Most people start practicing healthy cooking habits to benefit their bodies, but did you also know that making certain nutritious choices can benefit your teeth? Whether you’ve only got 30 minutes to make a meal, or hours, incorporating certain foods into your daily diet can help fortify your enamel and keep your teeth looking whiter than ever. Read on to learn about what kind of foods you can introduce into your life to maintain a healthy and beautiful smile for years to come.
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After doing some research about traditional restorations like dentures and bridges, you’re wondering whether or not they can actually preserve your jaw against bone loss. While these solutions can help improve your chewing and speaking ability by replacing the biting surface of your missing teeth, they aren’t able to replace the roots of those teeth. Why is this so important? Because the roots of your teeth help stimulate your jawbone. Read on to learn more about bone loss and what restoration option is the best for your oral health.
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When you think of things that expire, the first products that probably pop into your head are foods like meat, dairy, and vegetables. You may be surprised to learn that oral hygiene products also expire, so all of those old tubes of toothpaste that you’ve collected under your sink probably should be thrown away. Even though using expired at-home dental products won’t impact you the same way that food will, it won’t properly clean your mouth the way that it’s supposed to. Read on to learn about some oral hygiene products that expire.
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Whether you have dental implants, or are looking into getting them, infection is an important topic to know about.
As most of the country finally enters spring, April is a time to celebrate new beginnings, enjoy warmer weather, and prepare for summer adventures ahead. However, April is also an important month for your health—it’s Oral Cancer Awareness Month. As serious as this disease is, would you believe that one little oral cancer screening can mean the difference between life and death? If it’s been a while since your last dental appointment, take the opportunity this month to go in for this short but crucial service that your dentist can do for you.
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With time and exposure to stress and other environmental factors, your face can begin to show signs of aging. Wrinkles can replace the youthful appearance your skin once had and can impact your self-confidence. Well, Botox is one solution that can restore your face’s glow. But did you know that your dentist may be able to administer Botox for you? As an expert in orofacial structures, they are the perfect person to help you get rid of your facial wrinkles. What else don’t you know about Botox? Here are some common Botox FAQs in San Diego and helpful answers.
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| Patients ask us about various topics all the time. As their doctor, and an expert, we really want to feel comfortable answering those questions with accurate information. I’ve received several questions from dentists about the use of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) as an alternative to commercial toothpaste, and especially regarding its claimed ability to whiten teeth. Obviously, these dentists have been asked these same questions by their patients, who’ve seen wild claims all across the internet. As a consequence, I took a look at the claims on the Internet about baking soda. To say I was blown away with the inaccuracy (including some articles written by dentists) is an understatement. So I thought the following information may be of help to you. Search the Internet regarding brushing your teeth or whitening your teeth with baking soda, and among other ridiculous things, you’ll routinely see the claim that baking soda is VERY abrasive to use on your teeth – so if you use it, don’t use it every day. Absolutely wrong! These statements are not only wrong, but they’re pretty much as wrong as you can get. Baking soda (the stuff in the box in the super market) is, by far, the lowest abrasiveness of anything you would ever brush your teeth with. Here’s the problem – non-scientists writing articles based on assumption, and not proven fact. And once ONE person writes something, others quote him or her. Then when you have several people saying that same [false] thing, people state it and believe it as fact. After all, if enough people say the same thing, it must be fact, right? Wrong! And the most disconcerting thing for me is that some of these articles have been written by dentists, who also simply read what others said on the internet, so they too assumed that baking soda is excessively abrasive. Why do so many people “assume” baking soda is extremely abrasive? It’s because the particles are large and have sharp edges, so it “feels” gritty when you touch it. Below on the left you see a microscopic photo of baking soda particles. Notice how they have edges and corners. Below on the right you see silica particles, which would be the most common abrasive in toothpastes. Notice how rounded and smooth the silica particles are. But also realize that the baking soda particles are much, much larger than the silica particles. Baking soda particles can be as much as 15 times larger than silica particles in toothpaste. |
| So what’s the difference? Silica particles are much, much harder than baking soda particles. When you forcefully rub two hard objects against each other, the harder object will have almost zero damage, and the softer object will be greatly scratched and damaged. For example, a diamond is a hardness of 10 on the Mohs Hardness Scale, and glass is rated at 5. So diamond is two times harder than glass. Well, that’s not exactly true because the Mohs Hardness Scale is an ordinal scale, so there is no data on how much difference there is between the numbers. But you already know if a diamond is firmly rubbed against glass, it will scratch the glass, but the diamond will not be damaged. Mohs Hardness of materials (remember this is an ordinal scale, so there is no mathematical formula of consistent distance between each number):Tooth enamel = 5Tooth dentin/root = 3Baking soda = 2.5Hydrated silica in toothpaste = 5-7Baking soda “feels” much more gritty than regular toothpaste (which usually has hydrated silica as the abrasive) because the particles are larger, and the edges are rough. Whereas silica particles are more round, smooth, and many times smaller. So baking soda “feels” more abrasive – but it’s not. The fact is that Baking Soda, being much softer than tooth enamel, and very slightly softer than even tooth dentin, will not create much damage (abrasion) to the tooth. The American Dental Association has published their RDA (Relative Dentin Abrasivity) to measure the abrasiveness of various toothpastes. The RDA abrasiveness categories are:Low 4-70 (plain water is 4. Baking soda is 7.)Medium 70-100High 100-150Harmful 150-250 The FDA limits abrasiveness to a maximum of RDA 200. Get this…the RDA of Arm & Hammer baking soda is only 7. Whereas the most typical tooth paste will be in the 70-100 range with many far above that. THAT is how gentle baking soda is, as far as abrasion to your teeth. Of course, keep in mind that commercial toothpastes that claim to be baking soda toothpastes also contain other abrasives. So using baking soda in the commercial toothpaste may be thought of as somewhat of a marketing gimmick to get you to buy the toothpaste. This means you can brush your teeth with more paste and for a longer time if you’re using straight baking soda mixed to a paste with only water. That alone will help physically remove more bacteria and more stain. Why? Stain will typically be softer than baking soda, so, though baking soda will not cause much abrasion of your teeth, it’s still hard enough to scrape off many types of stain from your teeth. The main problem with using straight baking soda/water paste? No fluoride. And of course, baking soda is harder than gingival tissue, so brushing longer may cause gingival abrasion and recession over time. So there’s good and bad here. |
| Baking Soda to Whiten Your Teeth |
| So now let’s talk about the ridiculous claim that brushing with baking soda will whiten your teeth. This is simply wrong…period! There has never been any scientific study that even hints that baking soda may whiten your teeth. Of course, if you’re talking about using baking soda to simply brush with to remove stain from the surface of your teeth, then yes, baking soda will do that, just like any other toothpaste in the world. But does it have any other chemical or other means of any kind that will “whiten” your teeth? Absolutely, positively not! |
| But now….the REALLY DANGEROUS information. |
| Of course, all dentists know how acid ravages tooth structure. When you do an Internet search of whitening your teeth with baking soda, often you’ll find instructions to add lemon juice, apple cider vinegar or some other acidic ingredient along with the baking soda. And you already know what a bad idea THAT is! |
| But wait…it gets even worse… |
| You’re mixing baking soda, which is at least somewhat abrasive, and acid together. Gee, doesn’t that remind you of microabrasion products that we dentists use on teeth to remove the surface of tooth structure – such as removing surface dark or white spots? Possibly the most popular microabrasion product out there is Ultradent’s Opalustre. It’s an excellent product. It has hydrochloric acid mixed with silicon carbide microparticles. The acid SOFTENS the surface tooth structure, which the abrasive particles quickly remove. Mixing baking soda and lemon juice or apple cider vinegar will do exactly the same thing, but on a less aggressive scale. When thinking about patients doing this continually over time, this is the perfect way to wear away their tooth structure. And the thing that really kills me is that most using this technique falsely believe it’s a very safe and “natural” way to whiten teeth. Yeah, sure! “Natural” like a rattlesnake bite! But it’s one of the worst, most ineffective, and especially permanently damaging things you can do to your teeth. |
| Dr. Rod KurthyFounder/CEOEvolve Dental Technologies, Inc. Thanks Dr. Kurthy for a great informative article… ~ Dr. Greg Friedman |
Maybe you were chewing ice again, even though you know you shouldn’t. Maybe you were playing basketball with your friends, and things got a little too aggressive. Maybe you weren’t doing anything at all, yet it still happened. Regardless of the reason, dental crowns can come loose or fall out. What should you do in that situation? What can the dentist do for you? Answer your questions about a broken dental crown in Scripps Ranch here.
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Are you juggling multiple holiday parties this winter season? With so many reasons to celebrate, it can be easy to let the most important aspects of your health go to the wayside. But just because you plan on attending holiday parties doesn’t mean your oral health has to be sacrificed. By making small and smart decisions here and there, you can prevent excessive plaque development and maintain oral health in San Diego. You can also prevent stains on your smile, which may be especially important to you if you plan on being in a lot of photos.
Here are four ways to get started.
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