Watching your kids dress up in cute, spooky costumes and go out trick-or-treating can be a real thrill. But thinking about the dental damage caused by eating all those sweets might just give you the chills. So is it best to act like a witch and take away all the candy from those adorable little ghosts and goblins?

Relax! According to experts like the American Dental Association, it’s OK to let kids enjoy some sweet treats on special occasions like Halloween—especially if they have been taking good care of their oral hygiene all year long, by brushing twice each day and flossing once every day. But to help keep cavities away from those young smiles, there are some things parents (and everyone else) should understand.

Cavities—small holes in the tooth’s outer surface that result from the decay process—get started when bacteria in the mouth feed on sugar and produce acids. The acids eat away at the hard enamel coating of teeth. If left untreated, decay will eventually reach the soft inner core of the tooth, causing even more serious damage.

There are several ways to stop the process of tooth decay. One is to take away the sugar that decay bacteria feed on. Because this ingredient is common in so many foods, it’s hard to completely eliminate sugar from the diet. Instead, it may be more practical to limit the consumption of sweets. For example, if kids are only allowed to eat sugary treats around mealtimes, it gives the mouth plenty of “downtime,” in which healthful saliva can neutralize the bacterial acids. It also helps to avoid sweets that stick to teeth (like taffy or gummy bears) and those that stay in the mouth for a long time (like hard candy).

Another way to help stop tooth decay is by maintaining top-notch oral hygiene. Decay bacteria thrive in the sticky film called plaque that clings stubbornly to the surfaces of teeth. Plaque can be removed by—you guessed it—effective brushing and flossing techniques. While it’s a good start, brushing alone won’t remove plaque from the spaces between teeth and under the gums: That’s why flossing is an essential part of the daily oral hygiene routine. Helping your kids develop good oral hygiene habits is among the best things you can do to fight cavities.

And speaking of habits, there are a few others that can help—or hurt—your oral health.  For example, drinking plenty of water keeps the body hydrated and benefits oral health; but regularly drinking soda and other sweetened or acidic beverages greatly increases the risk of tooth decay. And seeing your dentist on a regular basis for professional cleanings and routine checkups is one of the most beneficial habits of all. Working together, we can help keep tooth decay from turning into a scary situation for kids—and adults too.

If you have questions about cavity prevention or oral hygiene, please contact our office or schedule a consultation. You can learn more in the Dear Doctor magazine articles “How to Help Your Child Develop the Best Habits for Oral Health” and “Tooth Decay—How to Assess Your Risk.”

High school graduation marks the end of childhood and the beginning of young adulthood. Do you have a graduate in your family? If so, this is the ideal time to schedule a dental checkup and cleaning. Many graduates will be moving away to attend college, and an oral exam and cleaning now can help ensure that they will embark on this next phase of life in good oral health.

Is your graduate ready for the barrage of camera snaps? Long after graduation day, pictures of your graduate beaming in cap and gown will be on display. A professional teeth cleaning may be just what is needed for a camera-ready smile. The dental hygienist will use an electronic polishing tool to remove many stains from the teeth for a sparkling smile.

What’s more, the dental hygienist uses special tools to get rid of plaque and tartar that can cause bad breath, a common concern among teens and young adults. Bad breath is primarily caused by poor oral hygiene habits, and the hygienist can check to see if your teen’s oral hygiene routine has been too lax—and offer pointers if needed. It’s never too late to form better brushing and flossing habits, especially if your graduate will soon be living away from home!

A dental exam will reveal tooth decay or gum disease, problems that will only get worse if not taken care of. Another reason why dental exams are important at this time is that wisdom teeth—or third molars—generally appear between ages 17–21. Although these teeth sometimes come in without any problem, many wisdom teeth become impacted and must be removed, so it’s important to monitor them during regular dental checkups.

Take time to schedule a dental exam and cleaning so your graduate can march into a bright future armed with a big smile and the best oral health.

If you have questions about teen oral health concerns, please contact our office or schedule a consultation. You can learn more in the Dear Doctor magazine articles “Wisdom Teeth” and “How to Help Your Child Develop the Best Habits for Oral Health.”

“Less is more” is a truism for much of life. It’s also an important feature of an emerging approach to treating tooth decay known as minimally invasive dentistry (MID).

MID updates another revolution in dental care that occurred in the early 1900s. Treating decay took a quantum leap thanks to techniques developed by Dr. G. V. Black, considered the father of modern dentistry. Dr. Black’s approach (known as “extension for prevention”) involved not only removing decayed tooth structure, but also adjacent areas deemed vulnerable to decay, which made them easier to clean. On the downside, though, it also created larger than normal fillings.

As the practice prevailed through much of the Twentieth Century another weakness became apparent—the approach could not guarantee a treated tooth would not experience decay again. This became the real impetus toward MID—to find more comprehensive ways to treat decay with as little impact on the tooth structure as possible.

These efforts received a real boost from emerging technology. This was especially true in diagnostics with the rise of new devices like intraoral cameras and techniques like laser fluorescence that can enable dentists to detect decay much earlier. It’s now possible to catch the disease at an earlier stage before substantial damage to the tooth occurs.

MID has also led to new treatments that preserve more of the tooth structure. Traditional drilling is increasingly giving way to air abrasion, the use of a fine particle stream of aluminum oxide, glass beads or baking soda directed precisely at decayed structure and minimizing damage to healthy structure. We’re also using new filling materials like composite resin for restorations after treatment that are strong yet still life-like and attractive.

We also can’t forget the role of the twin daily hygiene practices brushing and flossing to remove bacterial plaque, the main source of dental disease. And regular dental cleanings and checkups round out the MID approach, helping to ensure that decay doesn’t get too far. The end result of this revolutionary approach: your teeth can experience less impact from treatment and remain healthier and more attractive in the long-run.

If you would like more information on minimally invasive dental care, please contact us or schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can also learn more about this topic by reading the Dear Doctor magazine article “Minimally Invasive Dentistry: When Less Care is more.”

Since the late 19th Century, dentists have used established protocols to successfully prevent and treat tooth decay. But there've been changes to this approach the last few years to improve its effectiveness, changes we now refer to as Minimally Invasive Dentistry or MID.

The older approach for treating dental caries (tooth decay) follows the protocols established by Dr. G.V. Black, considered the father of modern dentistry. Black advocated removing not only decayed structure but also some of the healthier but vulnerable portions of a tooth, to avoid further decay and make the tooth easier to clean. This resulted in larger fillings, although they've become smaller as dental techniques have advanced.

MID, on the other hand, aims to remove as little tooth structure as possible while still effectively treating and preventing future decay. To achieve that goal we begin first with a complete assessment of a patient's individual decay risk, known as Caries Management By Risk Assessment (CAMBRA).

With CAMBRA, we're looking at other factors besides individual tooth health: a patient's hygiene, lifestyle and dietary habits; the types and amount of bacteria present; and the quality of saliva flow, needed to neutralize mouth acid. With these the results we develop a customized prevention and treatment strategy.

MID also focuses on detecting dental caries as early as possible. Besides traditional x-rays, we're beginning to use other methods like dental microscopes, laser fluorescence, infrared photography or optical scanning. Early detection leads to early intervention, and with techniques that are much less invasive than the traditional approach.

The new approach also changes how we repair decayed teeth. We're increasingly using air abrasion, a technology that uses fine particles in a pressurized air stream to remove softer decayed tooth material and less healthy structure than the traditional dental drill. We're also using composite resin and other advanced materials for filings: these tooth-colored materials are stronger than previous versions and are quickly taking the place of metal amalgam, requiring less structural removal to accommodate them.

MID's core principles are early disease detection, proactive prevention and treatment with less structural removal. With this enhanced approach to effective dentistry, we're keeping your teeth healthy with minimal discomfort, lower costs and less long-term impact.

If you would like more information on the benefits of the MID approach, please contact us or schedule an appointment for a consultation.

Despite everyone’s best efforts, one of your child’s primary (“baby”) teeth has become decayed to the point it might be lost prematurely. Saving it would require extensive treatment like capping it with a crown or performing a pulpotomy, similar to a root canal treatment.

You may be thinking: since it’s going to come out eventually, why go to the expense of trying to preserve it longer? Actually, there are good reasons to save a baby tooth depending on your child’s age — for now and for the future. Here are 4 of them.

They’re important for nutrition. Baby teeth are quite similar to permanent teeth — not only do they look like them, they perform like them too, enabling a growing child to chew and digest food needed to boost their development. Even the loss of one tooth for an extended period makes effective chewing harder.

They’re important for speech development. With their first words, children develop speech patterns rather quickly. Their baby teeth play an important role in this: just like permanent teeth, they provide the tongue with points of contact for making a variety of sounds. A missing tooth for a prolonged period could interfere with making certain sounds and could have a stunting effect on their speech development.

They’re important for permanent teeth eruption. Baby teeth also serve as placeholders for their successors, the permanent teeth that are in development just under the gums. A baby tooth normally remains until the permanent tooth is ready to erupt within the path set by the primary. If they’re lost prematurely, the permanent tooth may not erupt as it should; and adjacent permanent teeth can drift toward the empty space and out of alignment.

They’re part of their smile. Baby teeth help children fit in socially with adults and other children — they help them look normal. A missing tooth stands out when they smile — and not in a good way. This could impact the way they interact socially with others, extending even into adulthood.

If you would like more information on dental care for your child, please contact us or schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can also learn more about this topic by reading the Dear Doctor magazine article “Importance of Baby Teeth.”