Mouth breathing or nose breathing?
July 13, 2010 by Greg Witte · 1 Comment
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.
Gold is still the best choice for crowns
January 18, 2010 by Greg Witte · Leave a Comment
Hello there from dental land. I know the header says this is about cosmetic dentistry, but I would like to talk a bit about an alternative to cosmetics, the Gold Crown. For back teeth (molars), it is still the best choice in crowns. There are many situations for which a gold crown is highly preferable to the porcelain crown.
First of all is strength. If you have a tooth that is vertically challenged (short), gold requires much less tooth to be removed than does porcelain. Gold is also much more strong and durable. After all, porcelain is just basically sintered glass particles with some color added.
Second, if you are a bruxer (and we know who you are), gold doesn’t fracture as porcelain often does. Gold also will not wear the opposing tooth down the way porcelain can. Gold does not require the amount of circumferential tooth removal that is required for a porcelain crown. So if your jaw muscles are well developed from genetics, eating, clinching or just talking (ha-ha), consider gold for your molars. They will thank you.
Lastly, if cosmetics are a concern, these teeth are not seen in 95% of people’s smiles. So unless your friends are looking in your mouth with a spelunker’s light, appearance is not a concern.
Dr. Greg Witte
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