Archive for year: 2014

As the end of the school holidays draws near (yay!) you will probably be looking at new uniforms, pens, pencils, pencil cases and lunchboxes etc.

You may also be thinking about what to put in your children’s lunch boxes. Sugary treats and snacks such as cake and chocolate bars and fizzy drinks or fruit juices are often a popular choice. However, these types of treats and snacks, while delicious and appealing to your children, may come at the cost of their pearly whites!

The New Road Dental hygienists have come up with some handy advice on how to keep decay at bay during lunch breaks and at home:

• If your children aren’t keen on water they still need to keep hydrated. Provide mini cartons of no added sugar fruit juice instead of the full sized full sugar ones.
• Make the savoury part of the meal more interesting by using wraps, crudités with hummus or sandwiches cut into fun shapes etc. This way the ‘exciting’ part of the meal won’t be the sugary treats after their boring main.
• No added sugar yoghurt is good for a snack as they often contain a lot of calcium, which is good for healthy teeth and bones.
• Fruit is full of sugar and enamel damaging acid, but obviously we do not want to discourage healthy eating! Instead, maintain a good level of at-home oral hygiene care and this will help prevent cavities that could be caused by this.
• For younger children that get distracted easily while cleaning their teeth, let them do it in front of the TV or while they are reading a book using a beaker of water. They will often then spend longer with the brush in their mouths, not hurrying to get back out of the bathroom to do more interesting things. Once they are done only get them to spit out instead of rinsing with water as this will make sure the tooth paste is kept in their mouths longer.

For more information or if you have any queries please don’t hesitate to visit us at New Road, Croxley Green, WD33EN

Or give us a call on 01923 776 270 and one of our friendly Customer Service Advisors will be more than happy to help.

Picture sourced from Freddy Fit

As part of our dental health programme for the local people of Rickmansworth and Watford we thought we would write a blog post about the importance of early preventive care for children, why it is important, what the potential risks are not looking after their teeth and how you can go about ensuring that your children’s health stays as good as possible.

A recent study in to children’s dental health

A recent report in The dentistry section of Medical News Today Highlighted a problem with children not receiving the early preventive care that they should. Of the 2505 children that were in the study conducted by Dr Jonathan Maguire a paediatrician and researcher at St Michael’s Hospital, 39% of those children had never been to a dentist. The research programme followed children from birth through to the early years at the age of around four years old.

He found that there were links with lower family income and prolonged bottle use which led to a highly daily intake of sweetened drinks such as juice, unbelievably with each one Increase in the amount of sweetened drinks that those children drank daily, the odds of never visiting the dentist increased by 20% and nearly a quarter of all the children do had visited the dentist had at least one cavity.

Other studies by the Adult Dental Health survey and National Dental Health survey revealed that cavities can lead to dental fillings which are unfortunately very common in the UK, The studies showed that 84% of adults have at least one or more fillings and each of those adults have on average 7 fillings. This is a direct result of only 42% of adults using a toothbrush and toothpaste for their oral care and only 21% of adults visiting the dentist annually. These factors combine to mean that dental decay is more likely to occur and less likely to be detected and prevented. This means that the likelihood of having dental fillings is increased in the long-term.

Dr Maguire goes on to say:

“previous studies have found that children who receive preventive dental care in the first year of life have less dental disease, are less likely to require restorative or emergency treatment and have lower dental-related health care costs – particularly among high-risk populations. Barriers to dental care for families with young children may include financial cost, access to transportation, school absence policies and a belief that dental health may not be important to overall well-being.”

 

One of the simplest ways of ensuring that your children’s teeth stay healthy is firstly to visit the dentist and secondly to cut down on the amount of sugar they consume. But how much sugar is too much?

How much sugar is too much sugar?

The Journal of Dental Research recently carried out a systematic review to inform WHO guidelines on the effects of restricting sugar intakes in various age groups. The research looked at % of sugar in a daily diet and its relationship to the onset of decay. One of the problems with this research is that various publications have taken different views as to what it means, some of them have taken the step of converting this % of sugar into a spoonful amount, On the one hand this makes it easier to work out how much sugar you should be having, but is not strictly true to the research.

These Papers have converted this into between 5 and 7 teaspoons per day. Unfortunately doing this leads people to assume that they can have 5 or 7 teaspoons per day on their cereal, coffee , tea or anywhere else they add sugar.

The biggest problem is they forget that most of the sugar we eat daily is hidden within foods, not added by us afterwards. If we only count the spoonfuls of sugar we add to our food then we will be dramatically exceeding the recommended amounts!

The research reported the following results in their abstract:

42 out of 50 of the studies in children, and 5 out of 5 in adults, reported at least one positive association between sugars and dental decay there was “moderate quality” evidence showing a lower risk of dental decay when sugar intake is less than 10% of calorie intake, compared with more than 10% there was “very low quality” evidence showing a lower risk of dental decay when sugar intake is less than 5%, compared with 5-10% of calorie intake.

So it seems that the research is suggesting if we keep our sugar intake below 10% of calorie intake then there is ‘moderate quality’ evidence to show a lower risk of dental decay.

Summary

Our dental practice in Watford is dedicated to helping the local people with their oral health. Our dental hygienists can work with you and your children to ensure that they stay as healthy as possible and keep their teeth for life.

We urge you to help your children clean their teeth well at home, at least twice per day with a fluoride toothpaste, cut down on the amount of sugar that they consume and also make regular visits to the dentist where we can keep an eye on their dental health and let you know of any potential problems and keep current problems under control.

The first thing to consider about replacing missing teeth is what are the implications of leaving a gap in your mouth?

When a tooth is lost either by surgery or by accident there is a space left in your jawbone where the tooth used to be. This space, or socket, will naturally be filled as the bone surrounding it collapses into the gap.

As the bone collapses into this socket/gap volume of bone is lost, and as the volume of bone is lost so is the gum which covers it. This results in a reduction in the amount of soft tissue surrounding your adjacent teeth, which can have quite dramatic affects on how your overall smile looks.

Some people report on seeing black triangles between their teeth appear as they lose this gum.

Your teeth are also in a fine balance with one another, if you lose a tooth, then the teeth either side of it may have a tendency to drift into the gap. Teeth opposing the one that is lost will also have an inclination to drift into the space.

This tipping and drifting can result in problems with your bite and could make filling the gap in years to come difficult or sometimes even impossible.

When it comes to dealing with missing teeth, we normally have four options:

• Do nothing and leave the gap.
• A dental bridge.
• A removable denture.
• A dental implant.

Let’s look at each of these options in turn.

What happens if you leave a gap and don’t replace the tooth.

As we mentioned above the bone will change around where you have lost a tooth which could make restoring your smile more difficult in the future, however, in many instances, leaving a tooth is a perfectly viable option, so long as you know the risks and what is likely to happen later on in life.

Many people live many years very happily with teeth missing, so long as they understand that they could be a compromise in the long term to their bite along with the obvious cosmetic disadvantages of having missing teeth.

Replacing missing teeth with a dental bridge.

A dental bridge is made by gently reducing the teeth either side of the gap to accept a new Crown (or commonly called a ‘cap’). With a new crown on the teeth either side of the gap we can suspend a new tooth and join it to these two new crowns, creating a dental bridge made of three components all joined together – the new Crown on either side and the false tooth suspended in the middle.

Dental bridges have been made for many years and are an exceptionally reliable treatment option to replace missing teeth, their biggest drawback is the fact that potentially healthy teeth either side of the space has to be drilled down to accept the new supporting crowns or ‘caps’.

From a financial or cost point of view we also end up having to provide three new teeth, one for each side of space and the tooth to replace the missing one. This can have a cost implication which you may want to consider.

What about dentures to replace missing teeth?

Often these are the least preferred option for patients as they are removable and you need to be careful when you are eating. They are however an extremely good solution to the problem of missing teeth. Dentures tend to be the most cost-effective option and with modern alternatives can be made to look exceptionally good, most people would never know that you are wearing dentures!

On the subject of dentures to replace missing teeth we recommend that when you clean them you always do this over a sink half filled with water. One of the most common causes of broken dentures is when people drop them into the sink whilst cleaning, if you half fill the sink then this is less likely to happen.

When you have dentures made it is important to opt for a quality dental practice. One of the common causes of problems with dentures is where they do not fit quite as well as they should, they then slip and press on the gum. This results in what is known as ‘gum stripping’ and can result in a loss of the gum around the teeth.

As a patient it is very difficult to know whether this would happen to you, so we recommend you ask your dentist about how they can prevent this problem and support your denture to prevent it slipping.

Replacing missing teeth with dental implants.

Generally speaking these are often considered as one of the best alternatives to replace missing teeth. Here are a few reasons why:

• dental implants support your bone of the jaw and therefore help to reduce resorption Caused as the bone falls into the space where the tooth was taken out.
• Dental implants support the adjacent teeth and prevent tipping as well as the opposing teeth drifting down into the gap.
• Implants are the most conservative option as they do not require reduction of the adjacent teeth the way dental bridges do.
• Implants can also often be the most cost effective treatment for missing teeth because you only need to replace one tooth, unlike a dental bridge with three teeth that are required.
• Implants can often last longer than dental bridges or dentures.

How many dental implants will I need?

There are no hard and fast rules about the number of implants that are required, however . Here is a general guide.

One tooth missing.

Replacing one tooth will normally only require one implant.

Replacing two teeth.

This will usually require the placement of two implants although in some situations only one implant is required.

Replacing between three and four  teeth.

As odd as it may seem, you may only need to have two implants to replace three or four teeth, this is because an implant can be placed at either end of the space and the gap can be bridged and supported on the implants at either end.

Five teeth or more.

This is where it gets very complicated and it’s not possible to give any further advice on a blog post. There are techniques for replacing a full jaw of teeth on only for dental implants, this is an advanced procedure and is not always available for clinical reasons, depending on what your own unique situation is.

 Is it safe to have dental implants abroad?

Because implants are a complex procedure, albeit a routine one, we recommend that you visit a dentist that you are able to see often. The dental implant procedure will involve several appointments during the planning phase.

Once your dental implants are placed you will also be required to visit the dentist up to 4 additional times. If this is a broad this could become a rather expensive treatment if you have to pay for air fairs and hotels.

The other thing to consider with going abroad is emergencies. What happens if you have something go wrong or break with your dental implant?

Seeing a dentist in the UK, particularly a local one, like our Watford dental implant practice is the best way to ensure that you have good quality care by dental professionals who are on hand to help you in the event of an emergency.