Looking forward to the New Year? Looking forward to improving your Oral Health?

Firstly we would like to wish you all a Happy New Year and hope you enjoyed the festive season from the Bell Yard/ New Road Dental Team. 2016 was a busy year for us; we have been able to help our patients achieve better oral health and in many cases helped them maintain/create the smile that they are now proud of.

Oral Health is an ongoing process; even well maintained teeth can suffer if we start to neglect them. The New Year always brings a new fitness regime to lose weight or get fit for an occasion that’s been announces. New jobs can be around the corner as well as potential new relationships.

From a dental perspective there a few things you could do, to have Healthy teeth and gums in 2017, it will also help to give you that smile boost you’re looking for!

Sugar! – This is always at the top of the list this time of year! We all know the diet has increased sugar in December. But also remember that sugar has increase obesity and dental decay. Reducing the frequency of sugar intake to the main meals can help prevent decay and benefit your oral health over all.

Flossing! – Yes the word that every dentist/hygienist uses “have you been flossing?” most people see this as an ‘extra thing to do’. Adding flossing/tepe’s/interprox/glides to the daily routine gives a huge boost to your Oral Health. Just think teeth have 5 surfaces! Many people forget the in-between bits, flossing helps to remove food from between the teeth. Flossing also helps to remove the bacteria which contribute to gum disease and halitosis!

Smoking! – The New Year is always a good time to make that decision to stop smoking, a lot of people decide in January to take the steps! There are always support groups as you will never be alone! Did you know smoking contributes to Oral Cancers and gum disease, stopping smoking will help to keep your mouth health! Also it helps the bank balance double bonus!

You’re Smile! – now not everyone has that smile that they are proud of, it could be the discolouration of the teeth, the positioning of the teeth as with age the teeth start moving! There are different ways that the dentist can help you get to where you want to be! There are many cosmetic treatments that the team perform on a daily basis to help you get to where you want to be. From changing fillings to look cosmetically better, to whitening your teeth to give them that glow, maybe even straightening your teeth using invisalign ( the perfect discreet way for you to get the look you want!). There may be that gap in the mouth that you’re not happy about we do Implants too. We at Bell Yard/New Road are here to help you achieve what you want so you can smile with pride!

Look out for our new monthly Blogs on ways to help you Smile from Ear to Ear! Welcome to 2017!

Dr. Dhanani, Dr Patel and the New Road dental team know how important it is for you to have a healthy and bright smile. We feel that every patient in our practice deserves to have a smile they can be proud of.

At the end of this post please feel free to download your Free Teeth Whitening Guide.

Imagine how you could feel with WHITER TEETH?

• More Confident
• Better Dating Life
• Great First Impression
• Look More Youthful
• Camera Ready
• Improved Oral Health
• Improved Job Prospects
• Release Natural Endorphins (the happy feeling!)

White Teeth for Life is an exciting new programme we are offering to both new and existing patients! We would like to whiten your teeth and keep them white for life!

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Here’s how it works:

New Patients:

• First we would like to see you for an initial exam, x-rays and hygiene visit to get your teeth clean and healthy.
• You will then get a great discount on your initial whitening procedure; for a one-time enrollment fee of only £300 (£200 savings) when you join our Denplan maintenance plan (£21 per month) – not only will the teeth stay white – they will also stay healthy.

Existing Patients:

• If you have already had whitening done in our practice and already have whitening trays, you will automatically be enrolled in our exciting new White Teeth for Life programme after you join our Denplan maintenance plan.
• If you have not already had whitening done in our practice and you would like to join our White Teeth for Life programme you can enroll for the one-time enrollment fee of £300.

The Whitening Process:

• We will provide you with custom fitted professional whitening trays and 2 whitening syringes. Then as you come in for your regular dental cleanings and checkups (both twice a year), on the maintenance plan (£21 per month), you will receive a whitening syringe at no cost to you!

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The Maths…

	Private	Plan
2 x Routine Examination	£70	Included
Xray (2 per year)	£20	Included
2x Hygiene Appointment	£98	Included
Initial Teeth Whitening	£500	£300
Annual whitening syringe	£50	Included
Accident & Emergency Worldwide Cover	N/A	Included
Monthly Fee	N/A	£21
Total:	£738	£552
Plan Savings		£186

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Our maintenance plan – Denplan Essentials is an easy budgeting plan that covers you for the foundations of your dental care, helping to stop problems before they start. This plan covers you for your regular check-ups and hygienist visits, as well as including worldwide dental injury and dental emergency cover (Supplementary Insurance)

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What are the benefits of the plan?

• All your preventive dental care is included
• Payment by convenient Direct Debit, allowing you to budget
• Guaranteed registration with the practice and continuing access to your dentist
• Early identification of dental problems to prevent pain, discomfort and inconvenience
• Appointment times to suit you whenever possible
• 5% Discount on any treatment fees
• Priority booking in the event of a dental emergency
• Access to a 24 hour dental emergency helpline 365 days per year
• Worldwide Supplementary Dental Injury and Emergency Insurance

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We would like to whiten your teeth and keep them white for life!

Please call our practice on 01923 776 270 before your next appointment to let us know if you are interested in our White Teeth for Life programme.

To be eligible for our White Teeth for Life you need to meet the following requirements:

• New Patients must complete initial check up and hygiene cleaning and any necessary treatment to be dentally fit.
• Once on the plan you must keep your regularly scheduled dental cleaning and checkup visits. Your long-term oral health is as important to us as it is to you.
• Our patients have found that regular checkups greatly reduce dental pain and the cost of dental services. This is why we are happy to provide this extra bonus to our patients who are committed to their oral health.
• Provide at least 48 hours notice if you need to postpone or change your appointment and the appointment must be rescheduled within the next 4 weeks. In order to provide exceptional services like White Teeth for Life to all our patients, we ask that you give us the courtesy of advance notice for all schedule changes.
• Must keep your mouth healthy. Must maintain minimum continued dental care as stated by the dentists and hygienists of New Road Dental Practice.
• All accounts must be current (no outstanding bills).
• Lost or destroyed trays will be replaced at a cost to the patient.
• Should any of the rules fail to be met, you may be disqualified from the program and provided the opportunity to re-enroll for a £30 re-activation fee following the payments of any fees.

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For more information on teeth whitening and your own teeth whitening guide

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.