Doctor Witte is feeling generous this August. He’s running a back to school special for parents and kids. Well actually it’s for everybody but we needed a lead in. The special is good for any elective dental procedure and it’s good until August 20. So act now, like today, call us, email us, hit us up on Facebook, reply on Twitter, notify us via pony express. Just take advantage of $50 dollars off things like crowns, veneers, dentures, partials, mini-implants, cosmetic bonding, sleeping appliances and night guards.
I read an article in this month’s Dental Town that I found to be very interesting. It discussed mouth breathing in children and its implications. In normal breathing, the tongue rests against the roof of the mouth. In mouth breathers, however, the tongue is forward and lower leading to abnormal palatal (roof of mouth) development and less oxygen uptake and often snoring.
Nasal breathing allows for less air exhaled leading to more lung pressure and better oxygen absorption by the bloodstream. In mouth breathers, a signal to the brain says air is being lost leading to slower breathing and blood vessel constriction, thereby causing higher blood pressure and stress. Mouth breathing also bypasses the normal filtering system of the nasal passages allowing unwanted particles into the lungs.
Kids who breathe orally are often perceived to lack IQ or have poor social skills. They often have a forward, slumped head position to open the airway and suffer from bad breath and increased tooth decay due to dry mouth.
So if your child is developing mouth breathing, see your friendly ENT as soon as possible to correct this problem.
Recently I attended a seminar which reinforced a choice I made a few years ago.
At that time, everyone was jumping on the bandwagon about new bonding agents (materials that bond tooth to filling material). The new wave was an all-in-one bottle as opposed to the traditional multi-step approach. This never made sense to me as you are basically leaving debris minerals in the tooth under the fillings. Evidence is now building that the newer faster method is causing more tooth sensitivity which doesn’t surprise me at all.
In the rush to make things simpler and faster, better was ignored.
Jennifer Danzinger, a new patient of A Winning Smile Dental Center agreed to do a short video testimonial on her recent experience. Look for more video testimonials on here on our blog.
The connection between periodontal (gum) disease and heart disease is now a fairly well known connection. What is lesser known, however, is the connections between gum disease and diabetes. This is due to the mutually tissue destroying effects of both diseases. Patients with poorly controlled blood sugar have higher incidence of complications from neuropathy, nephropathy, heart disease, infections, cataracts, and periodontal disease. Outcomes from perio treatment are highly jeopardized in individuals with hyperglycemia (high blood sugar).
Both of these diseases are chronic, non-curable, and controllable. The biggest similarity is the adverse effect on each other. Diabetes is the #1 systemic risk factor for gum disease. Hyperglycemia lowers the body’s ability to kill pathogens (bacteria) and enhances inflammation. At the same time, gum disease worsens blood sugar control by increasing insulin resistance.
These problems emphasize the great need to control perio disease in these patients. Items including power brushes, antimicrobial rinses, and local or systemic antibiotics are available to aid in treatment. It is vitally important to prevent and control gum disease because 65% of uncontrolled diabetics will die from heart attack or stoke.
As noted above, we already know the connection between gum disease and heart disease. It can become, therefore, a vicious cycle which must be prevented or at lease strictly controlled.
