Oral Health: Don't Ignore Your GumsOral Health: Don't Ignore Your Gums

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Oral Health: Don't Ignore Your Gums

When you go to your dentist, you are likely concerned about cavities and the stains on your teeth. If you are like me, then you probably never thought much about your gums. Unfortunately, this caused me to form a serious gum recession condition. My dentist said that hard brushing practices, poor flossing techniques, and even the consumption of sugary foods led to the recession. After some deep scaling treatments, I was informed that I needed a gum graft procedure. The gums are extremely important to your health. They provide your teeth with the nutrients they need and they protect the sensitive dental roots. The gums even keep bacteria away from your jaw bone. Don't ignore your gums like I did. Read my blog and learn about proper oral care techniques. Prevention practices can easily save your gums from necessary restoration.

Love to Eat Hard Candy? What Can Happen With Your Teeth

4 January 2017
 Categories: Dentist, Blog

Eating hard candy can wreak havoc on your teeth. This is especially true if you have a lot of fillings. Below is some information about what can happen from eating this sweet treat, and what a dentist will do about it.

Remove Fillings

Chewing on hard candy causes tooth fillings to fall out. Chewing hard candy also causes cavities as your teeth are constantly exposed to sugar. Instead of chewing on hard candy, choose some sugarless gum instead. You can still get the chewing action and have a sweet treat in your mouth that won't harm your teeth. Chewing gum can even be good for your teeth as it helps your mouth to develop saliva, which can keep your teeth healthy.

If you lose a filling, you may not know it immediately, but your tongue will likely let you know something is wrong. Your tongue will feel that the contours and edges of the tooth are different. Another sign is you will feel pain in that tooth when you drink something hot or cold.  You may feel pain caused by exposed roots in the tooth while you are doing nothing.

If the dentist finds that you lost a filling, they can simply refill your tooth. If the problem went on for too long, they may have to first do a root canal.

Chipped or Cracked Tooth

Eating hard candy can cause a chipped or cracked tooth. You will likely know when this happens as the tooth will feel very different to your tongue. The tooth could have a hairline crack or an entire piece of tooth may fall out.

If you have a chipped or cracked tooth, you will feel pain come and go. You will also feel pain when you are chewing on food and when your tooth is exposed to extreme hot or cold liquids or food.

In most cases, the chipped or cracked tooth can be treated with a dental crown. The crown is placed over the broken tooth and you can then treat it like your other teeth. When you first visit the dentist, they will make a mold of the tooth and send it to a lab to have a permanent crown made for you. Until the permanent crown is finished, the doctor will place a temporary crown over the tooth using a temporary cement. During the next visit, they will remove the temporary crown, clean the area, and place the permanent crown on your tooth with a permanent cement.

Talk with your dentist about these problems, and they can go over the treatment with you in more detail.