Dental Care Checklist

Whether you have natural teeth, dentures, or both, your mouth needs regular care to keep it clean, comfortable, and free from infection.

This checklist can help you evaluate your daily routine. Work through it with a pencil. If you answer yes to all of the questions, you’re on the right track.

 

1. Do you see your dentist regularly for checkups and cleaning?

Yes❏ No❏

Your dentist can do things that you can’t do for yourself: clean tartar, update your daily routine, find and fix hidden problems.

2. Do you check your mouth daily for changes?

Yes❏ No❏

Changes in the mouth can indicate underlying problems.

If you spot symptoms early, they can be treated before they get serious.

If you have some or all of your natural teeth:

3. Do you brush every surface of each tooth?

Yes❏ No❏

Trouble starts in the spots you miss.

Brush all the fronts, backs, and chewing surfaces.

Use a soft brush; rub gently.

4. Do you floss daily?

Yes❏ No❏

Floss cleans where your brush can’t reach – between teeth and along the gumline.

If you don’t oss you’re not really getting clean.

5. Have you replaced your toothbrush within the last 3-4 months?

Yes ❏ No ❏

A worn toothbrush can’t clean effectively.
You’ll probably need a new brush three or four times a year.

 

 

If you have complete or partial dentures:

6. Do you soak your dentures overnight?

Yes❏ No❏

Gums need to rest and breathe.

Dentures warp if they dry out so keep them in warm water.

7. Do you scrub your dentures daily?

Yes❏ No❏

Bacterial plaque accumulates daily on dentures.

If not removed it can cause in inflammation and gum disease.

8. Do you massage and rinse your gums daily?

Yes❏ No❏

Gums need stimulation to stay healthy and provide a good comfortable denture fit.

A soft toothbrush works well; some people prefer moistened gauze

So … How Do You Like Neesh Dental’s New Website?

• Visit and bookmark us at neeshdental.com

Crisp, Clean & Fresh …

Just Like How We Strive To Keep Your Teeth!

 

The Charcoal Teeth Whitening Fad

Medical professionals are warning against using a DIY whitening trend that involves smearing a charcoal-derived black mixture on teeth. This method, which dentists say may lead to enamel deterioration and tooth erosion, became an online sensation this month after YouTube user Mama Natural posted a video that details its execution began striking fire online.

As of mid-August, the video had amassed more than 1.5 million views!

In the video the host Genevieve brushes her teeth with the supplement for three to five minutes before rinsing and proclaiming she then had seemingly whiter teeth. She said the product can be purchased in capsule form in health food stores or online.

• Click here or on the below photo of Genevieve to view the video …

 

Experts Dispute Genevieve’s Claims

 

Says Genevieve…

This stuff is highly absorbent – some of the most absorbent material on the planet. In fact, hospitals have it on hand in case someone comes in with a poisoning because it can absorb that stuff and safely remove it from the body. The same reasoning works for our teeth. It absorbs bacteria, toxins and staining, and makes them whiter as a result.”

But while the cosmetic result of the method may hold true for some users, the long-term internal effect may harm other people’s teeth, dentists say. The American Dental Association has currently not evaluated or approved any charcoal teeth whitening products. A spokesman for the organization previously told Prevention the product is concerning because its abrasiveness isn’t known.

Dr. Susan Maples, a Michigan-based dentist and ortho speaker who wrote Blabber Mouth!: 77 Secrets Only Your Mouth Can Tell You to Live a Healthier, Happier, Sexier Life, told FoxNews.com that there isn’t enough evidence available to know whether the supplement is beneficial and that it may be dangerous.

She articulates …

I worry about the long-term effects of a video like this,” Maples said. “Teeth are the only part of the ectoderm that does not replenish or heal itself— once it’s gone, it’s gone. You can color your hair, you can pierce your skin, damage your nail, shave an eyebrow— all of that comes back.”

Maples said the difference between using an approved dental tool, whether at home or at the dentist’s office, and a DIY remedy like charcoal lies in their approaches

 

Yum!

 

For example, approved products seep through the enamel and into the inner layer of the tooth called the dentin, which influences tooth color. Users and dentists don’t know how severe the charcoal supplement may be, so it may leave teeth stained or blotchy. The trendy product may also leave tooth enamel susceptible to deterioration and erosion, which can lead to sensitivity and cavities.

Maples adds …

When you lose enamel, teeth get sensitive and darker in color because you’re close to the part of the tooth that has the depth of the colour. Since you can’t grow it back, the only thing you can do is cover it up with restoration.

My fear with the charcoal is people will do it periodically just to do it and over time, we’ll see too much erosion.”

To avoid these risks, Maples recommended patients who are interested in whitening their teeth opt instead for formally tested dental procedures or at-home whitening trays provided by their dentist.

 

Annual Back To School Giveaway!

It’s that time of year again!

Neesh Dental is happy to offer our annual Back to School Give Away!

Refer a friend in September and be entered to win a $100 VISA gift card!

The draw will take place October 1.

Back To School Isn’t Cheap!

Usain Bolt Won Olympic Triple Gold … All With A Tooth Infection!

Even The Best Of The Best Wrongly Neglect Their Teeth

Not only did Usain Bolt cap his Olympic career with another triple-gold performance in Rio, but he did it while suffering from a severe tooth infection. 

According to Brazilian newspaper Globo, Bolt was dealing with a painful abscess in one of his teeth during the Olympic Games. A tooth-related abscess occurs inside the tooth where the nerve is dead or dying.

Despite the infection, the Jamaican sprinter was able to win gold in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay. He added three gold medals to his career total of nine.

The world record-holder reportedly had the tooth treated in the Olympic Village a day before he left Rio de Janeiro. Many athletes receive dental treatment while in the village, and the results are alarming. According to a study conducted at the 2012 Olympic Games, athletes visited dentists in the village over 1,900 times. 55% had cavities and three quarters of the group had gum disease.

Some Olympic athletes have suffered from dental problems that compromised their performance – notably, British rower Alan Campbell, who nearly missed the 2008 Beijing Olympics due to an abscessed lower-left wisdom tooth.

According to the National Post, Campbell’s infection spread to his shoulder, back and eventually settled in his right knee. The infection required intense surgery two months before the Games. He competed and finished fifth overall in the single-sculls final, but could have missed the Games entirely.

Campbell went on to earn a bronze medal at the 2012 Games. He now prioritizes his dental hygiene by flossing and staying away from sugary foods and drinks.

Campbell says …

I’m not saying someone with perfect teeth is going to beat Usain Bolt. But myself with good dental hygiene versus myself with bad dental hygiene: The version of me with good dental hygiene will be the one that comes out on top, I’m certain of it.”

Clearly, even a Bolt with bad dental hygiene is still the best in the world.

What Toothpaste Is Best For You?

The number of options you have when you buy a tube of toothpaste can be overwhelming.

Should you go for …

• Tartar Control?
• Fluoride?
• A Sensitive Teeth Formula?
• A Whitening Toothpaste
• All Natural Ingredients?
• All Of The Above?

When it comes to choosing the best toothpaste for you, it’s important to consult your dentist …

Make Sure You That Use The Toothpaste That Is Right For You!

 

Your Dentist Will Recommend The Best Toothpaste For Your Individual Needs Or Condition

What A Long Way We Have All Come?!

Anesthetic As An Option!?!

 

The Oldest Tooth Ever Discovered?

A French student has found an adult tooth dating back around 560,000 years in south-western France, in what researchers are hailing as a major discovery.

 The Tooth Concerned

– Denis Dainat/EPA

Valentin Loescher, 20, was volunteering alongside Camille Jacquey, 16, on his first summer archaeological dig at the Arago cave near Tautavel, when he discovered the tooth.

The tooth could be the oldest human remains found in France. It predates by 100,000 years the famous Tautavel man, a 20-year-old prehistoric hunter and ancestor of Neanderthal man, who was discovered at the site in 1971 and whose remains dated back about 450,000 years.

Tautavel Man was the first discovery made in the cave, five years after digging began. The volunteer’s newest find, predates Tautavel Man by at least 110,000 years.

The large adult tooth, found in soil known to be between 550,000 and 580,000 years old, was hailed as a major discovery, into the morphology of early Europeans, by the French based European Research Centre Tautavel Pre-Historic, the organisation running the dig.

The tooth is the 149th item of human remains to have been found in the cave over the last 50 years, according to a statement released about the find.

It is not known whether the large tooth, which is a lower central incisor, comes from a male or a female.

Christian Perrenoud, a geo-archaeologist who was working on the site at the time of the discovery, told the Local that the tooth was a great find, but believes the site has a lot more to reveal.

Says Perrenoud …

Human remains from between 500,000 and 800,000 years ago are more than scarce in Europe nowadays, and this tooth fills a bit of the gap of the incompleteness in this 300,000-year period.”

Yves Coppens, a professor of paleoanthropology and prehistory at the Collège de France, told France Info radio she hoped the tooth could tell researchers much more after tests are carried out on the tooth, saying …

A tooth can tell us a whole range of things. Its shape and wear and tear tells us about the eating habits of the person in question; the tissue reveals a lot of information. The DNA can give an idea as to who this person was.”

The Arago Cave in Tautavel where the tooth was found has been the source of many archaeological discoveries, since excavations begun in 1964.

Most notably, the tooth was found yesterday in the same location archaeologists in 1969 unearthed fossils of Tautavel Man, an extinct hominian (a primate of a family which includes humans and their fossil ancestors), that lived an estimated 450,000 years ago in Europe.

Amélie Vialet, a paleoanthropologist overseeing the excavation at the cave, told Agence France-Presse …

A large adult tooth – we can’t say if it was from a male or female – was found during excavations of soil we know to be between 550,000 and 580,000 years old, because we used different dating methods. This is a major discovery because we have very few human fossils from this period in Europe.”

 The Tooth Before It Was Removed From The Soil

– Denis Dainat/EPA

Yves Coppens, professor of paleoanthropology and prehistory at the Collège de France, who was part of the 1970s team that discovered the remains of the famous early human ancestor known as Lucy in Ethiopia, told France Inforadio …

A tooth can tell us a whole range of things. Its shape and wear and tear tells us about the eating habits of the person in question; the tissue reveals a lot of information. The DNA can give an idea as to who this person was.”

Loescher, a history of art student from Metz, told France Television that while Jacquey was on a break he had been carefully brushing a mound of soil in his excavation area that featured lots of remains of large animals, when he found the small remains of a tooth.

He and Jacquey weren’t sure of the tooth’s significance, so took it to Vialet. Its profile was examined by computer and it was sent to a laboratory.

Said Loescher …

At that moment, there was a lot of excitement. I’m not sure if it has sunk in yet. I’m happy, but there’s nothing to be proud of. I was just in the right section at the right time.”

The Arago cave at Tautavel, north of Perpignan, is one of the world’s most important prehistoric sites, and has been excavated for about 50 years.

A Dentist’s Bowling Alley

Strike Or Extraction?

Can Beavers Show Us The Way To Improve Our Enamel?

Beavers don’t brush their teeth, and they don’t drink fluoridated water, but a new Northwestern University study reports beavers do have protection against tooth decay built into the chemical structure of their teeth / iron.

Northwestern University Researchers Found That The Pigmented Enamel Of Beavers, Which Contains Iron, Is Both Harder And More Resistant To Acid Than Regular Enamel, Including That Treated With Fluoride

Credit: Michael Graydon, Toronto

This pigmented enamel, the researchers found, is both harder and more resistant to acid than regular enamel, including that treated with fluoride. This discovery is among others that could lead to a better understanding of human tooth decay, earlier detection of the disease and improving on current fluoride treatments.

Layers of well-ordered hydroxylapatite nanowires are the core structure of enamel, but Derk Joester and his team discovered it is the material surrounding the nanowires, where small amounts of amorphous minerals rich in iron and magnesium are located, that controls enamel’s acid resistance and mechanical properties.

Enamel is a very complex structure, making study of it challenging. Joester’s team is the first to show unambiguously that this amorphous, or unstructured, phase exists in enamel, and they are the first to show its exact composition and structure.

We have made a really big step forward in understanding the composition and structure of enamel … the tooth’s protective outer layer … at the smallest length scales.”

… said Joester, lead author of the study and an associate professor of materials science and engineering in the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science.

He adds …

The unstructured material, which makes up only a small fraction of enamel, likely plays a role in tooth decay. We found it is the minority ions … the ones that provide diversity … that really make the difference in protection. In regular enamel, it’s magnesium, and in the pigmented enamel of beaver and other rodents, it’s iron.”

Dental caries … better known as tooth decay … is the breakdown of teeth due to bacteria. (“Caries” is Latin for “rottenness.”) It is one of the most common chronic diseases and a major public health problem, despite strides made with fluoride treatments.

According to the American Dental Association, $111 billion a year is spent on dental services in the U.S., a significant part of that on cavities and other tooth decay issues. A staggering 60 to 90% of children and nearly 100% of adults worldwide have or have had cavities, according to the World Health Organization.

In a series of experiments of rabbit, mouse, rat and beaver enamel, Joester and his colleagues imaged the never-seen-before amorphous structure that surrounds the nanowires. They used powerful atom-probe tomography and other techniques to map enamel’s structure atom by atom. (Rodent enamel is similar to human enamel).

The researchers subjected the teeth to acid and took images before and after acid exposure. They found the periphery of the nanowires dissolved (the amorphous material), not the nanowires themselves.

The researchers next identified amorphous biominerals in the structure, such as iron and magnesium, and learned how they contribute to both the mechanical hardness and resistance of enamel to acid dissolution.

Of particular interest to Joester and his colleagues was the pigmented enamel of the beaver’s incisors. Their studies showed it to be an improvement over fluoride-treated enamel in resisting acid. (The presence of iron gives the teeth a reddish-brown color).

“A beaver’s teeth are chemically different from our teeth, not structurally different,” Joester said. “Biology has shown us a way to improve on our enamel. The strategy of what we call ‘grain boundary engineering’ — focusing on the area surrounding the nanowires — lights the way in which we could improve our current treatment with fluoride.”

The title of the Science paper is “Amorphous Intergranular Phases Control the Properties of Rodent Tooth Enamel”.

A related paper will be published by the journal Frontiers in Physiology.

 

Story Source:

The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Northwestern University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

---

Journal Reference:

1. L. M. Gordon, M. J. Cohen, K. W. MacRenaris, J. D. Pasteris, T. Seda, D. Joester. Amorphous intergranular phases control the properties of rodent tooth enamel. Science, 2015; 347 (6223): 746 DOI: 10.1126/science.1258950