual frenulum) or the lips to the gums (labial frenulum). Frenula can be unusually short or tight, causing a range of oral health issues.

What a Frenectomy Typically Involves

Diagnosis : The first step is accurately diagnosing the issue. Our periodontist will perform a thorough examination of the mouth to determine whether the frenulum is causing problems.
Local Anesthesia : Local anesthesia is administered to numb the area where the frenectomy will take place to ensure comfort.
Incision or Laser Treatment : We may use a scalpel or laser to make precise incisions, releasing the restrictive frenulum.
Sutures (Optional) : In some cases, sutures may be used to close the incision, but often, the incisions are very small and heal quickly on their own.
Post-Operative Care : We will provide specific instructions on post-operative care, including maintaining oral hygiene and avoiding certain foods or activities for a few days to promote healing.

Benefits of Frenectomy

A frenectomy can offer numerous benefits for both oral health and overall well-being:

Treatment of Ankyloglossia (Tongue Tie) : This arises when the lingual frenulum is too tight, restricting tongue movement. This can lead to problems with speech, eating and good oral hygiene. A frenectomy restores tongue mobility and function.
Management of Gum Recession : An overly tight labial frenulum can contribute to gum recession. A frenectomy releases the tension on the gums, promoting their proper positioning around the teeth and preventing further recession.
Orthodontic Benefits : A restrictive frenulum can interfere with orthodontic treatment when braces or aligners need to reposition the teeth. Frenectomy helps orthodontic appliances work more effectively for better outcomes.
Enhanced Oral Hygiene : Difficulty cleaning certain areas of the mouth from frenulum restrictions often lead to plaque buildup and gum disease. A frenectomy contributes to better oral hygiene and reduced periodontal issues.
Improved Breastfeeding Experience : In infants, tongue tie can affect breastfeeding, causing challenges for both baby and mother. A frenectomy resolves this issue so the baby can latch on and feed properly.

Contributing to a Healthier Smile

A frenectomy can have a transformative impact on one’s smile. By addressing the issues caused by restrictive frenula, the procedure can lead to:

Enhanced Smile Aesthetics : Removing frenula that cause a “gummy” smile or distort the position of the teeth can result in a more symmetrical and aesthetically appealing smile.
Increased Confidence : When oral health concerns are addressed and the smile improves, one often experiences a boost in self-confidence and self-esteem.
Better Speech : When ankyloglossia affects speech, a frenectomy can significantly improve pronunciation and communication abilities.

Consultation

By addressing abnormal or restrictive frenula in the mouth, a frenectomy helps boost oral health and well-being. If you have any questions or are seeking periodontal assistance, our team is ready to help. Please reach out at your earliest convenience to schedule a consultation.

Traveling With Periodontal Disease: Tips For Maintaining Oral Health On Summer Trips

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 11:10:05 GMT

Vacations are the perfect time to relax, explore new destinations and create unforgettable memories. If you are dealing with periodontal disease, it’s also important to prioritize your oral health while traveling. Neglecting your oral care routine during your trip can worsen your condition and lead to discomfort. To ensure an enjoyable vacation, follow these essential tips to protect your oral health on your travels.

Plan Ahead with Your Dentist

Before you embark on your summer adventure, it is wise to schedule a visit with your periodontist or dentist. A pre-trip examination will go a long way to help identify any potential issues and ensure your mouth is in optimal health before you get underway. Your dental professional can provide personalized advice and recommendations to manage your periodontal disease while you are on the go.

Pack Oral Health Essentials

When packing for your trip, be sure to include your essential oral hygiene items. Make sure to bring a soft-bristle toothbrush that is gentle on your gums, fluoride toothpaste as needed, dental floss and antibacterial mouthwash. If you wear dental appliances, such as dentures or braces, pack the necessary cleaning supplies and any spare parts you may need to avoid dental issues.

Maintain Your Oral Care Routine

Consistency is key when maintaining your oral health, even when away on vacation. It’s important that you stick to your regular oral care routine, brushing your teeth twice a day for two minutes each time. Pay special attention to the gumline and all tooth surfaces. Don’t forget to floss daily to remove harmful plaque and oral debris from lingering between your teeth and rinse with an antibacterial mouthwash to minimize bacteria.

Stay Hydrated

Proper hydration is essential for your overall health and your oral health. It’s a good idea to drink plenty of plain water to rinse away stray food particles and bacteria which helps lower your risk of gum infections. It’s easy to stay hydrated by keeping a reusable water bottle with you at all times.

Mindful Eating

While it’s tempting to indulge in local delicacies while traveling, it’s still important to make mindful choices when it comes to your smile. Avoid sugary and sticky foods that contribute to plaque buildup and gum inflammation. Instead, opt for nutritious options like fresh fruits, vegetables, and lean proteins that promote good oral health.

Take Breaks and Stretch

Long periods of travel can lead to poor circulation, which can adversely impact your gum health. Make a point to take breaks to stretch, walk around and perform simple exercises. This will help improve blood circulation, which encourages healthy gums.

Manage Stress Levels

Traveling can be stressful, and stress can exacerbate the symptoms of periodontal disease. Take a few minutes to practice stress management techniques like deep breathing, meditation or relaxing activities. Taking good care of your mental well-being benefits your oral health!

Stay Connected with Your Dental Professional

While traveling, it’s important to stay connected with our periodontist or dentist. If you experience any oral health concerns or emergencies, reach out to our team for guidance. We can provide advice over the phone or help you find a trusted dental practitioner in the area you are visiting.

Enjoy Your Vacation

Traveling with periodontal disease doesn’t have to hinder your summer adventures. By planning ahead, maintaining a consistent oral care routine, and making mindful choices, you can ensure that your trip is enjoyable while still prioritizing your oral health. Remember, managing periodontal disease requires diligence and attention, even when you’re on vacation. You can take care of your teeth and gums while making the most of your summer travels!

Gum Disease And Summer: How Seasonal Factors Impact Periodontal Health

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Fri, 09 Jun 2023 11:11:37 GMT

As the summer season rolls around, we often find ourselves enjoying the warm weather, indulging in outdoor activities, and taking much-anticipated vacations. However, amidst all the fun and relaxation, it’s essential to remember that seasonal factors can also affect our oral health, particularly when it comes to gum disease.

Gum disease, also called periodontal disease, is a common condition impacting millions of people around the world. In this blog, we will explore how summer and its associated factors can impact your periodontal health and discuss preventive measures to keep your gums healthy throughout the season.

Dehydration

One of the primary concerns during the summer is dehydration. When our bodies lack proper hydration, it affects all areas, including our oral health. Dehydration reduces saliva production, leaving our mouths dry. This matters, because saliva plays an essential role in neutralizing harmful oral acids and rinsing out food particles and bacteria. With less saliva, your risk of gum disease increases. Therefore, you’ll want to stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water and avoiding sugary or acidic beverages that can invite dental problems.

Outdoor Activities

Summer is a time when we engage in various outdoor activities, such as sports, swimming, and barbecues. While these activities are enjoyable, they can also pose risks to our gums. Contact sports, for instance, can result in injuries to the mouth, including the gums. It is vital to wear a mouthguard during such activities to protect your teeth and gums from potential harm. Additionally, be extra vigilant while chewing on hard foods like ice or popcorn kernels, as they can cause gum irritation or even lead to gum recession.

Oral Hygiene

As you can imagine, the relaxed nature of summer can sometimes lead to a lapse in oral hygiene routines. Irregular brushing and flossing habits can contribute to the development and progression of gum disease. Moreover, consuming sugary treats, such as ice cream or sodas during summer outings can increase your risk of cavities and gum problems. It is important to maintain a consistent oral hygiene routine by brushing at least twice a day, flossing daily and using an antibacterial mouthwash to keep your gums healthy and strong.

Traveling

If you are embarking on vacations during the summer months, keep in mind this can disrupt your oral care routine. It’s essential to pack your dental essentials, including a toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss, and make oral hygiene a priority even when away from home. Neglecting your oral care while traveling can contribute to the buildup of plaque and bacteria, leading to gum disease. Remember to brush and floss regularly, even if you’re on the go!

Seasonal Allergies

Summer is notorious for triggering allergies for many people. Allergic reactions can cause nasal congestion and postnasal drip, which can lead to dry mouth. As mentioned earlier, reduced saliva flow can increase your risk of gum disease. If you suffer from seasonal allergies, you’ll want to manage them effectively by consulting with a healthcare professional. Treating allergies promptly can help maintain your healthy smile.

Be Prepared

While summer brings with it joy and excitement, it’s crucial to remain mindful of the impact seasonal factors can have on your gum health. By staying hydrated, protecting your mouth during physical activities, maintaining a consistent oral hygiene routine, prioritizing oral care while traveling, and managing allergies effectively, you can enjoy a summer filled with beautiful smiles and healthier gums. Remember, prevention is key, so take the necessary steps to keep your gums in top shape throughout the busy summer season. Your smile will thank you!

The Connection Between Periodontal Disease And Systemic Health And How You Can Protect It

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Mon, 22 May 2023 11:14:02 GMT

Did you know that periodontal disease (gum disease) affects millions of people globally? This chronic inflammatory condition impacts the tissues surrounding your teeth, including your gums, bone, and ligaments. While periodontal disease can cause significant damage to your mouth, research has also found a strong connection between this condition and systemic health issues. Today, we are exploring the link between periodontal disease and systemic health and how to protect your overall health.

Periodontal Disease and Systemic Health

Periodontal disease is caused by bacteria that grow in your mouth and form plaque on the teeth. If left untreated, this bacteria will spread to your gums and cause inflammation. Over time, this inflammation can lead to the destruction of the tissues that support your teeth and when severe enough, causes tooth loss!

Research indicates that the oral bacteria causing periodontal disease can also enter your bloodstream where it then travels to other parts of your body. Once in the bloodstream, these bacteria can cause inflammation in other parts of your body contributing to the development of various systemic health conditions like the following.

Cardiovascular Disease : Several studies have found a link between periodontal disease and an increased risk of heart disease. It is believed that the bacteria from your mouth can enter the bloodstream and cause inflammation in the blood vessels, leading to the development of plaque buildup and ultimately increasing your risk of heart disease.
Diabetes : People struggling with diabetes are more susceptible to periodontal disease. Not only that, but the inflammation caused by gum disease can make it harder to control your blood sugar levels. This double-edged sword means that high diabetes glucose levels can, over time, triple your risk for developing periodontal disease.
Respiratory Infections : Research has also shown that periodontal disease can increase your risk of respiratory infections, including pneumonia. This happens when the bacteria in your mouth is inhaled into the lungs, causing inflammation and potentially leading to respiratory infections.
Pregnancy Complications : If you are currently pregnant and also have periodontal disease, you may be at a greater risk of developing complications, like preterm labor and low birth weight.

Protecting Your Health

The good news is there are several ways to protect your health and reduce your risk of incurring periodontal disease. These include:

Good Oral Hygiene : Maintaining good daily oral hygiene habits, including brushing twice and flossing daily, helps remove dental plaque and oral bacteria from lingering on your teeth and gums. You can use floss, interdental brushes, or another tool you prefer to clean between your teeth. If you wear dentures, you’ll want to clean them daily as well.
Routine Dental Checkups : Your routine dental checkups and cleanings are the ideal way to catch and treat periodontal disease when it is in its early stages, effectively preventing further damage to your teeth and gums.
Healthy Lifestyle Choices : Consuming a balanced diet and staying away from tobacco can go a long way to reducing your risk of developing periodontal disease and other systemic health conditions. Smoking can leave you battling cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung disease, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Managing Existing Health Conditions : If you have a chronic health condition such as diabetes, it is important to work with your healthcare provider to manage this serious condition effectively and reduce your risk of developing periodontal disease.

Call Today

As you can see, periodontal disease, like any other serious health condition, should never be ignored. We hope that by understanding the link between periodontal disease and your systemic health and taking steps to protect your health, you can lower your risk of developing problems and their associated health complications. If you are experiencing issues with your gums, we welcome you to come in for an examination. We have the expertise you need to create and maintain healthy gums and better health!

Our Periodontal Team Conducts Oral Cancer Screenings All Year Round

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Thu, 27 Apr 2023 11:46:35 GMT

Oral cancer is a serious disease that affects millions of people around the world, and unfortunately, it often goes undetected until it has reached an advanced stage. As a periodontal practice, we believe it’s essential to raise awareness about the importance of oral cancer screenings, which can help detect this disease early on when it’s most treatable.

What Causes Oral Cancer?

According to the American Cancer Society, oral cancer includes cancers of the lips, tongue, cheeks, floor of the mouth, hard and soft palate, sinuses, and throat. These cancers can occur in anyone, but certain factors can make one more susceptible to developing the disease, including tobacco and alcohol use, a weakened immune system, and exposure to certain strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV).

While the symptoms of oral cancer can vary depending on the location of the cancer, some common signs include persistent mouth sores, white or red patches in the mouth, difficulty swallowing, hoarseness, and a lump or thickening in the cheek. If you experience any of these symptoms, it’s essential to see a dental professional as soon as possible.

Periodontal Exam

Our periodontal team is trained to examine the soft tissues within the mouth; this includes the gums, cheeks, tongue, and throat. During a routine exam, we look for any signs of oral cancer, such as lesions or lumps. If we detect any abnormalities, we may recommend that you undergo further testing, such as a biopsy.

Having regular dental exams is crucial for detecting oral cancer early on when it’s most treatable. According to the American Dental Association, adults should get routine checkups (at least once every six months) to have a routine oral exam and cleaning. During these visits, our periodontist can check for signs of oral cancer and other oral health problems, such as gum disease.

Preventing Oral Cancer

Along with regular dental exams, there are other steps you can take to lower your risk of developing oral cancer. One of the most important things you can do is quit smoking or using other tobacco products. Tobacco use is one of the most significant risk factors for oral cancer, so quitting can seriously lower your risk of this disease.

Additionally, by reducing your alcohol consumption coupled with practicing safe sex, you can also help lessen your risk of developing oral cancer. Certain strains of the HPV virus have been linked to oral cancer, and using protection during sex can reduce your risk of contracting the virus.

As you can see, oral cancer is a serious disease that can have a significant impact on your health and quality of life. Our periodontal team strongly encourages everyone to get regular dental exams and screenings to check for oral cancer. By taking steps to lower your risk, especially quitting smoking and cutting back on your alcohol consumption, you can help protect your oral and overall health for a better quality of life!

Call Today!

If you notice any signs of oral cancer, such as persistent mouth sores or difficulty swallowing, please don’t hesitate to see a dental professional right away. Early detection and treatment are critical for a successful outcome when it comes to cancer in the mouth. We invite you to call our team to schedule your oral cancer screening!

Our Periodontist Can Help You Overcome Severe Gum Disease

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 11:49:07 GMT

You might need to see our periodontist if you have chronic bad breath, your gums bleed whenever you brush or floss, or your gums look swollen and feel tender when touched. Healthy gums are crucial for a healthy mouth, so please don’t be tempted to ignore these warning signs of periodontal disease!

Our periodontist is qualified to diagnose gum disease and provide you with the instructions you need for healthier teeth and gums. Should your smile need help with severe gum problems, we can provide you with the specialized care you need to treat them. Gum disease arises because of an accumulation of plaque and tartar, causing inflammation around the gums. It is a serious infection that can leave you with bone loss in your jaw and lost teeth.

Why Seek a Periodontist?

Our periodontist has the additional training required to work with patients seeking treatment for gum disease and bone loss and can perform the same treatments as a dentist would (fillings, crowns and root canals). We strive to help you better understand the health risks that come with gum disease and then provide effective treatment if you are diagnosed with gum disease to minimize damage to your smile before it progresses or even spreads into your bloodstream, where it can reach vital organs in your body.

We can effectively treat the following conditions:

Gingivitis, or gum inflammation
Tooth loss from gum disease
Detecting abnormalities of the soft tissues of the teeth from oral cancer
Diagnose and treat problems, like Crohn’s disease or diabetes, that impact your mouth

If you have problems with your gums, it is important not to dismiss them as they will typically worsen over time, even harming your overall health. Tooth loss is another serious outcome of untreated periodontal disease. This can impact your self-confidence if you are reluctant to smile and even how you are perceived by other people around, like friends, coworkers, and potential suitors can dampen your spirits.

Periodontal Exam

Periodontal Treatment Options (Non-surgical)

Scaling : This effectively gets rid of tartar and bacteria on the tooth surfaces as well as under your gumline.
Root planing : This smooths the root surfaces to keep tartar and bacterial buildup away and promotes gum attachment to your teeth.
Antibiotics : These work by controlling bacterial infection, whether with an antibiotic mouth rinse or applying an antibiotic gel into affected gum pockets.
Laser treatments : This minimally invasive treatment kills deep pockets of bacteria and stimulates bone growth around your natural teeth. This treatment helps if you don’t want gum surgery.

Advanced Periodontal Treatment Options

Flap surgery/pocket reduction surgery : Known by various names, including gingivectomy and osseous surgery, these oral surgeries get rid of bacteria and tartar buildup on the tooth roots.
Soft tissue grafts : These protect your tooth root by adding tissue that covers the roots and can come from a donor source like the roof of the mouth or nearby healthy gum tissue.
Bone grafting : This periodontal surgery involves placing a bone graft that will boost regeneration of the lost tooth-supporting bone material.
Guided tissue regeneration : This treatment option enables your body to regenerate and regrow lost tissues and bone from gum disease. After removing bacteria, a regenerative like a membrane, tissue graft, or tissue-stimulating protein will be placed.

Gum treatment is as vital as getting your teeth treated when problems arise. The good news is if gum disease is detected and treated early, it can often be reversed! Our periodontal team is here to help your smile thrive with treatment options that work for you. We love helping patients achieve good oral health throughout their lives!

Gum Disease Awareness Can Help You Protect Your Teeth And Gums

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Fri, 03 Feb 2023 11:52:43 GMT

February isn’t just for Valentine’s Day; it’s also National Gum Disease Awareness Month. It is a time of raising awareness about gum disease and how it impacts your smile. Our goal this month is to explain how we diagnose and treat gum disease for a stronger, healthier smile (and body) since they are interconnected.

Diagnosing Gum Disease

To better help you, we review your medical history looking for risk factors for gum disease (like smoking specific medications causing dry mouth). We check for dental plaque, tartar buildup and bleeding gums. We also measure the “pocket depth” between your gums and teeth to assess gum health. Dental X-rays allow our periodontist to locate deeper pocket depths so we can treat and prevent periodontal tooth loss.

Treating Gum Disease

We will thoroughly clean gum pockets around your teeth to protect the surrounding bone areas from further damage. You will want to step up your daily oral hygiene routine by consistently brushing and flossing to keep plaque from building up and destroying gums. TIP: Along with regular dental or periodontal maintenance, eat a diet rich in nutrients to strengthen gum tissue. The good news is when periodontitis is in the early stages, we can apply minimally invasive treatments to restore healthy gums.

Scaling is a common treatment allowing our periodontist to clear out harmful tartar and bacteria around your teeth and under your gums. Today’s innovative technology allows us to use special instruments like lasers and ultrasonic devices.
Root planing smooths your tooth’s root surfaces to keep out tartar and bacterial buildup. It gets rid of the bacterial byproducts causing your gum inflammation and the delayed healing or reattachment of the gum to your tooth surfaces.
Once the above is completed, we can prescribe topical or oral antibiotics to control any bacterial infection. These can come in the form of antibiotic mouth rinses or by placing gels with antibiotics between your teeth and gums or into the gum pockets after a thorough deep cleaning. Generally, however, oral antibiotics are needed to destroy infection-causing bacteria completely.

Surgical Gum Disease Treatments

Once a serious gum disease infection has taken hold of your mouth, surgical intervention may be necessary.

Pocket reduction surgery, called flap surgery, involves making small incisions in your gums. It allows the gum tissue to be lifted back, showing the roots so we can provide a scaling and root planing.
Soft tissue grafts allow us to take a tiny bit of tissue from the hard palate of your mouth (or from a donor source) so we can cover exposed roots making your smile look good again.
To build up destroyed bone around the tooth root, we may use small bits of your bone material or synthetic or donated bone to perform a bone grafting. It keeps you from losing teeth as they anchor your tooth in place while natural bone regrows.
Guided tissue regeneration is how we use an artificial membrane acting as a barrier. It allows only new growing tissues and bone into the area and keeps unwanted, fast-growing tissues from moving to the tooth and bone.
We use tissue-stimulating proteins to apply a special gel to a diseased tooth root to stimulate healthy bone and tissue growth.

What You Can Do

This February, show your smile some love by taking extra care of your gums! Like anything else, preventing gum disease is best for your health. While brushing your teeth twice a day is good, brushing after meals or snacks is better if you are prone to weak gums.

To protect sensitive gums, use a soft-bristled toothbrush and replace it as soon as the bristles fray. Using an electric toothbrush is an easy, effective way to get rid of plaque and tartar. Flossing once a day is essential to thoroughly clean your mouth, followed by mouthwash to rinse away plaque. And remember, don’t skip regular cleanings and exams! Your smile will thank you!

The New Year Is A Great Time To Set Goals For Healthier Gums

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Sat, 21 Jan 2023 11:56:44 GMT

The new year is officially in full swing, and many of us feel inspired to set goals for improving our health. If this describes you, don’t forget to include your oral health! A healthy mouth, especially healthy gums, is worth striving for, especially since good gum health protects you from tooth loss and even bone loss.

Why Healthy Gums Matter

Healthy gums keep teeth in their proper position by holding them in place. Healthy gums snugly wrap around your teeth, providing a protective barrier that keeps out harmful bacteria. Without their support, the tooth ligaments can’t fully anchor them in the bony socket where they belong. Over time, if this bacterial invasion reaches these ligaments, it can destroy the bone, and you may lose those teeth.

Evaluating Gum Health

When you look into the mirror, your gums should look pale pink and feel firm when you touch them. They also won’t bleed when you brush or floss your teeth. There is a problem when your gums feel tender, look red, and bleed easily whenever you clean, brush and floss your teeth.

These are all signs of gum disease, which has two stages. The early stage (gingivitis) is still mild and involves inflamed and swollen gums that bleed when you brush your teeth. Stepping up your hygiene game and dental cleanings can often turn it around so your gums can heal.

However, the advanced stage of gum disease is known as periodontal disease, and it is serious. If you don’t get periodontal help during this stage, you may find yourself with gum pockets, gum recession, and ultimately tooth or bone loss. The most effective approach to overcoming gum disease is meeting with our periodontist for an accurate evaluation and timely treatment. The sooner your gums are treated, the quicker they can heal with minimal damage to gums, teeth, and bones.

Gum Disease Affects the Body

Untreated gum disease affects your body, too, as harmful bacteria travel through your bloodstream. Because of this mouth-to-body access, the oral bacterium that causes periodontitis has been linked to the following:

Cancer : Certain types of cancer, like pancreatic cancer, are linked to gum disease.
Strokes : Arising from blocked blood vessels, strokes are also linked to periodontal disease from inflammation in the body.
Diabetes : Inflammation from diseased gum tissue affects blood sugar control. When diabetics don’t process sugar properly from a lack of insulin, periodontal disease can further impede your body’s ability to process insulin.

Creating Healthy Gums

Promoting gum health means taking better care of them. Start by brushing and flossing per your dentist’s recommendations to prevent harmful oral bacteria from having the chance to build up into dental plaque and harden into tartar. Using toothpaste with fluoride can offer extra protection for your tooth enamel to ward off decay. Rinsing with an antiseptic mouthwash once or twice a day also helps control oral bacteria and keep your mouth fresher.

Promote gum health by consuming a balanced diet that is high in vitamin C and calcium. Winter means there is plenty of citrus options in your local supermarket. Oranges, clementines, and kiwis are exceptionally high in vitamin C and are loaded with vitamins and minerals that support tooth and gum health.

Saliva is a vital component of healthy teeth and gums, and a lack of it actively contributes to gum disease. Promote healthy saliva levels to combat the germs in your mouth. Boost your saliva levels by drinking plenty of water throughout the day and limiting alcohol and caffeinated beverages as they are diuretics.

Schedule a Visit

If you have issues with your gums, we invite you to schedule an appointment with our periodontal team. We are excited to help you reach your gum health goals for this new year so you can maintain a healthy, beautiful smile all year round!

Giving Yourself The Gift Of A Dental Implant May Begin With A Bone Graft

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 12:00:24 GMT

The busy holiday season is here, and there are many things to consider as the year comes to a close. If you are in need of a dental implant, this is a great time to consider giving yourself the gift of a dental implant to complete your smile. If you have one or more missing teeth, whether from decay or injury, and don’t want to wear dentures, a dental implant may be the ideal option for you.

To qualify for dental implants, you need to have good bone structure, and if you currently don’t, a bone graft can be done first to allow you to qualify for dental implants later. It is estimated that half of implant placement procedures require bone grafting to be done first! Bone grafts are common in restorative dentistry since they beef up insufficient bone density in the jaw so it can support a dental implant.  

Poor Jawbone Density

There are quite a few reasons you might have poor bone density in the jaw:

Effects of aging
Serious trauma or injury
Severe periodontal infection
Rheumatoid arthritis or osteoporosis
Too long of a wait before replacing lost teeth

Bone grafts can boost jawbone density by taking bone material from another area of your body, for example, and placing it in your jaw. As the bone material is absorbed, regenerating the jaw, it can eventually support the desired dental implant.

Dental Bone Graft Material

Autografts: Bone tissue taken from areas of your own body, such as the chin, shin or hip. 
Allografts: Bone tissue taken from a treated cadaver bone that is free from disease and immune reactions. 
Xenografts: Nonliving bone tissue from animals like cows. 
Alloplastic: Artificial material created from a naturally occurring bone mineral, hydroxyapatite, to make a synthetic bone graft that is exceptionally hard and compatible with your natural bone.

Bone Graft Procedure  

First, you’ll meet with our oral surgeon to outline your treatment plan and determine what bone grafting materials will be used for your treatment. Next, your surgery will be scheduled, and you can expect your operation to look like this:

Administering anesthesia : We will make you comfortable with a local anesthetic to numb the area that is receiving the surgery. If needed, you may have IV sedation (which is typically done when we take the bone tissue from your own body or to alleviate your dental anxiety). 
Extracting bone tissue : This is done when you are having an autograft. This will also be done if you are having a tooth extracted, as having a bone graft done after your tooth is removed stimulates quicker healing. 
Inserting the graft : Unless you need to have a tooth extracted, the next step will be to meticulously clean the graft location and have an incision made in your gums, revealing the bone so we can attach the bone graft material to it.
Suturing : After the graft material is attached, we will close that area, as well as the area our surgeon may have taken bone tissue from your body, by using surgical stitches. 
Recuperating : Typically, you will be sent home on the same day to recover, and you will need a ride home because of the sedative effects. For the next two weeks, you will be taking antibiotics to prevent infection. Taking antibiotics as prescribed is crucial. You’ll also be sticking to soft foods and liquids (think smoothies, soups, mashed potatoes, etc.). Follow our instructions for keeping your mouth extra clean to avoid risking complications.
Healing : Fully healing can take anywhere from four to six months (or more) before getting your dental implant. To help ensure proper healing, you will need to follow our recovery instructions and care for the surgical site as prescribed.

Get Ready To Smile!

Once your healing is complete, you will be ready for the next step: your well-earned dental implant placement. This is an exciting time, as you will soon be able to complete your smile. Giving yourself the gift of an attractive smile can boost your confidence and leave you wanting to smile more!

Don’t Let Dental Anxiety Keep You From Getting The Periodontal Care Your Gums Need!

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 12:05:53 GMT

Did you know that millions of people experience some level of dental anxiety when it comes to sitting in a dental chair to have work done in their mouths? If you are concerned about receiving treatment for advanced gum disease or need dental implants and you are among these brave folks, rest assured that our skilled periodontal team offers effective sedation dentistry options to make your time in the chair as comfortable and stress-free as possible.

This is important because seeing your periodontist is often vital for good oral health when you are struggling with gum disease.

Thanks to sedation dentistry, you can get the right medication to ease your anxiety. We can help you feel calm, relaxed and comfortable while you are being treated.

Sedation Options

Oral sedation : Simply taking a prescribed pill around an hour prior to your appointment can help you feel calm and relaxed. This option is optimal for patients who have severe dental anxiety or a fear of needles. 
IV sedation : This sedation option is delivered intravenously and is ideal if you are having a complex treatment performed. The medication is carefully administered during your time in the chair so you are in a deeply relaxed state that blocks any feelings of dental anxiety or discomfort. Often patients sleep lightly during the procedure and don’t even remember much about their procedure. 
Local anesthetic : This numbing agent is typically administered to patients having dental fillings or root canals done. The anesthetic is simply applied directly to the area being worked on, helping ensure your comfort.

As you can see, there is no reason to experience any discomfort during your time in the chair when you can choose the right sedation method. Our periodontist doesn’t want anyone missing out on necessary periodontal treatments out of fear and anxiety, even when oral surgery is involved.

Who Benefits From Sedation

Patients with a dental phobia
Patients who are afraid of dental noise and smell
Patients who have an overactive gag reflex
Patients with sensitive teeth and gums
Patients who can’t sit still for a long time during a long treatment
Patients who are afraid of shots and needles

Our periodontal team is ready to help you get the care your smile needs. It is particularly important to avoid delaying needed periodontal care for the following issues:

Bleeding whenever you brush or floss. Bleeding gums are the first sign of gum disease (gingivitis), and if you have unexplained bleeding when you eat, you might already have advanced gum disease. 
Gums that are red, swollen and tender. Untreated gingivitis leads to deep gum pockets that often lead to tooth loss! 
Persistent halitosis (bad breath). Bad-smelling breath that doesn’t dissipate is a sign of periodontal infection. 
Ultra-sensitive teeth. If hot or cold foods and beverages cause tooth pain from exposed tooth roots and gum recession, your smile needs periodontal treatment to prevent further damage. 
Loose adult teeth. Remember, your adult teeth are supposed to last you a lifetime! If you have trouble chewing, see a change in how your teeth are coming together or notice spaces between your teeth, you likely need periodontal intervention to prevent bone loss. 
Receding gums. When the gums pull away from the teeth, your teeth will appear “longer,” which is a sign of advanced periodontal disease.

Gum Graft

Getting a gum graft can restore lost gum tissue, which protect teeth, and make your smile look great again. If you have bone and tooth loss, a bone graft can build up vital jawbone levels to save a tooth or make way for a dental implant restoration.

Scaling and Root Planing

Also known as a “deep cleaning,” scaling and root planing is a nonsurgical procedure that clears out any accumulated oral bacteria and dental plaque and then smooths the rough surfaces of the affected tooth. This allows your gums to reattach to the damaged tooth while removing rough patches where bacteria tend to accumulate.

No matter what treatment you need to restore your gum health, we have sedation options to make your experience a calm, relaxing one. Before you know it, your gums can be restored for a healthier, more attractive smile! 

What You Can Look Forward To From Your Periodontal Crown Lengthening Treatment

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Mon, 03 Oct 2022 12:09:53 GMT

When it comes to your smile, your healthy gums are every bit as important as having healthy teeth. One of the ways we can improve your smile is by performing a crown lengthening treatment to restore healthy gum tissue as well as prep your mouth for a dental restoration or other cosmetic procedures. One of the biggest benefits of having crown lengthening done is that we can fix your “gummy” smile, a fairly common oral condition where your pearly whites have too much gum tissue visible over the teeth when you smile, potentially making you self-conscious about flashing a big smile.

Why Choose Crown Lengthening?

A crown lengthening will reveal a greater amount of your tooth’s natural appearance, as it reshapes both bone and gum tissue. Whether you have one or many (or all of the gumline) that need reshaping, a crown lengthening can bring back your appealing smile.

Our periodontist can restore your smile with crown lengthening by fixing teeth that have been harmed by periodontal disease (an advanced version of gingivitis) that can leave your teeth and gums in bad shape. Crowns are simply tooth-shaped caps that are made to cover a natural tooth that either looks bad or isn’t structurally sound. For instance, crowns are excellent options for repairing a cracked, broken, or misshapen tooth. They also complete dental bridges, root canals and dental implant restorations.

A crown lengthening can protect teeth that are broken underneath the gum line so they can support a dental restoration. Or let’s say your teeth look short because of excess gum tissue, which also makes you more vulnerable to gum infection. By taking out that extra tissue, we can make your smile look great again. Crown lengthening can also give you enough space between a dental crown and the supportive jawbone below so the new crown won’t hurt your gum tissues and bone.

What a Crown Lengthening Looks Like

Before you have your surgical appointment, you will meet with our periodontist so we can review your medical history and assess your dental condition with the help of dental X-rays. This is the time to let us know what medications you are currently on as in some cases we may ask you to stop taking them before the procedure.

Crown lengthening is basically an outpatient procedure, and you will be able to return home once it is done. You’ll be made comfortable with the help of a local anesthetic and possibly a sedative if needed. Our periodontist will make an incision in the gums so they can be moved apart from your teeth, allowing access to the tooth roots and bone beneath.

For some, we may only need to take out the gum tissue. Depending on how many teeth we will be working on or if a tiny bit of bone will be taken out with the soft tissue will determine the length of time the treatment will take. Our periodontist will need to take out the current dental crown and then replace it right after the crown lengthening. Before suturing the area, we will clean it and stitch up the gums.

Post-Operative Care

You will be given post-surgery instructions that you will need to follow for healing. For example, you may want to take some anti-inflammatories or pain relievers and use an oral rinse to promote healing in your gums. A cold compress can also help with swelling and pain relief. Stick to liquids and soft foods while your gums heal, and rinse well after you have your meals. Using the recommended mouthwash or salt water rinse at least twice a day can promote healing.

If your gum line is uneven and your teeth look too thin, making your smile look less appealing, a crown lengthening might just be the perfect solution for you. We hope this information helps you get the relief you deserve to smile again with confidence and greater oral health!

September Is National Gum Care Month And A Great Time To Evaluate Your Gum Health!

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Wed, 28 Sep 2022 12:15:11 GMT

September is National Gum Care Month, and we’re excited to share some tips to keep your smile healthy and strong. Most people think of tooth loss as a result of tooth decay, but did you know that losing teeth is often a result of gum disease? Brushing and flossing daily as well as regularly seeing your dentist can stop cavities and gum disease in their tracks.

What Gum Disease Looks Like

The early phase of gum disease is called gingivitis, and it happens when your gums have a bacterial infection, leaving gums red and bleeding. Unless your dentist catches it early and addresses the problem, this harmful bacterial infection will continue to worsen until it turns into periodontitis (incidentally, the main cause of tooth loss), as the gums can no longer hold the teeth in place. If you notice any signs of problems with your gums, it’s time to visit our dentist for an intervention! Need more convincing? Take a look at the stages of gum disease to see where your smile could be.

Gum Disease Phases

- Gingivitis : In this phase, you’ll notice bleeding and occasionally inflammation and discomfort in your gums along with a buildup of plaque and tartar. Gingivitis can be reversed by scaling and root planing, followed with routine at-home oral hygiene care, and a healthy diet that supports gum health (foods rich in vitamin C, vitamin B12, and omega-3 fatty acids). Eat plenty of citrus fruits, berries, and leafy greens for vitamin C. Consume milk, eggs, meat, and certain breads, pastas, and cereals fortified with B12. You can add flaxseed oil and fish to get enough omega-3 fatty acids.

- Mild-to-moderate periodontitis : This phase of gum disease stems from untreated gingivitis. It allows periodontal pockets to develop around the tooth, causing vital bone and tissue to diminish. You will see chronic bleeding and pain around the teeth along with gum recession, and the infected areas can cause an inflammatory response throughout your body.

- Severe periodontitis : This is the phase of gum disease you want to avoid at all costs as it is the most advanced. It manifests as extensive bone and tissue loss where teeth will loosen and need replacing.

Poor gum health doesn’t just affect your oral health ; it also affects your looks and, consequently, your self-esteem and self-confidence as it causes you to look older than you are. But also keeping teeth healthy is less costly than replacing those lost teeth. And as we already mentioned, gum disease affects your overall health by causing systemic inflammatory conditions, like heart disease, diabetes, and even autoimmune problems.

Caring for Your Gums

Healthy gums come from maintaining healthy dental hygiene habits like brushing (at least twice a day) and flossing daily to get rid of harmful plaque and prevent the formation of tartar. When flossing, don’t force the floss down hard on your gums. Instead, gently pass the floss down your teeth and swipe the side of each tooth down the gums to lift plaque, bits of food, and stray bacteria. When cleaning your mouth, remember to brush your tongue, too, because bacteria love to gather there. Drink lots of water to flush away bacteria and bits of food particles and replenish your saliva production to protect your teeth and gums.

Dental Checkup

Following a healthy diet that supports gum health will also go a long way to improving your smile. If you have gone a long time without good dental care, you may need multiple visits to get your gum disease under control, so don’t delay, call today! Since this is National Gum Care month, why not schedule your next visit?

If You Have A Receding Gum Line, A Gum Graft Can Restore Your Healthy Looking Smile!

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 12:21:06 GMT

Have you recently received a diagnosis of receding gums by your dentist? If so, you may also have been recommended to our periodontist for a tissue graft. This common treatment protects your teeth from being worn down when your gums pull back from your teeth, exposing the tooth roots.

Preparing for Your Gum Graft

There are three kinds of gum grafts; a free gingival graft, a connective tissue graft, and a pedicle (lateral) graft. None of them require fasting or altering your diet before your treatment.

You will have to make arrangements for your drive to and from your appointment since you’ll be given pain medication that could interfere with your ability to drive. Whether you choose to invite a friend or family member or use a ride service, just make sure you’ll be prepared to leave in good hands afterward.

What To Expect With a Gum Graft

When you check in, we will take you to the treatment room and settle you in so you feel comfortable and ready for your gum graft. Local anesthesia will be applied to numb the area where the graft will be done, and in some cases, general anesthesia may be used. These are the treatment options:

Free gingival graft : A small segment of tissue is taken from the roof of your mouth and attached to your receding gums. This graft is ideal when your gums are thin and need a bit of extra tissue to stop further recession.
Connective tissue graft : The most common gum graft, here we open a little flap on the roof of your mouth, take out a segment of connective tissue (from underneath the top tissue layer) and suture it to the receding gums.
Pedicle graft : We form a flap of tissue next to your receding gums and use the flap to cover those gums. This approach uses the nearby tissue (instead of taking it from a different area of your mouth). You will need to have enough gum tissue to apply to your receding gums.

After your gum graft is done, you may rinse your mouth with an antibacterial mouthwash to clear away oral debris. We will observe you for one or two hours to make sure everything is normal with the graft and send you home with instructions on post-graft care while your mouth is recovering.

Healing and Recovery

For the first couple of weeks during your recovery, using an antimicrobial mouthwash can help keep infections and plaque from building up on your teeth while also soothing the area. For now, skip brushing and flossing around your gum graft until it has healed. If the area feels sensitive, you can take some over-the-counter pain medications while the gums heal. Until our periodontist gives you the green light, avoid participating in strenuous activities or exercise.

For the first couple of weeks, stick to soft, cold foods to avoid harming the recovering gum graft. Avoid anything hard or hot! Safe choices include:

Cottage cheese and scrambled or soft-boiled eggs
Healthy smoothies
Ice cream (without nuts or candy)
Soft-cooked vegetables
Yogurt (soft or frozen)
Your favorite gelatin (Jell-O)

Follow-Up

Before you know it, your gum graft will have healed, and you can come in for your follow-up appointment to make sure your healing is progressing and the graft is successful! After that, you can brush and floss normally. If you have any questions for our periodontal team, please give us a call today!

Treating Gingivitis Is Crucial For Keeping Teeth And Gums Healthy And Strong

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 12:22:30 GMT

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Do You Know What To Expect When Treating Periodontal Disease With Scaling And Root Planing?

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Tue, 28 Jun 2022 12:26:39 GMT

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Getting Your Tooth Extracted By Our Skilled Periodontist Can Leave You Smiling In No Time!

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Wed, 25 May 2022 12:32:05 GMT

As periodontists, our focus is on helping you save your adult, permanent teeth whenever possible. You can protect your dental health by maintaining routine dental visits and taking time to brush, floss, and rinse with mouthwash daily, as recommended by your dentist. Good dental care can go a long way to keeping tooth decay and gum disease from damaging your smile.

Minimizing Bacterial Growth and Harmful Inflammation

Our periodontist works to save permanent teeth by helping you prevent harmful bacterial growth in your mouth and, in particular, lowering the amount of periodontal pathogenic bacteria. Combining this approach with educating patients about following a consistent daily oral hygiene routine can go a long way to ensuring a healthier smile.

Sometimes this also means having more frequent cleanings to control developing periodontal pockets and prevent bone loss from advancing gum disease. And thanks to leading-edge periodontal techniques and state-of-the-art equipment, periodontal surgery today allows us to save your teeth with minimal discomfort and quicker healing times. It is good news if you have a tooth that requires extraction by our periodontist.

Why See a Periodontist for Tooth Removal?

As periodontists, we specialize in saving natural teeth through treatments that help you rebuild healthy gum tissue and turn bone loss around (growing back with bone grafting). But when your smile has suffered from a bacterial infection that destroyed precious gum tissue, teeth roots, and the bone structure beneath the gums, that is when the tooth will need extracting. Fortunately, your smile will be in good hands with our periodontist if your dentist refers you.

What To Expect From Your Tooth Extraction

While people are often apprehensive when removing a tooth, the extraction is fairly painless. You will be made comfortable and relaxed thanks to sedation dentistry (local anesthetics are applied as needed). Post-surgery, you can expect to feel a bit of soreness while your mouth continues to heal from the extraction, but your post-op discomfort should be minimal with the help of medications.

Work for a Smooth Recovery

Get all the rest you need after your extraction, and don’t perform any strenuous activity (or heavy lifting). Lifting can dislodge the blood clot, leaving you with a dry socket. It can expose your bone to harmful bacteria, oral debris, and air, which not only hurts but could potentially result in infection. Follow your post-surgery instructions carefully to promote faster healing without interfering with vital blood clot formation. Over time, your blood clot will be replaced by bone and gum tissue as the area continues to heal.
During your first two weeks after your surgery, don’t use straws, smoke, or rinse your mouth vigorously. This kind of suction could loosen a blood clot and leave you with a painful dry socket. You can still gently brush your teeth near the extraction site, and after the initial 24 hours post-surgery, you can gently rinse your mouth using an antibacterial rinse.
For the first week after your surgery, stick to a soft diet and don’t eat crunchy foods as they can harden and become stuck in the socket, irritating the area. Great alternatives include enjoying smoothies (without a straw), yogurt, protein drinks, pudding, mashed potatoes, eggs, warm soups and stews.
Applying an ice pack to the cheek near the site and keeping your head slightly elevated can help with swelling. Frozen veggie bags make great ice packs, and you can hold it on the cheek for 10 minutes, rest for 15 to 20 minutes, then apply it for an additional 10 minutes to minimize swelling.

Tooth Replacement Options

Once your extraction site has healed, you can replace the tooth so the bones in your mouth don’t weaken or experience loss in density, causing the remaining teeth to shift. Tooth replacement options include dental implants, removable partial dentures or a fixed bridge. Removing a problem tooth and replacing it will make your mouth look and feel as good as new!

Our Periodontist Can Perform A Frenectomy For You Or Your Child As Needed

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Mon, 18 Apr 2022 13:08:39 GMT

Do you know what a frenectomy is? It is a simple surgical treatment where our periodontist removes the “frena” in your mouth to modify the binding tissues in the mouth. The “frenum” is the small fold of connective tissue in your mouth that attaches one surface to another. It often refers to oral procedures correcting lip ties or tongue ties in babies as well. A frenectomy can help adults when their strong oral tissues cause problems over time.

Types of Frena

Lingual frenum : This is a vertical strip of thin oral tissue connecting your tongue to the bottom of your mouth. You can see and feel it when you lift the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth. If your lingual frenum is extremely short (called a tongue-tie), it will keep you from eating, drinking, and speaking correctly. For infants, a frenectomy increases their range of motion. Then they can eat and drink properly and improve their speech development as they grow.
Labial frenum : This connective tissue attaches your lips to the gums over your top two front teeth and the bottom two front teeth. Also called a maxillary frenectomy, this treatment fixes problems with the soft tissue connecting your top lip to your upper gum. You can see this tissue when you lift your upper lip. If you have short labial frenums, you might be unable to lift your upper lip (a lip tie). Getting this corrected can help you keep your front teeth cleaner, helping avoid oral issues like gum disease. Freely moving your upper lip will also help you smile and speak more easily.
Buccal frenum : This is a thin strip of oral tissue attaching the gums to the insides of your cheeks that is abnormally tight. It can lead to gum recession and excessive fascial tension around the mouth, making it harder for you to move your lips.

Symptoms Relieved by a Frenectomy in Adults

Crowding of lower teeth
Food aversion
GI issues
Headaches/migraines
Incomplete orthodontics
Neck/shoulder pain
Poor-fitting dentures
Receding gums
Sleep apnea
Speech impediments (lisping, poor enunciation)
TMJ issues

Diagnosis and Treatment

When the frenums are too big, our periodontist can use a frenectomy to make them smaller. It can give your tongue more room to move, allowing for better and easier speech and swallowing or closing unwanted space between your front teeth. Ideally, doctors can diagnose frenum issues early and take care of the problem with a frenectomy. For example, a pediatrician can diagnose this problem when an infant has trouble breastfeeding. Barring that, people can experience problems with the frenum as they grow and need treatment for it as an adult.

One instance that may call for a frenectomy is when you have orthodontic treatment and need to have your tongue repositioned. That will help make room as your jaw grows and shifts. Or perhaps your orthodontist recommends a frenectomy to close the gap between your front teeth. Once your orthodontic treatment is complete, your orthodontist may recommend having a frenectomy so that your new jaw and teeth positions stay properly aligned moving forward.

What You Can Expect During Your Frenectomy

The procedure is simple and typically only takes around fifteen minutes to complete. You will be lying down in the chair with your face looking up. We will apply a numbing agent to eliminate any potential discomfort. Using a special instrument, our periodontist will release the tissue. In many cases, there are no required stitches. Before you know it, the treatment is complete. Just follow our after-care instructions. We welcome your questions about frenectomies. Please call our office if you need help or want to learn more about what we do!

What You Can Look Forward To At Your Periodontal Cleaning

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 09:07:14 GMT

When was the last time you had a dental cleaning and exam? If you are like many people these past two years, it’s been all too easy to let your routine cleanings slide for one reason or another. But even if you kept up with your daily brushing and flossing regimen, without those regularly scheduled cleanings, your gums may now be paying the price.

Removing Tartar Is Essential

That’s because your toothbrush can’t get rid of hardened plaque (called tartar deposits or calculus) and can’t clean beneath your gum line. Brushing and flossing also can’t get rid of bacterial plaque that has hardened into tartar, and as a general rule, it steadily collects around your gum line in-between visits where your dental team can remove it. Without removal, your gums may require extra care with a thorough periodontal cleaning! Our periodontal team performs these special cleanings when you haven’t had a routine dental cleaning in a while or find yourself with dental issues from poor dental hygiene.

As gum disease advances, your gums are inflamed and infected, as the gum tissue pulls away from your teeth, causing gum pockets. These pockets (areas of gum tissue separating from the teeth) set the stage for hardening plaque and tartar to build up below the gum line where you can’t see it or reach it to clean.

Periodontal Cleaning Benefits

Periodontal cleaning (or prophylactic cleaning) allows us to stop advancing gum disease from gaining further momentum. As we deep clean your teeth and the area below the gum line, you can look forward to the following:

Brighter and whiter teeth without tartar deposits, so they look cleaner.
Without the gunk of plaque and tartar, your mouth smells better as you avoid halitosis from infected gums.
Root planing allows us to polish your teeth and tooth roots. It prevents bacteria buildup on those rough tooth surfaces, leaving you with better dental health and cleaner teeth overall.

What Can You Expect at Your Periodontal Cleaning?

Step 1: Supragingival cleaning utilizes scaling tools and allows our team to clean plaque and tartar from the tooth surfaces above and below the gumline.

Step 2: We smooth out the tooth roots with root planing.

Step 3: If needed, we may prescribe medication to fight any underlying periodontal disease.

Step 4: You will need a follow-up exam with X-rays so we can make sure your gums are healing properly.

Step 5: Depending on your prognosis, you may need to return for additional periodontal cleaning 3-4 months later.

Fortifying Your Gum Health

Be sure to brush teeth and floss between them at least twice a day as recommended by our periodontal team. It helps keep early gum disease (gingivitis) or advanced gum disease (periodontitis) from gaining a foothold and ravaging your smile. It is crucial if you don’t want to see the return of gum inflammation. But that’s not enough if you are constantly bathing your teeth in sugary foods and drinks that feed the oral bacteria leading to tooth decay and gum disease. Keep your mouth well hydrated with protective saliva levels by drinking lots of water instead of sodas, juices, or sports drinks, and eat a balanced diet that provides the necessary vitamins and minerals to keep your gums strong.

Getting Gum Help

If you think a periodontal cleaning may be beneficial for your smile, or you want to learn more about what we do, we are always happy to help. Good oral health is an invaluable part of your overall health, so make taking good care of your smile a priority and let us help you do it!

In Honor Of Gum Disease Awareness Month, We Are Looking At How Periodontitis Affects Your Mouth And Body

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Wed, 23 Feb 2022 09:11:04 GMT

February is Gum disease awareness month! It is important because more than half of the adults in our country experience gum disease, leading to gum inflammation and infection. This relentless disease can wreak havoc on your oral health and adversely affects not just your gums but your jaw bone density and teeth, too.

Advanced periodontal disease also puts you at higher risk for heart diseases, chronic kidney disease, strokes, diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease. This month, we are promoting gum disease awareness to help keep your gums, teeth, and body healthy!

Assessing the Soft Oral Tissues

Endodontics and periodontists deal with your soft oral tissues, like the tooth pulp and periapical tissues (tissues around the tooth root), which need to stay healthy, so your teeth and gums thrive.

Gum disease is broken down into two stages:

The early stage of gingivitis when you have poor oral health from plaque (that clear but sticky bacterial film in your mouth).
Plaque development multiplies after you eat and while you sleep from foods that are sweet or acidic. This is why it is ideal to brush and floss after eating and before you retire for the night!

You might have gingivitis if you notice the following:

Chronic bad breath
Tender, painful or swollen gums
Bleeding gums when brushing or flossing

This inflammation and infection, if left untreated, can make your gums recede your teeth, leaving you even more vulnerable to decay and infection where you have abscesses, bone loss, or periodontitis (the advanced stage of gum disease). The end result can be tooth loss. In the early stage, treatment can reverse the condition. Once it progresses to periodontitis, it cannot be reversed and can leave you with tooth loss.

Treating Gum Disease

Gingivitis: At this stage, it can be turned around with consistent daily oral hygiene combined with regular dental cleanings and exams. That is the good news. The not-so-good news is once gum disease is advanced, you will have to have more invasive treatment to manage it and protect your teeth and gums.

Periodontitis: At this stage, scaling and root planing may be needed, cleaning and scraping decay underneath the gum line, and smoothing out the tooth roots. If this is successful, your gums can reattach to the tooth, providing the necessary structure. However, not all instances of scaling and root planing successfully reattach the tooth to the gums. Should scaling and root planing not be enough, the next step is to clean any periodontal pockets around the teeth.

The problem with periodontitis is it is a serious infection that makes your body turn on itself. It happens when toxins created by bacterial plaque irritate your gums, initiating a chronic inflammatory response making the tissues and bone supporting your teeth break down. When the gums pull back from the teeth, the pockets formed between the teeth and gums become infected. At that point, the infection attacks those tissues and the bone material that hold your teeth in their place.

Seek Treatment

Did you know that pregnancy can lead to the early stage of gum disease (gingivitis) due to the hormonal changes in your body that aggravate plaque production? Or that smoking and tobacco use can destroy your gums? If you notice that your gums are bleeding, or your teeth are sensitive or feel loose, we encourage you to seek treatment. Our team is ready to help you restore healthy teeth and gums for a vibrant smile!

Do You Know What Periodontists Do And How We Can Help You With Your Oral Health?

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 09:13:49 GMT

As periodontists, we are, in fact, dentists who specialize in treating the soft oral tissues (gum disease) and the jawbone underneath as it supports your teeth. Our training involves graduating from an accredited dental school earning a 4-year undergraduate college degree and then pursuing another three years of study in a periodontology residency training program. We focus on managing periodontal disease using surgical and nonsurgical treatments and specializing in dental implants for missing teeth. After that additional training, we receive a Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) or Doctor of Medical Dentistry (DMD) degree.

While dentists specialize in treating your teeth and gums, we specialize specifically on treating gum disease. It is important because it is a serious oral infection and progressive disease that can develop when harmful, bacteria-laden dental plaque and calculus are allowed to build up along the gum line bordering your teeth. Left unchecked, combined with poor oral hygiene care, this plaque will progressively damage the teeth, gums, and vital jaw bone material, potentially leaving you with tooth loss!

Gum Disease Signs

Red, swollen or bleeding gums
Loose teeth or receding gums
One or more missing teeth
Painful toothache, bad breath or bite problem

Prevention and Treatment

The good news is we can help you prevent and treat gum disease and even reverse it. If you have tooth loss from gum disease, dental implants are often the best solution to replace them. Properly placed dental implants can successfully anchor your tooth replacement (crown, bridge or dentures) by functioning like a natural tooth root. Dental implants not only give you your healthy smile back, but they protect jaw bone density and keep your surrounding teeth in their place, so they don’t shift into the spaces left behind from missing teeth.

When you come to us for oral care, we will evaluate your oral health and assess whether you have gum disease. From there, we can treat your condition to help you prevent the more advanced stage of periodontal disease. Our work is to help your gums stay healthy, prevent bone loss and provide dental implants as needed.

In addition to treating any bacterial infection causing problems with your gums, we can help you understand how you can best take care of your smile. Proper oral hygiene at home can minimize harmful bacteria from jeopardizing teeth by keeping them clean. Your daily efforts make all the difference, and when combining them with regular professional dental cleanings, you will be giving your smile the preventative medicine it needs to stay healthy!

Periodontal Conditions

Gingivitis (early-onset gum disease): A mild inflammation of your gums where they may appear red, tender and bleeding.
Mild to moderate periodontitis: This will result in pockets developing between your teeth and soft tissues measuring anywhere from 4-6mm.
Advanced periodontitis: If periodontitis is untreated, those developing pockets grow to over 6mm in depth. You can lose bone density at this stage, and you have teeth shifting or even falling out.
Replacing lost teeth: If deteriorating bone loss has left you with one or more missing teeth, we can implant a natural-looking prosthetic tooth or dental implant (anchored securely into the jawbone).

Periodontal Treatments

After treating periodontitis, we can also recontour the hard tissue to restore your smile so that it looks natural and aesthetically pleasing through osteoplasty.
If periodontitis has led to gum recession making your teeth look longer, the soft tissue can be recontoured through gingivoplasty. Gingivoplasty either removes tissue or straightens the gum line, giving you a more even appearance.
To make sure you can receive a dental implant if the remaining bone density is insufficient, a bone graft can support the implant and hold the prosthetic tooth.
We can clean those soft tissue pockets surrounding teeth with a deep pocket cleaning. It involves scaling and root planing the teeth to get rid of oral debris and harmful bacteria.
We can remove a segment of the surrounding gingival tissue to expose the natural tooth with the help of crown lengthening.

Enlisting the Help of a Periodontist

Whether your dentist determines you have gum disease or you are seeing the signs of gum disease, we invite you to reach out to our periodontal team for help. Periodontal disease is a progressive condition and the leading cause of tooth loss for adults living in developed countries, so it’s nothing to be ignored, and we are ready to help!

Dental Implants: A Solution For Replacing Missing Teeth

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 09:16:14 GMT

When it comes to your teeth and gums, it’s essential to take good care of them to keep them healthy and strong so you can bite, chew, speak, and smile. Your daily oral hygiene care and routine professional dental cleanings and exams combined help you maintain your teeth and gums for a lifetime of smiles. If oral problems arise, it is typically best to try to save your natural tooth or teeth whenever possible. Enlisting the help of our team can help you do just that!

Seeking Treatment

Saving your tooth whenever a problem arises is ideally your first choice because even the most advanced dental implants or bridges aren’t the same as keeping a naturally functioning tooth. Periodontal treatment helps your teeth survive and thrive. Gum disease destroys vital gum tissues and bone around teeth.

You might have gum disease if you notice the following:

Chronic gum tissue inflammation
Red, swollen or bleeding gums
Painful gums
Being unable to chew around those affected areas of gum tissue

It’s often easy to forget that your gums are just as important as your teeth, but they are what hold your teeth in place! Treatment takes care of all kinds of periodontal diseases (such as gingivitis, periodontitis, and gingival recession) to prevent losing a tooth. By removing the harmful bacteria deep in the gums through periodontal treatment, your gums can regain their health.

If the tooth needs removing, another option used to save the tooth is root canal treatment. By removing the injured pulp (soft inner tissue) of your tooth and filling and sealing the space afterward, your tooth can typically go back to its normal function.

Dental Implant Treatment

What happens if you can’t save a tooth? The next best solution is getting a dental implant if you want the replacement tooth to look and feel like your own. This goes for people who have lost one or more teeth, whether from periodontal disease, accidental injury, or infection.

Endodontic treatment saves your affected tooth so you can receive a dental crown or implant. It allows you to bite and chew normally and comfortably while also looking the most natural. Replacing a missing tooth or teeth can keep healthy teeth from shifting out of their proper position by filling that gap that would otherwise ruin your bite alignment.

When it comes to placing a dental implant, the most common type used is the endosteal implant. With the help of a screw-shaped device placed within the bone, the implant functions as a natural tooth root. Whether you need one artificial tooth replaced or several, a dental implant can anchor them securely. Dental implants are also great for supporting dental bridges or dentures that are removable!

Are You a Good Dental Implant Candidate?

You must have good overall health as well as good oral health.
You have sufficient bone density to support a dental implant.
You have healthy gum tissues free of periodontal disease.

If you find yourself experiencing dental pain, consider enlisting the help of our team to take a look and help you with your options. If your tooth can’t be saved with a root canal treatment where we get rid of the injured tooth’s damaged pulp tissues, removing the tooth and placing a dental implant may very well be your best option! You will want to discuss your treatment options with our team to give you the effective smile solution you deserve.

If you need help with your smile, endodontic or periodontal treatments are available to help you! This holiday season, why not give yourself the gift of a healthy smile and make the most out of your dental benefits. You deserve a healthy smile, and our team is ready to help!

Preventing Gum Disease From Taking Over Your Teeth And Gums

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:19:40 GMT

Did You Know?

Gum disease afflicts nearly half of Americans over 30.
Men succumb to gum disease more than women.
Periodontal disease is the biggest factor of adult tooth loss.
Pregnant women with gum disease can give birth to their babies prematurely.
Men or women over 35 often lose more teeth to gum disease than they do to tooth decay.
30% of people get gum disease from their family tree.
Periodontal disease can leave you with serious health issues.

As you can see, gum disease is no joke, but it also doesn’t just happen overnight. It means you can practice good oral hygiene habits to avoid succumbing to the ravages of this preventable oral disease. And if you do, your teeth, gums, smile, and body will be healthier.

The Stages of Gum Disease

Gum disease starts small as plaque and tartar that isn’t removed daily by brushing and flossing collects on the gums then irritates and inflames them. Left untreated, it will only worsen until you have severe gum disease (periodontitis) that could cost you your teeth.

STAGE 1 – Bleeding Gums Gingivitis: An early, mild form of the disease. You’ll notice redness, swelling, and bleeding of the gum tissue. Diligent oral hygiene with gum-specific toothpaste can help reverse the condition.

STAGE 2 – Mild Periodontitis: Here, periodontitis attacks supportive gum tissue and bone anchoring teeth. Getting dental treatment along with consistent gum care at home can keep it from worsening.

STAGE 3 – Moderate Periodontitis: Now, you’ll notice deep pockets forming between teeth and gums. As the harmful oral bacteria builds up, it will destroy gum tissue and bone needed for healthy teeth.

STAGE 4 – Severe Periodontitis: Once periodontitis advances too far, the soft tissue and bone supporting teeth are so damaged that the teeth loosen and eventually fall out.

What Can You Do?

The easiest and simplest way to keep gum disease from invading your mouth is to brush and floss thoroughly every single day. This daily removal of harmful oral bacteria and consuming a healthy, balanced diet so gums get the essential nutrients needed to regenerate can ward off gum disease. Combined with regular dental cleanings, these steps give your smile the protection it needs to thrive.

Choose a toothbrush you enjoy using (manual, electric or sonic), and use it at least twice a day.
Find a flossing tool of choice you also like using, and don’t skip a day cleaning around the gumline and in between teeth. It can be flossing tape, floss holder or threader, water flosser, or an interdental brush; whatever works best for your needs!
Visit your dentist regularly for cleanings and exams where they can diagnose gum disease in the early stage when it can be most easily treated and reversed, possibly with a good mouthwash that contains the antibiotic chlorhexidine.
If you have advanced periodontitis, you have come to the right place for treatment! Our periodontal team specializes in all things gum-related so you can get the most effective, targeted treatment.

November Holidays: National Brush Day & Thanksgiving

Since November 1st is also National Brush Day, this is a good time for you and your family to recommit to a dedicated tooth and gum care routine. The busy holiday season brings with it its indulgences in extra sweet treats that can harm teeth and gums. So be sure to stay on top of your daily oral hygiene routine for yourself and your family. If your gums need some extra care, give our periodontal team a call today to learn more or schedule a visit. Your teeth and gums will thank you!

What To Do If You Experience Dental Anxiety About Getting Periodontal Treatment

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 09:25:16 GMT

Our team’s job is to treat gum disease (gingivitis or periodontal disease). It is one of the ten most common diseases people deal with when it comes to their smiles. It is also the main cause of tooth loss in adults! If you have gum disease, you will need deep cleanings to overcome this chronic inflammatory condition affecting the oral tissues, ligaments, and bones, keeping your teeth in place.

Treating Gum Disease

Scaling and Root Planing

Scaling involves removing plaque and tartar/calculus (hardened plaque) from your teeth below your gums. Then root planing smooths out the tooth root surface and fills spaces, where bacteria can build up and harm the gums.

Osseous (bone) Surgery

This procedure allows our team to reshape the bone structure holding the teeth in place (made of your jaw bone and ligaments) so there aren’t gaps or pockets between your gums and teeth where bacteria can get in, causing inflammation and infection.

Bone Graft

A bone graft prepares for a dental implant if the jaw’s bone density is not strong enough to support the implant. Deterioration of the bone happens when gum disease is severe, disintegrating the bone. With this graft, we layer bone beneath the gums to build up the jaw, so it can regenerate and grow more bone on its own.

Gum Graft

This treatment is needed when your gums have receded from the teeth, exposing the tooth root. This exposure leads to tooth sensitivity and additional bone support loss. We can remove tissue from somewhere else in the mouth then graft it over your tooth roots to fortify the gum tissue supporting the tooth.

Placing a Dental Implant

We specialize in installing dental implants (an artificial tooth root) and securely anchoring a replacement tooth or bridge. It can replace one or more lost teeth from periodontal disease, injury, or other loss.

Seeking Treatment

You will need to see our team for the following oral issues:

Having loose teeth
Having gum recession
Experiencing changes in your bite
Experiencing oral pain and discomfort
Seeing red, swollen, or bloody gums
Experiencing gum abscess and sensitivity

If you suffer from dental anxiety and are putting off necessary periodontal treatment, please let us know, and we can work with you. We will help you know your treatment options and make you as comfortable as possible. We understand patients are often anxious about the following:

Embarrassment about the current state of your teeth
Fear of gagging or losing control
Fear of injection or not becoming numb enough when injected and feeling pain
Fear of the dental tools used in your mouth

What You Can Do To Overcome Dental Anxiety

Let us know: We are happy to explain what we do to help our patients feel comfortable and relaxed during their time in the chair.
Bring your music: Music has a history of relaxing listeners while drowning out uncomfortable noises that might make one anxious.
Agree on a “pause” signal: Agree in advance on a sign to pause treatment (when possible), like raising your hand or tapping your chair. Just knowing we are attentive to your needs can help calm your fears!
Gag reflex: if you have an overactive gag reflex, you can use a throat spray like Vicks® Chloraseptic® Throat Spray beforehand to control your gag reflex (lasts around an hour).
Bring a mirror: If you are anxious because you can’t see the treatment, a handheld mirror can help you watch and put you more at ease.
Request sedation: We are happy to offer sedation options to help you feel relaxed and calm during your treatment.

Our goal is to treat your periodontal symptoms so you can maintain healthy gums and teeth. We are happy to work with you to calm your anxiety and give you the painless, timely treatment your smile deserves. We welcome you to reach out to our team to learn more and schedule a consultation!

September Is National Gum Care Month. Do You Know How To Protect Your Gums For A Healthier Smile?

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Tue, 07 Sep 2021 09:30:01 GMT

September is National Gum Care Month, and it is a big deal for your oral health. Good oral health is the foundation to a healthy-looking, self-confident appearance when it comes to your smile. By ensuring healthy teeth and gums – because when it comes to tooth loss, it is not just from tooth decay and cavities – periodontal disease is the most common cause of tooth loss in adults! It is why your daily oral hygiene care (combined with regular dental checkups) is crucial to getting the healthy, beautiful smile you want and deserve.

Progressive Disease

As National Gum Care Month gets into full swing this month, we want to encourage you to get your biannual checkup and cleaning. If you have not already, book an appointment today. We can spot and stop gum disease in its tracks.

Gingivitis

Gum disease starts as gingivitis as bacterial infection sets into your gums. It happens if you don’t brush and floss that harmful oral bacteria away, so it builds up into plaque, a sticky bacterial film you can feel when running your tongue across your teeth. If left unchecked, gingivitis continues to thrive until it forms deep gum pockets where it deteriorates gum tissue from inflammation, bleeding, and pain. When gingivitis is found, treatment can be done, and your gums can heal. You might have gum disease if you see the following:

Red, bleeding gums
Gum pain
Sour taste in your mouth
Mouth sores that won’t heal

Periodontitis

If your gum is aggressive, your gum tissue recession steadily worsens. It can also happen in young people because of vitamin deficiency (rather than just bacterial infection). Any advancing gum disease needs treatment as early as possible to avoid losing your teeth to periodontitis. And it is not just because unhealthy teeth and gums make you look older or because replacing teeth is costly; it is because it affects your smile and your body! Gum inflammation travels through your bloodstream to cause additional inflammatory conditions in your body, including heart disease, diabetes, and autoimmune issues.

So what can you do to ensure healthy gums?

Address oral bacteria build-up

Daily brushing, flossing and using an antibacterial mouthwash help minimize germs. Otherwise, they collect and harden from plaque into tartar or calculus. Do not neglect to brush or scrape your tongue every day because it is a large surface that can hold onto bacteria. Your routine dental checkups and cleanings help get rid of tartar and calculus using special instruments. We can even recommend some devices you can use to remove oral bacteria from your teeth and tongue.

Build up your body’s immune system

Help your body resist infection so it can’t strengthen and spread. You will need vitamin C to lower inflammation (which can cause red, bleeding gums). Eat fruits and vegetables, especially citrus fruits, berries, and leafy greens. You can get Vitamin B12 from milk, eggs, and meat, as well as B12 from fortified bread, pasta, and cereals. Omega-3 fatty acids (flaxseed oil and fish are great sources) also fight inflammation and boost gum health. If your diet is restricted, you can also take supplements for vitamin C, B12, and Omega 3.

Seeking Help

If you have noticed that your gums are bleeding and regular, gentle flossing around the gum line and between teeth is not helping, you may need treatment. Depending on the stage of gum disease you are fighting, you may need to visit a dentist, periodontist, or endodontist to stop the bleeding and make sure your gums are not receding or leading to bone loss and tooth loss.

This year, do not let gum disease cause tooth loss in your smile. You can achieve healthy teeth and gums. Our experienced team is here to help ensure your smile and overall health are as healthy as possible!

Are You Anxious About Having One Or More Teeth Extracted? If So, Read On To Calm Your Nerves!

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Fri, 06 Aug 2021 14:23:21 GMT

ARE YOU ANXIOUS ABOUT HAVING ONE OR MORE TEETH EXTRACTED? IF SO, READ ON TO CALM YOUR NERVES!

Keeping your teeth healthy means you get to keep them longer, hopefully for a lifetime of smiles! But there are times when an adult tooth (or more) may need to be extracted. As periodontists, we work hard to help you keep your permanent teeth in place as long as possible. Our periodontist has advanced training to effectively replace a lost tooth with dental implants for patients who are good candidates for this type of permanent dental restoration when a filling and crown won’t solve the problem.

Why You Might Need a Tooth Pulled

The biggest culprit causing tooth loss has to do with the build-up of periodontal pathogenic bacteria. Without good daily oral hygiene care, your teeth and gums can suffer. We never want to allow periodontal disease to gain a foothold through dental decay when it can be prevented. However, there are unforeseen events such as accidental injury and trauma that can necessitate removing one or more teeth.

Other instances leading to tooth removal may involve preparing your mouth for orthodontia (to eliminate tooth crowding or teeth that haven’t erupted through the gums because there’s no room for them). Or from having a badly damaged tooth through extensive decay and infection that has now invaded the tooth pulp from bacteria, impacting a tooth’s nerves and blood vessels while root canal therapy and antibiotics can’t save it.

Other instances may involve a greater risk of infection because your immune system is weakened. For example, from an organ transplant or chemotherapy. Or perhaps you have advanced periodontal disease. In this situation, your oral tissues and the bone holding the tooth (or teeth) deteriorate, leaving your teeth loose.

Be Prepared for a Tooth Extraction

Our team has the special training necessary to pull a tooth. We will make sure that you are as comfortable as possible with the help of a local anesthetic and injection to make the area numb beforehand. We want to ensure you have a hassle-free, relaxed treatment as much as possible.

If your tooth hasn’t yet erupted through the gums, we may cut the gum and bone tissue over the tooth to reach it and gently remove it so it is free from the bone and ligaments anchoring the tooth. If necessary, we can also remove the tooth in several segments.

After the tooth has been successfully removed, the socket will form a blood clot. You will need to bite down on gauze that has been packed into the socket until the bleeding stops and, if needed, self-dissolving sutures may be placed to help with that.

Should the blood clot loosen and break out of the socket, the bone may end up exposed, in which case we may protect the area further by using a medicinal dressing allowing the new clot to form more easily.

Note: You may be required to take antibiotics before and after your tooth removal if you are at higher risk of infection from bacteria. It may happen if you have damaged or man-made heart valves, a congenital heart defect, an artificial joint (hip), liver disease, or prior bacterial endocarditis.

Expediting Healing and Recovery

Your goal after the surgery is to remain as comfortable as possible, keep your infection risk as low as possible, and expedite healing. Remember to take your prescribed painkillers as needed and leave the gauze pad covering the clot for several hours after your procedure. Placing an ice bag on the outside cheek can help minimize swelling around the area. Be sure to rest for the first 24 hours and resist exertion for one or two days after that.

To ensure good clotting in the socket means not spitting for the first 24 hours, after which you can rinse with salt water to help with healing. Don’t smoke either as that can delay healing, and stick to soft foods and nutritious drinks. Keep your head elevated when you are lying down to encourage any bleeding to subside. While you can still brush your teeth and tongue, please stay clear of the sensitive socket to avoid injury.

We hope this information helps you feel less anxious about getting a tooth pulled. We are here to make the experience as comfortable and successful as possible. Call us today if you have any questions or concerns!

Periodontal Scaling And Root Planing Can Restore Your Gum Health

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 14:27:42 GMT

Our periodontal team performs scaling and root planing (a non-surgical periodontal therapy) using special tools to give your gums a deep cleaning (versus a routine dental cleaning on the gums’ surface and between teeth). It is done when you have spaces between your gums and teeth and under the gumline from gum disease. A regular dental cleaning can’t reach down far enough to remove the accumulated plaque but is effective at helping to keep your gums healthy, so they don’t develop pockets.

Removing Plaque and Calculus

Gum disease is created by bacteria buildup (plaque) that has hardened (calculus) and is inflaming your gum tissues. While daily brushing and flossing and routine dental cleanings help prevent this plaque buildup, if any of those factors are neglected, your gums may require conventional periodontal therapy (scaling and root planing) to restore healthy gums. It is especially true if your gums have been allowed to pull away from your teeth to form pockets. These pockets then create a space where more plaque can become trapped, and as your gums keep receding, you can face both bone and tooth loss.

Catching gum disease early is another reason to attend your routine dental cleanings. But once your gum pockets are deep, scaling and root planing will be required. It also helps patients who have chronic advanced gum disease (periodontitis). Our periodontal team has the training, focus, and experience to prevent, diagnose, and treat gum disease. Scaling and root planing uses deep cleaning to remove damaging plaque and has two parts.

Scaling: This is where we get rid of hardened plaque sitting above and under your gumline, cleaning all the way to the bottom of the pocket where plaque collects.

Root planing: This is done to smooth out your exposed tooth roots, taking out any cementum or dentin that has microorganisms, toxins, and calculus.

It will allow your gums to reattach to the teeth again. These treatments typically take a couple of visits, and you may be given a local anesthetic to make sure you are as comfortable as possible.

Scaling and Root Planing Post-Care

You may initially experience tooth pain a day or so after your treatment, and tooth sensitivity can linger up to a week if your gums are tender, swollen, or bleeding. You may be advised to expedite healing and reduce pain by taking an antibiotic or using oral rinse to keep infection away. A follow-up will make sure the pockets are healing, and if they have become deeper, we may recommend another scaling and root planing treatment to make sure all the calculus is removed so the gums can heal.

You will need to maintain good oral hygiene at home to keep gum disease from coming back (or getting worse). Your at-home care, coupled with in-office dental cleanings, is the teamwork your teeth and gums need to be healthy and strong. Avoid using tobacco of any kind as it prevents your gums from healing. To promote healing, consume plenty of vitamin C from citrus fruits, berries, and leafy greens, and vitamin B-12 from dairy, eggs, fish, meat, and poultry. Your gums will thank you!

If you have any issues with your gums, the sooner you treat them the better. We welcome you to give our team a call to answer your questions or concerns and schedule scaling and root planing treatment. We look forward to helping you keep your smile healthy!

Smile With Us On National Smile Power Day On June 15th!

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 14:31:59 GMT

Did you know that a big investment you can make in your overall health and self-confidence is to make sure you have a healthy smile? June 15th is National Smile Power Day, and it’s a great time to become more aware of the many benefits of having a healthy, confident smile wherever you go!

The Psychology and Physiology of Smiling

Did you know that when you smile, it can trigger your autonomic nervous system to release endorphins into your blood? It triggers your body to release dopamine and serotonin, which act as natural pain relievers. Smiling also reduces your blood pressure levels (thank the happy hormone for that), so it has the power to relieve stress, help you relax, boost your immune system, and, when done habitually, even increase your odds of living longer!

In addition, it also helps whoever sees it to feel that same “happy hormone!” Smiling can make whoever you smile at feel better while also boosting their morale and helping them feel more confident. Smiling can be contagious, and at least half of the folks you smile at will reward you with one back. Who knew a simple smile which can produce anywhere and anytime was this powerful? We agree with the Buddhist author, Thich Nhat Hanh, that “Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.”

Did You Know?

There are many different smiles, including the closed-lip smile, smirk smile, lop-sided smile, flirtatious smile, and open mouth smile.
When it comes to learning facial expressions, a baby’s smile is one of the first ones they master!
Smiling means the same thing anywhere you go in the world, which is why you often hear the familiar phrase, “When you smile, the world smiles with you!”
Smiling people come across more confident and looking younger as the smiling facial muscles raise the face, making the cheeks, jowls, and neck look smoother.
Women tend to smile more than 60 times a day while their male counterparts smile less than ten times a day!
Most people think that having a bad-looking smile can harm their career goals.

Smile For Your Health and Success

No wonder smiling is such a good thing for your mental and physical well-being! It’s good for your social and career life, so smile more often. After all, it’s free so why not give the gift of a smile to others, brightening your day as well as theirs. This National Smile Power Day, why not share the hashtag #NationalSmilePowerDay in your online communications and tell a good joke or two. If you’re just not feeling the smile bug, try writing down some of the things you are grateful for onto some sticky notes and placing them around your home or office. Before you know it, you might catch yourself smiling!

Smile Boosting Tips

Your oral health is the first step to a more confident smile as it impacts your overall health. If not taken care of, you are at risk for high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, and bruxism (where you grind your teeth while you sleep). You will also want to brush with a good toothbrush, floss daily and visit our team twice a year for cleanings. Limit sugary foods and beverages, especially tooth-staining drinks like coffee, tea, and red wine. Drink enough water throughout the day to protect your smile and follow a balanced, nutritious diet so your teeth and gums get the nutrients they need to thrive.

We also recommend giving yourself the gift of a confident smile if you don’t already have one. Your dentist can be one of your best friends when it comes to reaching your smile goals. Give us a call if your smile needs some love, whether it’s just getting your next dental cleaning, a teeth whitening treatment, or a smile makeover. Our team is excited to help you smile!

What You Need To Know About Periodontal Disease And Caring For Your Gums

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Fri, 28 May 2021 14:36:25 GMT

When it comes to your gums, taking good care of them is vital if you want to keep them healthy so they can protect your pearly whites. Neglecting your gums can lead to periodontal (gum) disease, an infection of the oral tissues that anchor your teeth in their place.

When you don’t brush and floss daily as recommended, harmful dental plaque (that sticky bacterial biofilm that you can feel coating your teeth) can build up. When plaque is not removed daily, it will harden and damage your teeth. If gum disease is not treated, it can easily leave you with sore, bleeding gums that hurt when you chew and eventually leave you with tooth loss!

Your mouth is a bacterial hotspot that mixes with saliva, mucus and bits of food particles to form plaque. It takes your daily brushing and flossing habit to control plaque; that and your twice-yearly dental cleanings to remove tartar (hardened plaque) using special scaling tools.

Note: Gum disease is insidious; you may not even know you have it! That’s why your regular dental cleanings and exams are so important.

To keep your gums healthy, you will also want to avoid smoking, one of the biggest contributors to gum disease. In fact, smoking weakens your immune system, so it is harder to prevent and fight a gum infection and for your gums to heal once they are infected.

Biggest Risk Factors for Gum Disease

Smoking
Diabetes
Hormonal fluctuations in women
Medications causing dry mouth
Diseases
Genetic disposition

Common Red Flags for Gum Disease

Persistent halitosis
Gum inflammation
Red, sore, swollen or bleeding gums
Tooth sensitivity
Painful chewing
Loose teeth
Receding gums
Loose teeth

If you notice any of these red flags, we recommend seeking help! Our periodontist can evaluate the health of your gums and measure any developing pockets around your teeth. The greater the depth of the pockets, the more your gums will need help. X-rays will also help assess your bone density, and if there is bone loss, you will need treatment to keep your smile safe.

With gum disease, the culprit is oral infection which we will need to treat. Combined with your stepped-up oral care at home, we can help you protect your gums. And if you smoke, you will seriously need to consider quitting if you want your gums to recover.

What You Can Do

You can step up your daily oral health routine by brushing at least twice a day using fluoride toothpaste to protect your enamel. You should also brush your tongue to get rid of accumulated oral bacteria.

Make sure your toothbrush bristles are soft and that the head fits into your mouth easily for maneuverability. If you don’t like to brush as recommended, consider investing in a battery-powered or electric toothbrush, which gets rid of plaque effectively.

Flossing daily helps get rid of trapped food particles and diminishes plaque development. The flossing tool you choose doesn’t matter so much as finding one you like using and then doing it daily! Dental floss, floss picks, or an oral irrigator are all great as long as you use it, whether it’s morning, after lunch, or dinner!

Adding a therapeutic mouthwash rinse to your daily routine can also help! Find one that fights dental plaque and treats gingivitis to help prevent tartar growth. Rinsing daily can also help wash away oral debris. And finally, don’t skip your routine dental visits if you want to keep your gums healthy.

Seek Help When Needed

When gum disease is caught in the early stages, it can be reversed! Advanced gum disease that isn’t managed will ultimately lead to bone and tissue loss which can’t be reversed. It can destroy the gums, bones and connective tissues holding your teeth, impacting your bite and requiring tooth extraction. If you need help with your gums, we invite you to reach out to our team for an appointment. We look forward to helping you keep your gums safe for a healthier smile!

How Does Periodontal Deep Cleaning Save Your Smile From The Devastating Effects Of Periodontal Disease?

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Thu, 29 Apr 2021 14:39:30 GMT

When it comes to your gums and teeth, they can be in trouble if you don’t brush and floss daily to get rid of tartar, bacteria, and oral debris that builds up on them quickly, even below your gum line. Without daily cleaning, you can end up with gingivitis, tooth decay, bone decay, and ultimately, lost teeth!

It is why you see your dentist twice a year to get rid of this hardened tartar buildup that your toothbrush and flossing tools alone can’t. Done together, though, your daily efforts alongside your professional dental cleanings ensure that your teeth and gums can be their healthiest.

The Origins of Tartar

If you run your tongue across your teeth when you wake up every morning, you can often feel a sticky bacterial film on them called plaque. This clear coating consists of sugars and bacteria mixed with your saliva and food when you eat. If you don’t clear it away, it will harden into tartar (or calculus). But even when you brush and floss, it will still collect under your gum line. A typical dental cleaning involves removing plaque and tartar around your gum line and below the gum line when necessary.

Deep Dental Cleaning vs. A Regular Dental Cleaning

Your biannual dental cleanings are essentially preventative dental care because they ensure the gums are safe from tartar buildup. When you skip these cleanings, your gums quickly run into trouble as chronic tartar buildup invites periodontal disease. If your smile has periodontal disease, it will require deep cleaning to keep it from progressing because progressive gum disease won’t just go away. You need to stop the progress, keeping it from damaging your teeth and gums beyond repair and losing your teeth once the gums recede too far.

We work to keep your gum recession in check. If you have tartar buildup under your gum line, your immune system tries to combat the effects, and you will see your gums receding, swelling, and pulling away from your pearly whites. Receding gums form pockets that attract even more oral bacteria and hardened plaque!

Gum Disease Progression

The early stage of periodontal disease (gingivitis) happens when the oral bacteria irritate and infect your gum tissue (as we described above). When treated early, we can reverse the harmful effects. If it remains unchecked, the infection spreads to other areas of your mouth. We’re talking about the periodontal ligament that supports your teeth, the cementum protecting your tooth roots, and finally, even your alveolar bone anchoring your tooth. At some point, your teeth will loosen and fall out (or need to be removed). Your hygienist will measure these pocket sizes to detect the level of gum disease at your dental cleanings. Once they are bigger than 4-5mm, you will require scaling and root planing, known as deep cleaning, to keep the disease progressing.

What Causes Periodontal Disease

Chewing tobacco or smoking
Clenching or grinding your teeth
Genetics
Diabetes
Hormones
Medications
Poor diet
Poor oral hygiene care
Pregnancy
Puberty
Stress

Deep Dental Cleaning

For your periodontal deep cleaning appointment, we will numb the gums using a local anesthetic so you will feel comfortable during the treatment. Next, we will clear away all the accumulated plaque, calculus, and oral debris collected under the gum line. We will also smooth and plane any infected tooth roots to get rid of harmful oral bacteria. If necessary, we may prescribe an antibiotic to support your body’s efforts in battling the infection. Your deep cleanings are typically spread out over two visits, cleaning one side of your mouth each time.

The good news is, your periodontal deep cleaning will stop the disease from progressing any further, so your gums can finally heal and support your teeth properly. How often you might need a deep cleaning depends on the health of your gums.

Remember, your first line of defense against this insidious disease is keeping oral plaque from building up in the first place. Clean your mouth at least twice a day, encompassing all your tooth surfaces, between your teeth, and especially around your gum line. Limit sugary, starchy foods, eat a nutritious diet and keep all your dental cleaning appointments!

If you need help with your smile, we welcome you to contact our team to schedule a periodontal deep cleaning below your gum line. We can help your teeth and gums stay healthy and strong for a lifetime of smiles!

A Frenectomy Can Help You (Or Your Child) Struggling With Tongue-tie

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 14:41:45 GMT

You may not be familiar with the term “lingual frenectomy,” but you might have heard of people being tongue-tied. Lingual frenectomy is a minor in-office oral surgery procedure performed by our periodontist to take out a band of tissue. Frena (which are small folds of oral tissue) attaches the bottom of your tongue to the bottom of your mouth. A frenectomy can treat either a tongue tie or lip tie condition.

Tongue-tie is also called ankyloglossia, and it happens in about five percent of newborns. For some reason, tongue-tie is more common in boys than girls. A lingual frenectomy helps the tongue have a bigger range of motion. A maxillary frenectomy gives the upper lip the additional mobility it needs.

Lingual frenectomy: Your lingual frenum can be too short, causing problems by restricting your tongue’s movement when trying to speak, eat, or swallow (that’s where the term tongue-tied comes from). Try touching your tongue to your palate (the roof of your mouth), so you can see how far your frenulum stretches under your tongue.

Maxillary frenectomy: Frena can also be found inside your upper or lower lip and can attach your cheeks to your gums. With the help of a frenectomy, this tissue can be released altogether or just loosened for better mobility. Babies often have this condition, making it hard to nurse, bottle feed, and talk as they grow. This oral surgery treatment is typically done very quickly (in minutes) and lessens the frenum’s size so the tongue can freely move around without being restricted.

A lingual frenectomy can be done in a baby’s first few weeks or for children and adults later in life. If left uncorrected, they can experience issues with their growing smile that cause problems with their orthodontia and even when trying to clean their teeth during their daily oral hygiene routine.

It is common to perform a frenectomy before your child undergoes orthodontic treatment if their lower jaw is being pushed out or they can’t lift the tongue. That is because, should the frenum reside close to their gums, your child’s spacing in the two front teeth can be impacted. Not only will it be noticeable, but this extra spacing in those teeth can allow food particles to become trapped. It can make it hard to clean near the gumline and set the way for gum disease (gingivitis).

What can you expect with a frenectomy?

Whether you or your child needs a frenectomy, you will first need to visit our periodontist. You will have an evaluation and schedule a frenectomy if need be. The face is held still during the procedure, and a topical anesthetic will be applied before so the area will feel numb. The frenum is clipped with either a surgical scissor, scalpel or laser.

Our periodontist may want to finish the procedure with a few stitches. It may depend on the complexity of the lip tie. This treatment only takes a few minutes from beginning to end. Recovery is also quick, with only a few days of discomfort, and then you will have a follow-up appointment.

Whether you or your child needs to have a frenectomy performed, we welcome you to give us a call to learn more. Our periodontist often performs frenectomies to improve one’s oral function. We look forward to helping you with all of your periodontal needs. Remember, a healthy smile begins with healthy oral tissues (including your gums), so please call today!

For National Gum Disease Awareness Month, Commit To Healthier Teeth And Gums!

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Wed, 10 Feb 2021 14:46:06 GMT

February is National Gum Disease Awareness Month, and we are here for it! Working daily with gums makes us excited about creating awareness on how best to keep your gums healthy no matter what your age. When we say your smile thrives on good oral care, most patients typically think of their teeth, but the gums are just as crucial because, without them, your teeth would loosen and fall out!

The problem with gum disease (the infection of the gum tissue) is that it also is linked to general health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, and pregnancy issues. Taking good care of your gums means your overall health will improve. Gum disease develops when oral bacteria thrive in the mouth. It does not take a lot of time for the bacteria to inflame the oral tissues and spread via the bloodstream, affecting the organs and other areas of your body. You can make a big difference in your tooth and gum health by brushing and flossing daily to remove this harmful bacterial film (plaque) from your teeth and gum line.

Are Your Gums in Good Shape?

In the early stages, gum disease is referred to as gingivitis. Left unchecked, it will continually advance until you are at the stage called periodontal disease. To protect your gum health, you will need to practice effective oral hygiene care every day, followed by periodic professional dental cleanings and exams. Your biannual dental cleanings remove hardened plaque (known as tartar or calculus), which can only be removed using special dental instruments. In between visits, keep an eye out for the signs of gum disease.

How To Spot Gum Disease

Look for any swollen or puffy gum tissue
Notice if your gums are bright red or bleeding
Watch for tooth sensitivity or pain
Don’t ignore chronic bad breath
If your teeth feel loose or separating
If you notice pus or sores in the mouth
Watch for receding gums

What Causes Gum Disease?

Probably the most common cause of this insidious disease is chronic poor oral hygiene. Without daily intervention, oral bacteria thrive, harming your gums, teeth, and body. But neglecting your oral hygiene care is only partly responsible for inviting gum disease into your mouth. There are a variety of other conditions that can lead to disease:

Using tobacco in any form
Excessive use of alcohol
Having crowded or overlapping teeth that are hard to brush and floss correctly
Experiencing hormonal changes
Having oral cancer
Breathing via the mouth, leading to dry mouth by reducing saliva production
Constant, unrelieved stress
Consuming a non-nutritious diet of high sugar or starches
Poor diabetes control
Insufficient dental care from skipped dental visits
Your gums turning white (they should be pink)

So, what can you do to prevent gum disease or keep it from worsening? It is where improvements to your daily habits can make have the biggest impact:

Brush: Brush at least twice a day for two minutes each time. Wait about half an hour after eating so that you don’t wear down enamel from food particles.
Floss: Flossing cleans areas of the teeth and gum line that brushing alone can’t effectively clean. Floss at least once a day to remove debris between the teeth and near the gums. Be sure to floss between each tooth individually.
Keep your dental appointments: Your teeth and gums can suffer if you go too long without having a dental checkup and cleaning. Six-month checkups are important to get rid of tartar. If you have signs of gum disease, feel pain or discomfort, please don’t wait! Call our team as soon as possible, and we will help you get the treatment you need.
Eat healthier: Your teeth, gums, and body thrive when you eat a balanced diet with nutritious essentials. Even drinking healthy smoothies or other beverages good for you can make the difference between a healthy or unhealthy smile. Avoid sugary drinks and snacks that build up sticky bacteria. Rinse your mouth out with water after you eat and drink if you are not brushing right away.

What if You Have Gum Disease?

Depending on the state of your gums, there are several solutions to get your smile back on track:

A professional dental cleaning and exam
A scaling and root planing
A gum pocket reduction
A gum graft or soft tissue graft
Take prescribed medication
Use medicated toothpaste or mouthwash
Have root canal therapy performed

Your smile needs daily care and good habits, especially if you want to keep your teeth and gums healthy (and in place). We welcome you to call our office if you have any issues or concerns about your gums. This National Gum Disease Awareness Month, resolve to take the best care of your teeth and gums!

Six Reasons Why You Should See A Periodontist To Examine Your Gums!

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 14:50:02 GMT

Did you know that detecting gum disease in the early stages makes it the most effectively and economically treated? This is true for many oral health issues. As a periodontist, our team specializes in the areas of the mouth that surround and support your teeth – your gums, bone and connective tissues. These are the parts that attach your teeth to your smile! Our goal is to support your oral health by diagnosing and treating any issues you might have with those supportive structures of your teeth.

What Causes Periodontal Disease?

Since periodontal (gum) disease is a broad term describing a group of diseases resulting in loss of attachment of the gum, connecting tissues and bone to the teeth, you might be wondering, how does periodontal disease come about? It is typically caused by the bacterial oral biofilm that builds up around your teeth when you neglect your daily oral hygiene care (brushing and flossing) because of how your body’s immune system reacts to it.

Did you know that almost half of the adult US population has destructive periodontal disease? And that’s not all! Periodontal disease is also linked to other systemic diseases, including the following:

Coronary artery disease
Heart attack and disease
Diabetes
Respiratory disease
Alzheimer’s disease
Certain cancers
Stroke
Osteoporosis

So how do you know if you have periodontal (gum) disease? You might need treatment if you find yourself with the following:

Your smile is losing periodontal attachment (that supportive bone below your teeth)
Bleeding when you brush or floss
Redness and inflammation of the gum margins
Persistent bad taste or breath
You have abscesses
Loose or shifting teeth
Tooth loss

In the early-to-moderate stages of periodontal disease, the goal is to help you learn how to reclaim your oral health. It all begins in the home, where you need to make sure you brush and floss consistently every day so you can control the development of harmful daily biofilm (plaque). This daily routine will need to be combined with thorough professional teeth cleaning (called scaling and root planing, or root debridement). The further along periodontal disease advances could mean that you may even require occlusal (bite) treatment and/or surgical treatment.

Signs to look out for that will need treatment:

A changing of your bite pattern or how your teeth feel when you chew: This can be caused when your tooth enamel weakens and wears down, leaving you with cracks or chips in your teeth.
Receding gums: This happens as your gums recede or pull back from the top of your teeth, exposing the tooth root. This can leave you with bacterial infections and ultimately, tooth loss.
Loose teeth: This sign of advanced gum disease comes from waiting too long to treat the disease and can ultimately mean losing teeth.
Pain or discomfort in your gums: There’s no reason to tolerate pain as it generally doesn’t go away without proper treatment. Waiting too long can leave you with poor gums and loose teeth.
Sensitivity to hot and cold temperature extremes: This is a sign of progressive gum recession that could end up in serious gum infection.
You’ve never been to a periodontist: Preventative care is always optimal, followed by early treatment for the disease. Seeing a periodontist will allow us to examine your gums, looking for gum pockets, how firmly your teeth are positioned and how symmetrical your bite is. Taking dental X-rays can help us assess your bone structure and density. If you do have gum disease, treatment might involve cosmetic gum surgery, periodontitis, or replacing your missing teeth.
Since gum disease can leave you with tooth loss and even other systemic health issues, we urge you to schedule a visit with our periodontist if you have any lingering concerns about your gums. This new year is a great time to assess your oral health and address problems early for optimal success. Your smile deserves to be healthy and strong!

Don’t Let A Preventable Dental Emergency Sideline Your Oral Health

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Sun, 13 Dec 2020 14:52:48 GMT

Winter is almost here, and sports activities can find a way to bring a dental emergency into your life during the busy holiday season. Whether you are skiing, snowboarding, ice skating, swimming, or surfing, accidents can happen. It can mean running into a tree while sledding, falling on your face at an ice skating rink, or knocking a tooth out on your surfboard. Your mouth can sustain a dental emergency all year round!

Protecting Your Smile

Whether you are out having fun hitting the snow-covered hills, playing hockey with friends, or even celebrating the season with friends, you usually are not thinking about how you can prevent a dental emergency. It’s what you can do beforehand that will really count! Protecting your smile is as easy as wearing the right gear for your recreational activity, whether that’s a mouth guard, face cage, or helmet.

So, what happens when the unthinkable happens? Seeking help right away can help stop your oral pain and lower the risk of having permanent oral damage. During business hours, calling our office is simple, but what if you have an accident on a holiday, weekend, or in the middle of the night that can’t wait? It might require getting help from an emergency room visit. But first, let’s look at what constitutes a dental emergency.

What Is a Dental Emergency?

Some emergencies can wait until the next morning, but others could result in a lost adult tooth if treatment is not sought out immediately. Ask yourself the following to make that assessment:

Do you have severe pain along with bleeding?
Do you have a partially dislodged or knocked-out adult tooth?
Do you have a loose permanent tooth (but no pain)?
Do you have an oral abscess or infection combined with swelling in the mouth or face?
Do you have a severely bitten tongue or lip?
Do you have a cracked or broken tooth?
Have you lost a dental crown or filling?
Do you have an object stuck between your teeth that shouldn’t be?
Have you broken your jaw from trauma/injury?

Please call us right away if you have any of those conditions, and if you can’t reach us for emergency dental care, visiting the ER is your next best option.

What Is Not a Dental Emergency?

The easiest question you can ask yourself here is, “Can you wait to see your dentist in the next day or so?” It means that a chipped tooth that isn’t causing you pain can be delayed, but a chipped or cracked tooth that hurts or has sharp bits that hurt cannot wait. Sometimes, even a painful toothache can safely wait if it is not accompanied by an abscess or facial swelling, bumps on your gum tissue, or a rising fever. Losing a filling or crown can typically wait several days if necessary.

Dental emergencies benefit from remembering to stay calm. Knowing what to do beforehand can help facilitate that needed self-control, especially when pain is combined with stress, making it harder to think clearly. When should you visit an emergency room if you can’t reach our dentist?

Visiting Your Nearest Emergency Room

You’ve sustained an injury to your head or eye
You’ve suffered a concussion and are experiencing confusion
You’ve broken a bone or dislocated a joint in your jaw
You have a cut or facial laceration likely to require multiple stitches

When it comes to your oral health, remember to never ignore dental injuries, illnesses, or conditions. Sometimes a problem can wait until you see your dentist, but many times, early intervention is necessary. When in doubt, call our office to make sure! And if you can’t reach us after hours, please seek help at your local ER.

In between dental visits, stay on top of your oral hygiene habits to help keep your teeth and gums healthy and strong throughout the year. And if you are participating in recreational activities this winter, wear a mouth guard and helmet as needed. Speak to our team about what you can do today to prevent a dental accident. Your smile deserves your best care!

What Can You Do About Gum Disease Symptoms?

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Mon, 09 Nov 2020 14:55:42 GMT

Your teeth aren’t the only things in your smile that can experience issues. Gum disease or periodontal disease can harm your smile and even your overall health. If your gums are diseased, harmful bacteria in the mouth can enter your bloodstream as they bond to the platelets in your blood, where clots can then form. Should these clots travel to your brain or heart, you can have a stroke or heart attack.

Preventing Gum Disease

Your first goal should be to brush and floss every day to remove harmful plaque. Brushing at least twice a day or after meals, along with flossing gently at least once daily, helps protect your pearly whites and gum tissue from gingivitis, where ligaments attaching your gums to your teeth deteriorate. Staying on top of your daily dental routine, and keeping an eye out for problems that are beginning, is a winning strategy for maintaining your smile. It’s also the most cost-effective!

Prevention is your best bet because chronic gum disease doesn’t take long to damage your smile. Spotting problems early is when conditions are easy to treat or even reverse! We want to make sure you know the main symptoms of gum disease so you can recognize problems early and stay on top of your oral health.

Signs To Watch for When It Comes To Your Gums

Your gums are bleeding: Neglecting your flossing routine allows harmful bacteria to collect under the gums, where they cause inflammation and bleeding in the tissue. It is not normal and will only worsen if left untreated.
Red, swollen or sore gums: Healthy gums are pink, and along with bleeding, these indicators are telling you your gums are in trouble, even though you may not feel any pain with them.
Changes in how your teeth fit together: Gum disease also affects how your teeth meet when you bite and chew because the gums are pulling away from teeth, forming pockets. It can make your teeth look longer as the gum tissue deteriorates. It is also hard to keep these pockets clean as oral debris becomes trapped in them.
Loose teeth: If your teeth are feeling loose or shifting, gum disease is likely the culprit!
Chronic halitosis: If your breath smells bad or there’s an unpleasant taste in the mouth that doesn’t go away, you likely have gum disease.
Tooth Sensitivity: If the gums are not treated early enough, they can pull back from your teeth (receding gums) where they damage the bone and loosen teeth. As your gums continue to recede (exposing more of the tooth), you’ll likely notice a sensitivity to hot and cold foods and beverages and even breathing in the cold winter air. If the root surfaces of the tooth become exposed, there’s an increased risk of decay and sensitivity in the tooth. It means your coffee, tea and smoothies may be challenging to drink.

If you notice these signs, you will want to check with your dentist to determine the extent of the gum disease happening. A strong indicator is if you see blood when you brush or eat, or even without touching your gums.

Diabetes

If you have type 2 diabetes because of high blood sugar, you may be more vulnerable to gum disease and vice versa. If you notice headaches and mental fog, are always thirsty and running to the bathroom, lose weight unexpectedly, and are always tired, you may have diabetes. Uncontrolled diabetes is as much a problem for your smile as it is your overall health.

Treating Gum Disease

Regular, professional dental cleanings and exams are as crucial to your oral health as your day-to-day brushing and flossing. You’re literally on the front line of gum defense! Be sure to clean your tongue (where bacteria like to collect) to keep it off your teeth, gum and tongue surfaces.

If you notice the signs of gum disease or you have advanced gum disease, please seek help as soon as possible. It’s never too soon to maintain and save your gums!

Considering Dental Implants? A Sinus Lift Can Help!

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Tue, 06 Oct 2020 14:59:23 GMT

If you have lost teeth in the back of your mouth (whether from tooth loss from an extensive cavity, trauma, or periodontal disease), you should consider replacing them to keep your bite functioning properly and to preserve proper facial structure. It is because losing the molars in the upper jaw can cause tooth loss and an expansion of the sinuses. However, it is often hard to place dental implants in the upper jaw because of the proximity of your jawbone to your sinus cavity.

How Can We Ensure Dental Implant Success?

To have success with a dental implant, you first need to have good bone material and enough of it in the jawbone. For the upper back jaw, it can sometimes be challenging to install dental implants because of a lack of good bone material. Also called a sinus graft or sinus augmentation, this surgery boosts the amount of bone in your upper jaw so that you can have a dental implant to replace a missing tooth or teeth, typically the molars or premolars. Without enough available bone material in the jaw, it can’t support a dental implant properly.

When losing a tooth, the bone material surrounding it can deteriorate in time by shrinking and resorbing, diminishing the density. As that happens, the bottom part of the sinuses drops lower. With a sinus lift, you are given bone material to support the implant with sufficient mass in the upper jaw as the sinuses expand to take up the empty spot where the jawbone material previously sat. This bone boost will give you the solid foundation your jaw needs to hold the dental implant post in place, so it doesn’t go through to the sinus cavity.

Having a sinus lift before dental implantation does extend the treatment time, but it will help make sure that your implants will do their job properly. The good news is a sinus lift is easily done in our facility rather than in a hospital setting. Once the implants fuse with the jawbone, we can successfully place dental implants to replace lost teeth.

What Is a Sinus Lift?

When our periodontist performs a sinus lift, a grafted bone (from your body or a donor source) will be inserted in between the jawbone and sinus membrane. Once fused, it will give your upper jaw the healthy bone material it needs to support dental implants effectively. You might need a sinus lift if you have experienced the following:

Periodontal disease
A tooth extraction that failed
Jawbone injury
A long time of tooth loss
Have big sinus cavities or thin sinus walls

Are You a Good Candidate?

It can take up to nine months to heal completely from having a sinus lift done, which means your dental implant restoration will take longer to complete. To determine if you are a good candidate for a sinus lift, our periodontist will need to examine your jawbone, teeth, and facial structure. Then a treatment plan can be created that is ideal for your needs and which of the two types of sinus lift procedures is best.

Your sinus lift will begin with a local anesthetic, after which our periodontist can make a small opening in the bone to get to the sinus cavity where the sinuses can be lifted to where they were originally positioned. Then the grafting material can be put under the sinus cavity that sits along the bone to mesh and give you the bone density you need. Healing takes anywhere from four to nine months after which your dental implants can be installed, lasting for years to come.

If you have lost teeth and want to replace them with dental implants, we welcome you to call our team to learn more or to schedule a consultation with our periodontist. Your healthy smile and quality of life are worth protecting!

National Gum Care Month Is A Good Reminder For You To Prevent Gum Disease

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Sat, 05 Sep 2020 15:02:03 GMT

September is National Gum Care Month, so let’s talk about everything related to gums. This month is a good time to reflect on your dental health and commit to taking better care of your gums. Sometimes, we forget your gums help keep your teeth in their place and functioning at top capacity. When your gums are damaged, you risk losing your teeth!

Protecting your gums is simple; brushing and flossing every day is part of a personal dental hygiene practice as well as keeping routine dental cleanings. This way, tartar can be removed and your teeth polished. Your gums can also be checked for signs of trouble and to treat problems early. Stick to a balanced diet to give your gums the nutrients they need to fight disease.

The Problem With Gum Disease

Treating gum disease is most effective when done in the early stage of gum disease because treatment can reverse the progress of gum disease. Once your gums are fighting serious infection, it’s harder to treat and progressively worsens. Like most things medically related, preventative care supports your oral and general health most effectively. When teeth are lost (other than teeth that are pulled for a purpose like wisdom teeth or tooth extraction procedures), the cause is often progressive gum disease. Gum disease is a common problem in our country, affecting around 67 million Americans.

Two Types of Gum Disease

Gum disease is broken down into two types. The mild version is the early stage, called gingivitis. Over time it progresses into periodontitis, a more dangerous phase. Both are caused by bacterial toxins leading to infection. In the gingivitis stage, you’ll see your gums as red, swollen, painful, and bleeding. In the later stage, you’ll see infection from inflammation in the gums, ligaments, and bone surrounding the teeth loosening teeth that either fall out or need to be removed from bone loss.

Gingivitis

We urge you to tell your dentist right away if you notice that your gums are bleeding, find sores in your mouth, have gum pain or find yourself with an unpleasant taste in your mouth along with bad breath. Having your gums checked and treated right away will help them stay healthier, longer, and with minimal damage.

Periodontitis

Advancing periodontitis involves rapid gum recession. This version often appears with young people having a growth spurt. They may be deficient in vitamins that protect the gums, rather than being overrun by bad oral bacteria. Once gum disease advances because of periodontitis, you may see spurts of infection mingled with improvement as you receive treatment. But gum disease affects the rest of your health, not just your mouth. As a systemic disease, gum disease will spread through your bloodstream to other organs in the body, resulting in inflammation related to diabetes, heart disease and even autoimmune issues.

Preventing Gum Disease

Avoiding gum disease means stopping bacterial plaque in the mouth that leaves a sticky film coating your teeth that you can feel when you run your tongue across them. Brushing twice a day for two minutes each session – followed by flossing – removes harmful bacteria to keep it from building up and hardening into tartar. Some tartar buildup is inevitable around the gum line, and this is one of the main reasons you see your dentist for a professional cleaning every six months. As gingivitis progresses and the gums start to recede from the teeth, bacterial plaque hardens into tartar inside the pockets around the teeth. Without intervention, the bone and ligaments keeping your teeth in position continue to deteriorate until they loosen.

Keep your gums pink and healthy by using a soft-bristled toothbrush (replacing when the bristles start to fray) and enamel strengthening toothpaste. Don’t forget to floss and use an antibacterial mouthwash. Fend off dry mouth by staying hydrated throughout your day and chewing sugar-free gum or lozenges. Be sure to control diabetes if you have it, and quit tobacco use. Limit the sugar in your diet, and incorporate more nutrient-dense and vitamin-rich foods like fruits, vegetables and calcium.

Treating Gum Disease

National Gum Care Month is a great time to see your dentist if you have any concerns about your gums. Once gum disease is a problem for you, you may also need to see a periodontist, endodontist or oral surgeon who can help reverse gum disease. Your smile deserves the best care, so contact our team today!

If You Have Dental Implants, You May Need To Keep An Eye Out For Peri-implantitis

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 15:04:58 GMT

If you have had a dental implant to replace a missing tooth, you are in good company. Dental implants are a popular choice for those seeking an effective tooth replacement option. Since dental implants handily replace one or more lost teeth by replicating both the tooth root and the crown of the tooth, they appear to make durable, long-lasting, and natural-looking options.

Even so, dental implants can sometimes succumb to peri-implantitis, a condition which causes dental implants to fail. We want to make sure that you know how to prevent peri-implant diseases and what you can expect if you do have it.

Peri-Implantitis

Often stemming from inflammatory conditions, peri-implantitis can affect both the hard and soft gum tissues that support your dental implant. The gum tissue can’t attach to the dental implant as well as it does to a natural tooth. If your gum tissue isn’t able to attach correctly to the implant, you can be left with a space that invites oral bacteria to enter, inflaming the tissue and bone.

Dental implants are also affected by the buildup of plaque around them, much like a natural tooth as bacterial plaque builds up around the base of your implant. If this is left unchecked, the bacteria will thrive, while irritating sensitive gum tissue and damaging it. It can eventually lead to the deterioration of the bone material that supports the implant, causing it to fail.

Peri-implantitis is considered an extension of peri-implant mucositis, which inflames the gum tissue but doesn’t cause bone loss and is characterized by bleeding of the gum tissue and discomfort. When this goes on long enough, it will cause your dental implant to fail, even if it has already healed and bonded with the bone. Dental implant failure is a common problem with dental implants and is challenging to treat. If you notice any of the following after having dental implants placed, you may have peri-implantitis.

What to Look For

Your gum tissue appears red and tender around the dental implant.
You feel pain or discomfort in the gum tissue surrounding the implant.
Your gums bleed when you brush your teeth.
Your dental implant feels loose.
You can see pus around the implant, or you have a bad taste in your mouth.

Any of these signs indicate something unhealthy is going on in your mouth, so being seen is important to determine the cause and treat the condition.

Who Is at Risk for Peri-Implantitis?

You are more susceptible to developing peri-implantitis if you:

Have had gum disease or bruxism (teeth grinding and clenching) in the past
Have unmanaged diabetes or osteoporosis
Have lax daily oral hygiene habits
Smoke or use tobacco products

You will likely be a good candidate for dental implants based on your oral health history and your current dental health that increases your chances of proper healing while reducing the risk for potential complications.

Preventing Peri-Implantitis

Daily Oral Hygiene

The best way to prevent peri-implantitis is to take diligent care of your dental implants to keep your smile healthy and strong for years to come. Insufficient daily dental hygiene practices can lead to this disease. Brush and floss your teeth every day as recommended by your dentist, including around your dental implant. Floss gently so you don’t harm sensitive gum tissue, especially around the dental crown capping your dental implant. You don’t want to damage the gum tissue attaching the tissue to the crown.

Routine Dental Checkups and Cleanings

Regular dental checkups are also important to make sure your supporting bone and gums are healthy. Your dentist can catch peri-implantitis when it is in the early stages and most easily responsive to treatment. Antibiotics can treat the infection, and laser therapy can destroy oral harmful bacteria. A serious infection may require surgically cleaning, or a bone or gum tissue graft to strengthen the area around the dental implant.

Our skilled periodontist and periodontal team are here to help you maintain healthy gums that will support your dental implant for years to come. Call today to schedule an appointment. We look forward to helping you with all of your periodontal needs!

Transform A Gummy Smile Into A Healthy Smile With Dental Crown Lengthening Treatment

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 15:06:51 GMT

If your dentist has recommended a crown lengthening procedure from a periodontist, you are not alone. While many people haven’t heard of crown lengthening before, it is a common treatment and can sometimes be a pre-treatment to having a dental restoration done.

Crown lengthening can take care of a problem where you might have an excess gingival display or a gummy smile. It means your teeth look as if they are too short! But the problem isn’t usually the teeth – they may be just fine – but they look short because you have too much gum tissue partially covering them. It makes the crown, which is the part of the tooth that you can see above the gumline, seem smaller than it is.

Having a dental crown lengthening is often done before placing a restorative or cosmetic dental treatment. If your tooth has extensive decay, is broken under the gum line, or doesn’t have enough structure left to support a dental crown or tooth bridge, a crown lengthening can fix this. Gum tissue, bone, or both will be reshaped when our periodontist performs a crown lengthening so that you can see more of the tooth and make it ready to hold a dental crown or tooth bridge to restore full function.

When you come in for a crown lengthening treatment, our periodontist will reshape the extra gum and bone tissue to allow more visual of the tooth by adjusting the gum and bone levels. By removing excess gum tissue or bone, more of the tooth is exposed so that a dental restoration can be placed. It doesn’t have to be limited to one tooth, either. We can perform this treatment on a single tooth, the gum line, or multiple teeth so that your smile looks natural and beautiful.

A dental crown lengthening can help you if a tooth broke off at the gumline, the structure of a tooth is too weak to support a dental restoration, or your dental crown (or filling) fell off, exposing tooth decay below it.

Dental Crown Lengthening Procedure

Before having a crown lengthening procedure done, your medical history will be reviewed, and X-rays will be taken. To lessen the chances of infection, you may also have professional teeth cleaning beforehand. You might have a temporary crown placed onto the tooth if there is sufficient tooth material to support a dental crown. Next, soft tissue or bone material may be removed.

Healing Time

Once the tooth has healed, your permanent crown can be placed to fit the lengthened tooth structure perfectly. The surgical procedure time can vary, depending on how many teeth are being treated, and whether bone and gum tissue are being taken out and reshaped. Nearby teeth may be treated as well as the “short” tooth. Before the procedure, you will be made comfortable with a sedative and local anesthesia. Full healing can take 6-12 weeks for crown lengthening in the back of the mouth and up to 3-6 months for the front.

Healthy, Beautiful Gums

When it comes to your gums, you will want to keep inflammation away from the gum line that can spread to the bone, holding your teeth in place. It means brushing and flossing daily, using an antibacterial toothpaste or mouthwash to kill harmful bacteria, and seeing your dentist twice a year for professional dental cleanings and checkups. Early gum disease can spread from gingivitis to periodontitis, then it can eventually turn into advanced periodontitis if not properly taken care of.

If your gums show signs of gum disease – bleeding, swollen, red or tender, pulling away from your teeth, chronic bad breath, loose teeth, or pus around your teeth and gums – you may have gum disease. If you are unhappy with your smile because of gummy teeth, we invite you to call our office to schedule a visit with our periodontist about a crown lengthening treatment. We can help you create a beautiful, healthy-looking smile!

Sedation Dentistry Can Help You Feel Calm And Comfortable During Oral Surgery

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Wed, 03 Jun 2020 15:09:30 GMT

Sedation dentistry uses medication to help you relax and sit still comfortably when you have dental work done. Sedation is especially helpful if you have oral surgery by relieving any anxiety and making you comfortable. There are varying degrees of medication sedation that can be used such as light or minimal sedation, medium or moderate sedation, and deep sedation.

Light or minimal sedation includes using medicated gas (like nitrous oxide) to help you feel comfortable while staying fully awake during your treatment.
Medium or moderate sedation helps you relax even while still awake, but you won’t remember everything. You may be given oral medication to help you relax further and enter a more heavily sedated state of being.
Deep sedation can be administered through an IV, and you are barely awake.
General anesthesia places you in a sleep state with the help of IV medication.

Endodontic Surgery

When it comes to your teeth, surgery may be done to save a damaged tooth and avoid extracting it. An apicoectomy or root-end resection can help when there is an infection or inflammation in the jawbone around the end of a tooth after a root canal treatment. Gum tissue near the tooth is taken out, and the end of the root may be sealed with a filling. Stitches may be placed in the gingiva so the bone can heal around the root end.

For an intentional replantation, the tooth is extracted and treated with an endodontic procedure. It is then placed back into its socket. Endodontic surgeries (like fixing a damaged root, removing one or more roots, or dividing a tooth in half) can all be done comfortably using sedation.

Periodontal Surgery

When it comes to periodontal surgery, your gums are treated for gingivitis or periodontitis. Gingivitis is the early stage of gum disease when it is still considered mild. You might notice that your gum tissues are swollen, red and even bleeding. Gum disease starts in the mouth because of poor dental hygiene habits that allow harmful plaque and tartar to build up around the gum line, irritating the tissues. Sometimes periodontal surgery may be needed to treat gingivitis or periodontitis.

Oral surgery can help with the following:

Get rid of bacteria and infection
Help stop tooth loss from occurring
Lessen gaps in the gums between your teeth (black triangles)
Regrow bones and tissues that were damaged
Reshape your jaw bone to lessen the chance of bacterial growth in the bony crevices

Types of Gum Surgery

Bone Grafting: This is when the bone material around the tooth root is destroyed and involves replacing the bone with new bone to anchor the tooth in place and allow it to regrow.
Flap Surgery: The gums are lifted off the teeth, so tartar can be removed. Then the gums are stitched back into place around the teeth (the bone may need to be reshaped).
Guided Tissue Regeneration: A small section of mesh-like material is placed between the bone and gum tissue to keep the gum from invading the bone’s space so that the bone and tissue can regrow.
Tissue Grafting: This is done to stop the gum line recession. The tissue is taken (often the palate) and attached over the receded gums and covers any roots that are exposed.

No matter what type of oral surgery you might need to repair damage in your mouth, there is no need to put it off and let further damage occur. Instead, our doctor is happy to make your surgery as comfortable as possible; before, during, and after so that you can get the best possible oral health care your smile deserves!

What Are The Signs Of Periodontal Disease That You Should Be Looking For In Your Mouth?

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Mon, 04 May 2020 15:11:57 GMT

A healthy, beautiful smile begins with healthy teeth and gums. The only way to keep them that way is to brush and floss them at least twice every day. Being lax with your oral hygiene care invites gum disease, which can potentially cause tooth loss and loss of facial structure (if those teeth aren’t replaced), and it can even harm your overall health, including your heart, lungs and blood. Fortunately, long-lasting damage to teeth and gums can be avoided.

What is periodontal disease?

Diseased gums are infections in the gum tissue surrounding the teeth and alveolar bone. This bone material is a thick ridge that holds the tooth sockets supporting your teeth. The bone is part of the maxilla and mandible, or jaws. Seeing your dentist twice a year can help prevent and detect serious gum infections so they can be treated (and even reversed if caught early enough).

While gum disease can be painful, you might also notice that your gums feel swollen, go from light pink to bright red and may even bleed when brushing your teeth. Before that happens, you may not notice it when it is still in the early stages. Plaque is the culprit, and it’s the reason why you brush and floss every day, to get rid of the sticky bacterial biofilm that coats and builds up on your teeth. Left unchecked, plaque inflames the gum tissue until it destroys your teeth, jaw and gums.

Look for these periodontal disease warning signs

Your gums look red instead of pink
You notice bleeding or pus between teeth
Your gums are pulling away from the teeth
Your gums feel sore when you eat, touch them or floss
You have abnormally bad breath
Your teeth feel loose
You notice that your bite has changed
You find that your dentures aren’t fitting correctly anymore
You have oral sores around the gumline that linger

Why is your periodontal disease happening?

Plaque buildup from poor oral hygiene habits is a huge reason you can end up at greater risk of periodontal disease. Other factors include having crooked teeth, interfering with your ability to clean properly, allowing plaque to thrive and eventually harden into tartar. For women, pregnancy hormones can affect gum health, as can diabetes. Lifestyle habits like smoking and chewing tobacco and taking certain medications can leave you struggling with poor gum health.

Treating your periodontal disease

Depending on the stage of gum disease, our periodontist may treat your infected gums non-surgically, particularly if caught early on. We may remove tartar buildup that has taken place on a tooth’s root with professional cleanings, scaling and root planing. This involves cleaning and smoothing out the tooth’s surfaces and the root below the gumline, and it can be done more than once. This is important because unchecked bacteria can infect the bone tissue and get into the bloodstream, which can harm your jawbone, heart and general health.

We can prescribe oral or topical medications like antibiotics, such as wearing a special mouth tray to treat the gum tissue and gum pockets. In more advanced stages of periodontal disease, surgery can be done to remove infected gum tissue, protect the tooth roots and stop the supportive bone from being lost. If teeth have been lost to gum disease, you may need dental implants to replace them to maintain healthy jaw function and facial structure.

Protect your oral health by practicing good oral hygiene daily and seeing your dentist regularly. If you have any concerns about your gum health, we welcome you to give our team a call to learn more or schedule a visit with our periodontist. Your teeth and gums will thank you!

Good Oral Health Starts In The Home And Continues With Great Dental Care

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 15:14:32 GMT

Good oral health is essential for a healthy smile. The mouth is home to colonies of microorganisms like bacteria and viruses, and when controlled by daily brushing and flossing, your oral health can thrive. Conversely, consuming a high sugar diet that feeds the bad bacteria creates harmful acids that erode your tooth enamel and lead to cavities. It also happens when you neglect your daily oral hygiene routine.

Gum Disease

But it’s not just your teeth that can suffer. This sticky, bacterial film (plaque) congregates around the gum line. If it isn’t removed daily, it hardens into tartar, irritating gum tissue, and leaving you with gingivitis (the early stage of gum disease). If tartar isn’t removed by a professional dental cleaning using special tools, your gums can recede or pull away from the teeth, causing gum pockets (periodontitis) that allow your teeth to loosen and possibly fall out.

Other factors leaving you more susceptible to gum disease include having a medical condition like diabetes, using medications that leave you with a chronic dry mouth or having a family history of gum disease.

Six-month dental checkups and cleanings are vital since treating dental and oral diseases early can give our team time to spot problems before they grow. We can examine your mouth, teeth, gum pockets, tongue, cheeks, throat, jaw, and neck with the help of X-rays so problems can be addressed quickly and efficiently. What kind of dental diseases are we looking to find?

Dental Diseases

Cavities: Damage to a tooth from plaque that can leave a hole in enamel that allows decay to spread.
Gingivitis: Gum disease that makes your inflamed gums bleed and become swollen that can worsen without intervention.
Periodontitis: Untreated gum disease from an infection that can spread to the bone supporting the teeth and throughout your body.
Tooth sensitivity: Pain from consuming hot or cold food and beverages, often arising from worn dental fillings or crowns, gum recession, cracks in a tooth, or having thin enamel.
Oral cancer: Chronic tobacco use or excessive alcohol consumption places you at higher risk for this disease.

Poor oral health is also connected to health problems in the body like heart disease, stroke, low birth rate babies and premature birth. Treating dental problems with fillings, crowns and dental sealants to protect molars are effective methods of treating tooth problems. A root canal can often save a damaged tooth from extraction while dental implants, bridges or dentures can replace teeth that are extracted. No matter what stage a dental problem exists, treatment is available.

What You Can Do at Home

Just as you eat right and exercise to take care of your body, you want to brush and floss daily to care for your mouth. Brushing at least twice a day and flossing once removes harmful bacterial plaque and helps preserve teeth and gums.

Dental Tools

You can boost your hygiene routine with an antibacterial mouthwash, upgrade to an electric or battery-powered toothbrush or use a water flosser to get rid of trapped food particles where brushing can’t. Follow up this daily care with biannual dental cleanings to remove plaque and detect dental problems early.

Nutrition

Follow a balanced diet that gives your body the disease-fighting tools it needs. Fiber-rich fruits and vegetables, leafy greens, lean proteins, and dairies (like cheese, milk and plain yogurt) provide essential vitamins and minerals. Drink plenty of water during the day, and add green or black teas rich in polyphenols to help get rid of bad bacteria in the mouth.

Boost healthy saliva production by limiting caffeinated drinks and alcohol and staying hydrated throughout the day. Saliva washes away harmful bacteria, and with its traces of calcium and phosphate, it replenishes minerals to parts of your teeth that have lost them from plaque. Chewing sugarless gum can also ramp up healthy saliva flow.

The bottom line is good oral health depends on doing everything you can do to prevent tooth decay and cavities from taking over your smile. Give our team a call if you have any concerns about your oral health or schedule a visit. Together we can create your healthiest smile!

Aging And Dental Health: Don’t Let Time Rob You Of The Healthy, Beautiful Smile You Deserve!

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 15:18:35 GMT

More and more people are keeping their natural teeth healthy for a lifetime of beautiful smiles. At any age, a healthy mouth is a valuable asset when it comes to looking and feeling your best. Getting older means taking care of yourself to continue feeling great. Like your body, your dental health requires daily attention to protect teeth and gums. Exercising, eating right, and practicing good daily oral hygiene habits will help you maintain a healthy body and smile so you can live your best life!

Oral Health Conditions

Aging tends to affect the mouth along with the body. Nerves located inside the teeth can narrow, preventing you from feeling cavities. Routine checkups will ensure developing cavities are spotted and treated early so you can keep your teeth healthy without losing them to disease.

Dry Mouth

Since health issues requiring prescription medications tend to crop up over time, you can end up with dry mouth from a lack of saliva production as a drug’s side effect. Healthy saliva flow is needed to rinse away bacteria and oral debris while neutralizing harmful acids. A chronic dry mouth condition can lead to root and coronal cavities and gum disease. It can be combated by staying hydrated with water while limiting alcohol, sweetened or caffeinated drinks.

Gum Disease

Gum disease is more prevalent as you age if you are not practicing good daily oral hygiene. This infection of the gum tissue, which holds the teeth in place, is the most common reason adults lose their teeth, thanks to harmful bacteria prevalent in plaque.

Gingivitis

The early stage of gum disease is gingivitis, and you might notice red, swollen, or bleeding gums when you clean your teeth. At this stage, the disease is reversible with daily oral hygiene and professional dental treatment. If you neglect to treat gingivitis, it will only worsen.

Periodontitis

The more advanced and severe stage of gingivitis is periodontitis. Unfortunately, it tends to affect over half of adults between 65 and 74. It can lead to the breakdown of the gums and bone material holding the teeth in place. The affected gum tissue can pull back from the teeth, revealing the root surfaces of the tooth. Once the root surfaces of the teeth are exposed because of gum recession, they are now more vulnerable to tooth decay. If enough supportive bone is lost, the tooth will fall out.

Oral Cancer

Adults over 40 are more susceptible to oral cancer. If you notice patches of red or white on the tongue, gums, inner cheeks, or other oral tissues, you should have an oral cancer check. Oral cancer can often be successfully treated if detected in the early stages.

What You Can Do at Home

Brush your teeth with an electric or battery-operated toothbrush along with a cavity-fighting toothpaste and oral rinse to protect those pearly whites (this kind of toothbrush is especially useful if you have a condition such as osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis which prevents ease of movement).
Floss between teeth with a flossing tool or interdental cleaner/brush to keep teeth and gums healthy.
Clean full or partial dentures daily and remove them at least four hours a day to let the gums rest.
Give up tobacco products as they can cause dry mouth, gum disease and tooth decay leading to tooth loss.
Consume a diet rich in nutrients that support your body, teeth and gums.
See your dentist regularly to spot developing problems early when they are least invasively treated.

Taking good care of your oral health as you age can help you keep your smile beautiful and strong for a lifetime! Give our team a call if you have any questions or concerns about your teeth and dental health.

National Gum Disease Awareness Month: How You Can Keep Your Gums Vibrant And Healthy!

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Tue, 11 Feb 2020 15:31:47 GMT

In honor of February’s Gum Disease Awareness Month – a global public awareness campaign for preventing gum disease – our practice wants to help spread the word about this insidious disease. That’s because it can destroy your smile if it is left untreated. Fortunately, you can take action to help prevent this from happening!

Gum disease is caused by the ongoing attacks of the bacteria that live in dental plaque. Plaque is that sticky, colorless coating you can feel on your teeth before you brush them. The reason you need to brush and floss every day is to remove this bacterial film, which otherwise attacks tooth enamel and gum tissue to break them down. Plaque that isn’t removed daily quickly hardens into tartar, which then needs to be removed at your six-month dental checkup using special tools.

Factors Leading to Gum Disease

As you may have guessed by now, the leading cause of gum disease is poor oral hygiene. However, additional factors can speed up the development of this disease, including:

Stress
A high sugar diet
Chronic tobacco use
Regular alcohol consumption
Misaligned teeth (prevents you from cleaning your teeth effectively)
Fluctuating hormone levels
Cancer & diabetes mellitus
Breathing through the mouth which dries out oral tissues

Symptoms of Gum Disease

How do you know if you have gum disease, especially since it’s often painless in the early stage? Watch out for these symptoms:

Bleeding gums when you brush and floss
Red, tender or swollen gums
Chronic bad breath or a bad taste in the mouth
Tooth sensitivity to hot/cold temperatures
Gum tissue pulling away from the teeth
Loose-feeling teeth
Altered bite pattern
Loose-fitting partial dentures
Pus around teeth and gums
Pain when chewing

All of these are signs that you are dealing with some form of gum disease.

3 Stages of Gum Disease

1. Gingivitis

This beginning stage is when you might start noticing gum inflammation, swelling, redness, and bleeding, especially when you go to brush and floss. The good news is that this stage of gum disease can be reversed since it hasn’t yet reached the supportive bone and connective tissue.

2. Periodontitis

This intermediate stage irreversibly destroys supportive bone and connective tissue. You may feel pockets forming below the gum line. Gum pockets allow the formation of plaque buildup under the gum line, which often requires interventive periodontal treatment, like scaling and root planing coupled with a stepped-up daily oral hygiene routine.

3. Advanced Periodontitis

Should there be no periodontal intervention at stage two, you will likely find yourself in this final stage of the disease. Now the connective tissue and bone material will have been destroyed. It causes your teeth to loosen and shift out of position, altering your bite, speech, and ability to chew properly. Without periodontal treatment, the teeth will likely require extraction.

Gum Disease Prevention: Be Proactive!

Thankfully, there’s a lot you can do to prevent gum disease from attacking your smile!

Stick to a diligent daily oral hygiene routine, including brushing and flossing at least twice a day.
Keep all scheduled biannual dental checkups and cleanings.
After eating (especially snacks), drink water to rinse away food particles and oral debris.
Limit bacteria-feeding sugars in your diet, and when you do indulge, chew sugarless gum to increase saliva flow that helps rinse away bacteria.
If you still use tobacco, there’s no better time than now to give it up. Your gums will thank you!

We hope spreading information about this disease in support of Gum Disease Awareness Month inspires you to be more proactive when it comes to protecting your oral health. After all, healthy teeth and gums are essential for a vibrant, beautiful smile!

Periodontal Health: A Beautiful Smile Begins With Healthy Teeth And Gums!

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Fri, 17 Jan 2020 15:36:10 GMT

While your teeth seem like the “stars” of your smile, if your gums are in poor health they can weaken your teeth and their stability. The new year is the perfect time to take stock of your oral health, especially your gums.

The easiest way to monitor your gum health is to have checkups to remove plaque build-up beneath and along the gum line (plaque is the sticky coating filled with bacteria that cling to teeth and gums.) This bacterial invasion leads to infections that damage oral tissues and bone, leading to gum disease and tooth decay.

Stages of Gum Disease

Gum disease is tricky since it’s often painless in the early stages. You might not be aware you have a deteriorating condition going on in your mouth. Yet, like most things health-related, the sooner you detect problems, the easier, least invasive and least costly they can be treated. In fact, when it comes to early gum disease (gingivitis), it can actually be reversed! That’s because at this stage the bone and tissue keeping your teeth in place aren’t affected yet.

Stage 1 – Gingivitis: Your gums start to become tender, red, swollen, inflamed and bleed when you brush and floss.

Stage 2 – Periodontitis: Gum disease advances and starts to harm the bones and tissues keeping your teeth in their place. Pockets begin to form below your gum line, harboring food and plaque that destroys gum tissue.

Stage 3 – Advanced Periodontitis: At this point, the bones and fibers holding your teeth in position are destroyed. This can change your bite pattern and loosen your teeth so that they need to be extracted. And if the teeth aren’t replaced, the remainder of your teeth can shift out of position into the resulting gaps, altering your alignment and facial structure.

Achieve Optimal Gum Health

Make tooth brushing (2x a day) and flossing (1x a day) an unfailing part of your daily oral hygiene routine.
Carefully brush your teeth, gums and tongue. Your toothbrush should be soft-bristled to avoid harming soft oral tissue. If you can’t brush your teeth properly, consider upgrading to a battery-powered or electric toothbrush that lessens gingivitis and plaque better than manual brushing alone.
Use only ADA recommended toothpaste and mouthwash. A fluoride toothpaste offers extra protection from plaque while an antibacterial mouthwash lessens plaque buildup on the gums. It also prevents and reduces gingivitis and diminishes the speed of developing tartar (check for the ADA seal of acceptance).
Make bi-annual dental visits so that gum issues can be detected and treated as early as possible.
Maintain a nutritious diet, limiting sugar and carb intake to give your gums the nutrients they need to resist disease.
Quit smoking! Tobacco weakens the immune system, making it more difficult to fight off gum infection and healing.

Proactivity with your oral health supports your ongoing efforts to achieve optimal gum health! Be aware of any signs of gum disease, such as chronic bad breath with an unpleasant taste in your mouth, inflamed gums, loose teeth or gums pulling away from your teeth. The new year is the perfect time to assess your gum health.

If your gums do need help, our skilled periodontist can examine your mouth to determine what kind of treatment is needed to restore your oral health. Give our team a call to schedule a consultation, and let us help you achieve your best gum health!

Safeguard Your Mouth This Winter By Limiting Cavity-causing Sugar, Eating Healthy And Wearing An Athletic Guard

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Fri, 20 Dec 2019 15:51:07 GMT

Winter is here and if you are exposed to the harsher weather, you could find yourself experiencing more cold and canker sores, chapped lips and dry mouth from the colder, drier conditions of the season. The good news is, there are steps you can take to protect your mouth, teeth, and gums during this time.

1. Cold and Canker Sore Protection

When your smile is exposed to the winter sun you can find yourself with cold sore breakouts. Stress is another trigger for mouth sores, so all the holiday shopping, decorating, baking, entertaining, and extra socializing can bring on stress. Mouth sores can show up as red, fluid-filled blisters on the mouth and lips, or as ulcers on your cheeks, lips, gums, tongue, the bottom of your mouth, or soft palate, and even be accompanied by pain.

Getting plenty of sleep and eating a nutrient-rich diet with vitamins and minerals can build up your immune system. This is important as a weakened immune system are more vulnerable to viral infection.

Canker sores can also arise because of overindulgence in wintery treats if the food is high in acid (hello hot cider and spicy treats)! These are generally small and painful ulcers in the mouth that look red, white, or yellow.

Tip: Treat oral sores and help speed up healing by gargling with salt water and applying a paste of baking soda and water to the ulcer. Over-the-counter medications can help soothe any pain.

2. Limiting Sweets

Another way your smile takes a hit in the winter is from all the excess sugar consumed during the holidays, like hot cocoa and sugary treats. Be mindful of how much sugar you expose your pearly whites to on a daily basis. It doesn’t just feed your sweet tooth but also feeds cavity-causing oral bacteria!

We recommend limiting your consumption of these sugary treats:

Holiday candy: Candy canes, peppermint bark, chocolate, fudge, truffles
Chewy, sticky candy: Caramel, jellybeans, divinity, toffee
Dried fruit: Trail mix, apricots, figs, raisins and prunes
Alcohol: A double whammy, alcohol is high in sugar and dries out your mouth

Notice we’re not saying to avoid sugar altogether, just limit your consumption. When you do indulge, take a moment to rinse your mouth well with water or brush your teeth to clear any sugary residue.

Tip: Hydration provides a healthier oral environment, so drink plenty of water! Since winter is cold-and-flu season, stick to sugar-free cold/fever medicines and sugar-free cough drops and lozenges for your throat. Your mouth will thank you!

3. Oral Protection During Sports

Protecting your smile from injury is a big deal when you participate in sports that can result in cracked, broken or knocked-out teeth, lacerated oral tissues or even jaw injury. The best protection for teeth and gums and to prevent oral injury is wearing an athletic guard (and a helmet) during sporting activities.

Along with winter sports like skiing, snowboarding and ice skating which can lead to mouth, head and jaw injuries,, an athletic guard can safeguard your smile when you engage in the following:

Biking
Skateboarding
Rollerblading
Football
Hockey
Boxing
Basketball
Volleyball
Baseball
Softball
Martial arts
Lacrosse
Wrestling

Tip: The main reason people forgo wearing mouth guards is that they can be uncomfortable, and that is often true for the stock and bite-and-boil or over-the-counter versions. However, a customized athletic guard from the dentist can solve that problem as it will be made to fit comfortably in the mouth while letting you breathe with ease.

Winter is a fun-filled time of year, but it can also bring elements that harm your teeth and gums. Call our team if you have any questions or concerns about protecting your smile. Take extra care of your mouth this season and ring in the New Year with a beautiful smile all-year-round!

What Are Periodontists And What Can They Do For Your Gums?

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Mon, 25 Nov 2019 15:53:08 GMT

Dentists who concentrate in the areas of the mouth specific to the gum, bone, and tissues that protect and support your teeth are called periodontists. Periodontists immerse themselves in an additional three or more years of in-depth, graduate studies after dental school. It allows them to graduate with knowledge of how to perform both cosmetic and restorative periodontal procedures. They can help patients recover from periodontal disease, both aesthetically and functionally.

Our periodontist is an expert in diagnosing and treating the diseases of these supportive tooth structures, along with periodontal medicine and the use of dental implants to replace lost teeth. When it comes to periodontal (gum) disease, we are talking about a group of diseases that end up with the same issues; losing vital gum tissue, connective tissues, and bone that support the teeth and protect them from gum infection.

Periodontal disease – or periodontitis – arises from dental plaque, which is a bacterial biofilm that accumulates around the teeth and gums and thrives if not removed daily with consistent oral hygiene care. Plaque causes the body’s immune system to react with an infection that destroys oral tissues. It is concerning, especially as we now see the connection between periodontal disease and other diseases in the body like diabetes and heart disease. With almost 50 percent of Americans struggling with periodontal disease, you can see why working with an expert dentist in the field of periodontics can impact both oral and general health.

Periodontal Treatments

Root surface: Debridement; removing damaged oral tissue.
Scaling and root planing: Cleans out the infected areas of a tooth’s root.
Gum graft surgery: Covers exposed tooth roots.
Regenerative procedures: Restores lost bone and tissue around a damaged tooth.
Dental crown lengthening: Reduces a “gummy” smile.
Dental Implant placement: Replaces a lost tooth with an artificial tooth root to anchor a replacement tooth or bridge.
Pocket reduction: Reduces pocket depth and removes existing bacteria.
Ridge augmentation: Fills in an indentation in the gums and jaw bone from a lost tooth.

When to See Our Periodontist

Your bite feels “off,” and your teeth feel different when you bite, chew, speak, or brush them.
You notice that your gums are swollen, red, or bleeding when you brush or floss.
Your teeth feel loose or shift in the mouth.
Your gums pull away from your teeth, forming pockets of bacteria and oral debris, and making the teeth look longer.
You have pain in your gums around a tooth, or tooth sensitivity when consuming hot or cold foods and drinks.
You have chronic halitosis (bad breath).

Do Not Delay

When it comes to periodontal disease, early detection and treatment are fundamental for the best possible outcome. Early treatment is minimally invasive, least painful, and least costly for keeping the gum tissue and teeth safe from further damage.

If you suspect you might have periodontal disease, we urge you to contact our office to schedule an appointment for a thorough evaluation and treatment. If you have problems with your gums, our skilled periodontal team can help prevent underlying bone from thinning as well as gum tissue from deteriorating further. We are ready to help your smile thrive!

A Gum Graft Can Fix Receding Gums And Restore Your Beautiful Smile

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 15:56:45 GMT

Good oral hygiene is essential to healthy gums. When gum problems arise, such as gum recession, it can affect your oral health and your appearance. Receding gums result in the gum tissue wearing away and leaving your tooth roots exposed and vulnerable to root decay. These nerve endings often leave you with tooth sensitivity from temperature extremes when you eat or drink hot and cold items. In addition, you can find the difference between your roots and the tooth enamel more noticeable.

The issue with gum recession is that it often develops slowly over time, so you may not even be aware it is happening. This is why seeing a dentist regularly can help spot the signs and symptoms during your annual exam and address whether or not you have gum recession. Left untreated, gum recession can lead to tooth loss!

Signs of Gum Disease

Red, swollen and tender gums that are bleeding
Receding gums
Chronic bad breath or taste
Teeth that feel loose
Pus around teeth and gums

Gum Graft to the Rescue

In order to treat this problem, you may need a gum tissue graft – also called a gingival graft – and this dental surgery can improve your smile’s appearance and protect the exposed tooth by stemming the effects of receding gums. This quick and simple treatment allows our periodontist to take healthy gum tissue from your palate (roof of your mouth) or nearby healthy gum tissue and then affix it to the areas of worn away gum tissue, building it up and correcting receding gums.

Three Types of Gum Grafts

Connective tissue graft: A small flap is opened in the palate and a section of connective tissue is taken out under the top layer of the tissue. Next, it is attached to the area needing the additional tissue.
Free gingival graft: A small section of tissue is removed from your mouth and attached to the area requiring gum tissue.
Pedicle graft: A flap of plentiful tissue next to the receding gums is created to cover the receding gum tissue.

Post Gum Graft

To ensure your comfort, you will be given local anesthesia to numb the area where the procedure will be done so you will need to have someone drive you to and from your appointment. You’ll want to stick to healthy beverages (water, juice, milk, etc.) and soft foods (eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese, etc.) the first week or two of your recovery period while the graft heals.

Ultimately, a gum graft can help strengthen gums protecting a tooth, diminish gum recession from teeth, lessen sensitivity by covering exposed tooth roots, and improve your smile’s appearance.

To protect your gum tissue, brush your teeth gently using a soft-bristled toothbrush (you really don’t need to aggressively scrub). You do want to keep bacterial plaque from collecting on the enamel and around the gum line, but a daily oral hygiene routine, coupled with biannual dental cleanings, can easily take care of that without damaging gum tissue.

If you have any questions about gum recession or suspect you have gum disease, our periodontal team is here to help! Just give us a call and we are happy to schedule your appointment with our skilled periodontist. We are here to help you maintain your healthy, beautiful smile!

It’s National Gum Care Month!

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Thu, 05 Sep 2019 16:00:11 GMT

September brings the month of National Gum Care, a time to raise awareness for healthy gums everywhere. No matter your age, you should always be striving for great oral care, and this doesn’t just mean your teeth. Your gums are just as important when it comes to maintaining a great smile.

As new research develops, we see a rise in medical conditions related to infected gums – such as heart disease, diabetes, pregnancy complications and more – and how preventing gum (periodontal) disease is vital for both your oral and overall health. It is believed that the inflammation caused by bacteria can destroy gum tissue and then invade the bloodstream, eventually affecting other parts of your body. You can help prevent this invasion by taking excellent care of your teeth and gums.

Healthy Gums vs. Diseased Gums

Do you know what healthy gums look like? Gums should be firm and pink with no bleeding and no discomfort. Signs of bad gums include loose or shifting teeth, chronic bad breath, a bad taste in your mouth, bleeding gums, redness, swelling, pus around teeth and gums, receding gums, and gum tenderness. If you have dentures, they may not fit correctly.

If your gums become paler than they usually are, contact your dentist right away. It is important to get treatment at the first sign of gum disease.

Preventing Gum Disease

You can help take care of your gums by following these guidelines:

Healthy Brushing: Be sure to brush at least twice a day, waiting to brush for at least 30 minutes after your meal (brushing right away can cause corrosion from leftover food).
Flossing Correctly: Floss at least once a day to remove debris between the teeth and near the gums. It is recommended you floss before brushing so your toothbrush can wipe away leftover bacteria and debris. Gently floss between each tooth, using clean sections of floss each time. Avoid snapping the floss down onto the gums.
Seeing Your Dentist: You should receive a dental exam and cleaning every six months if not more often. Notify your dentist if you have concerns about your teeth and gums or you are experiencing pain or discomfort.
Healthy Diet : Consume a regular diet of healthy foods and liquids. More sugar in your diet tends to lead to more lingering and sticky bacteria. Rinse your mouth with water after eating and drinking other beverages.
Avoiding Substances: A great way to help your teeth and gums stay healthy is avoiding tobacco and limiting your alcohol intake. This includes smoking and vaping. Try to avoid drinking too much soda and energy beverages, candies, sugary snacks, and fast food.
Other Tips: Replace your toothbrush every two to three months, depending on the wear. Exercise regularly to increase blood flow and encourage saliva flow. Choose a toothpaste that is best for your dental needs.

Treatments for Healthier Gums

Even if you haven’t had a cavity in your life, you are still vulnerable to gum disease. If your home dental care isn’t enough, there are alternative treatments to help rid your mouth of infection. These include the following options:

Professional dental cleaning
Scaling and root planing
Pocket reduction
Gum graft
Soft tissue graft
Prescribed medication, toothpaste or mouthwash
Root canal therapy (if needed)

These options can help keep you and your smile in optimal health. Your gums are important in keeping your teeth in place. We invite you to consult with our team about what treatment may be best for you.

If you have questions or concerns about your gum health, feel free to give our experienced team a call. We will be happy to help you get the gum care you deserve, so reach out today and get your dental health where it deserves to be!

Using Scaling And Root Planing To Treat Gum Disease

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Mon, 19 Aug 2019 16:02:16 GMT

Have you been diagnosed with gum disease or periodontal disease? If so, you are not alone. A 2015 study affirmed that chronic periodontitis afflicted 47.2% of adults who were over 30 years old in the U.S. This oral condition, which is a result of the harmful effects of plaque – a sticky bacterial film that is always growing on our teeth – is why your dentist tells you to brush and floss daily.

Scaling and Root Planing

As a non-surgical treatment, a deep cleaning – called scaling and root planing – becomes necessary when bacteria and their toxic by-products damage the root surfaces. This procedure specifically focuses on the area under the gum line and along the root. The bacteria can also harden and stick to teeth like the calculus that builds up on the teeth. The next step is removing bacteria off of the diseased root surfaces by actually planing the roots beneath the gums to allow the gum tissues to heal. The cementum and surface dentin that is laden with microorganisms, toxins and tartar are carefully removed and smoothed out. This allows the gum tissue to recover and heal and keep bacteria from accumulating in the future.

Our periodontist will be able to know when the root surface is thoroughly cleaned by the way it feels and how the gum tissues appear when all the hard deposits are gone. You may have tooth sensitivity and discomfort for a few days to a week; rinsing with a saline solution or antimicrobial mouthwash can help.

Preventing Future and Further Treatment

Aside from the healing of the gum tissue, the deep cleaning of a scaling and root planing treatment can eliminate the need for more costly dental treatment down the road. It actively prevents the advancement of gum disease and restores healthy gum tissue. It also helps keep your natural teeth intact by preventing decay, infection, and gum pockets between the gums and the tooth roots. Scaling and root planing is also relatively painless since we use a local anesthetic to minimize any potential discomfort. Any pain or bleeding you might experience after treatment generally diminishes after the first few days.

Our periodontal team is here to help you maintain healthy gums for a healthier smile. We have extensive experience and excellent results in treating patients with gum disease. Together, we can help you achieve the smile you want with the quality treatment and care you deserve. Give us a call today to schedule an appointment or if you have any questions concerning your teeth and gums. We are always happy to help!

You Can Have Your Tooth Extracted With Confidence

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Thu, 11 Jul 2019 16:04:30 GMT

When it comes to your oral health, we want to help you keep your teeth and gums healthy so that you can preserve your natural teeth as long as possible. Although you do everything you can to keep up your smile, sometimes a tooth ends up needing to be extracted.

If you are facing a tooth extraction – whether for an incisor, molar or bicuspid – you can be assured that today’s extractions are much more simple and easily done than in the past. Thanks to advances in modern dental techniques and technology, you can have this procedure done with confidence. Today’s state-of-the-art procedures, local anesthesia and our team will help you feel as comfortable as possible.

Why Teeth Are Extracted

Cosmetic flaws
Bite problems
Impacted teeth
Overcrowding of teeth
Severe fracture inside a tooth
A root canal can’t save the tooth
Extensive tooth decay or gum infection
Insufficient space for orthodontic treatment
Severe gum disease resulting in loose teeth
Extra teeth blocking other teeth from erupting
Insufficient room to place a dental bridge or denture

Simple or Surgical Extraction?

A simple extraction is done on teeth that you can see in your mouth and are either severely decayed or have sustained an injury. In this case, a local anesthetic is often used. The tooth can then be loosened using special tools so that it can more easily come out and any infected tissue can be cleared out.

A surgical extraction is done on teeth which have broken around the gum line or haven’t yet erupted through the gums. Wisdom teeth fall under this category. This type of extraction is generally done under local or general anesthesia to ensure comfort. An incision will be made in the gums to allow access to the tooth, and then it will be removed along with any bone debris or decayed material and the site cleaned. The wound may then be closed with sutures to promote healing.

What Happens After

Following a tooth extraction, you will be given information on how to facilitate your recuperation. By following the pre- and post-extraction instructions which our periodontist provides, it will help you heal faster and more comfortably while avoiding complications.

Since tooth decay and gum disease can lead to other severe health issues, dental and periodontal care is crucial to having good overall health. Even so, tooth extractions are typically done as a last resort because saving your natural tooth is our top priority.

After a tooth has been extracted, there is a gap left behind that will likely want to close this gap with the help of a tooth replacement such as a dental implant. An implant can maintain your oral and bone health, restore facial aesthetics, and serve as anchors for a crown, bridge or dentures.

If you would like to know more about having a tooth extracted, we welcome you to contact our periodontal team today and schedule your consultation. We look forward to helping you restore your smile!

What Happens When I Forget To Floss?

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Mon, 17 Jun 2019 16:06:24 GMT

Our team strongly encourages everyone to floss daily, but do you ever wonder why? Well, flossing is vital for top-notch oral health and smiles. It can help you and your oral health in more ways than you might realize. This means that if you forget to floss, your smile can also suffer. Forgetting to floss can:

– Leave your smile vulnerable to developing cavities: If you don’t remove food particles, plaque, bacteria and other harmful substances from between teeth, they can attack the tooth enamel and create a hole in the surface, creating what is known as a cavity. The cavity can affect one or more teeth and can spread, infecting multiple layers of the teeth. If you’re not careful, it can affect the tooth nerve, tooth pulp and even the root canal.

– Make you fall victim to gum disease: If you don’t remove plaque from the surfaces of the teeth as well as from the gumline, it can severely affect the gums. In fact, it can irritate and infect the gums to make them swell and bleed. It can also turn into tartar and make the gums recede from the base of the teeth. As time passes, that tartar can spread to the jawbone and deteriorate it, causing loose and even lost teeth. It’s very important to remove plaque daily before it affects the gums.

– Compromise the entire health of your body: If you don’t treat your gum disease quickly, it can contribute to serious health issues like heart disease, diabetes, stroke, respiratory disease and rheumatoid arthritis.

When it comes to proper flossing, some tips we have include the following:

– Use about 16-18 inches of floss and wind most of it around your middle fingers

– Using your thumbs and index fingers, gently use back-and-forth motions to slide the floss between your teeth (avoid snapping the floss onto your gums)

– Following the curves of your teeth, gently floss between each tooth and along the gums

– As you move between each tooth, use a clean area of the floss

– Keep floss or travel floss picks on hand for when you get food particles stuck during the day

Proper flossing helps you not only achieve better oral and overall health but can help avoid costly treatments. If you do need a specific treatment, our team will help you find the most cost-effective solution.

Make sure to floss regularly and at least once a day! That way, you can have the top-notch smile and oral health you deserve. To learn more about flossing, please reach out and talk to a member of our team. We will be more than happy to give you and your family the answers and information that you need for a great smile!

A Simple Frenectomy Can Make A Big Difference In Your Mouth

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Sun, 05 May 2019 16:10:14 GMT

Our periodontist commonly performs frenectomies on patients of a variety of ages, and this minor surgical procedure alters the oral structure for the better. The frenum is connective tissue in the mouth that has three main categories.

These include the buccal frenum connecting the gum tissue to the inside of the cheeks while the labial frenums (two of them) connect the upper lip to the gums as the other one connects the lower lip to the gums. The lingual frenum connects the tongue to the floor of the mouth.

Removing the frenulum does not result in loss of function as this connective tissue has no major purpose. If the frenum interferes with normal oral function, removing it can make a big difference! With a frenectomy, our doctor removes one (or more) of the frenums. The procedure may take only ten minutes to perform using a local anesthetic. Oral stitches may be used to encourage timely healing, and most generally dissolve on their own.

Frenectomies can treat the following:

Ankyloglossia: Here the lingual frenum is so tight in infants that it prevents proper feeding and early speech development. It can also cause a condition called being “tongue-tied.”
Gum Tension: A labial frenum that develops too low often pulls the gum tissue from the nearby teeth (gum recession), affecting their proper structure and function. If the labial frenum passes between the two front teeth, this can keep them from correctly closing.
Between Teeth: A labial frenum erupts between two teeth, preventing the proper eruption of adult teeth.
Fit Interference: This occurs when a frenum develops in an incorrect location and interferes with an oral appliance fitting correctly, such as dentures, bridges or braces.

Frenectomies are typically performed with a scalpel or laser, and when done on a younger child with gapped teeth, the gap may close on its own. In the case of adults or younger children, braces may be recommended to close the gap.

Following surgery, there is typically little discomfort and swelling. Patients sometimes compare this healing time to the time needed to recover from “pizza mouth,” which happens when you eat steaming hot slices. To boost healing, our doctor may advise swishing an oral rinse in your mouth to destroy germs. Follow-up appointments may be scheduled to monitor proper healing.

You may be amazed how such a simple surgical procedure can have such a huge impact on your smile! To learn more, we welcome you to give our skilled team a call today to schedule a consultation.

Periodontal Disease And What It Means For Your Mouth And Body

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Sun, 07 Apr 2019 16:12:46 GMT

A healthy smile is not just about your teeth. In fact, without your gums to keep your teeth in place, your smile would be, well, toothless. Periodontal disease (also known as gum disease) affects not only your oral health but your overall health, and research increasingly shows that the two are linked.

Look for Signs

You can fall prey to this health concern if oral bacteria – more commonly referred to as dental plaque – builds up in areas between the teeth and gums. While you can’t really see it, you can likely feel this bacterial film when you run your tongue across your teeth. It is slightly sticky, colorless and consists of oral bacteria. As plaque sticks to teeth and gums, it can irritate or inflame the gum tissue.

In the early stage of periodontal disease or gingivitis, the gums can become inflamed, swell and bleed easily and look redder than usual. Since gingivitis is fairly painless at this stage, you might not even notice it unless you are looking at your gums. Many times, gingivitis at this stage is a result of poor oral hygiene. The good news is it is also reversible this early on, which usually means a professional deep cleaning and stepping up your oral hygiene is in order. Pretty easy, right?

Now that’s the good news. The bad news is if you don’t take action at this stage of the disease, gingivitis will only progress. This is not the time to ignore these signs, particularly if you have other illnesses or conditions. These can contribute to or make it worse. If gingivitis is left untreated, it will progress into periodontal disease and affect more than just your gums.

Progression of Gum Disease

As the bacteria reproduce quickly, the produced toxins create a chronic inflammatory response in the body, breaking down the tissues and the bone holding the teeth in place, eventually destroying them. If this continues unchecked, the gums will recede, or pull away from the teeth, leaving a space or pocket between the gums and the teeth. As these pockets inflame and become infected, they grow deeper into the gum tissue, and supportive bone can then deteriorate. When it progresses to the point where teeth loosen, they may need to be taken out altogether.

Periodontal disease is usually only known for affecting your oral health, but it can also influence other parts of your body. This infection can enter into your bloodstream through the gums. Bacteria can stick to fatty plaques, build up and create blockages in the bloodstream, which in turn triggers an inflammatory response. Blood vessels swell because of this response, increasing the likelihood of blood clots and reducing blood flow throughout the body.

By taking care of your oral health, you give your body a better chance of battling gum disease and preventing overall health issues. To learn more, feel free to give us a call for more information. We’ll be happy to help you in your path to better overall health today!

A Sinus Lift Can Help Support Dental Implants

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 16:15:17 GMT

When patients come in with damaged or missing teeth, dental implants are often an excellent solution. But sometimes implants aren’t an option for those with insufficient bone height in the top jaw, or if the sinuses are too close to the jaw. For these patients to receive successful dental implantation, a sinus lift is recommended. With a sinus lift (also known as a sinus augmentation), bone material is grafted to the top bone around the sinuses so that it can support a dental implant.

We offer sinus lifts to fortify the upper jawbone for those patients who have suffered tooth and bone loss. Tooth loss can occur from dental trauma, periodontal disease or severe tooth decay. The back teeth (molars) are especially vulnerable since they are harder to reach and keep clean. In addition, the back of the upper jaw already has less bone density than the lower jaw. All of this can result in a lack of height in the upper jawbone that is needed to support dental implants.

Our periodontist may suggest a sinus lift if you have any of the following:

Severe bone loss in the upper jaws from having lost teeth. This can occur when the supportive bone material starts reabsorbing back into the body and weakens the jawbone. This is often the case when teeth have been missing for a while, and it prevents implants from being viable.
Sinuses that are spaced too close together or too close to the upper jaw bone. Shape and size of the sinus matter as well, and the sinuses can get bigger over time.

We use sinus lifts to build the upper jawbone around the maxillary sinus on either side of the nose, above the top teeth and behind the cheeks. If the jaw bone softens and the remaining teeth become loose in the upper part of the jaw, this softening causes the maxillary sinuses to sink.

Sinus lift surgery adds extra bone to the upper jaws where the molars and premolars were formerly located. The sinus membrane is lifted or moved upward to create space for the new bone. This help creates bone height needed for a dental implant. Following the completion of the sinus lift, our experienced team can provide aftercare to ensure your recovery is quick, comfortable and successful.

If you would like dental implants to restore missing teeth and need to have a sinus lift performed to have a solid foundation for the implants, please reach out to our team today. We will be happy to answer your questions and schedule a consultation with our doctor, so give us a call today!

A Ridge Augmentation May Be Recommended After Tooth Loss

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Sun, 03 Feb 2019 16:17:00 GMT

There are times when a permanent adult tooth may need to be pulled whether it’s due to a severely decayed tooth, infected tooth pulp, severe gum disease or to make room for braces (to prevent overcrowding). A tooth might also be extracted if someone is going to have an organ transplant or chemotherapy/radiation.

Occasionally, when a patient has a tooth (or several teeth) extracted or even lost, there may be an unsightly indentation left behind in the gum tissue and jawbone area from the missing tooth. This can be difficult to clean. An indentation may be left behind because the supportive jawbone will recede without a tooth in place to support and hold. This indentation will often stand out as it doesn’t look natural in your smile and can make any replacement teeth appear too long compared to the natural teeth surrounding it.

The empty socket left behind typically heals and fills up with bone material and tissue. If the socket walls are thin and break when a tooth is removed and doesn’t heal, the tissue will continue to deteriorate in height and width. Our team can fix this by performing a common surgical procedure known as an alveolar ridge augmentation.

In the jawbone, the alveolar ridge surrounds a tooth’s roots, and a ridge augmentation will allow the original height and width of the ridge to be rebuilt, so there is enough bone to support the base of a dental implant. By filling in the dent, it will restore the natural gum and jaw contours, allowing a new tooth to fill in for the lost or extracted tooth.

Another case is if you have deformities in your lower or upper jaw, resulting in diminished bone structure needed to hold a dental implant. In addition to developmental defects, damage to the jawbone can arise due to injury or trauma to the area, severe gum disease or denture wear.

When performing a ridge augmentation (usually done under local anesthesia), the affected gum tissue is lifted away from the ridge, allowing access to the bone. Our team then fills the area with bone material or another substitute to eliminate the dent. Bone grafting options can be done to regenerate the bone and tissue that were lost, and then the gum tissue is secured over the socket with sutures. The bone may take 4-12 months to grow, after which the alveolar ridge can support a dental implant.

Once you have restored the lost bone material and have a successful dental implant done to support an artificial tooth, your smile will once again be natural-looking and functional! It will also help preserve your facial structure and prevent bone deterioration. Please call our experienced team if you have any questions or concerns about tooth extraction or replacing a tooth.

What’s The Scoop On Crown Lengthening?

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Wed, 09 Jan 2019 16:18:33 GMT

Crown lengthening is a common procedure done under local anesthesia to remove or reshape gum tissue, bone (or both) to expose more of the remaining tooth or teeth. It can be performed on one or more teeth on the gum line. This treatment is often recommended if you have a “gummy smile” where your teeth look shorter because of excess gum tissue covering your teeth. Once this excess gum tissue is removed, your tooth structure will look like a normal tooth.

Crown lengthening may also be done to support a dental filling or crown, or if you have a tooth that is broken near the gum line. This treatment can also be used if there’s not sufficient tooth structure available for a needed restoration such as a dental crown or bridge. It reveals more of the tooth so lengthening can be performed. It’s also helpful when there is leftover decay from a missing crown or filling.

The time length of this procedure can vary depending on how many teeth are being treated. It also depends on whether soft tissue and bone material are removed or reshaped around the roots. Even if one tooth is the objective, the neighboring teeth may also need to have some tissue removed. Incisions will be made in the gum area to allow the tissue to be pulled back from the teeth, revealing the tooth roots and supporting bone material.

Once the treatment is done and the numbing anesthetic wears off, you may take prescribed pain medication to treat any discomfort post-surgery and possibly antibiotics to prevent infection from developing. To facilitate the healing process, you may be prescribed an oral rinse to use.

Initially, you may experience sensitivity to temperature extremes, such as hot or cold foods and beverages. Mainly because now more of the tooth is exposed. Keep an eye out for excessive bleeding at the site where the incision was performed as well as infection. If you find yourself with a fever, excessive swelling, pain or discharge from the surgical site, please contact us right away. You may have an infection and antibiotics can help treat it. Once the site is fully healed, generally several months after the crown lengthening, your permanent crown or filling will be placed if needed.

If you have a short tooth, severe tooth decay underneath the gum line, or a tooth that is fractured and broken off under the gum line, you may benefit from a crown lengthening treatment.

Also, if you need to have future restorative work performed such as crowns, veneers or fillings, this gum treatment can give you the appealing length of gums around the teeth to create optimal symmetry at your gum line. If you have any questions for our team, give us a call today. We look forward to helping you with your oral care needs!

A Frenectomy Can Restore A Healthy Smile In No Time

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Mon, 03 Dec 2018 06:43:53 GMT

When it comes to taking care of the oral tissues, one of the things that often comes up is a frenectomy. This dental surgical procedure is done to remove a section of the frenulum, that small fold of mucous membrane which joins the floor of the mouth to the midline of the bottom of the tongue. To restore proper function of the oral tissues, a frenectomy is done to help children and adults improve their quality of life. It can be done in a hospital with anesthesia or with a laser using laser light energy instead of a scalpel.

An abnormal frenulum can make eating and speaking painful, and the spaces between teeth may affect one’s self-image when looking into a mirror. If a child’s frenulum is too short and thick, it can interfere with proper tooth brushing which can also hurt the soft tissues and lead to poor oral hygiene. If the movement of the lip is limited, it can lead to constant mouth breathing. In children, chronic mouth breathing can result in crooked teeth, facial deformities, and poor growth, while adults can end up with halitosis and gum disease.

A lingual frenum connects the tongue to the floor of the mouth while a labial frenum connects the inside of the upper lip to center of the gums and jaw between the upper two front teeth. This may interfere with proper eating, talking and oral hygiene care. If you’ve ever heard of being “tongue-tied,” that is what this is! Surgery is done if the frenulum is too high, causing a wide gap between these two teeth called diastema that can lead to gum recession.

Removal of the labial frenum is typically done after the permanent upper front teeth have grown out because sometimes the gap is no longer there once the permanent teeth come in and braces can be used to close the gap. If the labial frenum causes pain in a younger child’s upper lip, however, surgical removal is recommended. The lingual frenectomy will help them eat and speak properly, improving their communication and expression and allowing them to get the nutrients their growing bodies need by enabling proper eating function. A labial frenectomy is usually done on people who need to wear braces or dentures. The surgery helps denture wearers and reduces receding gums.

Whether for a child or an adult, a frenectomy can restore a healthy smile. It can help an infant whose frenulum interferes with breastfeeding, improve one’s bite function and stabilize dentures, reduce oral discomfort, and improve facial appearance by correct tooth placement and restore self-esteem and confidence.

If you are interested in learning more about a possible frenectomy for yourself or your child, we invite you to reach out to our experienced team to get a consultation. We are happy to optimize your oral health for a lifetime of a healthier and happier smile!

Is A Bone Graft The Answer To Your Periodontal Disease?

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 06:46:24 GMT

Periodontal (gum) disease is the number one cause of bone loss in the mouth. If you are experiencing gum disease, you can have chronic bacterial infections that impact your gum tissue as well as the supportive bone material underneath. Once plaque (the sticky bacterial film in the mouth) reaches beneath the gum line, it creates toxins which inflame the gums as the body responds. When this happens, eventually the gum tissue and the bone material that support your teeth will deteriorate, especially once gum pockets are formed and the gums recede from the teeth.

Your body is always creating new bone cells and reabsorbing the old ones, including the bones in your jaw. Whenever you experience tooth loss, the supportive bone begins to reabsorb without regeneration because the natural stimulation for bone growth generated when the teeth chew is lost. In fact, the width of the bone can diminish by 25% in the first year after you lose a tooth.

If your gum disease is severe, the diseased tissue and the bacteria in the mouth can also cause reabsorption. In this situation, our team may recommend a dental bone graft to restore the bone material so it can support a tooth or implant, especially if your gum disease was discovered in the advanced stage. A dental bone graft can effectively replace the lost bone tissue and stimulate natural growth of the bone.

Bone Graft Treatment

Dental regeneration via a bone graft is where the bone around the lost tooth is regenerated by replacing the missing bone material with bone material from another bone in your body, typically from your chin, pelvis, or third molar area (an autogenous bone graft), and sometimes synthetic bone from a lab or even a from a bone bank (an allograft). Depending on the location in the mouth – as well as how much bone has been lost and whether the bone grafting is done right after a tooth removal or if time has passed since you sought treatment – will determine how the bone graft will be done. Bone grafts may be performed to support dental implants, a sinus lift, a ridge augmentation or nerve repositioning.

Procedure

The bone graft is generally done under a local anesthetic unless there are large amounts of bone needing to be grafted. Once the grafting material is harvested or prepared for implantation, a tiny incision is made into your gums so the tissue can be separated from the bone material and the bone grafting material is inserted and the incision closed by suturing. Following the bone graft, you may feel some mild discomfort for a few days, but that can be treated with an anti-inflammatory such as ibuprofen. You may also be prescribed an antibiotic to protect against infection.

If you have incurred tooth loss or have loose teeth from periodontal disease or another type of infection or deterioration, you may benefit from a dental bone graft. Please give our experienced team a call to find out more or to schedule a consultation. We are here to help you restore your healthy smile!

Gingival Flap Surgery Can Correct Severe Gum Recession

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Mon, 08 Oct 2018 06:48:22 GMT

A habit of poor oral hygiene often leads to dangerous amounts of tartar on your gum line, which is a common cause of gum disease. This periodontal infection needs to be treated early on to reduce inflammation before it causes your gums to recede from the teeth and create harmful oral health conditions including tooth loss.

If advanced gum disease has resulted in gum recession, a procedure known as gingival flap surgery may be used to repair your oral health. Gingival flap surgery is one of the most effective treatments to restore healthy gums following infection. This surgery involves separating the gums from the teeth and temporarily folded back to allow our dentist to reach the root of the damaged tooth and have access to the supportive bone.

Gingival flap surgery is often recommended to treat people who have moderate or advanced gum disease, or periodontitis, and often after scaling and root planing (a non-surgical treatment) has been done first. If scaling and root planing have not alleviated the infection in the gums, gingival flap surgery can make a big difference, and can also be done along with osseous (bone) surgery.

Our periodontist will make sure that your oral hygiene is in good shape by removing any hardened plaque (calculus) that surround your teeth. Our doctor will also assess your overall health and the kinds of medicines you are currently taking to make sure that surgery is right for you. Your surgery is done on an outpatient basis along with sedation so you won’t be able to drive afterward which means you’ll need to bring a family member or friend who can take you home.

The Surgical Procedure

When you have gingival flap surgery, our periodontist will make a small incision in your gums to separate them from your teeth, lifting them back in the form of a flap. This gives our doctor access to the roots and bone supporting the teeth and allows our doctor to remove the areas of inflamed, infected tissue surrounding the tooth roots. After the surgical area and root surfaces are completely cleaned out to remove diseased tissue, any holes or defects in the bone are smoothed out (also known as osseous recontouring) and covered with your remaining healthy gum tissue placed back against the teeth.

To make your recovery easier, we may prescribe anti-inflammatory medicine, painkillers or antibiotics to protect your mouth from infection and to help you remain comfortable as you heal. You will want to keep your mouth as clean as you can while your surgical site is healing. You can brush and floss as usual. You may be prescribed an antimicrobial oral rinse with chlorhexidine to control bacteria and plaque growth.

For more information or to learn if you would benefit from gingival flap surgery to eliminate or reduce pockets of diseased gum tissue and help you restore your periodontal health, we invite you to give our practice a call today. Our team is ready to help you create a better periodontal form, function and aesthetic when it comes to your oral health!

Dental Implant Placement Basics As A Step-by-step Process

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Wed, 12 Sep 2018 06:50:15 GMT

If you have ever lost a tooth, you might have more than just a gap between your teeth. If a lost tooth is not replaced, the bone in the jaw that supported the lost tooth starts to deteriorate. That’s because when you chew your food, there’s no more stimulation to the bone from the missing tooth’s chewing action. Over time, the gaps in your mouth change as the surrounding teeth shift into the empty space, causing your bite alignment to shift with it. When this happens, missing teeth can not only affect how you look but can cause problems when you chew and even when you speak.

What can you do to prevent this from happening to your smile? You want something to take that missing tooth’s place, and one of the best options available today is a dental implant. Acting like a tooth, implants stimulate your jawbone from the pressure they exert when you chew by acting as the base of a regular tooth. Because of this, they keep the jaw healthy and strong and your bite alignment intact. You can have a single implant done or multiple implants to replace as many teeth as you need.

The implant itself is a titanium post used to act like a tooth root. Once it is surgically placed into the jawbone under the gumline, it can hold a tooth replacement (or a dental bridge). Once the implant fuses to your jawbone it is sturdy and durable. It won’t shift in the mouth, so you can speak and chew without worry. A dental implant can be used to secure dentures, bridges, and crowns to replace your teeth to help them feel natural in the mouth.

To have an implant done for your missing teeth requires healthy gums and enough jawbone material to support the implant. You’re also going to need to keep up excellent daily oral hygiene, including routine dental visits to support the ongoing function of the implant. If you are considering dental implant placement, we are pleased to offer some insight into what you can expect from the procedure.

Many patients are concerned that the process will be painful, and while any surgical procedure has some degree of discomfort as the mouth heals, our team can provide a local anesthesia or another form of sedation to ensure you are comfortable during the implant placement process.

When it’s time to place your dental implant after you’ve been given the appropriate anesthesia, our team of professionals typically perform the following basic steps:

Create an access point in the gum line to reach the underlying jawbone area.
Create some space in the jawbone to create an anchor point for the dental implant to support a new tooth.
Attach the titanium screw to the jawbone, which forms the base of the dental implant.
Allow the jawbone time to grow around the metal base and fuse naturally with the implant, which can take a few months.
Attach an abutment to the titanium screw after the bone has completed its regrowth process, which serves to keep the final dental crown or other tooth restoration in place.
Allow your gums to heal and improve their health for a few weeks prior to placing the dental restoration.
Create a detailed impression of your smile to serve as a guide for the creation of the restoration.
Place it on the implant so that it looks natural and matches well with your surrounding teeth.

Depending on the number of teeth that need to be replaced, the overall process can take a few weeks or months to achieve final completion. To learn more about dental implants and how they can replace missing teeth, contact our team today for more information!

Taking Steps Against Periodontal Disease

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Wed, 08 Aug 2018 06:52:55 GMT

What can you do to avoid periodontal disease and the increased risks to your health? Here are some answers for you:

Step 1. At-home Care

This part is simple and easy to follow. Be sure to brush your teeth at least twice each day for two minutes with a soft-bristled toothbrush. It is optimal to brush your teeth after eating to remove oral debris. Once a day, follow this with a good flossing to remove any stuck food particles between the teeth and around the gum line. How you floss is up to you. There are many options available and the important thing is to find what works for you and then DO IT. Also, don’t forget your tongue. Take a moment to brush your tongue because bacteria tend to collect there. It can also help to use a mouthwash once a day to lower the levels of oral bacteria, and rinse away whatever bits of food your brushing and flossing may have loosened. All these measures help to ensure that any oral bacteria and debris which lead to dental plaque and calculus (hardened plaque) don’t gain a foothold in your mouth.

Step 2. Professional Dental Cleaning

It is vital to see your dentist every six months (or more if you are trying to reverse or stem gum disease), to remove hardened plaque, also called tartar or calculus. They will remove these substances from your teeth and around the gum line and check to see if you have signs of gum disease in addition to cavities. This is the time to ask questions or address any dental concerns with the team and any issues you might be experiencing with your teeth or gums. This is also the time to make them aware of any new medications you might be taking, as they can impact your oral health.

Step 3: Know Your Risks for Periodontal Disease

Whether you are a child entering puberty, a man, or woman, you are at risk of periodontal disease for a variety of reasons. So what risk factors should you be aware of when it comes to your gum health? If you have the following, you should take extra care of your gums and see your dentist regularly. These factors include:

Family history
Having diabetes or HIV
Regularly use tobacco
Advancing age
Ongoing stress
Hormonal influences, including puberty, pregnancy, menopause
Poor diet
Drug use
Certain prescription medications

If you have periodontal disease, you will need to seek treatment to turn it around and prevent its advancement. Treatment might involve taking antibiotics or using at-home or over-the-counter treatments to lower inflammation and address inflammation. Stepped up dental hygiene and more frequent dental cleanings and checkups are also standard.

If you would like to have our periodontist and team check your gum health, we invite you to call. We look forward to providing you with the quality dental care you and your family deserve.

Gum Disease: Age And Gender

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Wed, 18 Jul 2018 06:54:50 GMT

While everyone is vulnerable to gum disease–men, women, and children–research has shown that men tend to have a higher risk of gum disease. Why? Perhaps because they are not seeing a dentist regularly or are not as consistent with good oral hygiene habits. Let’s take a closer look at periodontitis in men, women, and children.

Children:

As children enter puberty, they are producing progesterone which causes an increased circulation of blood flow to the gums. This blood flow may invite sensitivity and irritation arising from left-behind plaque and food particles, which is why consistently good oral hygiene is crucial to prevent gum disease. Your child may notice that their gums are increasingly tender, swelling, and bleeding easily or appearing redder than usual. Your teen or young adult is also susceptible to aggressive periodontitis. This form of gum disease typically arises around the primary molars or incisors. Aggressive periodontitis affects the alveolar bone where much of it is lost. This can start around puberty, and the gums can become inflamed and the teeth gradually become loose.

Women:

During those times in a woman’s life where gum sensitivity may increase is due to hormonal shifts, such as those experienced during their monthly cycle, pregnancy, and menopause. During this period, the gums may bleed easily, be redder, tender, or swollen. These symptoms can flare up during the days leading up to one’s cycle but dissipate once the cycle begins. Gum disease during pregnancy, called pregnancy gingivitis, places you at greater risk of having a premature birth, and consequently, a lower birth weight baby. This is not the time to skip scheduled professional cleanings and checkups. For women who are menopausal or older, changes in the gums may be noticeable. This arises because of fluctuating estrogen levels in the body. Estrogen can impact a variety of oral tissues, such as the gums, salivary glands, as well as the jawbone. So, you might notice a reduction in saliva production leading to dry mouth, pain in the gums or a burning tongue, tooth loss, and altered taste buds–a change to sour or salty preferences, or not being able to taste sweet things as easily.

Men:

Unfortunately, almost twice as many men suffer from gum disease than women. Whether due to not getting regular teeth cleanings or you a reduction in your daily oral hygiene routine, men are often more beset by plaque, tartar, and finding themselves with bleeding gums. Men with prostate inflammation often have more problems with their gums and vice versa. In addition, there is an increased link to heart disease when you have periodontal disease, which makes sense because cardiovascular disease and periodontal disease involve chronic inflammation. And it’s not just the prostate and the heart that is affected by periodontal disease. Research indicates that cancer is also more common in men with unhealthy gums. Kidney cancer, cancer of the pancreas and blood cancers are also prevalent in men with periodontal disease.

No matter what category you fit into, be sure to attend your biannual dental visits for an exam and cleaning. If you need further treatment, we are here to help you and your smile. Give us a call today if you have any questions.

Got Gum Disease? Here Are The Treatments That Are Available

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Thu, 19 Apr 2018 06:56:21 GMT

If your dentist, Dr. Sam Markzar, told you that you’re a victim of gum disease, then it’s very important to treat it as soon as possible. If you fail to treat it, it can spread and destroy your entire smile and oral health. Gum disease is a very serious and dangerous dental issue that should never be taken lightly. There are many treatments available to help you eliminate the disease. Those treatments are:

Dental cleanings: Dental cleanings can treat the early stage of gum disease, which is known as gingivitis. The cleanings will remove the plaque and tartar (which are the culprits of the disease) from the smile and restore your oral health.
Scaling and root planing: Scaling and root planing can treat the later stage of gum disease, which is known as periodontitis. This treatment involves your dentist deeply cleaning the teeth and root surfaces. Then, he will smooth the root surfaces to help the gums reattach. Your dentist will also medicate the gum pockets to promote healing.
Gum and bone grafting: Gum and bone grafts are needed when the gums and underlying bone have been damaged from the disease. Gum grafts involve using gum tissue from your palate or from a donor and then placing that tissue over the exposed tooth roots. Bone grafts involve using natural or synthetic bone to replace the bone you have lost.

Call Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants today at 310-360-7570 if you have any questions or if you would like to know more. Our dental team will be happy to tell you all about how to treat gum disease in Beverly Hills, California, so please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We look forward to hearing from and helping you!

Dental Implant Questions To Enhance Your Knowledge

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 06:58:21 GMT

Losing a permanent tooth can reduce the appearance and efficacy of your smile, but at Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants we offer tooth replacement such as dental implants to effectively replace your smile. We answer some common dental implant questions below to help you determine if your smile can benefit from this treatment.

What are dental implants?

These dental restorations are placed in the jawbone. They are comprised of titanium posts covered by dental crowns that are custom made so that the end result can look and feel like your natural teeth.

How does a dental implant work in your mouth?

Because the nature of dental implants is very simple, they appeal to many patients who are looking to replace missing teeth. You will need to visit Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants a few times, with the first step being a thorough oral exam to ensure your mouth is healthy and the dental implant can be supported by the jawbone. Then, we place the titanium post in your gums and allow a period of healing before following up with a dental crown. The completion of the process yields lifelike results that will seem identical to your natural teeth.

To learn more about receiving dental implants in Beverly Hills, California, please feel free to contact Dr. Sam Markzar and our team today at 310-360-7570 for a consultation about your options.

All You Need To Know About Gum Disease

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Thu, 22 Mar 2018 07:00:48 GMT

Gum disease is a dangerous dental issue that should be taken seriously. This disease is quite complex. In fact, it has two stages: gingivitis and periodontitis. The signs of gingivitis include red, swollen and tender gums that bleed often as well as bad breath. The signs of periodontitis include receded gums, gum pockets, smile infection, loose teeth and lost teeth. This disease is caused by a buildup of plaque on the smile as well as the failure to remove that plaque often.

Gingivitis is easier to treat than periodontitis. This is because the plaque hasn’t severely damaged the smile yet. To treat gingivitis, all you need is a professional dental cleaning. Our dental team will remove the plaque from your smile and promote healing in the gums. Periodontitis is also treatable, even though it’s a little more complicated. The treatments are typically more extensive because the plaque has turned to tartar and the tartar has damaged a majority of the smile. Some treatments that can help include scaling and root planing, frequent dental cleanings, laser therapy, bone grafts, gum grafts and more. Your periodontist, Dr. Sam Markzar, might even need to extract the affected teeth and replace them with dental implants after the underlying bone has been restored.

To learn more about gum disease in Beverly Hills, California, please contact Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants today at 310-360-7570. When you reach out to our periodontal team, we will be more than happy to help you in any way we can, even if it’s just by answering your questions. We look forward to your phone call!

Gum Disease Can Be Treated

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 07:02:30 GMT

Did you know there are ways to overcome gum disease? Basic oral hygiene habits are effective at helping fight gum disease. If you have gum disease, the important thing to remember is to find treatment right away. That is why, our periodontist, Dr. Sam Markzar with Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants in Beverly Hills, California, is happy to help give you this advice on how gum disease can be treated.

Here is a simple list of gum disease treatments:

Medications: Several medications can increase your risk for gum disease.
Dentist: A lack of visits to your dentist can increase your risk of gum disease.
Saliva: Gum disease can often arise if your mouth is not producing enough saliva.
Lifestyle Changes: Avoid unhealthy lifestyle choices such as smoking.
Diet: The avoidance of unhealthy snacks can lower your risk for gum disease.
Cleaning: By continually cleaning out your mouth, you can lower your risk for gum disease. This is especially important after eating meals where debris and plaque buildup may be present.
Brushing and Flossing: Brushing and flossing each day can drastically lower your risk for gum disease.

If you are ready to seek treatment for your gum disease, then you have come to the right place! Our team is happy to help you conquer gum disease and answer any questions you may have about your oral care. So, call us today at 310-360-7570 and make an appointment. We look forward to talking with you.

Don’t Ignore These Telltale Gum Disease Symptoms

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 07:04:14 GMT

It’s important to be able to recognize gum disease symptoms and understand how they may appear in your smile. Your oral health may be at risk of this harmful gum infection if you practice poor oral hygiene or meet any of the gum disease risk factors, including advanced age, predisposed genetics, hormonal changes, or a habit of using tobacco products.

We encourage you to not overlook these common symptoms of gum disease so that you can avoid extensive dental repairs.

You and your dentist should be regularly examining your smile to determine if you are developing any warnings of gum irritation. The progressive nature of gum disease will cause it to worsen from the more mild stage of gingivitis to advanced cases of tooth loss and raging infection. You can report any potential signs of gum disease to Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants, such as:

Gums that look red and swollen
Frequent bleeding in the gums
Gum recession or teeth that look longer
Chronic bad breath
Shifting and loosened teeth

Our experienced periodontist can help you identify these gum disease symptoms as well as provide customized gum disease treatment to restore your smile to a stable condition. Please feel free to call 310-360-7570 today if you feel you need to see Dr. Sam Markzar for treatments involving gum disease in Beverly Hills, California.

Risk Factors For Gum Disease

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 07:05:13 GMT

Most adults think it’s normal for gums to bleed a little while they brush their teeth. This is not true! In fact, bleeding gums can be an indicator of gum disease. Advanced gum disease affects over 40 percent of adults in the United States. Some people are more at risk of getting gum disease than other people. Here are a few things that put you at greater risk of gum disease:

Stress: High levels of stress over long periods of time can reduce the efficacy of your immune system. This reduces your ability to fight off infection, including gum disease. Stress can also lead to clenching and grinding teeth while sleeping (a condition known as bruxism). Bruxism and TMJ disorders put people at higher risk of gum disease.

Poor Diet: Severe lack of Vitamin C in your diet can lead to bleeding gums, a condition known as “scurvy.” Eating a balanced diet loaded with vitamins, minerals and macronutrients such as protein can help protect your body from many diseases, including gum disease.

Smoking and Tobacco Use: Smoking and tobacco use are terrible for your overall health, and is the leading cause of gum disease among adults in the United States. How often and how long you have smoked are directly and positively correlated with your risk of gum disease.

For more information, call Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants in Beverly Hills, California, at 310-360-7570. Dr. Sam Markzar and our team look forward to seeing you and helping your teeth and gums stay healthy!

Three Techniques To Prevent Gum Disease

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Wed, 31 Jan 2018 07:06:19 GMT

Gum disease is a very dangerous oral condition that can eventually result in loose or missing teeth if not addressed quickly. Fortunately, the early stages of gum disease can be easily treated and even reversed if you take the proper steps right away. We encourage you to keep your smile in good health to prevent gum disease by practicing the following three steps:

1. Maintain excellent dental hygiene. Optimal dental health can protect your smile from gum disease, especially if you are practicing proper brushing, flossing, and rinsing on a daily basis. These practices remove plaque from your smile that could otherwise result in gum disease. Be sure to brush every morning and night, and then floss and rinse mouthwash daily.

2. Visit the dentist regularly. Professional dental cleanings are the only method that can completely remove plaque and tartar from your smile, making them very efficient at preventing gum disease. Visiting the dentist at least twice a year can ensure your teeth and gums remain in pristine condition.

3. Eat a balanced diet. Healthy foods enhance your smile much like the rest of your body, as they strengthen your teeth against gum disease and other dental issues. Load up your diet with lots of fruits and vegetables while limiting any sugary or starchy drinks or foods.

If you are concerned about your oral health and would like to receive additional tips to prevent gum disease in Beverly Hills, California, contact Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants at 310-360-7570 today and arrange your appointment with our periodontist, Dr. Sam Markzar.

Take Care Of Your Gums, Too!

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Fri, 26 Jan 2018 07:08:16 GMT

Advanced gum disease affects over 47% of adults over 30 in the United States. To combat gum disease, you must practice superb oral hygiene. It is vital that you brush your teeth and gums twice a day, for two minutes each session. Use a soft-bristled toothbrush to protect your gum tissues and tooth enamel–using a hard-bristled toothbrush can damage your tissues and open them up for infection.

It is extremely important to floss! Some people consider it not as important as brushing, but they are incorrect. Flossing cleans plaque from places your brush can’t reach. This includes between teeth and behind the back molars–both excellent breeding grounds for bacteria that cause gum disease.

Some signs and symptoms that could indicate you may have gum disease include:

persistent halitosis
loose or separating permanent teeth
Any change in your bite pattern or the fit of dentures
gums that have pulled away from the teeth
red, tender, swollen gums
gums that bleed easily

If you suspect gum disease, see your periodontist right away. The sooner you catch it, the sooner it can be treated. Be aware that sometimes you can have gum disease and not even know it–this is a big reason why it is important to schedule regular check-ups.

To schedule an appointment in Beverly Hills, California, call Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants at 310-360-7570. Dr. Sam Markzar and our team look forward to seeing you!

An Implant Bridge Can Restore Your Smile After Significant Tooth Loss

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Tue, 12 Dec 2017 07:10:32 GMT

If severe tooth decay, an accident, or a blow to the face has caused you to lose multiple teeth in one area of your mouth, Dr. Sam Markzar and our team are happy to help you review your restoration options. Depending on the extent of your tooth loss, our periodontist may recommend a dental implant bridge to restore multiple missing teeth.

The loss of multiple teeth can affect the original bone structure and cause it to deteriorate. In fact, we may recommend a bone graft if the bone structure has become too compromised, as we need to thicken the healthy bone structure so that the dental implants will remain secure.

Once your jaw structure is healthy, our periodontist will perform the surgical portion of the procedure. During this process, we will create narrow channels to the bone so that titanium abutments can be screwed into place.

After the biologically safe titanium implant has fused completely with the bone, our team will take an impression of the affected area and surrounding teeth so that we can begin the process of providing a custom-made dental bridge.

If you have lost multiple teeth or had several removed from a single area of your smile, you should call Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants at 310-360-7570 to schedule an appointment with Dr. Sam Markzar and explore your options for tooth restoration in Beverly Hills, California.

Dental Implants Offer These Four Benefits And More

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Tue, 12 Dec 2017 07:09:31 GMT

Dental implants are a common cosmetic dental appliance used to replace missing teeth, and they can be an excellent choice to restore a smile. The benefits of dental implants are many, and our team offers up four important benefits you can enjoy.

1. Dental implants last longer than other restorations. They are designed to last a lifetime, although neglect can result in them needing to be replaced. Keeping your smile clean and receiving regular dental checkups can ensure your implant lasts a long time.

2. Implants offer peace of mind. You can relax while speaking and smiling, knowing that your dental implants can’t fall out and that your smile will continue to look its best.

3. Dental implants can’t develop tooth decay. They don’t have the same vulnerabilities as your natural teeth, though you should continue to practice good dental hygiene and visiting the dentist for exams and dental cleanings every six months.

4. Dental implants allow you to eat all your favorite foods. Receiving replacement teeth shouldn’t mean you have to give up your favorite foods. Dental implants are surgically placed into your jawbone, providing a strong and sturdy foundation that helps you chew the foods you love.

Please contact Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants at 310-360-7570 with any questions about dental implants in Beverly Hills, California, and to schedule your consultation with our periodontist, Dr. Sam Markzar.

How Tooth Sensitivity And Gum Disease Are Related

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Wed, 29 Nov 2017 07:11:41 GMT

Did you know that tooth erosion and tooth sensitivity are related? Observing the times when you have sensitivity and logging them can be helpful during your next checkup to Dr. Sam Markzar‘s office. Read on to find out more about what tooth decay and tooth sensitivity have in common.

Side effects of tooth sensitivity are generally related to tooth decay, so if you’re suffering from tooth sensitivity it could be an early sign that your pearly whites are decaying. When chompers erode, chewing, swallowing and speaking all become very tough, and the wellbeing of your mouth (and likely your body) will be thrown. In children and some adults, tooth sensitivity could lead to a lessened impulse to consume food and resultant weight issues.

Tooth sensitivity does not have classifications for severity, but you can think of the ailment as coming in two varieties: normal tooth sensitivity and dentin hypersensitivity. Pearly whites are designed to give some feedback to stimulation like heat, so if you feel a little sensation to the pearly whites when you’re chomping, you’re experiencing normal tooth sensitivity. If you suffer excruciating discomfort to the teeth when chomping away at food, you are most likely experiencing dentin hypersensitivity.

Need help? Contact us at 310-360-7570 now to set up an appointment with Dr. Sam Markzar and the Beverly Hills, California, Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants team.

Treating Gingivitis Can Turn Gum Disease Around

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Thu, 09 Nov 2017 07:13:05 GMT

Are you embarrassed around others because you have chronic bad breath? Is hypersensitivity keeping you from enjoying your favorite iced or hot or drinks? Have you noticed that gums are tender, red, swollen, or bleeding? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may be experiencing the initial stage of gum disease or gingivitis.

Gingivitis can afflict your smile for various reasons, such as:

Poor oral hygiene and a poor diet.
Consistently using tobacco in any form.
Medications you take, such as those treating blood pressure, or seizures.
Hormonal changes if you are female.
Chronic disease, such as diabetes, cancer or HIV.

With gum disease, harmful oral bacterial plaque accumulates around the base of the teeth and hardening. This causes irritation to the gums and inflammation in the tissue. If gum disease is not stopped, ultimately you can incur jawbone loss and tooth loss.

To stop gingivitis, you may need to increase your daily oral hygiene to get rid of plaque buildup. Maintaining a balanced, nutritious diet will also give your gums the protection it needs to protect gum tissue. You may also need additional dental cleanings to remove tartar, and deep cleanings called scaling and root planning. Other treatment may include antibiotics and oral surgery.

Our goal is to treat gingivitis in the early stages to reverse the symptoms and control periodontitis in the advanced stage, so if you are experiencing the symptoms of gum disease, please contact our team in Beverly Hills, California, for timely treatment. Our periodontist, Dr. Sam Markzar, has been helping patients win the fight against gum disease for over 20 years, so you can rest assured you are in good hands. Call Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants at 310-360-7570 and receive the quality care you deserve.

Dental Implant Facts

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Fri, 27 Oct 2017 08:13:15 GMT

Dental implants are one of the greatest innovations in dentistry in the last four decades. Dental implants are designed to be effective for life as they are mounted directly into your jawbone. Listed below are important facts about dental implants:

Dental implants are composed of a titanium post attached to an artificial tooth which is implanted straight into your jawbone.
Because implants are placed straight into your jawbone, they will hold strong. Through a natural biological process called osseointegration, the tissue actually around the implant will tighten its hold over time, enabling a lifelong tooth replacement.
Dental implants can avert the deterioration of your jawbone that can result from missing teeth.
Dental implants are designed to correct spacing malocclusions between your teeth.
Lost and missing teeth weaken your facial structure, which will make you look older than normal. Dental implants can fix a sunken facial structure by restoring missing teeth, restoring your youthful appearance once more.

If you are curious about dental implants, come and experience them for yourself. To book an appointment with Dr. Sam Markzar and our team at our dentist office in Beverly Hills, California, call Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants at 310-360-7570 and a member of our team will gladly assist you. Contact us for a stronger and healthier smile today!

Three Teeth Damaging Dental Habits

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Wed, 18 Oct 2017 08:15:53 GMT

If you want a successful smile and oral health, you’ll want to avoid certain tooth-harming habits that can increase your chance of dental damage and injury. Let’s talk about a few of those habits.

Chewing on ice: Did you know that the hard brittle texture and cold temperature of the ice can encourage your teeth to fracture? The ice cubes tend to cause microscopic fractures in the tooth, which can lead to major cracks and damage in the future.

Using your teeth as tools: When we say using teeth as tools, we mean using them to open things, like bags of food, packages, containers, or even ripping off tags from clothing and other products. These actions can really wear your smile out. In fact, in time it can traumatize the teeth and create fractures.

Grinding your teeth: Since this often occurs at night while you sleep, it can be difficult to tell if you even grind your teeth. Sometimes your sleeping partner will tell you about it. Or you’ll notice the long term results after your teeth have already become worn. You may also notice that your jaw or ears hurt when you wake up. However you may have learned about it, you can control the impact. Treatments include wearing a night guard, taking relaxation classes, avoiding coffee, and using relaxation techniques.

If you have any questions, our dental team at Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants in Beverly Hills, California is here to help! All you need to do is dial 310-360-7570 and we will be thrilled to talk with you.

Effective Gum Cleaning Tools: Water Flossers

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Sat, 30 Sep 2017 08:18:05 GMT

Did you know there are oral health care utensils that you can use to clean between your teeth besides using dental floss? These types of tools are known as interdental tools and one of the most popular in dentistry today is known as a water flosser.

Water flossers are interdental tools designed to clean between your teeth using a beam of water that blasts away residue and bacteria. Water flossers are safe and effective, and can accurately clean between teeth and reach areas that traditional toothbrushes cannot.

When selecting a water flosser, always look for the ADA Seal of Acceptance. The seal is given out by the American Dental Association for products that reach the highest standards of safety and effectiveness. For additional product recommendations, speak with your periodontist.

Water flossers are highly effective for individuals who cannot use traditional threaded floss. In addition, if you have an oral health care treatment that may hinder traditional flosses, such as a dental crown, dental bridge, or orthodontic braces, water flossers are a highly recommended alternative to threaded floss for cleaning between teeth effectively. With water flossers, you can keep your teeth and gums in excellent shape.

If you are looking to restore your oral hygiene with a periodontal treatment, or enhance your smile further, contact Dr. Sam Markzar and our team at Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants. We can be reached by calling us at 310-360-7570 to book a reservation to see us at our periodontic office in Beverly Hills, California. Come see us, and let us show you the benefits of a better smile today!

Symptoms Of Gum Disease To Be Aware Of

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Wed, 06 Sep 2017 08:22:49 GMT

Spotting the early warning symptoms of gum disease is crucial in treating the illness. In its initial stages, gum disease, also known as periodontal disease, is called gingivitis. As the disease evolves, it can turn more grave, and lead to the eventual destabilization of your gums and cause your teeth to completely fall out. However, the effects of gum disease can be reversed if the disease is caught early and treatment is administered.

Earlier stages of the disease, known as gingivitis, may be more difficult to detect, as the changes to your gums are minor. Look for gum tissue that appears to be too red or swollen. If the disease is allowed to progress, the gums can recede far enough from teeth that a tooth’s root may be seen.

As the disease progresses even further, significant symptoms can occur, including loose teeth, wobbly gums, sensitivity with your teeth, excessive bleeding, and tooth loss. If you have persistent bad breath, it may be the result of gum disease.

If you are showing signs of gum disease, come visit Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants for treatment as soon as possible. With the helpful support of our periodontist in Beverly Hills, California, Dr. Sam Markzar, and our wonderful team, we can repair your smile. To schedule a visit, contact us at 310-360-7570. Make time to improve your smile for lasting happiness.

The Finer Details Of Dental Implants

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Tue, 29 Aug 2017 08:41:28 GMT

If you have suffered from tooth loss, a permanent replacement treatment that can last a lifetime is known as dental implants. With dental implants, you can have natural-looking teeth implanted directly into your jawbone for a sturdy hold that can last a lifetime.

Dental implants can be customized and crafted to precisely attach within your smile for a natural-looking compliment to your mouth. Because they are permanent and strong, there are no food restrictions required, allowing you to once again return to the foods that may be lost when you lost your teeth. Furthermore, dental implants can bring back the function of lost or impaired speaking, chewing, and eating skills, and will be able to function effectively for up to a lifetime of heavy use.

Dental implants are a fantastic tooth replacement treatment that attaches realistic-looking teeth directly to your jawbone. However, dental implants can only be implemented if your jawbone is strong and healthy enough. Your dentist will determine if your smile is healthy enough and your jawbone is strong enough for a dental implant treatment.

Don’t wait until it’s too late for a dental implant. If you would like to know if you need dental implants, please book an oral exam with Dr. Sam Markzar and our team at Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants at our dentist office in Beverly Hills, California, by calling us at 310-360-7570. We look forward to seeing you smile!

General Information About Dangerous Foods You Need To Avoid

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Tue, 15 Aug 2017 08:42:48 GMT

Do you generally know which foods and drinks can damage your teeth? Even though we often think of sugary products as the main offender to optimum oral health, it is not the only ingredient that can lead to serious harm to our smiles. Your teeth can also be damaged by an assortment of delectable delights that you should always exercise caution with.

Not all damage to your teeth occurs due to dental erosion. Your teeth are always highly susceptible to oral accidents as well. This can include physical trauma to the teeth, which can come about by the foods you eat when biting into products that are simply too hard or tough for you to chew through. Hazardous foods to your teeth include corn on the cob, corn kernels, candy apples, and hard candy. To shield your teeth against chipping, cracking, or fracturing, always exercise caution when biting into potentially hard foods, or remove them from your diet altogether.

Some substances can be harmful to your teeth the moment they enter your mouth. This includes acidic foods which can begin to eat through your tooth enamel long before any cleaning methods can be used. Acidic substances such as citrus fruits, tomatoes, and sugary foods and drinks can lead to dental erosion should be avoided at all costs. If they cannot be avoided, they should be consumed as part of a larger meal, which can help counterbalance the acids they contain or create.

If you think you have dental damage, please call Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants so we can get you in to see Dr. Sam Markzar and our team as soon as possible. Our office is located in Beverly Hills, California, and we can be reached at 310-360-7570. We are here to help you get your smile back on track!

Dental Health Care Focus: Gum Disease

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Mon, 31 Jul 2017 08:44:04 GMT

Are you displaying any signs of gum disease? Gum disease, also commonly called periodontal disease, is a common disease that infects your gum tissue. Usually, it affects individuals who have poor oral hygiene habits, but it can also be brought on by age, bad habits, hormonal imbalances, and genetics.

Focus your oral health care on gum disease. Save your smile with gum disease treatments and be on the lookout for these key facts:

Keep an eye out for swollen, bruised, excessively red or bleeding gums.
Search for signs that your gums are pulling back and away from teeth.
Look for gums that bleed easily or are abnormally sensitive to the touch.
Touch and wiggle your teeth to check and see if they are wobbly or loose.
Look for halitosis signs that keep reappearing.
Search for signs of poor oral hygiene and improper or neglected oral health care routines.
Be on the lookout for dry mouth symptoms caused by some foods and medications.
Were you ever a smoker or drug user, both habits of which put you at an elevated risk for gum disease?

If you would like to experience the life-changing transformation that gum disease treatments can provide, please stop by Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants for an oral exam from Dr. Sam Markzar and our team at our amazing dentist facility in Beverly Hills, California. Schedule your visit by calling us at 310-360-7570. Stop by, and take the time to focus on your oral health care.

What Benefits Can Gingivitis Treatments Provide?

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Tue, 25 Jul 2017 08:45:22 GMT

If your oral health care is not at its best, plaque buildup in your mouth can lead to gum disease. Early stage gum disease is called gingivitis. Here are a few facts about gingivitis:

Gingivitis can be brought on poor oral hygiene, especially if you fail to brush your teeth twice daily and floss once daily.
Unpleasant habits including smoking or chewing tobacco can lead to gingivitis.
If left untreated, ongoing gingivitis can transform into severe gum disease and eventual tooth loss.
Various environmental factors such as pregnancy, genetics, diabetes, and medications you may be using, can all increase your risk of developing gingivitis.
Gingivitis is typically first spotted in your gums that bleed regularly or easily.
If your gums are showing indications of excessive redness, swelling, or tenderness in your gums, you may be suffering from gingivitis.
Bad breath, also called halitosis, is a recognized symptom of gingivitis.

To prevent gingivitis, make sure you are following the proper treatment techniques for a healthy smile that can last a lifetime. If you would like Dr. Sam Markzar and our team at Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants to bring you in for an oral exam or professional cleaning, please contact our dentist office in Beverly Hills, California, by calling us at 310-360-7570. We look forward to making your smile shine!

A Severely Damaged Tooth Might Need To Be Restored By A Dental Implant

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Thu, 22 Jun 2017 08:46:29 GMT

Sports-related injuries can sometimes be severe. This is especially true if a vigorous athletic event causes a hard blow to the face. When a tooth is severely traumatized, you should not delay in seeking treatment at Dr. Sam Markzar’s clinic in Beverly Hills, California.

Sometimes the traumatized tooth can be saved with endodontic therapy followed by a dental crown restoration. If the damage is severe, Dr. Sam Markzar might recommend extracting the tooth and suturing your gums. With prescription pain medications and time, the pain should slowly dissipate and the traumatized tissues will heal.

When you’re ready, Dr. Sam Markzar can help you understand your options for restoring the tooth. One of the more effective options is to install a dental implant which will later be fitted for a standard dental crown.

Dr. Sam Markzar can usually do this in a single outpatient appointment where you will need to be deeply sedated. Once it’s completed, you will still feel some sedative effects for an hour or two. It’s wise to arrange for a friend or family member to drive you home and lend a hand for a little while.

Once the titanium implant has integrated with the underlying bone tissues, Dr. Sam Markzar can start the process of fitting you for a crown.

If you live in the Beverly Hills, California, area and you’ve suffered a severe dental trauma, you should call 310-360-7570 to seek treatment at Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants.

Gum Disease’s Risks & Signs

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 08:48:15 GMT

Gum disease is an infection that attacks the gums and structures that support your teeth. If left untreated, this disease can lead to the loss of permanent teeth. Dr. Sam Markzar may recommend treatment for gum disease if you have any of the following symptoms:

Red, tender, inflamed gums
Gums that bleed when you brush and floss
Receding gum line
Gums that have pulled away from the teeth, causing a periodontal pocket to form
Changes in the way your teeth come together when you bite
Pus coming from the gums
Persistent bad breath or bad taste in the mouth

Bacteria and plaque that is allowed to remain in the mouth is the main cause of gum disease. However, there are certain factors that can increase the risk for gum disease. These include:

A history of gum disease in your family
Tobacco use
Crooked teeth or a bad bite
Braces or a dental bridge, as these can make it difficult to care for your smile
Teeth grinding
Stress, as stress can weaken the body’s immune system so it is not as capable of fighting off infection
Fluctuating hormones, such as during puberty and pregnancy
Certain medications
Certain diseases
Poor nutrition

If you suspect that you have gum disease, contact Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants at 310-360-7570 for an appointment with our periodontist today.

The Simple Truth About Bone Grafting

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Fri, 26 May 2017 08:50:40 GMT

Did you know bone grafting is a simple dental procedure designed to help restore bone health? Well, it’s true! Dental procedures can be confusing to understand, which is why our team here at Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants in Beverly Hills, California is happy to talk to you about the simple facts of bone grafting procedures.

Bone grafting is a common dental procedure needed if you suffer from bone loss, especially if you need a dental implant to restore your smile. When your jaw does not have enough bone to support your implant procedure, then your doctor may need to restore the bone loss through bone grafting.

Bone loss can occur for many different reasons. Gum disease can cause tooth loss, which can lead to bone loss if left untreated. When you suffer from tooth loss, this can cause your bone to deteriorate in time. That is why having a bone grafting procedure might be needed to restore your missing tooth.

When it comes to your bone grafting questions, our office is happy to address them or any of your dental care needs by calling us at 310-360-7570. Dr. Sam Markzar is always happy to help in any way they can. As always, our team takes pride in our quality care and are happy to address any questions or concerns you may have pertaining to your oral health care.

Bleeding Gums: What It Tells You About Your Health

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Fri, 12 May 2017 08:51:28 GMT

Do you ever wonder if there’s anything else you could do to keep your teeth healthy and strong? If so, you may know that brushing and flossing your pearly whites is extremely important, but would you be surprised to hear that bleeding gums can actually be an indicator of fairly serious issues, including gum disease?

For instance, have you heard that several people have gum disease without realizing it? This can be especially problematic because there are actually several stages of gum disease. The first stage, known as gingivitis, can usually be identified by signs like red and irritated gums. If you spot either of these issues, we suggest scheduling an appointment with us as soon as you can since gingivitis can become more serious if it isn’t addressed quickly.

Fortunately, there are a number of things you can do to prevent gum disease and gingivitis. As you might already know, gum disease might be caused by insufficient oral hygiene. Cleaning your pearly whites thoroughly might be enough to reverse gingivitis. If the state of your mouth is more serious, there are various treatments Dr. Sam Markzar can recommend.

If you’d like to learn more about dealing with gum disease in Beverly Hills, California, please feel free to contact Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants by calling 310-360-7570. Our dentist, Dr. Sam Markzar, and our team will examine your teeth and give you specific advice. We’re excited to hear from you!

Can I Prevent Gum Disease?

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 08:52:19 GMT

If you’re worried about getting gum disease, we’ve got good news. Periodontal disease is preventable with good oral hygiene. Brushing your teeth and flossing after meals, using mouthwash, and visiting your dentist regularly will help you prevent periodontal disease and related side effects. Stick to the dental hygiene essentials and your happy and healthy gums will stick to you!

If you think you might be susceptible to gum disease, please be aware of its associated risk factors. Risk factors for periodontal disease include smoking, diabetes, genetic susceptibility, stress, grinding or clenching teeth, advanced age, certain medications affecting oral health, poor diet and obesity. Men have an increased chance of periodontal disease compared to women. Advanced plaque or tartar build-up increases susceptibility of developing periodontal disease.

Identifying periodontal disease can be difficult because some symptoms may not manifest in early stages. Be cautious if you notice any of the following: tender gums or painful teeth-brushing, bleeding gums, loosening teeth or a change in the alignment of your bite, receding gums or teeth that look longer than normal, or mouth sores or pus around the teeth and gums. If you think you may have gum disease, ask us to examine your gums and check your risk factors.

Periodontal disease occurs after bacteria forms too much plaque on teeth. When that plaque stays on teeth too long, it may harden and form tartar, which requires cleaning by a professional. Left untreated, tartar will hurt the soft tissue of the gums and decay and/or loosen teeth. Fortunately, Dr. Sam Markzar can clean and treat your gums in our office.

To prevent gum disease, you should have your teeth cleaned on a regular basis. Please visit us at Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants in Beverly Hills, California, for a teeth and gum cleaning soon. You can schedule an appointment with us now by calling 310-360-7570.

The Gum Disease Quiz

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Tue, 11 Apr 2017 08:53:15 GMT

Did you know that gum disease, also known as periodontal disease, is a disease within our mouths that is the result of infected gum tissue? Gum disease can be caused by a variety of factors, including oral health, bad habits, food and drinks, among other causes. For more information, take the following gum disease quiz:

True or False: Periodontal disease can cause irreversible tooth loss.

a.) True

b.) False

What are the negative effects of gum disease?

a.) Gum disease can cause halitosis

b.) Your gums can pull back from your teeth, exposing more of the tooth’s surface

c.) Gum disease can weaken your gums and make them prone to bleeding and infection

d.) All of the above

True or False: Gum disease is treatable.

a.) True

b.) False

Which of the following treatment methods cannot be used to prevent gum disease?

a.) Daily oral hygiene habits such as brushing and flossing

b.) Regular checkups and oral exams at your dentist

c.) A healthy diet free of sugars and harmful acids

d.) All of the above can help prevent gum disease

Answer Key: a, d, a, d

For a diagnosis and treatment, please contact Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants to book an appointment with Dr. Sam Markzar and our team at our dentist office in Beverly Hills, California. Call us at 310-360-7570. Let us help you achieve a healthy smile!

Bone Grafting Can Save Your Smile

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Wed, 29 Mar 2017 08:54:30 GMT

Dr. Sam Markzar at Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants has seen how bone loss to the jaw can result in a serious consequence of missing teeth for patients in Beverly Hills, California. In fact, when it comes to missing teeth, bone loss essentially begins as soon as you lose a tooth. Let’s take a look at why!

Bone loss begins as losing a tooth results in a loss of the natural stimulation for bone growth. Normally, bone growth is stimulated by the force of the teeth when you chew. This process is halted when teeth are lost, and the result can be dramatic. The width of the bone can reduce by 25% in the first year alone after tooth loss.

You can lose teeth due to gum disease, decay, or injury. No matter what the cause, our bone grafting procedure can effectively maintain your bone structure after tooth loss. This is important because cosmetically, your jaw and facial bones support your facial muscle and skin and consequently, your appearance. Bone loss can result in your facial appearance to look prematurely aged. Restoratively, bone loss can affect procedures including dental implants which need to have the bone material at is original size and location to achieve the best outcome.

Bone loss can result in your facial appearance looking prematurely aged. In addition, when it comes to restoration, bone loss can affect procedures including dental implants which need to have the bone material at is original size and location to achieve the best outcome.

Bone-grafting allows our periodontist to improve the look and function of future restoration procedures such as crowns, implants, dentures, even preserve your facial structure for the health and look of fixed bridgework.

If you would like to know more about how bone grafting to restore your healthy, beautiful smile, or want to visit with Dr. Sam Markzar, please call our team at 310-360-7570 today. We look forward to helping you preserve your healthy, beautiful smile in Beverly Hills, California.

Got Bleeding Gums? These Are The Things That Might Have Caused Them

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Wed, 15 Mar 2017 08:55:17 GMT

Bleeding gums can be an inconvenience, especially when you can’t control it. However, even though it seems like just an inconvenience, it could be a significant symptom of a larger problem. This is why it’s best to determine the cause and treat it so matters don’t get worse. To help you, our dental team would be happy to mention the things that could be causing your bloody gums.

Periodontal disease is the first thing that could be causing your bloody gums. It is a serious and dangerous periodontal problem that needs to be taken care of as soon as possible. One of the most telltale signs of gum disease is red, swollen, and bleeding gums. This is the case because the plaque on your teeth grow and irritate your gums, making them bleed. So, if you have bleeding gums as well as constant bad breath and receding gums, you might be a victim of gum disease and it’s best to schedule an appointment with Dr. Sam Markzar right away.

The second thing that can cause bleeding gums is an improper oral hygiene routine. Oftentimes, not flossing at least once a day can make your gums complacent. Then, once you do floss, they tend to bleed because they’re not used to it. So, if ineffective flossing makes your gums bleed, it’s best to improve your oral hygiene routine. Once you do so, the bleeding should stop within a week and your gums should become used to the strand of floss cleaning your gumline.

The third thing that can cause bloody gums is pregnancy gingivitis. This issue develops during pregnancy because of the hormones and other body changes you experience. When these things occur, your gums become red, swollen, and tender. Gingivitis is the first stage of gum disease, so it’s important to receive treatment as soon as possible at Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants before the disease advances into the more serious stages.

If you have any questions about this information or if you would like to know more about what might be causing your bleeding gums in Beverly Hills, California, please remember that you can always call our periodontal office at 310-360-7570 and talk to a member of our team. We are here to help you in any way we can, and we will be thrilled to hear from you!

Welcome To Our New Blog!

Ruan@develomark.com (Ruan Marinho) — Tue, 07 Mar 2017 08:56:06 GMT

Here at Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants, we endeavor to use our new blog as a regular means for publishing valuable content for our community through monthly blog posts. Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, we’re able to further explore some of the most important topics pertaining to our industry and area of expertise here on our website through these articles.

Each profession tends to be its own little niche, which is a good thing because it creates a unique space for our services and a place for you to learn and implement helpful ideas that can benefit you and the people you care about.

We’re excited to share this ongoing knowledge base of blog articles with this online community. These blogs provide timely and relevant information that’s conveniently accessible online. Indeed, we hope that this community will use the valuable information found in our regular blog posts, because they are an effective way for us to reach out to you on a monthly basis, while you still enjoy the comforts of your own home.

If you have any questions or want more information, we invite you to call our team at Beverly Hills Periodontal Arts and Implants in Beverly Hills, California, today at 310-360-7570. We look forward to helping you in any way we can, and we thank you for the opportunity!