Category: Caring for your Teeth

By: Dr. Elizabeth Eggert

Permanent teeth are supposed to last forever. But sometimes, it’s better to part ways with a troublesome permanent tooth than keep it around. Here’s a look at why we may recommend removing a tooth and what you can expect during your tooth extraction appointment.

Why We Might Recommend Removing a Tooth

Damage from trauma or tooth decay is the most common reason we recommend removing a tooth. Sports injuries, falls, and other accidents can cause irreparable damage to teeth. So can severe tooth decay that affects the root of the tooth.

An infection or risk of infection may also cause enough damage to cause us to recommend an extraction. Severe gum disease is another reason we pull teeth. Sometimes, the gum tissue that supports the tooth becomes so infected that the tooth becomes loose and needs to be pulled.

Other times, we may recommend removing a tooth if it is crowding its neighbors. This is especially common for patients who are getting braces. Pulling a tooth may be the best option for properly aligning your smile or allowing other teeth to erupt.

What to Expect during Your Tooth Extraction Procedure

After a consultation with Dr. Elizabeth or Dr. Jeff, we’ll help you decide if the tooth should be extracted at our office or with the oral surgeon. Sometimes a local anesthetic is enough to numb the area and safely and completely remove the tooth. Other times, you may decide that undergoing IV sedation is best for you.

Once the anesthetic kicks in, we’ll remove your tooth. This can be as simple as using forceps to pull the tooth out of its socket. But sometimes, we have to cut away gum and bone tissue to better expose the tooth so we can remove it more easily.

Once the tooth is removed, we’ll pack gauze into the socket to stop the bleeding. Sometimes, we’ll add a few dissolvable stiches to close the gum edges. During the healing process, a blood clot forms in the socket. If it becomes loose after your extraction, it causes a painful condition called dry socket. If you experience pain in the area of your pulled tooth, come back to see us. We’ll add a dressing over the socket to reduce the pain as a new blood clot forms.

What to Expect after Your Tooth Removal

After your procedure is complete, we’ll share your at-home recovery plan with you. You can expect some discomfort at the site of the extraction for a few days. We’ll recommend over-the-counter painkillers or prescribe a painkiller depending on the extent of the procedure. Applying ice to the site after the procedure can reduce swelling. Avoid spitting or rinsing your mouth for 24 hours after your procedure. This will allow the clot to form and avoid a painful dry socket.

It’s okay to continue to brush and floss your teeth. Just avoid the extraction site. We also recommend patients stick to liquid or soft foods for the first few days to promote healing.

What We Need to Know from You before Removing a Tooth

Removing a tooth is one of the most common and safest dental procedures we perform. But sometimes, patients have an underlying medical condition that may complicate the extraction. If you’re prone to infection, are immunocompromised, have liver disease, have a heart defect, or have an artificial joint or heart valve, please let us know so we can refine our treatment plan.

If you’re experiencing pain from a damaged tooth, schedule an appointment with Dr. Elizabeth or Dr. Jeff. We’ll perform a thorough exam and recommend your appropriate next steps.

By Dr. Elizabeth Eggert

Short answer: yes definitely!

Dr. Elizabeth and Dr. Jeff can’t count the number of times a sheepish patient owns up to cheating on flossing and brushing between recare visits. Others try to get away with a little white lie—there’s no way Dr. Elizabeth or Dr. Jeff can actually tell I’m not flossing, right?

We’ve all had times in our lives when we let flossing fall off our list of good habits. But dental professionals can tell just by the state of your mouth whether or not you’re brushing and flossing regularly.

Gum inflammation often gives you away.

Regular flossing removes the plaque that builds up between your teeth and along the gum line. If you’re not flossing regularly, plaque will build up in these areas. It doesn’t take long before the plaque causes inflammation along your gum line.

There’s another way to tell, too. When we check your gums during your recare visit, inflamed gums often bleed a lot more than healthy gums do. If your mouth’s a bit of a bloody mess during your visit, this will change when you start flossing regularly.

Plaque and tartar are two of our key informants.

The plaque buildup that eventually causes gum inflammation is a key indicator that you’re not brushing or flossing adequately, even if your gums aren’t inflamed yet. So is tartar (or calculus), which is plaque buildup that has calcified on your teeth. That means it’s been there a while, and you’re going to need our help removing it.

Flossing or using a water flosser regularly can remove the plaque buildup from between your teeth and prevent tartar and inflammation.

You’re not the first patient who’s tried to pull a fast one on us.

Remember when you were a kid and it seemed liked your mom always knew when you were lying? “I wasn’t born yesterday,” she might have said to you. We often think the same thing during our recare visits. You’re not the first patient who’s tried to pull a fast one on us. Just like mom, we’ve got your number!

At Eggert Family Dentistry we love all our patients, which is why we are so passionate about teaching you good brushing and flossing habits. We may give you a friendly reminder to start flossing, but it’s only because we care about your oral health. Contact us today to schedule your next appointment with our caring dental team.

By: Dr. Elizabeth Eggert

How to Handle SCARY and Dreaded Chronic Bad Breath

Does the fear of halitosis keep you up at night? If so, you’re not alone. Millions of Americans suffer from chronic bad breath. But you don’t have to suffer through this waking nightmare. Fortunately, we know many of the causes of halitosis, so we can offer you ways to treat and prevent it.

What’s Causing Your Bad Breath
Halitosis is more than morning breath or lingering odor from a tuna salad sandwich. It’s caused by bacteria thriving in your mouth and sinuses. Cavities and gum disease give bacteria extra places to live and breed. Bacteria also love the mucus your body produces when you’re recovering from a cold. If you have dry mouth from medications, an illness, or alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine use, you’re also likely to experience halitosis. That’s because saliva washes away potential food for bacteria. Without saliva, bacteria thrives.

Chronic illnesses can also cause halitosis. Gastric reflux, liver disease, kidney disease, and diabetes can all cause chronic bad breath. So can smoking tobacco, which contributes to gum disease and dry mouth.

Handling Halitosis
Since you know what causes halitosis, you can take steps to treat and prevent it. If you use tobacco or drink alcohol and caffeine excessively, consider quitting. If you’re battling a cold or sinus infection, work to clear your nose and sinuses as well as brush your teeth regularly and use mouth wash for your comfort while you heal. And if you wear dentures, make sure to take them out at night and clean them well before popping them back in your mouth in the morning.

If cavities or gum disease are causing your halitosis, it’s time to book a recare appointment with Eggert Family Dentistry. We can treat your cavities and diagnose and treat gum disease to keep bacteria at bay. Continue your care at home with regular brushing and flossing. Scraping your tongue with your tooth brush or a special tongue scraper can cut down on halitosis, too.

You don’t have to be haunted by halitosis anymore. Schedule your recare appointment with us today to start treating your chronic bad breath.

By: Dr. Elizabeth Eggert

We urge everyone to practice good oral hygiene habits so they can have a life-long healthy, attractive smile. If you’ve got braces, it’s especially important, and just a little trickier than it is for the unbraced.

Greater Risks with Braces

It’s especially crucial because poor care and hygiene could cause problems leading to prolonged treatment. If you want the braces chapter of your life to come to a timely conclusion, take extra good care of your teeth to avoid risk of tooth decay, gum disease or simply undesirable coloration.

Plaque and bacteria are on a mission to stick to the surfaces of your teeth and spread. Also, stains from coffee, tea, wine and other foods can discolor your enamel, and when the braces come off, they may reveal whiter squares where the brackets were attached.

Long-Term Benefits of Braces

Braces are a long-term commitment with a great payoff: Not only are well-aligned teeth more attractive, they also avoid unnecessary wear, and they’re easier to keep clean, preventing decay and cavities.

Here are our tips for making sure that when the long-anticipated unveiling takes place, your teeth look their best–and there are no unpleasant surprises.

Brush After Every Meal and Before Bed

Brushing is the number-one defense against problems. Use a soft-bristled toothbrush, an electric toothbrush, or a high-tech one like Sonicare. Inspect your bristles regularly–they’ll wear out faster than without braces, so replace your brush regularly.

Develop good brushing habits, the same as we recommend for folks without braces. Brush for two minutes each session, and develop a routine so you give equal attention to each quarter of your mouth: top and bottom, left and right. Use a smooth, circular motion when you brush, and adjust the angle to get past your hardware. Don’t press too hard or saw back and forth. Remember to brush both sides of the bracket!

Interdental Brush

Use these miniature bottle brushes to tackle gaps or spaces between teeth, and to gently clean around and underneath your braces and wires where your brush isn’t making contact. Again, be systematic: start at one end and go all the way to the other, moving the brush between each set of brackets.

Floss with a Threader Once Daily

While you’re wearing braces, a floss threader is essential. It’s just like a plastic needle and thread. It allows you to slip the floss between your teeth and address plaque at the gum line. Follow a pattern, making sure you hit every gap: top to bottom, left to right, whatever works for you. Be gentle on your gums, and don’t saw back and forth–use an up-and-down motion.

Rinse Your Mouth

Take a good mouthful of water and swish it around to dislodge any remaining debris. For an extra level of care, use an extra strength, prescription fluoride toothpaste, or minimally an over the counter fluoride rinse.

Check a Mirror

Simple — make sure you’ve gotten rid of all visible particles and don’t forget to check under your lips!.

Keeping Braces Clean is a Little Extra Work, but Worth it

Getting braces requires an extra commitment to oral hygiene, but it only takes a few minutes a day to ensure that you’re taking the best possible care of your mouth. Because you’ll probably be brushing more frequently than you did previously, put together a kit with your essentials, so you can brush on the go. Toothbrush, toothpaste, interdental brush, mirror and floss don’t take up much space, and will ensure that you don’t walk around with any embarrassing bits of food clinging to your braces.

We hope these tips reassure you that it’s easy to take great care of your teeth, with or without braces. The good oral habits you develop now will continue to serve you long after the braces are off. If you have any questions, the team at Eggert Family Dentistry is happy to help you out.

By: Dr. Elizabeth Eggert

Teeth grinding is a common problem in both children and adults. It can take place in waking hours as well as while sleeping. Bruxism is a term we use to describe the habit of tooth clenching and/or grinding.

Lots of us carry some stress in our jaw muscles, and it’s no surprise that stress can be a cause of teeth grinding, but there may be more to it than that. In addition to stress and anxiety, other common causes of grinding include an abnormal bite, missing or crooked teeth, and sleep disordered breathing, often diagnosed as sleep apnea. Additionally, alcohol and tobacco use are linked with a 50% increase in teeth grinding.

Many folks grind their teeth without knowing it, so if you notice loved ones grinding away while sleeping, let them know so they can take steps to prevent it. Other symptoms that may reveal a grinding problem include headaches, especially in the morning; sore jaw joints or muscles; painful or loose teeth; and cracked or even fractured teeth. Any of these situations may lead to the need for dental interventions like crowns, implants, root canals or dentures, so it’s worth taking steps to resolve the problem.

The first step is to talk to us, your dentists, who can evaluate your mouth and jaw for possible signs of grinding. Some things we look for are excessive tooth wear and jaw tenderness, as well as how well your teeth function with each other. If we determine a dental reason for your bruxism, we might recommend splint therapy. There are many methods for splint therapy and we work to determine the most successful treatments for you, often through our records process (integrate link to other blog(s))

If stress seems to be the problem, take steps to reduce it. Consider counseling, exercise, meditation, or journaling to find a calmer state of mind. Along a similar vein, reducing or eliminating caffeine, alcohol and smoking often helps reduce bruxism.

An often overlooked, but becoming better understood, reason for bruxism is because of sleep disordered breathing. If your body can’t get enough air, especially when you are lying down and sleeping, one way your body compensates is to push the teeth around to open your airway. Ask your medical doctor to evaluate you for a sleep disorder, and start treatment if you have one. You often have to be an advocate for yourself to get the right testing and treatment and seeking a second opinion or seeking out a sleep specialist may be in order.

Break yourself of any chewing habits. Quit chewing on pens or pencils, nails and chewing gum. Habitual chewing not related to eating promotes over-active jaw muscles.

If you’re a day grinder, train yourself not to grind or clench your teeth. When you notice it happening, place the tip of your tongue at the roof of your mouth. This will remind your jaw muscles to relax.

Children also grind their teeth. They’re particularly prone to it when their baby teeth emerge and when they get their permanent teeth, and they often stop grinding once the teeth have become established. Children who grind their teeth should always be evaluated for sleep disordered breathing.

Teeth grinding may seem like a minor problem, but like any habit it becomes more entrenched over the years. After years of grinding, it can have a seriously negative impact on your oral health. Talk to us, your dentists, if you think bruxism may be a problem for you. We at Eggert Family Dentistry will help evaluate the problem and determine the right treatment for you!