Happy Halloween

Halloween is nearing the end, and all our children will be enjoying their candy tonight. Here are some hints to preserve their teeth:

- Sticky candy will break braces and aggravate TMJ problems. If you are wearing braces or have TMJ/facial pain DO NOT EAT chewing gum, gummy bears, taffy, jelly beans, and other sticky candies. If the candy is hard to bite through, break it into very small pieces before eating it.

- Avoid eating candy that sits on your teeth a long time. A Kit Kat Bar or a Hershey's Kiss will do less damage than a lolly pop or sucking candy.

- Rinsing your mouth with water after eating candy will decrease the risk of white spots and cavities.

- Rinsing with fluoride rinse before bed daily (especially important if candy was eaten that day) will help reverse the damage that candy does to your teeth.

What Do We Need Spit For Anyway? -- Dr. Judith Okun Explains

This past week, Dr. Okun attended a lecture entitled “Clinical Pearls for Treating Older Patients” by Dr. Randy Huffines. One of the biggest issues with sickly and elderly patients is that they have decreased salivary flow (i.e. spit). Saliva is necessary to start the digestion of our food, but is also necessary to buffer acids in the mouth and keep minerals in our teeth. With poor quality saliva, or too little saliva, we not only have that uncomfortable dry-mouth feeling, but we also get MANY MORE cavities.

Why does an orthodontist need to know about treating older patients? Many more adults are wearing braces than ever before. Many of them want to achieve that smile they never had when they were young. Many of them were told by their dentists that they need to align their teeth in order make it possible to restore their broken- down teeth or replace their missing teeth. Some have even come to us because their improper bites are causing them pain. Okun Orthodontics attracts many adults seeking braces because we have individual treatment rooms for all of our procedures. This enables all of our patients, no matter how young or how old, to have the privacy they deserve at each visit.

What can we do for patients at increased risk for cavities? (This includes both the elderly as well as the young who have difficulty keeping their teeth clean.) We can show you how to clean around the braces with special aids like inter-proximal tooth brushes (mini-bottle brushes for cleaning teeth) and floss- threaders. (We often recommend that you have someone help you clean your teeth if you are not able to clean them well by yourself.) We also can provide you with MI Paste- a dentist supplied topical crème with calcium phosphate and fluoride that can strengthen your teeth and decrease your cavity-risk. Of course, we also recommend that you get more frequent dental cleanings so that both the gum disease and cavities are minimized.

Chewing Gum - What's the story?

We know the rumors going around – that once you swallow a piece of chewing gum it will stake a claim and take up residency in your stomach for at least seven years! We really hate to take all the fun out of the mystery, but the truth is that chewing gum, when swallowed, will enter the stomach and move through the digestive system just like any other piece of food and leave the body long before seven years! So, if you ever have accidentally swallowed a piece of gum, there is no need to worry!

This being said, gum does not have any dietary benefits, so while it’s not harmful to swallow, you still want to avoid swallowing it. If you are a gum-chewer, make sure you chew sugarless gum, because gum with sugar can lead to cavities. Sugarless gum still has the same amount of flavor, but with less cavity causing ingredients. You see, when the bacterium in your mouth breaks down sugar, what’s left behind is acid. This acid eats away at the enamel coating of your teeth, causing holes that we call cavities. Cavities can lead to other long term mouth problems if they are not treated in time, so it is best to try and avoid overexposing your teeth to too many harmful substances!

Happy (sugar-free) gum chewing!