Tag Archives: TMJ dentist

Should I use toothpaste for my baby’s teeth?

Kiddie teeth, Tips From The Makati Dentist, , , , , , , , ,

The answer is yes, according to the Pediatric Dentistry Center Philippines.  And the makati dentist agrees so. Here are some of our recommendations.

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.

SEALANTS: SEAL OUT THE CAVITIES

Kiddie teeth, , , ,

Parents!  Seal out the cavities in Your Kid’s Teeth

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. The thickness of the enamel at the base of grooves can be thin.

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. A tooth with a dental sealant.

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.A tooth with a dental sealant.

Dental Trivia

Tips From The Makati Dentist, , , , , , , , , , ,

  • Did you know that Teeth are the hardest substance in the human body?

  • During the 18th century, in Europe and America,urine was a main ingredient in toothpaste because the ammonia in it is an excellent cleaner  Ammonia is still incorporated in most toothpastes today.

  • Jaw muscles can contract with a force as great as 55 pounds of pressure on anterior incisors, and 200 pounds of pressure on back molars.

  • Regular dental cleanings can help prevent heart attacks.

  • Tooth Decay is the 2nd most common disease in the U.S. after the common cold.

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

    don't look at ma teeth!

  • When it was time for Washington to sit for his presidential painting, the artist, Gilbert Stuart, thought that his dentures were too short, making his cheeks and lips look sunken. He padded Washington’s cheeks and lips with cotton to restore the natural lines to his face. But instead of looking better, Washington has an overstuffed, grandmotherly appearance in his portrait.

     

    mmble pfft pfpff...

  • 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.


Amalgam fillings are hazardous to your health.

Dental Products, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Imagine this.  Mercury, one of the most toxic substances in the earth, leaking daily in your mouth and into your central nervous system.

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.



Green Tea and your teeth

Tips From The Makati Dentist, , , , , , , , , ,

Skip the coffee and make yourself tea.  Green tea, that is.

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.

Dealing with canker sores (singaw)

Dental Products, Tips From The Makati Dentist, , , , , , ,

Canker sores, also known as aphtous ulcers or, in our local vernacular, singaw, are small ulcers in the lining of the mouth that are frequently painful and sensitive. While common among both men and women, the latter are slightly more likely than men to have recurrent canker sores. It can occur at any age, but it is more commonly seen in teenagers. Genetic studies show that susceptibility to recurrent outbreaks of the sores is inherited in some patients. This partially explains why family members often share the condition. Allow this dentist in Makati to share more information about singaw with you.

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.