Sal S. Aragona DDS
Clinton Township, MI 48036
My Blog
Posts for: February, 2010
Dental sealants are a great way to prevent cavities from forming in permanent teeth. Often times the chewing surface of a tooth will have deep narrow grooves that are so small even a tooth brush bristle cannot get into it. This is not a good situation because bacteria that causes cavities can get into these grooves and cause damage to the teeth for a long time before it could even be detected. Sealing these grooves before the bacteria gets a chance to attack is the best way to assure that the teeth will remain strong and healthy.
Sealants are easy to place and require no drilling or numbing! We simply clean and the tooth and place a preparing solution which we rinse off and then we dry the tooth. Finally we squirt a filler material into the deep grooves of the tooth and shine a special light to harden the material and you are all set.
When should these sealants be placed you might ask. They are best placed shortly after the teeth are completely visible in the mouth. The very first permanent back tooth or molar usually erupts around the age of six. These first permanent molars come in behind all of the baby teeth which are usually in place by around age two years.
So if your child has his/her permanent molars in you may want to ask about dental sealants as a way to prevent unnecessary cavities.
58,000 people in the US die every three weeks of heart disease. Heart disease continues to be the number one killer. So what does teeth have to do with that?
According to most recent university studies....everything. Treating gum disease now is more than saving your teeth, it is about reducing inflamatory mediators that are in play with heart disease and brain defects like Alzimer's disease. Some studies show a strong correlation between dental plaque and calculus build up in the mouth and arterial thickening and build up involved in cardiovascular disease. "Inflamation load" now is implied in nearly every degenerative condition from diabetes, cardiovascular disease, brain dementia's, arthritis and auto-immune diseases. Gum disease, even early stages of gingivitis, represends a chronic inflamatory condition unlike having a open sore or wound that is not allowed to heal and seal itself from constant bacterial and inflamatory bombardment systemically.
So if you are not recieving regular dental care that monitors and treats gum disease, now is the time to start! Call our office today and live longer.
When you wake up, do you feel fabulous? This may seem like a frivolous question to migraine or TMD sufferers. If this is you and migraines are effecting the way you live, there is good news. Most headaches are a cause of clenching and grinning of teeth during night time which causes muscular activity and tension and leads to headaches. The FDA has cleared for marketing for the first time, a device that prevents medically diagnosed migraine pain, tension-type headaches, and TMJ disorders, without the use of drugs or surgery. This is accomplished by wearing the NTI which will cause a reduction of events. This device is small and it's placed either on your upper or lower front teeth.
As stated before many migraine headaches and around 98% of TMJ pain cases have origins in muscular hyperactivity. The benefit of the NTI over traditional full coverage night guards is that studies have shown that when only the front teeth are in contact the muscles that close the jaw and clench are only able to produce about 1/3 the normal force. This allows the muscles to relax and the symptoms to subside. If a full coverage night guard is used, the back teeth are still able to contact which allows 100% clenching force to occur. The teeth will be protected from any bruxism or grinding, but the clenching force will not be decreased. The NTI however is not only effective in protecting the teeth during episodes of bruxism, but is most effective in decreasing the ability to clench with maximum force. This is why the NTI has worked for 1/2 million people world-wide who have suffered from migraine headaches and TMJ pain.
We have had great results with the NTI in our office you can watch a video testimony, of her experience with the NTI and how her migraine headaches were minimized with the NTI on the Aragona Dentistry Facebook Home Page.
If you are unable to floss or just don't like too, you may now have another option, it's called a waterjet. You may remember the old waterpiks that were recommended only for getting the food out of kids braces. Well they have been upgraded and are now able to remove plaque as well as if not better than flossing. So if you are not a flosser give a waterjet a try.