Why is it Bad to Smoke after Tooth Extraction?

Smoking is very bad for your health, and especially after your dentist has removed a tooth. Ideally, if you need to smoke, you must wait 48 to 72 hours after the surgery. If someone tells you to wait only 4 hours, do it at your own risk!

The reason you must wait is that smoking can slow down the healing process in your mouth, and even cause serious complications. The smoke has chemical toxins that not only harm your lungs but also your surgery site. Also, the suction done when smoking can dislodge the blood cloth from the socket it is in.

One major complication is called dry socket. It is a very painful condition around the tooth extraction site, which can cause bad smell and limit how big your open your mouth. It usually happens 3-4 days after the surgery. If you do nothing, it will eventually go away, but if you see a dentist, he can put a desensitizing drug to make it go faster.

In French: Pourquoi est-ce qu’il ne faut pas fumer après avoir enlevé une dent?

How to Provide the Best Dental Care for Your Kids

Parents play an essential role in keeping their children’s teeth healthy and clean. Preventive care starts at home. Here are some ways to promote oral health for your children. 

Avoid sugar

Sugary foods and sweet drinks mix with bacteria in the mouth, forming an acid that attacks tooth enamel, leading to cavities. 

Clean teeth

It is important that parents clean their children’s teeth when they are very young, and do it with them as they get older.

Visit your dentist

It is advised to visit the dentist within 6 months of the eruption of a child’s first tooth. Some dental associations recommend a first dental visit at the age of two years old.

Pacifiers and thumb sucking

Sucking helps babies to relax, but by age two or three, he or she has less need to suck. Foremost, never put sugar, honey or corn syrup on a pacifier.

Help prevent early childhood tooth decay

Once a child has teeth, he or she is susceptible to tooth decay. Mother’s milk, formula, cow’s milk, and fruit juice all contain sugars. Never let your child fall asleep with a bottle of milk, formula or juice or with breast milk still in his or her mouth.

Full Article: Providing the Best Dental Care for Your Kids
Source: The Canadian Dental Association.
In French: Comment procurer les meilleurs soins dentaires pour vos enfants

Mercury in Dental Fillings

Amalgam is an alloy that has been used to fill decayed teeth for a very long time. People mostly say grey fillings when referring to this kind of filling. This alloy contains silver, copper, tin and mercury.

It’s the mercury that worries people who have grey fillings in their teeth. There are dentists who totally discourage amalgam fillings, and instead recommend composite fillings, or porcelain or gold inlays.

Is it absolutely necessary to remove all your grey fillings if you have some in your mouth?

There are countries that have banned amalgam, but several professional dental associations, including the ones of Canada and the United States, that do not totally discourage amalgam use for fillings. So there is no need to be alarmed if you have grey fillings, and you can keep them in your mouth as long as they are in good shape and do not need to be changed. But when it comes time replace them, it would be preferable to chose another filling material, mainly white composite fillings, which are more aesthetic and do not contain mercury.

Full Article: Is amalgam in teeth (grey fillings) bad for your health?
In French: Mercure dans les plombages dentaires

Dental care for people with diabetes

Diabetes is a disease that is still incurable but that can be controlled by taking many precautions. If you have diabetes, you must look out for what you eat, exercise regularly, take your medication diligently, and also pay special attention to your oral health.

Among the oral problems that diabetes can trigger, dry mouth (xerostomia) and infections are the main ones. Xerostomia, or lack of saliva in the mouth, can have serious consequences, including tooth decay (cavities), the appearance of ulcers and fungal infections, and the difficulty of wearing dentures and partials.

Oral infections that diabetics encounter are the cause of periodontal disease. Gum disease, or periodontal disease, affects the gums and the bone that support teeth. Gum disease is more difficult to cure when you have diabetes. It is therefore important to maintain your gums healthy and have them checked regularly.

Furthermore, if you are diabetic and undergo oral surgery, healing will be more slow than usual. So whether you have a tooth extraction, wisdom teeth removal, or gum surgery, you must expect longer healing time.

Dentists recommend people with diabetes to have meticulous oral hygiene, by brushing and flossing preferably after every meal. It is also cautious to see your dentist for regular checkups, every three months if possible, for a tooth and gum exam, and a tartar scaling. At each visit, your medical history must be updated by informing any change of your diabetes state and the medication that you are taking.

If you feel that your gums are bleeding more than usual, it would be important to consult your dentist immediately. Gum disease is the worst oral complication that you can get when you have diabetes and it must be controlled. You must also notify your physician of the state of your oral health.

A lot of attention is needed to keep your mouth healthy. But if you act with the recommendations of your physician and your dentist, you can lead a healthy life for a very long time.

Full Article: Diabetes and Dental Care
In French: Soins dentaires pour les gens atteints du diabète

What if an adult tooth falls out completely after an accident?

Sometimes accidents happen where a front tooth falls out completely after shock, without fracturing itself. This situation is serious and can cause stress, if it happens to us, or if it happens to our child. In these cases it is possible to put the tooth to where it was, but we must proceed immediately.

Here are the instructions to follow:

• A tooth that fell out, and which maintained its whole structure without any major fracture must be re-implanted within 60 minutes after the accident for having the best chances to remain in position. This applies to adult teeth only and not for deciduous teeth.
• The best option is to re-implant the tooth at the accident site. The tooth should be placed by an adult, either by the person who lost his tooth, or by another adult if it is a child who has suffered from the accident.
• It is important that the tooth is placed in its exact position, so it does not move when the patient bites his teeth together.
• If the tooth is dirty, it is important that the patient cleans it with his own saliva by putting it in his mouth. It should then be removed from the mouth and spit all the debris. By spitting hard, you can remove the blood clot that would have formed in the hole where the tooth was located, making the re-implantation of the tooth easier to do.
• The more quickly this is done; the better will be the chances of success.
• If for some reason the tooth cannot be placed in its right position, then it must be brought the dentist as soon as possible. The tooth can be kept in the mouth of the patient if it is an adult. If it’s a kid that had the accident, he or she may swallow the tooth; it is therefore better to keep it in a cup of milk, or in a saline solution (one cup of water mixed with half teaspoon of salt). The patient and the tooth must be taken to the dentist as soon as possible.

By following these instructions there are good chances that the tooth remains in the mouth for a lifetime. There are risks that it may need a root canal later, or it might need to be extracted and replaced by an implant, a bridge or a partial.

Full Article: Avulsed Tooth – What to Do When a Tooth Falls after an Accident
Source of pictures: Journal de l’Ordre des dentistes du Québec.
In French: Que faire si une dent adulte est complètement tombée suite à un accident?

Can Tooth Loss Cause Dementia?

It was always understood that people suffering from dementia had a higher risk of losing their teeth by poor oral hygiene. But new research has shown that people who lose their teeth prematurely are more likely to later develop dementia.

The study was conducted with 144 Catholic nuns who all had the ages between 75 and 98 years. The study lasted 12 years and has demonstrated that the nuns that had between 0 and 9 teeth in their mouths were more likely to develop dementia than the ones who had more than 10 teeth.

Although the exact relationship between tooth loss and dementia remains to be shown, the results of this research are another good reason to maintain good dental hygiene and to visit the dentist regularly.

Full Article: The Loss of Teeth May Be Linked to Dementia
In French: Est-ce que la perte des dents peut causer la démence?

5 Reasons to Floss Your Teeth Every Day

Did your dentist remind you to floss your teeth at your last dental checkup? And yet it is easy to forget to do. Maybe by knowing why flossing is so necessary for oral hygiene, it would be easier to follow the dentist’s advice. Here are 5 important reasons why flossing is so important:

1. To reduce the risk of having cavities
   Brushing alone cannot clean all around a tooth when there is another tooth right next to it. Flossing completes tooth brushing by removing plaque and foods remaining in between two teeth where tooth decay often starts.
2. To reduce the risk of having gum disease
   Plaque is full of harmful bacteria, and if left around teeth it can accumulate on gums and start an inflammation. This is the first step of gum disease, including gingivitis and periodontitis.
3. To prevent halitosis
   Plaque that is located in between teeth, if not removed, can emanate a bad smell, which is one of the number one reasons of having bad breath.
4. To prevent tartar buildup
   If plaque is left around teeth, it becomes tartar with the saliva calcification action. Tartar can also cause gum disease and to reduce its amount around teeth is good for oral health.
5. To reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease
   People with heart disease must be very vigilant with their oral hygiene because the mouth is an entry point for harmful bacteria that, if not eliminated, can eventually reach the heart.

See also in French.

What is the Worst that Can Happen if Wisdom Teeth are not Removed?

If a dentist recommends removing wisdom teeth, it would be unwise to delay the surgery indefinitely. To do so may invite a variety of problems including damage to adjacent structures, such as sensory nerves, the maxillary sinus, and alveolar bone. Postponed wisdom teeth removal may be more complicated and require a longer recovery period. Additionally, damage caused by wisdom teeth to adjacent teeth and structures may not be easily repaired.

Tooth Decay

Keeping the back of the mouth clean with daily brushing and flossing is difficult in the best of circumstances. When wisdom teeth are present, good oral hygiene in this area is very difficult; a situation that often leads to cavities. Research has shown that more young adults have decay in the wisdom tooth area than previously thought.

Gum Disease

Wisdom teeth are not like other teeth in that they generally do not have adequate space to erupt. This is due not only to limited space, but also to the fact that gum tissues in the area are not designed to attach to the tooth in a normal way like other teeth. No matter how well someone maintains oral hygiene, it is very tough to keep the wisdom tooth area clean and bacteria free. Bacterial infection and inflammation often results in gum disease that can affect neighbouring teeth.

Involvement of adjacent structures

A young adult’s wisdom teeth generally have incomplete root systems, making surgery relatively uncomplicated. As wisdom teeth mature, their roots lengthen and may become involved with the surrounding structures such as sensory nerves or the maxillary sinus. In such cases, surgery may trigger a greater chance of complications.

Cyst and tumour formation

A fully impacted wisdom tooth sits in the jawbone surrounded by the sac in which teeth develop. Over time, however, this sac may enlarge and even develop unhealthy changes in the cells from which it is made. Problems occur when the sac surrounding the impacted tooth becomes filled with fluid and enlarges to form a cyst. As the cyst grows it may damage the jaw, neighbouring teeth and other surrounding structures. Very rarely, tumours develop from the same tissues that surround an impacted tooth, requiring extensive surgery and reconstruction.

What if wisdom teeth are kept?

If wisdom teeth are kept despite the fact that the dentist or the maxillofacial surgeon advised to remove them, it is important to monitor their health and condition regularly. X-rays and clinical examination should be done in the area every two years. Particular care of brushing and flossing of the area should also be taken into account.

See also in French.

Why is Oral Hygiene Important?

A smile is the shortest distance between two people. To make sure that your smile reflects the best about you is to practice good oral hygiene.

Teeth are important, not only for the smile and the speech, but also for their contribution to the structure of the face and the jaw. Bacterial infections that affect teeth and gums are probably the greatest threat to a healthy mouth. Bacteria can be left on teeth, or in between them, later causing tooth decay and cavities. Bacteria can also accumulate around the gums leading to gingivitis or more severe gum disease.

Regular oral hygiene is very important to eliminate bad bacteria that can cause these infections. Brushing after each meal, flossing daily and regular checkups at the dentist complete oral care to always have healthy teeth and gums.

See also in French.

Top Ten Reasons to Remove your Wisdom Teeth

Top 10 reasons to remove wisdom teeth:

10. Because there is limited space for wisdom teeth to erupt and because the surrounding gums are difficult to keep clean. Infection and inflammation are therefore common even when there are no apparent symptoms.

9. Even when wisdom teeth erupt through the gum tissues, they rarely provide any meaningful function and are always difficult to keep clean.

8. Wisdom teeth have high risk of getting cavities on them because they are very hard to clean while brushing and flossing.

7. In some cases, impacted wisdom teeth develop cysts, and rarely tumours. Removal of such lesions may require extensive procedures to repair and restore jaw function and appearance.

6. With age, the chance for complications related to the removal of wisdom teeth increases.

5. Gum disease and inflammation associated with wisdom teeth may lead to receding gum tissues, deterioration of the jawbone and tooth loss.

4. Wisdom teeth may contribute to crowding of nearby teeth.

3. Even wisdom teeth that seem to be problem-free remain a breeding ground for oral infection and inflammation. Research supports the concept that such inflammation may enter the bloodstream and contribute to the development and/or progression of a variety of diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease and stroke.

2. Once it has been determined that a wisdom tooth will not successfully erupt into your mouth and be maintained in a healthy state, early extraction of wisdom teeth is associated with faster and easier recovery.

1. The number one reason for removing wisdom teeth: Peace of mind!

Source: American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons.

See also in French.