Month: January 2023

Despite sugar’s seemingly harmless nature, it can affect people’s health in a variety of ways. A high-sugar diet can exacerbate these health issues. When blood glucose levels soar and then dive rapidly, the results of a high-sugar diet can become apparent quickly, and it can affect your overall body and teeth.

The detrimental effects of sugar on our teeth are well known. Though consuming sugary foods every now and then is not harmful, if you eat such foods without keeping track of it, then it can harm your oral health.

Most people know that sweets, in general, are harmful to the teeth and can cause tooth decay, but they don’t know the adverse effect of eating them excessively. So, today we are going to talk about the same in this article, including some prevention tips. 

What does excess sugar do to your teeth?

The mouth contains two potentially destructive types of bacteria: Streptococcus Mutans and Streptococcus Sobrinus. The sticky material that a dentist removes from your teeth during a routine visit is plaque, formed by these two bacteria that feed on sugar. By not brushing or flossing your mouth, you will eventually allow this plaque to sit in your mouth and eat away at the enamel.

As soon as the sugar is consumed, harmful bacteria in your mouth produce acid. These acids dissolve minerals from the outer layer of your teeth, which is the enamel. Demineralization is the term used to describe this process.

However, you are in luck because the saliva in your mouth reverses this damage and remineralizes your teeth. But the repeated cycle of acid attacks (caused by eating too many sweets) can lead to mineral loss in the enamel. Eventually, this weakens and kills the enamel causing cavities.

So, consuming too many sugary items can make your teeth weak and can cause tooth decay, which makes them have tiny little openings that act as a breeding ground for many harmful infections and bacteria. 

Some prevention tips!

Now that you know what eating too many sweets can do to your oral health, let us see some of the prevention tips for the same: 

• Check your dietary habits: Put a stop to sugary snacks before they become a habit. Sugary drinks and sweets frequently consumed can cause cavities, according to numerous studies. Sugary snacks pose a higher risk of tooth decay due to the dissolving effect of various acids on your teeth. Recent research among school children found that snacking on cookies and potato chips increased the likelihood of developing cavities by four times.

• Maintain good oral hygiene: Make sure to brush your teeth twice per day to prevent tooth decay and cavities. In order to get the best results, you should brush after each meal and as well as before going to bed. Fluoride toothpaste helps protect your overall health and promotes good oral hygiene. As a bonus, stimulating saliva flow ensures that beneficial minerals are deposited on teeth.

• Cut down on refined sugar: Cutting down on sugary food, especially refined sugar, helps prevent multiple oral health problems. Snacks like doughnuts, cakes, pastries, etc., can harm your teeth to a great level. Therefore, it is vital to consume these snacks in a limited manner. 

Lastly, we all know when things are consumed in a controlled manner, they do not harm. But if you form a frequent habit of consuming anything in excess, it will harm your health, and the same is with sugar.

Therefore, taking care of your dietary habits and replacing refined\artificial sweets with fruits and healthy things can help you keep your oral health on track. In addition, visiting your dentist is also very vital to stay away from cavities or decay. 

Getting dental implants is a very popular option nowadays. These are also known as bridges, crowns, or dentures. Someone who is struggling with a lost or missing tooth can go for this option as it is very convenient.

In simple words, dental implants are teeth replacements made of metal, screwlike posts that look like natural teeth.  But you must know some things before getting them. 

There are a lot of things that one should take care of after getting their implants, like recovery time. After the procedure, it is best to take some precautions, and patients can easily do that when they know about the aftercare and recovery period of the same. 

As we know, dentures or implants are drilled directly into the bone socket of the mouth structure, so it’s imperative to give your teeth proper time to heal. Therefore, we have covered everything about this topic in this article for you to have a better understanding of things.

What is the ideal recovery time for dentures?

Giving an exact time period for the healing process of implants is not possible as it is different for different patients. In addition, many factors play an essential role during this whole process.

Things like your medical history, the condition of your tooth, the number of teeth to be replaced, and more. In addition, if you need gum grafting, it can take a little more time in the whole process. 

However, this dental procedure commonly takes ten days for the incision made in the teeth to fuse together. But it will take a few months for the swelling to go down and the gums to heal. 

In addition, if you want to speed up the healing time, you must follow a proper oral care routine, take a balanced diet, and don’t drink or smoke for the time being. After doing all this, the implants can take anywhere between two to six months to heal completely. 

Let’s see some of the factors that can affect the healing period of dentures:

• Condition of your teeth
• The health of the bones
• Number of teeth that are missing
• Your jawbone structure
• How nicely you are following the aftercare etc.

Things to take care of after getting dental implants

You must keep the following things in mind to speed up the recovery process of the treatment: 

• Take proper rest. Make sure you do not give your mouth a lot of stress and eat easily chewable foods.
• Have a well-balanced meal with all the nutrients. It is very vital to eat full meals and include as much fruit and vegetables as you can.
• Don’t forget to brush and floss your teeth and use mouthwash too. Using fluoride toothpaste will help you a lot. In addition, you can ask your dentist what product is best for your oral health.
• Avoid drinking and smoking. Consuming nicotine reverses the process of recovery after the treatment; therefore, you must stay away from tobacco, alcohol, etc. 
• Use a cold compress for the swelling after the procedure. If the swelling does not subside with the cold compress, you can take medication after consulting your dentist. 

Now that you know what to expect from the recovery process, we hope that you can easily go through the process. During the surgery, you will not feel any pain due to a local anesthetic.

A local anesthetic is used to avoid discomfort, but you can feel some pain while your veins regain sensation. Though, you can easily combat this pain through proper medication and the guidance from your dentist. 

One thing that scares everyone about dental treatments is tooth extraction. Before thinking about the positive outcome of a tooth pull, we all seem to highlight its unpleasant part, such as the associated pain. But tooth extraction is not only about pain and discomfort. 

Before starting the tooth-pulling process, your dentist will ensure that you are ready for treatment and will prescribe you over-the-counter medicines to combat the pain. But still, it can be confusing to wrap your head around getting your tooth pulled out! 

Therefore, in this article, we will discuss everything about tooth extraction and how much it can hurt. But before jumping into the article, it is also vital to understand that the pain level during the dental pulling process is different for different patients and depends on their pain tolerating power.

What is the procedure for tooth extraction?

It is essential to know what you can expect during a extraction treatment and how your dentist will perform it:

• Simple extraction: One of the ways your dentist will extract the tooth is by using a simple pulling-out method. In this method, the dentist will use a tool called an elevator to losen the tooth and then will pull it from the gum.
• Surgical extraction: Another method is surgical pulling out. In this method, an incision is made into the gum to remove the bone blocking the tooth’s root to remove the teeth. Once the tooth is removed, your dentist will stitch the wounded area.

Pain-combating ways during the extraction process

Below given are a few ways in which your dentist will combat the pain during the tooth-pulling process, and to do that, your oral care provider will use two or more types of anesthesia: 

• Through local anesthesia: With the help of local anesthetics, your oral care provider or dentist will apply the numbing substance around the gum and teeth which is being extracted. Local anesthesia will not numb all the pain or sensations but will help reduce them significantly.

• Through sedation anesthesia: With the help of sedation anesthesia, you will feel more relaxed and less aware of your surroundings. Your dentist will give you the sedation anesthesia in the form of a tablet or pill before the process starts.
• General anesthesia: With the help of general anesthesia, you will be fully asleep during the extraction process, and you will not feel any pain. General anesthesia is offered through the nose or arm. 

How painful is the extraction? And how can you handle the pain after teeth removal?

To tell how much a tooth can hurt is not easy. Firstly, it depends on the anesthesia your dentist will give you, and secondly, it depends on how many of your teeth are extracted. And lastly, it also depends on how you handle the pain. In all scenarios, you will still feel discomfort and pain, which is obvious. 

Once the tooth is pulled out, you can follow these tips to manage the pain: 

• Use an ice pack
• Do not eat hard and chewy food
• Eat cold soft foods
• Do not sleep on the side where the tooth is extracted from
• Use a hot water bottle or pack
• Take over-the-counter medicines (after consulting your dentist)

Lastly, the tooth extraction process is not something that you should be scared about. Talking to your dentist and taking some precautionary methods after the procedure will help you manage the pain in a better way.