Three things that can cause your Teeth to wear prematurely

Seems like the last few years, we are seeing more and more extreme wear of people's teeth, and a lot of times the patients are young, even in their twenties or thirties.  The wear can be extreme, even damaging, and the wear can be painful, making the teeth sensitive as well as making the smile look bad! This photo is of a 40 something year old man, and he has worn his teeth down to where he was having a constant sore tongue from the sharp surfaces of the worn teeth. His lower front teeth were simply slicing the upper  front teeth on the wrong side.

Why does something like this happen? What are the factors that trigger this?

There are Three Major factors:

1. Sleep apnea- interestingly enough, is a major cause of wear, through sleep bruxism, where the person is awakening many times during the night, and often when this happens, they grind or clash their teeth together. One of the first things I check today when I see a patient with extreme wear is their sleep status.  There isn't any reason to put new restorations in a mouth if the patient is going to just keep wearing them away!

2. Acid Drinks- this is more of a problem with young people- teenagers and twenty- somethings, but at any age, drinking soft drinks or sport drinks that have a low ph, not only will make their decay incidence much higher, but can actually dissolve and soften the enamel in their teeth. If you combine that with vigorous gum chewing, you can see an incredible amount of wear in a very short time! All soft drinks and most sports drinks have a low ph! Water and tea are your best bets!

3. Occlusal reasons- other than sleep apnea and sleep disturbance concerns, many people just grind their teeth at night anyway, for all sorts of reasons. Young children grind their teeth very often when their permanent teeth are coming in, and many people seem to grind when they are feeling stress. Not only does this grinding and clenching trigger headaches and sore jaw joints, but it wears the teeth away. Sometimes is it do to bad tooth position, and sometimes to bad jaw positions, but that is why we do the thorough examination.

So, what do we do to treat teeth with wear?

1. First of all, we typically get a sleep study done to see if Sleep Apnea is a concern. We certainly might uncover a life threatening problem, as well as be able to help solve a dental problem. 

2. After we do a very thorough examination, we talk with the patient to see if they can be okay staying where they are, and just not damaging their teeth any further, in which case we can make a protective splint. If their teeth are too worn, we have to figure out a bite position that will allow us to  a long lasting correction of their smile, and then make them a night splint to protect their new teeth!

THE KEY IS PREVENTION

It is always a lot easier to prevent damage than to fix it, so when we find someone in the early stages of a tooth wear pattern, we want to get them diagnosed and in the appropriate treatment, before they have damaged their mouths so badly that it will take major dental treatment to get their mouths back in shape.

Typically, if it is early enough, we can combine a bite splint with some remineralizing toothpaste to harden the enamel and to prevent further damage. And of course, the patient has to stop the habits that might be causing the problems to begin with.

In any light, the problem of excessive tooth wear can be a painful and expensive malady, and the earlier you pay attention to it, the less treatment will need to be done, and you can save a lot of money!

As always, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to call or email me at riccoker@gmail.com!

Have a great day!

Dr. C

Cosmetic Dentistry, is it time for you?

"It's time for me!"

It seems like that I hear those four words a lot these days. Many times it is either a woman who has raised her family, and kept the home together for many years, and finally realizes that she would like to feel better about her smile, and her appearance.  Sometimes it is a man who has been working intensely at his profession for decades, and now just doesn't like the way his mouth feels or his smile looks!

What should a person do when they feel that it is their time?  I feel that the most important thing is to really start thinking of what are the most important issues they have, what bothers them the most. Here are the things I hear the most from people over 50:
   1. Tooth color. "My teeth are dark and yellow"
   2. Uneven color- many times there are crowns and tooth colored fillings that stick out, and the color is just all wrong.
   3. Wear- lots of us grind our teeth, and doing that for many years will often cause excess wear, and shortening of the front teeth, making them look too short, and the smile hardly shows unless the person pulls the lips way back, in an exaggerated smile. Often one or two teeth will be more worn than others, too.
   4. Uneven gumlines. Often, the gums may shrink back around some teeth more than others, and that makes some teeth look a lot longer than others. The eye likes things to be symmetrical and even.

Well, the next thing you do, once you know what you have issues with, is to call your local cosmetic dentist! And ask for some time to explain your issues and decide whether this office is going to be right for you! You are interviewing the dental office, in other words, because it is your choice to do that!

When you find an office where you are comfortable, your next step will be a very thorough examination, where ever single aspect of your bite (finding out why you were grinding your teeth, etc), your gum and bone conditions, the status of all the fillings and crowns, just to name a few of the things that are examined. Once that is done, it is very important that you understand all your options and to be sufficiently informed to make a decision that will make you happy for the long haul!

Having cosmetic dentistry done is much different than regular dental care,  the patient has the opportunity to get what they want to a great extent, and the best results come as part of a team effort, between the patient, the doctor and the dental team. It is a fun thing to be involved with, and so gratifying to be part of making people happy with their decision and their smile. Indeed, it was "Time for me!"

Your Smile- your best fashion accessory!

The older I get, the more I am convinced that most people really want to be attractive to others, hence all the cosmetic procedures that people have these days. I know so many women who are getting surgery, or botox, or fillers, or cosmetic dentistry, and yet they are ignoring the single most important thing they can do to attract others!

That single most important thing is to actually SMILE! The action of smiling is a lot more important that how the teeth look, or how many wrinkles there are, or if the neck is getting a little saggy. If I am walking up to say hello, I will look at you and see your smile, your eyes, your welcome, long before I see any crow's feet or fine lines. So many women are beautiful when they smile, and yet when they frown or look serious, they just look older and despondent!

There are lots of studies that show when a person smiles, their own attitude and mood lifts, and that the person is often better off, no matter what anybody else actually thinks! Do you think it is a coincidence that most advertising shows pretty people smiling? It lifts the moods of two people- the smile sender and the smile receiver!

So, my blog is about making the decision to smile, and smile frequently. If you don't like your smile, it can be fixed, but it is more important that you are smiling than whether one tooth is turned or discolored or anything! If you want to look good, SMILE!