By the way, that’s my lovely wife, the Makati Mady Dentist, Mel, working with some newfangled gadget that my webmaster has no idea what it’s called.

1.  Over the holidays, many of us crack our teeth, thinking our teeth are made of steel.  Truth is, under that hard enamel shell is a very sensitive nerve running through a root surrounded by soft living tissue.  Crunch on a lechon skin and welcome pain.  Yes, cracking a tooth is an intensely painful experience resulting in the urgent need for a root canal and crown.  Hey, I won’t be around when that happens so choose what you eat.

mmmmm lechon

2.  Don’t give in to the temptation to bite down on that candy cane. Also, damaging acids form in the mouth every time you eat a sugary snack and continue to affect the teeth for at least 20 minutes afterwards.

3.  Your teeth are not  bottle openers.  If you don’t want to have us make an implant + a crown or bridge in your mouth, for heaven’s sake, carry a bottle opener on your keychain.

4.  Alcoholic and carbonated drinks erode (melt) the enamel of your teeth.  So follow this up with lots of water.

5.  Brush and floss your teeth after every meal .  The single greatest cause of cavities is food (usually sugar) left on or around the tooth.  Brushing and flossing is an obvious solution, it removes excess food and cleans the surface of the tooth.  But who remembers to bring their toothbrush and dental floss to a Christmas party? So then…

6.  If you don’t have a tooth brush, rinse your mouth thoroughly with water to wash away food particles, produce more saliva and neutralize acids in your mouth.

Did you know that Xylitol is a natural sweetener, good even for diabetics? And that this sweetener, fights the bacteria that churns out plaque / tartar and produces ACID, therefore causing cavities on your teeth?

And did you know that within 1 HOUR after eating, these bacteria starts partying and release their powerful acids to melt the tooth enamel?

So, when you forget your toothbrush at home, what can you do?

Chew on a xylitol candy immediately after eating.  A xylitol gum is a no-no according to your dentist in Makati.  He practices Temporo-Mandibular joint disorder therapy and treatment; repeated chewing is not good for your TMJ health (more on this in another post).

You can opt to carry xylitol mints and candies in your bag wherever you go.

tooth shaped candies in a tooth shaped container. Cute, right?

Yes, you heard that right. Best for babies, best for you.  Your dentist in Makati discovered in the recent dentists’ convention another cute and affordable supplement to protect your teeth!

A dental solution especially formulated for children 6 months up to 3 years of age. Xylitol Swab has a high concentration of xylitol that is applied or coated on the tooth surface and gumline of children to inhibit the formation of plaque that causes tooth decay.

You use according to what its name implies.  With clean hands of course.

Immediately after eating, swab a drop or two of this sweet stuff all over the surfaces of your teeth.  Swab it the same way for your kids or baby.  The xylitol will markedly reduce the acid pH (you know this in high school chemistry) in your mouth, ‘starving’ the bacteria and prevent it from making further damage on the enamels of the teeth.  Your baby would greatly benefit from this since they are always drinking milk or snacking every hour or so.  Lowering the chances of the bacteria from producing acid means more time for the teeth to replace its lost mineral components.  Xylitol, with regular brushing with fluoride toothpaste, doubles the protection/strengthening of your and your baby’s teeth.

Other things you may want to know about xylitol:

1. The World Health Organization has rated it as a safe food additive.

2. It is naturally found in the fibers of most fruits and vegetables.

3. It lowers the chance of plaque and tartar build up with regular use.

4. It stops cavities from forming.

Your dentist in Makati highly recommends this for your kids and babies. It’s a must have in your bag especially when families tend to eat out more often these days.  The xylitol swab is available at our clinic in Makati for only P100.00

The xylitol candies however, are out of stock.  Candy monsters have consumed all our stash. 

1. Use a toothpaste that is formulated for kids.  The fluoride content is lesser than the regular toothpaste adults use.

Remember, when bacterias attack the tooth, the minerals that make up the tooth weakens.  Fluoride re-mineralizes the weakened part of the tooth. Fluoride also discourages the bacteria that produces the cavity-causing acids from attacking the tooth.

2. Combined with good oral hygiene and consumption of healthy food, the risk for decay in your child’s teeth is low. However, if you plan to constantly give sweet and sticky foods to your kids, fluoride will be of little or no help at all.

3. For children under 2 years old, use a SMEAR amount of fluoridated toothpaste. Babies still don’t know how to spit out toothpaste; ingesting minute amounts will not cause harm to his body or teeth.  Brush their teeth after every meal, but use the toothpaste only twice a day preferably morning and night before going to sleep. If you live in places known to have very high levels of fluoride in the drinking water, or your family consumes fluoride-rich food everyday, use non-fluoridated toothpaste.

smear amount of toothpaste

4. For those aged 2 to 5 years, a pea-sized amount is recommended. Remember that the parents should be the one to dispense an appropriate volume of toothpaste on a soft, age appropriate toothbrush.  At this age, kids should be taught how to spit out the excess toothpaste.  No need to wash it away with water, since the remaining fluoride can ‘bathe’ the teeth and offer higher level of protection from acid attack.

pea sized amount

Your dentist in makati also recommends that your child have fluoride treatment done every 6 months.  This is highly recommended for kids 6 years and above.  For kids younger than 6, check up and early exposure to a clinical environment will be beneficial to build a comfortable relationship between the makati dentist and your child.

Did you know that sealants are plastic barriers to protect the chewing surfaces of your kids’ permanent molars from decay? The placement of dental sealants involves your dentist bonding a plastic coating into the grooves of your tooth (the tooth’s pits and fissures). The net result is a smoother tooth surface, one which is less likely to trap food and plaque and one which is easier to clean with your toothbrush. 

Between  5 and 7 years of age, the first permanent molars erupt.  More than 90% of decay occurs in the deep grooves of the chewing surfaces of these molars. When teeth first erupt, the enamel is not completely hardened of calcified, and the teeth are very susceptible to decay. Fluoride treatment and placement of sealants should be done as soon as the molars have erupted and you can see the chewing surface clearly. If a primary (baby) molar has early decay on a chewing surface of their molars, and the child is cooperative, your kids dentist may recommend a sealant. But if this treatment is delayed, and once decay has penetrated the second layer of tooth structure, a filling must be placed.   Here in our dental clinic in Makati City, Philippines, the importance of preventive treatment is far more beneficial than doing interceptive treatment since loss of tooth structure is minimized and the dental experience for a child more pleasant.
For one, preventive treatment are usually painless, such in the case of placing sealants. It does require cooperation on the part of the child and parent.  Children have a very high flow of saliva, a strong gag reflex, or an inability to open the mouth wide and long enough for access to the molars, thus making the procedure a little bit difficult. Your dentist in Makati will use different methods to manage these situations.  But you and your child’s cooperation will help in placing the sealants a success. 

There are four six-year molars and four twelve-year molars. Because the teeth do not always come in at the same time, please note that all four permanent molars may not be sealed during one visit.

Your dentist in Makati will have to make sure that the tooth is dry for the sealant to bond tightly to the tooth surface.  A tooth preparation gel will be applied for 15 seconds. Afterwards, this is rinsed away with water and air dried.  A bonding glue is light cured in the area and then the sealant is applied, usually with a tiny applicator. This is light-cured again to harden the sealant. The light curing machine doesn’t produce heat or any form of sensation on the tooth. The procedure takes only minutes for each tooth. Your child may eat right away.

Sealants don’t last permanently and they do wear out. Retention rates are about 85% over three years. Grinding teeth and chewing ice, popcorn kernels, or hard candy can crack sealants. If a sealant is lost, the tooth is still more protected from decay than if the tooth had never been sealed.  Don’t worry, cavities will probably not occur if the lost sealant is replaced during the next 6 month dental check-up, unless your child’s diet is filled with carbohydrates and sweets and oral hygiene is poor, sealants should be replaced as soon as possible since it is almost impossible to predict when or how fast tooth decay progresses.

Sealants are one of the very best things our Philippine dentist in Makati has to offer, not just for kids, but adults as well.  Sealing off the chewing surfaces of an adult’s molars will protect it from the continuous acid attack by normal bacteria present in the mouth, since the diet and lifestyle of adults is more extreme than that of children, the acid level in their mouth vary from day to day.  Placement of sealants should be a part of everybody’s preventive regimen along with regular dental check ups and oral prophylaxis.

50′s heart throb James Dean had no front teeth! He wore a bridge.

don't look at ma teeth!

• New born babies have no caries forming bacteria. Infact, it is the babies mother who transmits the plaque forming bacteria by blowing on food before feeding and kissing the babies mouth.

• There was a sudden massive surge of patients with tooth decay the year coke was launched.

• The popular practice of placing a cap on toothbrush head actually favors bacterial growth on it as moisture is increased in enclosed containers favoring the growth of bacteria.

• Always replace a toothbrush after you had a cold, sore throat or notorious infections. The bacteria plant them on the toothbrush which can lead to reinfection.

• The electric chair was invented by a dentist. Hhhmmmm makes you a wonder a whole lot about the Dentist’s Chair doesn’t it?

• Aztec dentists would mix iron fillings, water and navel lint, bake and insert it in the cavities to seal it.

• A poll conducted in Michigan showed that Republicans, Protestants & women brush their teeth more often than Democrats, Catholics & men. 2% of those polled said they don’t brush at all.

• There is someone whose job includes squeezing Prince Charles’s toothpaste onto the royal toothbrush. That someone is Michael Fawcett, the prince’s personal valet.

• Dentists rate big (61%) in ethics poll for honesty and trustworthy AGD Impact pg 8 March 2004.

• Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least six (6) feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.
  

• Academy of General dentistry, the average person only brushes for 45 to 70 seconds a day, the recommended amount of time is 2-3 minutes.

• Two ‘Fs’: Fluoride (use fluoride toothpaste daily) Frequency (avoid frequent snacking between meals)…..this is the “practical way to help avoid dental decay.

• Dentistry is affordable:
  Dentistry:  $50 Billion
  Pet food:  $50 Billion
  Hair care:  $100 Billion
  Gambling (legal):  $300 Billion

• More than 300 types of bacteria make up dental plaque.

Not a good scenario, right?

Well, if you are one of the million people who has one or more amalgam fillings, chances are, you are ingesting mercury right now as we speak.

According to some studies, there is evidence that mercury continually leaches from amalgam fillings at a rate of about 10-50 times the safe limit (0.28 microgram/day) set by the US Public Health Service.

As a dental patient, you should know that Amalgam contains mercury; and mercury toxicity has been linked to birth defects, multiple sclerosis, fatigue, Alzheimer’s disease, Autism, ADHD, depression, anxiety, reduced immune function, antibiotic resistance, and impaired kidney function. It is also a potent killer of white blood cells and that proper removal of amalgam fillings will restore white blood cell counts to healthy levels. There is also evidence that the number of T-cells (an important part of immune defenses) decreases substantially when amalgam fillings are placed in the mouth, but increases again once the fillings are removed.
So how does the mercury leak into your body?  

Many studies have found that chewing releases the mercury from your amalgam fillings.  The mercury vapors released easily end up in the pituitary glands in your brain.  Autopsies performed in the Karolinska Institute in Sweden found out that cadavers who have amalgam fillings has 3 times more mercury in the brain and 9 times more in the kidneys compared to cadavers without amalgam fillings (We ingest and inhale mercury everyday from the foods we eat and from the polluted air we breathe).

The common bacteria found in our mouth and intestines convert mercury into methylmercury, a compound that is 100x more toxic than the elemental mercury. Methylmercury easily passes the blood-brain barrier as well as the placental barriers.  Therefore, several governments around the world prohibit dentists from placing amalgam fillings on pregnant women.

Mercury is also linked to heart diseases, trigeminal neuralgia, psychiatric symptoms (and in very low concentrations) like depression and irritability; chronic fatigue, kidney damage and hearing loss.

There’s no doubt in our mind that amalgam fillings pose serious threat to our health whether we show symptoms of mercury toxicity or not.  Therefore, our dental clinic in Makati maintains a “Mercury-free” practice.

Now, if you are a health card holder, you are entitled to free amalgam fillings according to the amount you pay the health card company.  Amalgam fillings are very cheap and easy to place in teeth.  But as an educated patient knowing the hazards of having amalgam fillings, would you choose convenience over your health?

For your health’s sake, have those old amalgam fillings replaced now.

Here’s an interesting fact, though:  the American Dental Association maintains that amalgam fillings are safe; contrary to the declaration of the EPA or the Environmental Protection Agency that amalgam is considered a hazardous material!  However, when the ADA was faced with a lawsuit regarding the use of amalgam fillings, it was quick to file a defensive statement: “The ADA owes no legal duty of care to protect the public from allegedly dangerous products used by dentists.”

I still have to read a journal regarding the stand of the Philippine Dental Association on the use of amalgam fillings.  I reckon that we still don’t have a unified stand on this as proven by the different health card companies ‘requiring’ dentists to use amalgam fillings for their client’s teeth instead of the tooth-colored composite resins.

A recent research published in Preventive Medicine has shown that people who drink at least a cup of green tea a day can keep their teeth until their old age.  However, adding sugar or cream to your tea is another story.

One explanation may be because the warmth of the tea helps wash out your mouth.  But one may argue, what about coffee?

Coffee gave poor results as people usually drink their coffee with sugar and cream, which may lead to tooth decay in the long run.

But unsweetened coffee didn’t give beneficial effects as green tea.

It seems that green tea has a bactericidal component called catechins that kills bacteria that causes tooth decay and gum disease.  It also kills the germs that causes bad breath. What’s more, it also contains fluoride which strengthens teeth.  You now have more reasons to choose green tea over coffee.

So go ahead and brew yourself some tea.  It may save your teeth.

What causes singaw?

1. There are many kinds of bacteria found in the mouth. An allergy to a particular type of bacterium can trigger a singaw.
2. It might be your immune system.
3. It might be hereditary.
4. You may have a nutritional deficiency in vitamins or nutrients such as vitamin B12, folic acid, vitamin C, or iron.
5. You may have undergone emotional stress, injury or trauma.

What should I do if have always recurrent singaw?

• Drink lots of fluid and take Vitamin C.
• Avoid injuries, especially to your mouth.
• Be careful in brushing your teeth; use oral gargles such as Betadine or Bactidol.
• Take singaw medicine.

For that last tip, this dentist in Makati found that Debacterol® has proven quite effective. Debacterol® is a liquid, topical, debriding agent used for treating ulcerating oral mucosal lesions, commonly referred to as canker sores, aphthous ulcers, or oral ulcers, as well as minor oral abrasions. It’s uniquely effective in the treatment of Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis (Canker Sores); it is also a treatment for Aphthous Stomatitis that completely stops oral ulcer pain, seals damaged oral mucosal tissues and aids natural healing processes after just one application, which requires only minutes to perform.

How does Debacterol® work?

Simply dry the lesion with a cotton swab and apply Debacterol. In only seconds, the pain is gone! Typically, the lesion is replaced by healthy tissue in three to five days.

Why is DEBACTEROL® so effective over conventional products?

In order for any ulcerating mucosal lesion to heal, the factors causing the injury must first be controlled at the ulcer site. Then, any necrotic tissue debris in the ulcer bed must be removed so that healthy new cells are able to migrate into the damaged area and proliferate. In the normal course of healing in an untreated individual, the immune system is relied upon to perform and promote all of these activities. A limiting factor in the rate of ulcer healing is the capacity of the immune system of an individual to prevent further damage and to clear the way for repair cells to infiltrate and multiply.

This is what it looks like:

If you suffer regularly from singaw, please contact this dentist in Makati and I’ll set up an appointment with you and Debacterol®. We’ll then work out some kind of quality oral hygiene regimen for you so you can say goodbye to canker sores… permanently.

There is a faster way to have orthodontic treatments done. At my dental clinic in Makati, we’re talking metal in your mouth for a WHOLE YEAR LESS!

The Makati Dentist’s way-quicker method:

• FASTER UNCROWDING: Rather than relying on just one treatment type—like some dentists do—we customize the methods to create enough room for your crowded teeth.
• BETTER ORTHOPEDICS: Many times your treatment will go faster and turn out better if we use Orthopedic appliances (sometimes called retainers) either before or while your wearing braces.
• INDIVIDUALIZED TREATMENT: We select the best bracket system for your mouth (that’s the braces part). And we use these comfortable flexible wires that loosen and stiffen when the temperature in your mouth changes (eating hot or cold things).
• FEWER ADJUSTMENTS: That means you don’t have to go in to the dentist as much! (Which saves you the trouble of looking at my face fewer times a year.

We dentists in Makati call these types of braces “self-ligating” brackets. A treatment time between eight and 18 months is common, but a more accurate estimate can only be made after direct examination.

Comparison Chart

	Old Fashioned Braces	Self Ligating braces
Treatment Time	2 or 3 Years	8 to 18 Months
Final Smile	Narrow	Full Smile
Comfort	Uncomfortable	Gentle Movements
Decay Rate	Risky	Seldom
Root Resorption	Risky	Less Often
TMJ Health	Varies	Orthopedics Improve
Facial Profile	Flat Face	Full Face
Wisdom Tooth Surgery	Frequent	Infrequent
Stability	Some Risk	Stable
Headgear	Often Used	Never