The issues of dental care and personal hygiene are among the most topical social concerns of modern health care enthusiasts. According to the statistics, due to high prices for dental services and the requirements of our business life, very often we neglect visiting a dental specialist every 6 months for a regular checkup. This tendency is increasing, making public dental health get worse and worse.

In particular, specialists found out that lots of American people have such serious dental problem as gum disease, but they are not aware of the fact as they do not visit their dentists regularly. The same can be said about other dental diseases, which are closely linked to many serious health conditions and ailments, including heart disease, arthritis, hypertension, diabetes and many more. If we do not do regular dental checkups, we have no opportunity to get important information and prevent the development of other diseases which are very serious and sometimes even lethal.

This issue became a subject of interest of a group of dental specialists at one of the scientific centers in Virginia. As a result, one of the leaders of the research, Charles Martin, wrote a book which tells the wide audience how much oral hygiene is important for our overall health and what role it plays for maintaining excellent health or for effective weight management.

Martin underlines that in case if anything is not right in the body, there are always signs in our oral area. Therefore, dental checkup is one of the most effective ways to reveal other health problems, starting from common sore throat and ending up with increased risks for heart disease. He says that if the situation with children is more or less acceptable as children have regular checkups in their schools, adults must pay serious attention on the problem. That is why the dental specialist encourages citizens to buy affordable discounted dental plans and never miss regular checkups at their dentists.

Tags: dental checkups, regular checkups

Posted: August 11th, 2010 under Miscellaneous.
Comments: 2

Many of us frequently use sugar-free products with the aim to protect our teeth from harmful effects of sugar. Especially, parents like giving sugar-free bars and products to their children in order to lower the risks of damaging children’s teeth. However, the specialists ring the bells saying that such products are very often overfilled with acidic and other types of additives, which can be not less but even more harmful to our teeth than sugar. The same can be said about sugar-free drinks.

When choosing a product in the markets or shops, modern consumers usually look ate sugar content. But they do not realize that other ingredients can also be as bad. The specialists tested more than 85 popular sugar-free snacks, including the ones of such popular brands as Kellogg‘s and Nestle. It turned our that all of those products have harmful acidic elements, and the same can be said about commercial orange juice. Brad Schmitt, a nutritionist, comments on the study: “Kids love their muesli bars and fruit snacks but parents should limit them to be a once-a-week treat.”

Acid damage is sometimes more dangerous than sugar damage, because it not only weakens the enamel and erodes the minerals in it. It also extremely increases teeth sensitivity and makes tooth enamel more vulnerable for harmful activity of sugars. Many specialists consider acid erosion even more dangerous than damage  from sugar as the former causes enamel demineralization, and the latter is more likely linked to cavities and tooth decay. That is why we all should be careful of consuming sugar-free foods thinking that the risks of damaging teeth are minimized.

Tags: acid erosion, sugar-free foods, tooth enamel

Posted: July 19th, 2010 under Dental Care for Every Day.
Comments: 1

Many people avoid visiting dental specialists because of unpleasant and scary procedure of dental drilling. They postpone again and again, making the situation even worse. Certainly, it is hard to do something to avoid dental cavities, but it is possible to change something about drilling. Recently, French specialists at at the Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale came up with a new technology which can help us forget about dentist’s drill once and forever.

According to the results of a new study which were recently published in the journal ACS Nano, a new technology includes applying a new teeth-healing gel to the cavities, instead of very unpleasant and painful procedure of dental drilling. The experiments started in order to check out the properties of the peptide MSH, which was reported to be able to regenerate the tissues of human bones. It is a known fact that human teeth and bones are quite similar in structure, therefore French specialists made up their minds to take a chance and study the effects of using this substance for healing teeth.

Their research showed that when a thin film or gel with the peptide MSH  is placed into a cavity, the tooth starts regenerating the tissues in a natural way. The experiments on mice demonstrated that within one month it is possible to heal tooth cavities using this revolutionary method, which can help to substantially reduce the need for root canals, removing the pulp and nerve, etc.

However, the specialists underline that this innovative technology will not lead to giving up such important daily procedure as tooth brushing. Benkirane-Jessel, one of the scientists and dental specialists at the Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale, told the press that it is only a new technology which can help control cavities, but not the process of their formation. Therefore, regular tooth brushing and flossing will still play a key role in lowering the risks of cavities and other dental problems.

Tags: dental drilling, dental specialists, tooth brushing

Posted: June 30th, 2010 under Miscellaneous.
Comments: 1