Sweet Fang!

We dressed up at work today for halloween. We each had a pair of fangs that we made. We thought that would be cute for a dental office. We had a lot of fun with it! After wearing the fangs all day I realized something. If you ever run into a vampire--He will probably have a lisp. Fangs are hard to speak with!
check out some of our pictures--it got a little crazy around the office! (Not sure that the rest of the staff know I posted these--enjoy!)
--your friendly dental assistant!

tricks or treats!

Its time for trick-or-treating once again! It's always fun to see those little goblins and ghouls out roaming the streets for treats, but you would never give them battery acid as a trick...or would you? Here is some interesting, and somewhat disturbing facts about some of the candy we are handing out to those little princesses and G.I. Joes. If you remember the PH scale from middle school science class you will recall that a zero is the most acidic you can get, like battery acid. a Seven is neutral, like pure water and a 14 is the most basic you can get, like liquid drain cleaner. Now listen to this: some of the candy we are handing out is nearing battery acid on the acidic scale!
sweet Tarts 3
sour punch straws 2.5
Starburst 2.4
lemonheads 2.4
sour skittles 2.2
pixie sticks 1.9
now and laters 1.9
fun dip powder 1.8
war heads 1.6
and battery acid is a ZERO!

We are doing our best to combat all that acid. Acid wears away enamel making teeth more susceptible to cavities. At Cheyenne Mountain Dental Center we are doing a Great Halloween Candy buy back. Kids can bring in their candy (after they pick out a few favorites to enjoy) and for each pound they bring in we will give them a dollar and some coupons to fun places around town. With all that candy that we collect we will be sending it to the troops overseas (along with toothbrushes!) as part of operation Gratitude. All the kids that bring in candy will get the chance to sign a card and tell the troops how much they appreciate them. This is the second year we will be doing this, and last year we collected over 200 pounds of candy. We will be collecting candy November 2nd through November 10th. Please bring in your kids and participate with us this year!

Royal Flush

Good Morning all my lovely blog readers. Happy October!
I love to think about inventions. I like to think about things that I could invent. Things that I should invent. Things that I wish I had invented. While thinking about things I wish I had invented it led me to those Scrubbing Bubble Toilet Wands.
You can switch out the brushes on the end and toss them because they collect so much bacteria that you don't even want to clean your toilet with the same one twice. Those were a great invention! I am guessing that you keep that great invention right next to your toilet, that flushes numerous times a day. Now how close to that toilet are you keeping your toothbrush? Every time that toilet flushes bacteria (and who knows what else!) is being thrown into the air and possibly and probably landing on your toothbrush. All together now....EEEEEEWWWWWWWWWW!!
Now we have all heard that you are supposed to change your toothbrush every three months, and that you should also change your toothbrush after you have a cold or flu, but what about all the bacteria that accumulates in between those times. What to do, what to do!
Well There is a toothbrush sanitizer that is perfect for those in between times!
All together now....YAY!
The toothbrush sanitizer is from Violight and can sanitize up to 4 toothbrushes at once in 6 minutes. There is also a travel size you can take on vacation with you. To sanitize it uses germicidal ultraviolet light to physically destroy the DNA of the offending microorganisms.
here is a link to check it out. http://violight.com/vitobrsa.html
Does anyone have one of these? Have you used one in the past? Comment and share what you think about it!

Say NO To Crack!

OK, Picture this. It's a hot and sweltering summer day. You have been working in the yard all afternoon and you are sweating and your lovely wife brings you a tall refreshing ice cold glass of tea, you toss down your rake and grab the glass and just as you start to take a drink, cold hits a tooth and instead of your thirst being quenched you feel like an ice pick is being stabbed into your tooth. Or maybe you are sitting down to watch a movie and you have a cup of milk and a plate of cookies and just as you get into a drama filled moment and take a bite of a cookie some of that sugar hits one tooth and suddenly you feel a sharp shooting pain that last longer than a Hollywood marriage. These are signs that a tooth may have a crack. A crack in a tooth is usually microscopic but to the germs in your mouth is may as well be the Grand Canyon and they take the opportunity to zip into the crack and wreak havoc. This commonly happens in teeth that have metal fillings. The metal expands and contracts with hot and cold (coffee and ice cream anyone?) Soon enough it doesn't have any room to expand anymore and it cracks! But if the cracks are microscopic and you can't see them with the naked eye, and even if you have an x-ray taken you can't see any sign of damage until the damage is quite large how do you know it's there? I have heard dentists say that cracked teeth is one of the most difficult problems to diagnose. They may just listen to your symptoms and then try to duplicate the pain you are describing (yikes!) yet Dr. Parkin doesn't seem to have any trouble finding these cracks. What is the difference between these dentists and Dr. Parkin. It is not that he eats lots of carrots and has perfect eyesight, it is because he uses an Intra-oral Camera.


The intra-oral camera has several benefits; it allows you as the patient to actually see what is happening in your own mouth and it allows Dr. Parkin to see a tooth magnified 30 times the actual size. That should help with seeing cracks, don't you think?





So, if you have a crack in a tooth what are the options for fixing it. If you catch it early enough you can have the old filling removed, the decay that is underneath removed and replace it with a composite (tooth colored) filling. Dr. Parkin doesn't use any metal fillings and hasn't since "When Doves Cry" was the number one song in the nation *1984* If you wait a bit longer, then the old filling and decay can be removed but the tooth may need a crown, and if you wait and wait and wait you can still have it fixed (although not cheaply) because small cavities turn into big cavities and eventually turn into root canals and then also need crowns. So, like most things, find the problem early and take care of it quickly!





Now, I know you are dying to see some cracked teeth--so at the top of the page there are some "before" pictures of teeth that we have fixed in our office. See if you can spot the cracks in them!

don't like getting headaches? me neither!

Good morning all my lovely blog readers. It has been a while since I have talked to you. I hope you all had a fun Labor Day weekend. Did you BBQ? Go out to the lake? Have some family visit? Ah….family visits. Does the simple thought of having relatives stay over for a 3 day weekend make your teeth clench? Well that is what we will be talking about today. Teeth clenching that is…not family visits.
Teeth clenching is often a habit you may have and not even know. It is especially common at night. So how do you know if you have this habit if you aren’t even aware of it? Well, do you ever wake up in the morning with a headache? Do you have a stiff or aching jaw, a sore neck, or sensitive teeth? If you said yes then you just may be clenching your teeth. The general rule is lips together teeth apart, if you find yourself with your teeth together during the day…catch yourself and quit doing it! But if you are doing it while you are sleeping, then how are you supposed to break that habit?
Well, the answer is an NTI. Technically, that means nocieptive trigeminal inhibition tension suppression system-but enough of that dental mumbo jumbo. What is an NTI in real words!

An NTI is a mouth guard of sorts. You wear it at night. It is a small piece about 1 inch in length and 2 centimeters in width that fits over your two front teeth. It is then fitted to YOUR teeth (so not the same as generic mouth guard you would buy at Wal-Mart) and it snaps into place nice and tight so you can’t remove it with your tongue or lips at night and choke on it (I was worried about that!) so once you have it in and you bite down your back teeth cannot touch. You just wear it at night and since those back teeth can now not touch, you can’t work those muscles that cause migraines, sore jaws, and sore necks. I have included 2 pictures at the bottom of the post. One without my NTI and one with my NTI so you can get a better picture of how and where it fits. I have been wearing my NTI for about a year now, (and since I was taught “never say never”) I will say that I very rarely get headaches anymore, when “pre-NTI” I would wake up with headaches 2-3 times a week. Not waking up with headaches that last all day makes me a very happy girl and keeps my co-workers very happy also!
If you would like more information on this wonderful device that I won’t sleep without anymore you can visit www.headacheprevention.com or you can call me at the office and we can talk some more about it.

love, your friendly dental assistant, Denise

laser chasing pups and cold sores cured with lasers

Cute video right?

But what does it have to do with dentistry? Well I am getting there...Do you ever get cold sores? Wouldn't you love if I could tell you how to get rid of them quickly? Sure you would, but I know what you are thinking. Advice from a dental office...might be expensive. Nope! I will tell you how you can speed up healing time for a dollar! Go to the dollar store. Pick a laser pen---the same one that these 2 pups are chasing! (See I told you I would get to the video) come home and shine the laser pen right on the cold sore for 30 seconds. No more, no less, and most of the time it will be gone in 2 days. I know what you are thinking...this can't possibly work, so I will give you some facts and stats--check them out yourself!

The Effect Of Low Level Red Laser Light on the Healing of Oral Ulcers. Article by Ellis Neiburger, DDS. http://www.chairsidemagazine.com/

This article investigates the difference in healing times of oral ulcers (mouth sores) between using a laser light for 30 seconds and waiting for the ulcer to heal on its own. Results pointed to 88% of painful mouth (or lip) sores (aphthous stomatitis, herpes, and those caused by traumatic episodes...you know, you are super stressed out about a delayed flight, or you bite your lip, or you accidentally nail yourself with a dorito) healed to comfortable levels within 2 days versus untreated lesions taking 5 to 10 days for similar results. The laser light that was used in this particular study was a generic penlight laser purchased at a local dollar store for one dollar. The laser spot was 3 mm in diameter and most of the lesions treated were 1-3 mm in diameter. Over 90% of patients reported to pain-free after one day of laser treatment, whereas the control group who just let the sore heal on its own, 90% reported some pain for at least 5 days. The report did say that 30 seconds is the optimal time, and that longer exposure time seems to retard healing time. The author says that low level laser treatment has been known for many years, but is not publicized or promoted.

Why?

Simple.

If a prospective firm wanted to market a "commercial low level laser" the price would have to reflect all the testing and insurance and regulations and could not compete with the equivalent product at dollar store prices.

So now you, all my readers, are privy to this very inexpensive treatment that has been known to work for 20 years, but kept under wraps for profit reasons!

When you try this let all the readers know how it worked for you! I can't wait to hear your stories!

slow and steady (glycemic index) wins the race

Good morning all my readers,
This is your friendly dental assistant again. I have good news for you about sweets. As we all know sugar is a terrorist against healthy bodies.
Sugar wages war against you with weapons ranging from diabetes, to weight gain and as we are witnesses of ...tooth decay. However if you are like me you may have a sweet tooth, so what is a girl (or guy) to do.

xylitol! pronounced zii-lit-all.

So, what is xylitol? It is a natural sweetener. It is a healthy alternative to sugar and artificial sweeteners (don't get me started on the dangers of artificial sweeteners!!) So lets talk about how it works and why it is so good for you.
Xylitol impedes the growth of plaque, you know that film felt on your teeth in the morning, or as I like to refer to it "furry teeth" feeling.
Xylitol has a slow glycemic index. This just means how fast or slow something gets into your blood stream. This is what makes it safer for diabetics to use, it has a glycemic index of 7 (rush hour turtle traffic slow) compared to sugar which has a glycemic index of 100! (cheetah with redbull fast!)
Xylitol increases the amount of of saliva you produce--why is this good? dry mouth causes cavities!
xylitol has 2.4 calories per gram and sugar has 4.0 calories per gram....so almost twice as much!
so lets put this in perspective for day to day use. where can you find xylitol?
Check out these 2 websites. www.epicdental.com and www.xylitolworks.com.
Both have more detail about how xylitol works and products that you can try--think gum, mints, even maple syrup and honey that are made with xylitol. one of them even has a cookbook for xylitol. If anyone tries that out please comment and let all the readers know how it works!
We have Squigle toothpaste in the office that is chalk full of xylitol and pick some Trident gum at your local retailer! It is sweetened with xylitol and has several great flavors!! I chew it religiously!
Hopefully you have found this information to be helpful. Let me know what you think by commenting!
Thanks for reading,
Denise

Welcome All

Good morning,
This is your Friendly dental assistant at Cheyenne Mountain Dental Center. We are beginning a blog and would like to keep you informed of all the newest and coolest dental products and procedures! Things are evolving fast out there and we want to keep up!
I will also be bringing you interetsing facts and stats, fun ideas, things to ponder, great interviews and possibly even some contests!
This is the first of many blog posts so please, check in to see what we are up to, invite your family and friends to follow with us, and I will be seeing you around the office.