Updating Your Health History May Help Save Your Teeth

Although you may think your general health and your dental health are two completely separate categories, they are much more connected than the average person would suspect. Just as the information you provide to your doctor helps them keep your health in good shape, Dr. Barry and Dr. Love depend on your input for optimum dental health. They need to see the big picture in order to help you keep your teeth vital. Most Columbus residents might not think to inform their dentist about their general physical health, but would be surprised at the potential impact that information can have on their oral care. In short: keeping your health history updated with your Lifetime Dental team may help save your teeth! The Lifetime Dental Health team like to go above and beyond for our Columbus patients, but we need your participation to make sure you get the quality dental care you deserve. Here are a few reasons why.

Diabetes & Dental Health

750,000 Americans are diagnosed with diabetes every year. However, few diabetes sufferers realize the full extent of the disorder’s effect on your teeth. If you have diabetes, you are much more likely to develop:

TMD/TMJ

Temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMD/TMJ) results from improper workings of your jaw joint. Unfortunately, the symptoms of TMJ are so diverse that most people would never think to tell Dr. Barry or Dr. Love about them. However, we at Lifetime Dental Health can treat your TMD. Here are a few common symptoms signs of TMJ:

  • Abnormally sensitive teeth
  • Painful chewing
  • Headaches
  • Dizziness
  • Neck pain and/or stiffness
  • Earaches
  • Ringing in the ears
  • Face pain
  • Jaw aches
  • Popping, clicking, or grinding of the jaw
  • Frequent dislocation or locking of the jaw
  • Difficulty or pain in opening the mouth wide

Physical impairments to brushing/flossing

If you have recently injured your hands, fingers, arms, shoulders, or suffer from any type of arthritis or physical disability, you may not be able to brush and floss as well as you should. There are ways to help Columbus residents improve their dental health beyond brushing and flossing, but Dr. Barry and Dr. Love need to know about any physical impairments you may have in order to provide you with the oral hygiene help you need.

Side-Effects & Dental Health

Did you know that more than 600 over-the-counter and prescription medications cause dry mouth or harm teeth in other ways? It is estimated that 40% of the population takes at least one medication that can cause harm to their teeth. Provide your dental team with a complete detailed list of your medications at every dental visit.

So the next time you visit Lifetime Dental Health and our team asks how you are, be honest! Dental and general health go hand in hand. If you have any questions or would like to schedule an appointment, please call us today!

Sources

http://www.diabetes.org/

http://drc.hhs.gov/report/pdfs/section15-systematic.pdf

http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Teeth_and_drug_use

http://www.webmd.com/oral-health/guide/oral-side-effects-of-medications

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/05/000529093840.htm



from Lifetime Dental Health http://lifetimedentalcolumbus.com/updating-health-history-may-help-save-teeth/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Help! My Child is Terrified of the Dentist

Image
If you’re the parent of a young child, you know their brains are similar to sponges that soak up everything around them—especially in their first five years, which neuroscientists say is when they’ll do the most learning and developing in their entire life. At this formative time, your child may amaze you with what they notice: your facial expressions, the different tones of your voice, and your habits. If your habits include regular dental visits and an excellent oral hygiene routine, they’ll notice and want to emulate you. If you happen to feel anxious about your dental visits, or you groan when you’ve got to floss and brush, they may synchronize and feel your dread. This could lead to dental fears that stick with them for years—potentially a lifetime! Kids Can Be Courageous If you’re feeling guilty right now, go ahead and put that away as it won’t serve you or your little one. Everyone has some room for improvement, and Coastal Pediatric Dentistry® is here to help show you an...
Read more

Going for the Gold?

Image
On the left is the older allow, on the right the new one that my lab has chosen to use The cost of a penny weight of pure gold is currently $79.53. The cost of a penny weight of pure palladium is $130.6. It used to be that palladium was added instead of gold to the precious metals often used for pfms, but now laboratories are finding that palladium is no longer affordable. The lab that I am using has just changed the formulation of the metal it's using to one that has more gold than palladium. I really do not mind, but metals with more gold are softer and often easier for a dentist to accidentally polish off delicate margins. It is important when polishing "higher gold" formulations to exert less hand pressure when performing the final polishing of the crown's margins. Other wise there should be no problem with this change. Traditionally labs have chosen alloys with higher gold percentages for optimal esthetics, since alloys with higher concentrations of ...
Read more

Lemon Juice – The Good, the Bad, & the Sour

Image
In a great tale of opposites, lemon juice can be both acidic and basic, or alkaline. Read on to find out why people are talking about this, and what it means for your oral and overall health . What is pH and why does it matter? Drinking lemon juice (usually diluted in a glass of water or added to a cup of tea) is a beloved health tonic among fans of natural medicine. Potential benefits include lower cholesterol, lower inflammation in the body, and increased metabolism and energy. Lemon also contains high levels of antioxidants and vitamin C that boost your immune system. On a scale from 0-14, a pH of 7 is neutral (pure water) while numbers below 7 are acidic (unhealthy), and above 7 are basic or alkaline (healthy). Believers in holistic health blame many ailments on the body’s pH being too low or too acidic. Increasing your body’s pH is called “alkalizing.” Lemon juice in its natural state is acidic with a pH of about 2, but once metabolized it actually becomes alkaline with a pH ...
Read more