Does Tea Discolour Teeth?

Tea stains vessels, clothes and upholstery is bound to stain your teeth too, over a period of time. So if these beverages of regular consumption do discolour teeth, do you stop consuming them? That’s surely not the solution by any means! There are ways to manage discolouration of teeth caused due to beverage consumption. While some of them could be carried out at home, others would require visits to the dentists.

discolouration in the dental plaque and not the tooth itself. This plaque needs to be cleaned or flossed away within a period of 24 hours. In case it remains in the teeth, it hardens to form what we commonly call tartar. This tartar is a porous substance and absorbs stains caused by other food items as well. Eventually, your teeth look ugly and stained. In such cases you need to conduct a dental cleaning process which can effectively remove the tartar and the stains would disappear with them.

Dealing with Tooth Discolouration

Some of the most effective remedies to deal with tooth discolouration include the following:

Always remember to rinse your mouth thoroughly with tap water, every time you consume any caffeinated beverage. Regular brushing and flossing of teeth is a must. Flossing is an excellent way to remove dental plaque on a regular basis. This will prevent formation of hardened tartars. Make a paste with some common salt and baking soda. Use this to brush your teeth at least two times a week. Although this might not have a whitening impact on the teeth, it will surely help in removing stains. Consider rinsing your mouth with a hydrogen peroxide solution after brushing. This will help in dealing with the stains much more easily. You can also consider using an electric toothbrush for cleaning purposes. These are known to be especially effective in cleaning plaque and tartar. Always use a good quality whitening toothpaste for effective reduction of stains. You could also try some bleaching kits at home. Buy ones which contain hydrogen peroxide or carbamide peroxide as bleaching agents.

Finally, if the stains continue to persist despite your best efforts, consider paying a visit to the dentist. He would carry out a complete cleaning of your teeth and gums and you can actually see the stains visibly disappearing. Remember paid dental procedures such as these might prove to be expensive and time consuming at the same time. So consider giving tea addiction a second thought.

What to Eat After Dental Surgery?

Good diet and nourishment is of utmost significance especially when a person is recuperating from a dental surgery. If one knows what to eat and eats the appropriate diet, it guarantees quick recovery and also reduces the possibility of excessive dry socket and blood loss. Post oral surgery phase is a very critical stage and must not be managed without the supervision of dental specialists. In case the patient has been prescribed some antibiotics, he may have to exclude dairy products from his diet chart. In fact, for a couple of days following the surgery the patient should go in for either drinking beverages such as tea or water or foods that are soft.

In the post dental surgery period, a person needs to know what to eat and must include sufficient amount of fibre and protein in the diet. Liquids should also form a predominant part of the diet. Good dietary liquids include nourishing fruit and vegetable juices, milkshakes, energy drinks, instant breakfast drinks and fruit smoothies. Immediately after oral surgery, oatmeal, soft scrambled eggs, soft fruits, well cooked rice and cream of wheat should be included in the diet of the patient. Avoid carbonated or aerated beverages, hot fluids and spicy food after oral surgery. The patient must eat those food items that do not cause irritation to one’s surgery spot. Foods such as puddings, yoghurt, custard, vegetable broth, ice-creams, applesauce, cream soups, and mashed potatoes are soothing to the spot of surgery. Anything that needs to be sucked should be stringently avoided as this can hinder the blood clot formation in the mouth, resulting in excessive bleeding. Though meat and the dairy products are an excellent source of protein and energy, they need to be avoided. Instead, you can eat mashed potatoes, soft cheeses and tofu. Moreover, food items including canned fish, poached fish, hummus, meat loafs, mashed pinto beans and shredded meat are supposed to be included in the diet as they do not require much of chewing. Peanut butter, seed and nut oils are also recommended.

What to eat after dental surgery is an important query that needs to be addressed to every patient. The latest innovations in the field of medicine and pharmacy have made the surgical methods and process less agonising and more tolerable on the part of the patient. As the patient is under the influence of medication when he returns home, he must ensure that he sticks to the prescribed painkillers and must not eat anything without the approval of the doctor.

Tooth Decay

Symptoms of Tooth Decay in Toddlers

Tooth decay is one of the most common tooth problems in toddlers. In dental decay, cavities are formed on the outer layer of the tooth. These cavities are formed due to the collapse of hard dental issues which lead to a mild tooth decay. Rarely does tooth decay go unnoticed. If so, it may rupture the surrounding nerves and tissues of the gum.

Cause of Tooth Decay in Children

Bacterial infection is a main cause of tooth decay. Bacteria’s reside on the surface of the tooth and gets it nourishment from the foods and drinks consumed by toddlers. These bacteria produce acids and fluids that may affect the coating of the tooth and a visible change in the colour and texture of the tooth will be easily noticed. The bacterium harms the enamel of the tooth over time and decay becomes inevitable.

Risk Factors for Tooth Decay

Heredity dental health may impact the toddler’s oral hygiene. Consumption of sweetened and starchy foods in the form of chocolates or natural sweeteners may increase the risk of tooth decay in your toddler. If teeth are not brushed regularly, it will lead to tooth and gum damage in a matter of months. Frequent snacking will increase the amount of time the teeth are in contact with acids; this will lead to tooth decay.

Symptoms of Tooth Decay

The intensity of the symptoms may vary from child to child. The symptoms may occur individually or in combinations. The symptoms of tooth decay are enlisted below:

Toddler may face difficulty while chewing or swallowing the food. A noticeable jaw inflammation may manifest. Bad breathe may be a result of tooth decay due to plague. Bleeding while brushing due to hyper sensitivity. Gum inflammation especially at the root of the tooth. Pits and holes at the central pit of the tooth. Spots on the tooth of white, gray, black or brown in colour. A broken tooth is more susceptible to tooth decay. Swollen glands may be a sign of tooth decay. Tartar may irritate the gums leading to gingivitis in toddles if left ignored.

Diagnosis of Tooth Decay

The most obvious sign of tooth decay is hyper sensitivity and tooth ache. However, your toddler may not be able to communicate these issues to you verbally. The parents would need to check for visible signs to monitor and gauge any sign or symptom of tooth decay.

10 Reasons to Quit Smoking Right Now

Cigarette smoking is one of the most preventable causes of death in the world. Each year, more than 450,000 people die from diseases related to tobacco use. Smoking can lead to lung cancer, stroke and heart disease, among other health problems, and can shorten your lifespan by up to 14 years.
The good news? It’s never too late to quit smoking — and when you do quit, your body quickly begins to restore itself from all the damage caused my the harmful chemicals in cigarette smoke. See how your health — and life — improves in the moments, hours, months and years after you finally quit.

20 Minutes: Your Blood Pressure Drops
The nicotine in cigarettes decreases the amount of oxygen in your blood, and causes your arteries to constrict, meaning your heart has to work harder to pump blood to the rest of your body. As a result, smoking causes a rise in blood pressure; high blood pressure is a leading cause of heart disease.
After 20 minutes without a cigarette your heart rate drops and your blood pressure begins to return to normal levels.

2 Hours: Circulation Improves
Your circulatory system is made of blood vessels that pick up oxygen from the lungs and distribute it to your muscles and organs. The chemicals in cigarette smoke damage your blood cells and blood vessels, disrupting this oxygen-delivery process, increasing your risk of diseases of the blood vessels and heart. This damage can also increase your chance of a blood clot, resulting in heart attack or stroke.
When you’ve been cigarette-free for two hours, your circulation begins to improve.

8 Hours: Damage From Chemicals Reverses
Every time you inhale cigarette smoke, more than 7,000 chemicals and compounds—including cadmium (a component of battery acid), acetone (found in nail polish remover) and arsenic (used in rat poison)—flood into your body. Within seconds of your first puff, these harmful gases (plus others, like formaldehyde, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide) begin to irritate the sensitive membranes of your eyes, nose and throat.
As the smoke passes into your lungs, carbon monoxide (the same gas found in automobile exhaust) is immediately transferred to your blood, where it binds to oxygen receptor sites and kicks oxygen molecules out of your red blood cells. This means less oxygen makes its way to your brain and other vital organs.
After eight hours smoke-free, the carbon dioxide and oxygen levels in your blood return to normal, and the damage caused by carbon monoxide (and the other chemicals found in cigarettes) begins to reverse

24 Hours: Heart Attack Risk Drops
Nicotine and the other chemicals in cigarette smoke can put major stress on your heart. Smoking increases your risk of atherosclerosis, a disease in which fatty plaques build up in your blood stream. That plaque hardens, blocking your coronary arteries and increasing your risk for coronary heart disease. Over time, coronary heart disease can lead to chest pain, irregular heartbeat and even heart attack. Smokers are two to four times more likely to develop heart disease than non-smokers.

48 Hours: Regain Your Sense of Smell and Taste
Cigarette smoke deadens the millions of olfactory nerves in the back of your nose, diminishing sensitivity to smell. And because your sense of smell is directly correlated to taste, when you smoke, your sense of taste diminishes as well.
After 48 hours without a cigarette, all traces of nicotine have left your body, and your olfactory nerves have begun to regrow, sharpening those previously-dulled senses.

2 Weeks to 3 Months: Lung Function Improves
Cigarette smoke affects your lungs’ natural cleaning process. Smoking damages the cilia (hair-like organs that sweep fluids and foreign particles out of your airways), making it more difficult for the lungs to rid themselves of the chemicals cigarette smoke leaves behind. This damage to your lungs also spurs higher levels of mucus production in an effort to clear away the toxins from cigarette smoke.
Starting two weeks after you quit smoking, and in the months beyond, you'll notice an increased ability to perform physical activities without feeling sick and winded. Within two months, your lungs no longer need to over-produce phlegm to flush out toxins. When your lungs are cigarette smoke-free and functioning better, your risk of lung infection dramatically decreases.

6 Weeks: A Boost to Your Immune System
Smoking weakens your immune system, putting you at a higher risk for infection. With a compromised immune system, your wounds may take longer to heal and scars may heal badly. Cigarette smoking also puts you at greater risk for many bacterial and viral infections, like influenza or pneumonia.
Six weeks after you stop smoking, your immune system becomes stronger and better able to fight off infection, because all traces of nicotine (an immune system suppressant) have left your body.

1 Year: Your Risk of Heart Disease Falls
The chemicals in cigarette smoke damage your heart and blood vessels. Smoking can cause platelets in your blood to clump together, increasing your risk of blood clots, and can also trigger spasms in the coronary arteries, reducing blood flow to the heart. Plus, smoking reduces “good” cholesterol (high-density lipoprotein, or HDL) and allows “bad” cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein, or LDL) to enter the walls of your arteries more easily, where it can develop into plaque.
Plaque buildup in your arteries can lead to coronary heart disease — the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States. By keeping cigarette-free for one year, you cut your risk for heart disease in half.

10 Years: Lung Cancer Risk Cut in Half
In the United States, smoking causes 90 percent of all lung cancer cases. Every time you inhale cigarette smoke, cancer-causing chemicals fill your lungs, increasing your risk for lung cancer. Nicotine also paralyzes the cilia in your lungs, making it harder for them to remove tar left behind by cigarette smoke.
10 years after you give up cigarettes, your risk for dying from lung cancer is cut in half. Once you hit the 15-year mark, your risk of death from any smoking-induced condition is close to that of a non-smoker.

5 to 15 Years: Stroke Risk Reduced
The same plaque build-up in your arteries that can put you at increased risk for heart disease can also block the flow of blood to your brain and cause a stroke.
Quitting smoking greatly reduces your risk of stroke — after 5 to 15 years without cigarettes, your risk of stroke is the same as someone who has never smoked.

Quit Smoking Today: Long-term Benefits
Smoking takes a toll on your health — both inside and out. Smoking can lead to premature aging, saggy and discolored skin, and bad breath. When you quit, nutrients and oxygen travel through your blood to your skin more easily to keep you looking healthier (and younger, too!).
Giving up on cigarettes doesn’t just improve your heart and lung health; it also reduces your risk of other disease, like diabetes, and other cancers, including cancer of the mouth, throat or stomach.
Ready to quit? Check out these best ways to stop smoking today and butt out for good!

 

World Oral Health Day

Today World Oral Health Day

 -The date marks the anniversary of the FDI World Dental Federation and their groundbreaking

International Conference on Primary Health Care, which was held on September 12, 1978. In

addition the date honors Dr. Charles Godon, the FDI founder, who was born Sept. 12, 1854

  We hope that awareness of the importance of oral health can be elevated through the worldwide

recognition of this day .The dentists of the world are committed to helping each and everyone in

achieving optimal oral health through prevention and the highest possible standard of care.

Full-Mouth Rehabilitation and Bite Management of Severely Worn Dentition

Creating a beautiful smile for a patient is extremely rewarding for the 

dentist as well as for the team, and this should never be taken for granted. 

We are blessed with the ability to change someone’s self esteem, confidence 

and, possibly, the course of their life. 

Full Mouth Reconstruction is the systematic approach to restoring all (or nearly all) of your teeth at the same time. There are different reasons for needing this full-mouth restoration treatment.


Examples are

* teeth that are severely worn down multiple missing teeth
* a deep bite (the top teeth bite too far down over the bottom teeth)
* patients who want instant orthodontics (using  porcelain veneers,bridges , or other restorations on all of the teeth to ideally reshape and reposition the teeth)
* severe decay in all or most of the teeth
* severe erosion of the enamel
* congenital disorders that cause missing teeth, missing enamel, or poorly-formed teeth
* traumatic injury to the mouth/teeth

Simple Overdenture Technique without using implants (using root )

Simple Overdenture Technique,

MPLANTS have, in the last 15 to 20 years, paved the way to restoration of the edentulous and partially edentulous mouth. However, many patients cannot afford the time or money required to complete this treatment successfully. Making an Overdenture (OVD) using a simple ball-and-socket type of attachment for extra retention is a proven and easy alternative treatment to implants. The Flexi-Overdenture® attachment is based on the patented split-shank Flexi-Post® for the highest retention of the post in the root and the fewest problems. The ball-and-socket attachment delivers high retention for full and partial dentures, providing a simple, inexpensive overdenture at chairside. The Flexi-Overdenture supports a nylon attachment that is incorporated into an overdenture (Figure 1). Alternatively, and for great ease of replacement, a threaded version of the nylon attachment can be threaded into an EZ-Change® metal receptacle (keeper) that in turn is incorporated into the denture (Figure 2). The post allows the dentist to utilize remaining roots to support the retention of a denture. FIGURE 1 FIGURE 2 The Steps for Placement of the Flexi-Overdenture Try to retain two canine teeth in each arch for the abutments for the OVD. If canines are not available, try to use bicuspids next. However, any tooth—even just one tooth—will provide additional retention for the OVD. Determine the optimum post size by placing the plastic template over an undistorted x-ray. There should be at least one millimeter of lateral tooth structure at the most apical placement of the post. After determining the correct post size, prepare the post hole, using a sequence of Gates Glidden drills followed by the color-coded primary reamer exactly correlated to your post size (Figures 3 and 4). FIGURE 3 FIGURE 4 After using the correct primary reamer, prepare the countersink/root facer preparation with the countersink/rootfacer drill (Figure 5). FIGURE 5 Try placing the post that corresponds to your preparation. It should be fully seated (Figure 6). If the post does not seat fully, shorten the apical end of the post the appropriate amount for full seating (Figure 7). FIGURE 6 FIGURE 7 Coat the internal surface of the post hole and the shank of the post with Flexi-Flow Auto® reinforced composite cement and place the post into the root. Let set for four minutes. Place the nylon cap on the ball of the Flexi-Overdenture attachment. Make sure that the colored rubber band is on the ball of the attachment. The rubber band blocks out the undercut of the ball (Figure 8). Mark the top of the nylon cap with a disclosing paste and place the denture over the root (Figure 9). FIGURE 8 FIGURE 9 Remove the denture, noting where it has been marked with the paste (Figure 10). FIGURE 10 Relieve enough acrylic from the denture to allow the denture to sit passively over the nylon cap (Figures 11 and 12). FIGURE 11 FIGURE 12 Once you have confirmed that the denture is sitting passively supported only by the ridges, place a doughy mix of acrylic into the relieved site, place the nylon cap over the acrylic and keep it in position until the acrylic hardens (Figure 13). Remove the denture and relieve the excess underlying acrylic (Figure 14). FIGURE 13 FIGURE 14 The denture now has the added retention supplied by the ball-and-socket attachment provided by the Flexi-Overdenture attachment. Over time, the nylon attachment will wear, out reducing the amount of retention it provides. The nylon attachment can be replaced by drilling out the old attachment and cold-curing a new one in. To reduce the time and effort necessary for replacement, Essential Dental Systems, Inc., has developed the EZ-Change attachment for rapid replacement of the worn nylon attachment. To incorporate it into the denture do the following: Instead of the nylon attachment, place the EZ-Change attachment, which consists of a metal receptacle (keeper) and a threaded nylon attachment within it (Figure 15). The two components of the EZ-Change attachment are incorporated into the denture in the same manner as the original nylon cap. When the nylon attachment now wears out, it is a simple matter to use the EZ-Change wrench to unthread the worn-out nylon cap from the metal insert and thread in a new one (Figure 16). No cold-curing is necessary, the entire process taking only a few seconds. FIGURE 15 FIGURE 16 The ball-and-socket is very user-friendly for the patient. It snaps in easily, the patient can both hear and feel when the ball is seated, and there are no components to bend or break. This is a viable and time-tested alternative technique for those who cannot have implants.This technique is much more economical as compared to implant supported denture.