Traditional Floss vs. Floss Picks

Flossing isn’t particularly fun or easy, but it’s necessary for a healthy mouth. At my dental office in The Woodlands, we encourage our patients to floss at least once a day, everyday. But what should you use? Is traditional floss better than a floss pick? Does one clean better than the other?

Traditional Floss

Traditional floss has been tested and proven to help remove food particles, bacteria, and plaque in between teeth, so we already know that it’s effective. But is it the best choice? The short answer, is yes. And no. Let us explain.

Many times, flossing depends on the individual. Traditional floss can be more difficult to control, especially if someone has limited use of their hands or fingers. It can also be a bit more complicated to reach all the way into the back to clean the molars with traditional floss.

Floss Picks

Floss picks are typically either Y or F shaped pieces of plastic with a small piece of floss threaded through the opening. One of main reasons to choose floss picks over traditional floss is their ease of use. It’s easier to reach the back of the mouth with floss picks and they can be more comfortable. But again, it comes down to personal situations and what works best for you.

Sometimes, people whose teeth are tighter together have difficulty wedging a floss pick in between teeth. In this situation, traditional floss is recommended. Additionally, if using a floss pick, you may need more than one each time you floss due to the small size of the actual piece of floss.

When it comes to effectiveness, there are mixed opinions on whether traditional floss and floss picks are equally efficient. Some studies show that both clean between your teeth really well. Other research suggests floss picks are less effective since their shape can limit their ability to reach below the gum line and all the way around each tooth.

No matter which form of floss you choose, make sure you’re doing it. Flossing can help prevent gum disease and keep your mouth healthy. While proper flossing and brushing go a long way in getting and keeping a healthy mouth, don’t neglect regular appointments at my dental office in The Woodlands. They’re just as important to your smile.

Serving patients from The Woodlands, Spring, and Conroe.

Cool Off, Take a Swim, Protect Your Smile

During the summer heat, one of the best ways to cool off is to take a dip in your favorite swimming pool. While swimming is super effective at giving you a break from the sweltering sun, it can also negatively affect your smile. At my dental office in The Woodlands, we’d like to warn our patients of the oral health risks associated with too much time in the pool.

The link between pool water and oral health has been studied since the mid-1980s, and isn’t a new concept to dentists. But many people aren’t totally aware of all the risks involved with excessive swimming. Sure, your hair can turn green, you can smell like chlorine all summer, and you may suffer from dry skin. But your teeth are also in danger of some pretty serious stuff.

Pool owners everywhere typically use chemicals to balance the pH level of the water, and keep it safe for their families. The ideal pH in pool water should be between 7.2 and 7.8. Often, however, the pH drops below this safe zone, and when that happens, the water is too acidic and is actually considered corrosive. A low pH level can cause skin irritation, burning of the eyes, tooth discoloration, and enamel erosion.

The Importance of Enamel

Tooth enamel protects teeth against harmful plaque and bacteria, and without it, teeth are at increased risk for decay. Besides pool water, there are many summer favorites that can contribute to enamel erosion like lemonade and sangria. Avoiding high levels of acid is key to keeping your summer smile healthy.

What to Look For

If you only visit the pool once in awhile, you decrease your chances of having a pool water related problem. But if you’re a competitive swimmer, spend all day, everyday in the pool, or swim everyday for exercise, keep an eye out for the common signs of a problem. You may start to experience sensitivity or even have unexplainable brown tartar spots on your teeth. This tooth discoloration is commonly known as swimmer’s calculus. If you notice any of these changes, visit your dentist in The Woodlands as soon as you can.

How to Protect Your Grin

You don’t need to give up swimming this summer out of fear. Sometimes all it takes is a bit of precaution. Make sure to check a pool’s pH level often, keep pool water out of your mouth as much as possible, and maintain regular visits to my dental office in The Woodlands. The more often you come to see us, the faster we can detect a problem, and the quicker we can fix it. That means less time at the dentist and more time spent relaxing poolside.

Accepting patients from The Woodlands, Spring, and Conroe.

5 Ways You’re Harming Your Teeth

Even if you brush and floss everyday, there are still many things that cause damage to your smile. At my dental office in The Woodlands, we’re all about keeping teeth healthy and being dedicated to educating our patients on all the ways to keep their mouths in tip-top shape, as well as things that can be harmful.

1. Ice, Ice, Baby

Ice is a great way to cool a drink or nurse an injury back to health, but it’s not so helpful to your smile. They’re hard, really hard, and if crunched can cause chips. Once there are chips, bacteria can settle into these little nooks and cause decay. If not fixed, chips can turn into severe cracks and even cause pieces of teeth to fall off.

2. Side to Side

While we always encourage our patients to brush twice a day and floss once a day, we want to make sure they all know the proper way to brush. It’s best to use small, gentle circles to ensure you’re treating your enamel with the best of care. If a back and forth, side to side technique is used, it can be harsh on enamel and cause scratches.

3. Run!

Running and other forms of cardiovascular exercise are great for a healthy heart and healthy body. But recent research also shows a link between endurance cardio workouts and tooth decay. One explanation to this is during intense cardio, saliva production is greatly decreased. Saliva naturally washes away dangerous acid and bacteria that can lead to decay. Try chewing sugar-free gum during workouts.

4. Feel the Burn

Heartburn that is. Acid reflux is never enjoyable, but it can cause serious damage to your teeth. Acid from the stomach can creep up into the mouth and act just like acid from soda or sugar-loaded sports drinks. However, stomach acid tends to be more potent and can more easily dissolve enamel.

5. Lemonade

Lemonade is packed full of acid as well as sugar, a lethal combination for tooth health. Bacteria found in the mouth feeds on the sugar while the acid eats away at tooth enamel, making your teeth a prime spot for decay to flourish. Choose water instead.

Avoiding these damaging foods and activities, or at least counteracting those that are good for you with something good for your smile, can do wonders for the health of your mouth. And as always, keeping up with regular appointments at my The Woodlands dental office is the best prevention.

Serving patients from The Woodlands, Spring, and Conroe.

Top 4 Tips to Ease Your Dental Fear

Nervousness or legitimate fear of the dentist is completely normal. In fact, an estimated 80 million Americans suffer from it. At my dental office in The Woodlands, we understand a visit to the dentist can be scary. But we also know avoiding professional dental care can have serious health complications. We’re here to help.

Before we dive into to talking about some tips to ease dental anxiety, let’s take a look at what causes this fear. According to a study from North Carolina University, each individual’s overall anxiety level is a great indicator to how they’ll react at a dental visit. The higher the natural anxiety level, the more likely it is to suffer from dental fear. Dental fear may also result from a prior negative experience, worry about being lectured about dental care, or embarrassment.

Easing The Fear

1. Talk it Out. One of the most important ways to combat dental fear is to establish trust with your dentist in The Woodlands. Make sure she knows the fear is there and ask her to talk through each procedure in detail and answer any questions. It’s alright to ask how long each treatment may take, what you might feel, about using a signal if you become uncomfortable, and to request breaks.
2. Distractions. Lying back in the dental chair with mouth agape and someone’s hands in there can create an uneasy feeling. Try distracting yourself with music, television, or sunglasses. Some practices even provide these amenities for you.
3. Take a Deep Breath. Breathing techniques and focused breathing have been proven to lower anxiety levels and ease nervousness. Close your eyes, take deep breaths using your diaphragm (the lower part of your belly), and focus on the air coming in and going out.
4. Ask Around. Asking friends and family their opinions on their own dentists can help you find the one that’s right for you. The internet can also provide a wealth of information. Start by visiting the websites of any referred dentists and see how you feel with what they say and how their offices look. Also make sure to read reviews online. You just may find a dentist who helped a friend with similar fears.

We know dental fear is real, we understand how nervous some people may be to get professional dental care, and we’re here to ease those fears. At my dental office in The Woodlands, we work with each and every patient to ease any anxieties they may have, and we’re always sure to be gentle, talk through each procedure, and we never lecture. If it’s time to see a dentist who understands, give us a call today.

Welcoming patients from The Woodlands, Spring, and Conroe.

How Do We Taste Different… Tastes?

Food is probably one of our favorite things at my dental office in The Woodlands (besides teeth of course!). We love to savor flavorful treats of all kinds on our tongues. Actually, speaking of tongues, our love for food and the flavors involved made us think about that often forgotten, yet important, part of our mouths.

Tongues are responsible for allowing us to taste all the wonderful mixes of flavors available to us. But one thing about the sense of taste has been a bit misleading.

Sour, Salty, Sweet, and Bitter

You may remember learning about something called the tongue map back in school. The tongue map illustrated and taught us that we taste different flavors on different parts of our tongues. Bitter on the back, sour on the sides near the back, salty on the sides closer to the front, and sweet on the tip. The truth? That’s just not the case.

What Do You Taste, Bud?

Tongues are full of small bumps that are often mistaken for our taste buds. In reality, the bumps found on the top of the tongue are called papillae. Taste buds are much, much smaller. So small that anywhere from 3-100 can fit inside one papilla! While many papillae are home to many taste buds, there are actually some that don’t have any. The papillae found in the middle section of the tongue (the filiform papillae), for example, don’t have taste buds while the papillae found on the outer rim (the fungiform papillae) can hold about 3-5 taste buds. That doesn’t sound like very many, so where do we actually taste flavors?

Party in the Back!

Stick out your tongue. Look in the back. The way, waaay, back. Back there is where the party’s at! Most of your taste buds live in the papillae (the foliate and circumvallate papillae) found on this area of the tongue, with each papillae hosting 100 or more buds! Party on!

Next time you indulge in your favorite snack and want to savor the flavor a bit longer, get the most of it by allowing it to rest near the back of the tongue. Just make sure if it’s a sugar-filled treat or acid-packed snack, you don’t let it linger too long. These yummy foods sure taste great, but if they’re exposed to the teeth for a long period of time, they may cause damage. But don’t worry, if any damage does occur, call my dental practice in The Woodlands and we’ll get you back to eating all your favorite flavors right away.

Welcoming patients in The Woodlands, Spring, Conroe, and surrounding areas.

Information About Oral Cancer and You

Let us indulge our obsession with oral health by talking to you about Oral Cancer, its risk factors, and sharing good information with you. At my The Woodlands dental office, we screen every adult for it at every visit.

Oral Cancer Facts

• 8,000 people in the United States die from oral cancer every year.
• If caught early, the oral cancer survival rate is between 85-90%.
• Oral Cancer risk factors are higher among these groups: People over age 45, Those who smoke or use alcohol, People with consistently high exposure to UV rays, Those who have been diagnosed with HPV, and People with poor nutrition.

How Can I Prevent it?

1. Don’t start smoking or drinking. If you do smoke, quit. If you drink, drink less.
2. Get at least five servings each day of fruits and vegetables.
3. If you have HPV, get checked for oral cancer regularly.
4. If you are 45 or older, get checked for oral cancer regularly.
5. If you spend a lot of time working or playing outdoors, wear at least SPF 15 on your lips, and reapply sunscreen to your face and neck (and your whole body) frequently.

Early Detection is Key

Even people with none of the above risk factors sometimes get oral cancer. So even if you have no risk factors, make sure you get checked every year. That’s why we invite you to make an appointment with us at my The Woodlands dental office in honor of Cancer Awareness Month.

Please keep your regularly scheduled appointments at my dental office in The Woodlands. The more you see us, the better chance we have to catch any serious concerns promptly.

If you’re due for a visit, give us a call. We’d love to see you and promise to care for you in a welcoming, non-judgemental atmosphere.

Accepting patients from The Woodlands, Spring, Conroe , and surrounding areas.

Sink Your Teeth Into These Cavity Myths

Nobody enjoys having a cavity. Some of us even take extra precautions to avoid one altogether. Even more of us are still unsure as to what exactly causes cavities in the first place. Have no fear, my dental office in The Woodlands is here to debunk some common cavity myths.

Cavity Myth 1: Sugar is what causes cavities.

While sugar is definitely a way to get cavities, it’s not the sole contributor. Carbohydrates like bread, potatoes, and yes, sugar, are actually the main cavity causing culprits, or are at least the first step in creating them. When carbs linger in the mouth, they trigger bacteria. The bacteria creates acid which eats away at tooth enamel. This makes it easier for the bacteria to grow and thrive, creating cavities. So should you limit your carb intake? Not necessarily. It’s not necessarily how many carbs you eat that determines how at risk you are for cavities, it’s how long your teeth are exposed to them.

Cavity Myth 2: Children get more cavities than adults.

Advancements in dental technology and preventive tactics have actually led to a decrease in the number of cavities in children. However, senior citizens are a different story. Many seniors take a variety of medications. Some of these medicines result in dry mouth. When someone suffers from dry mouth, their chance for cavities increases since the supply of saliva is inadequate. Saliva is used to rinse away those harmful bacteria. Without it, cavities have a better chance of developing.

Cavity Myth 3: You’ll know when you have a cavity.

Not necessarily. While it’s completely possible to feel pain when you have a cavity, the pain could be associated with a number of other dental concerns like cracks in the enamel, roots exposed by gum recession, or simply sensitive teeth. However, when a cavity is present with pain, it’s likely that the decay has reached an advanced stage when it’s caused damage to the nerves. People rarely experience pain with mild to moderate decay.

We’ve revealed some truth to cavity myths, but we haven’t talked about the best way to avoid decay. Regular visits to my dental office in The Woodlands, brushing at least twice a day, and flossing once a day are time-tested, dentist-approved top ways to keep your mouth healthy. Has it been awhile since you’ve seen a dentist? Give us call!

Welcoming patients in The Woodlands, Spring, Conroe, and nearby neighborhoods.