Excessive stress levels can influence nearly every part of your life, including your oral health. The human body’s stress response, also known as the fight-or-flight response, is a defensive mechanism that protects us and allows us to respond more quickly to threats. In today’s modern world, however, there are plenty of everyday factors that continually cause stress. Negative circumstances or interactions can make us feel threatened, triggering our defense. The longer you are stressed, the longer your body is operating in high gear and the quicker your mind, body, and health can deteriorate. In regard to your oral health, stress has been known to increase the risk of periodontal disease (stress inhibits your immune system’s defenses against infection and disease). Stress can also lead to canker sores, which are harmless but extremely uncomfortable sores in your mouth, and TMJ dysfunction (distressed jaw joints, or TMJs). (more…)
How Good is Your Hygiene? Take a Quiz and Find Out!
Good dental hygiene is the first step to maintaining a beautiful, healthy smile. While most people are familiar with the basics of good hygiene, there is more to keeping your smile clean and healthy than simply brushing and flossing your teeth. To find out how good your dental hygiene actually is, take a short quiz and learn if you could be doing more. (more…)
The Main Benefits of Laser Gum Disease Treatment
Treating gum disease can sometimes be tricky, especially in more advanced cases. While the goal is to eliminate the infection by removing bacteria and diseased tissues, it is also essential to preserve the healthy tissues that remain. For less invasive, and more effective, procedures, Dr. Kania often recommends laser gum disease treatment, which offers several benefits over traditional gum surgery with a scalpel. (more…)
Can Dental Implants Prevent Future Tooth Loss?
When it comes to replacing teeth that are already lost, the benefits of dental implants are many. However, the small dental prostheses also possess several benefits that extend beyond restoring your smile’s appearance, and can improve your chances of preventing tooth loss in the future. The secret lies in the unseen consequences of missing teeth, which if left unaddressed, could leave your remaining teeth without adequate support and lead to more loss. As the only option for replacing teeth roots, dental implants may offer the best chance of preventing future tooth loss to better preserve your oral health. (more…)
What is Oral-systemic Health?
Keeping up with good dental and periodontal health is a reward unto itself, but a beautiful smile isn’t the only benefit. Oral-systemic health describes the relationship between oral health conditions, like periodontal disease, and chronic systemic issues, like heart disease. For instance, in the case of severe periodontal disease, the unchecked inflammation that damages your gum tissues can increase your risk of inflammation elsewhere, elevating your risks of inflammatory conditions. Though it isn’t guaranteed that poor oral health will lead to poor physical health, the prevalence of oral-systemic health means taking care of your smile can help lower your risks in the future. (more…)
How to Prevent the Most Common Causes of Tooth Loss
Ideally, your adult teeth should remain strong and healthy for life. When you lose one or more of them, it’s for a reason, and aside from accidental trauma, such reasons can often be successfully prevented. The most common causes of adult tooth loss consist of dental health issues that destroy your teeth’s supportive structures – namely, periodontal disease. By understanding these causes and how they develop, you will have a better chance of preventing them from becoming severe and costing you one or more of your permanent teeth. (more…)
Questions About Life After Tooth Loss
Tooth loss isn’t typically a casual, everyday topic of conversation. In fact, you might not speak about it at all, except to your dentist or those you know who have recently lost one or more teeth. Still, tooth loss is a real threat to your dental health, even if it seems as though all of your teeth are still healthy and secure. Fortunately, in most cases, tooth loss can be preventable. However, when it does occur, Dr. Kania can make life after tooth loss more pleasant and comfortable by replacing your lost teeth with an appropriate number of dental implants. (more…)
Non-Surgical Treatments to Prevent Periodontal Disease
Threats to your oral health come in many forms, but periodontal disease (aka gum disease) is one of the most common, and one of the most destructive. Left untreated, the disease will erode the soft periodontal tissues and ligaments that support your teeth, and can gradually infect the jawbone underneath your gums, possibly leading to tooth loss. Fortunately, preventing periodontal disease is not particularly difficult. Even if you have already begun to exhibit symptoms of gingivitis (early gum disease), Dr. Kania can help prevent periodontal disease from accelerating with the right non-surgical preventive treatment. (more…)
The Advantages of Pinhole Gum Surgery
The periodontal tissues that surround and protect the bottoms of your teeth are important for a number of reasons. Your gums help support your teeth by clinging tightly to them, as well as protect your teeth’s roots from bacterial infection and irritation. When gum recession or the development of gum disease cause these tissues to lose their grip, a gum graft may be necessary to restore their health. With the advanced Pinhole® Surgical Technique (PST), Dr. Kania can perform most kinds of gum surgeries with minimal discomfort and quicker recovery times. (more…)
Dental Implants: Amazing Advantages
Patients suffering from tooth loss quickly discover that the side effects of an open space in one’s smile presents significant challenges. Furthermore, patients dealing with the loss of multiple teeth will find that those challenges seem to become exponentially more difficult. Fortunately, we offer dental implants. An implant will replace your entire tooth – roots included – so you can regain your complete, functional smile that looks beautiful and natural. Wondering what makes implants so exceptional? Learn more about their advantages, so you may more easily determine whether this tooth replacement option is suited to your needs.