Dental/ Oral Health Los Angeles

Your oral health is more important than you might realize. Get the facts about how the health of your mouth, teeth and gums can affect your general health from Dr. A. J. Boyajian. With over 20 years experience, he has been focused on patient health that goes beyond just fixing a tooth problem.

Dental Occlusal Analysis

“Occlusal” is basically a fancy, dental-scientific word for “bite.” I have mentioned occlusal (bite) analysis in an earlier post, but if you don’t remember it, I shall reiterate:

Occlusal analysis takes a look at your bite, your entire chewing system, comprehensively observing, recording, and adjusting small areas where your bite can reach its full effective, comfortable, and long-lasting potential. This approach — analyzing the whole mouth, jaw, teeth, and their movements — is far superior to adjusting each individual tooth. Adjusting the individual teeth can lead to painful jaw malfunctions and TMJ disorders over time because of prolonged crooked movement (slight though it may be) and repetitive clenching or grinding.

Does your dentist give occlusal analyses? Should you go in for one?

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

 

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Dental Injuries & Treatment

Ouch! This topic may not be so pleasant to visualize. But harm does come to folks’ teeth all too often, maybe because of a car accident, a sports or recreational accident, or some other dreadful mishap. Children are most apt to suffer much damage because of their activity levels and still-developing mouth.

When I say tooth damage, this does not always refer to the visible damage you might see on the surface (the crowns), such as an obviously chipped or broken tooth. A significant amount goes on beneath what can be seen without x-rays or probing about. If an injury causes a tooth to move from its original position, the tooth’s pulp (nerves, blood vessels, etc.), dentin, and the surrounding bone and gums could very well be damaged as well, and that’s where things can get tricky and painful.

We will cover a few kinds of injuries and how they may be fixed over the next few days.

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

You, Your Bite and Occlusal Disease

Occlusal disease is the fancy name for “bite disease”. What? How does one’s bite become diseased, you ask? Well, there are three types of bad things that can happen to your teeth: decay (cavities), gum disease, and bite disease. We’ve discussed the first two, so here goes occlusal (bite) disease.

Occlusal disease is the condition where your bite — the way your teeth come down onto each other — is uneven, crooked, or misaligned. You may not be able to bite down all the way or chew thoroughly, and your jaw muscles must work harder for these simple tasks. Because of the unevenness, some teeth are worn down faster than others, and further wearing, breaking, or chipping of teeth may occur. The extra work on the jaw muscles also causes pain all around the jaw, mouth, head, and neck. “Aging” teeth may not be aging at all — the wear and tear is because of a bite problem long left untreated. It’s a mess!

Occlusal disease is often hard to spot. Unlike cavities or gum disease, it’s not always visually apparent. What may appear to be a randomly broken tooth could be a more severe underlying problem… and fixing just that one tooth is not going to help if the whole jaw is misaligned.

Dentists trained at The Pankey Institute develop the eyes for recognizing bite problems, making it less of a mystery to solve if one finds himself suffering the symptoms. Much research goes into fixing the problem; casts and models of your teeth are made so the dentist can see where the problem lies and how it can be adjusted (bite analysis). Occlusal disease also ties directly into bioesthetic dentistry and treating TMJ disorders. A simple, non-surgical tweaking of the muscles (most often used with a MAGO, or mouthguard-looking splint that helps “train” the muscles to realign in the correct positions) may very well be the solution to chewing food without harming your skull, and preserving functional, straight teeth well into your later years.

 

Further Insight On Gum Disease

When we check for signs of gum disease, we use a thin, tiny ruler to measure the depth of these “gaps”, or “pockets”, along your gumline. This can give us an idea of how well your teeth and gums are doing healthwise. Healthy gums and healthy teeth have pockets that measure at 3mm or less, which is equal to slightly less than 1/8 in. However, at around 3mm, early stages of gingivitis (fancy name for the first progression of full-on gum disease) may appear: the swelling, redness, and sensitivity of gums may start becoming a bother. From there, the pocket deepens as the infection grows, slowly separating the tooth from the gum tissue. This is how the tooth becomes loose or how it eventually falls out; the tooth’s root is in serious danger!

Another thing to consider is that these acidic bacteria and their acidic waste (yes, their waste, as in feces!) can become trapped in this pocket between tooth and gums. The gums, most likely, are already pretty swollen, so any deep-cleaning is painful to begin with, which leaves the bacteria to continue multiplying and rotting your tooth. Getting an ozone cleaning will help out with this a little bit, but it’s always the price to pay for poor oral hygiene habits (…or the lack thereof).

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

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Utilizing Ozone in Dental Implant Surgery

See how many great uses ozone has in the office? And, behold! Another one! Ozone is great for every dental surgery, including dental implant surgery.

Implants are used to replace teeth that have been lost or extracted, possibly due to disease or injury. A new “root” is drilled directly through the gums into the upper or lower jaw bone (depending on where the implant is needed) and is secured there. This new “root” will serve as the anchor for an artificial replacement tooth.

As usual, it is important to keep the area sterilized while surgery is being performed. Dental implant surgery goes deeper, literally, than each individual tooth. After surgery, there is a healing period where the surrounding bone and gums must be monitored to ensure that the new teeth are properly integrated into healthy oral function (this includes avoiding gum recession, for example, or infections in the mandible). Ozone is wonderful because it sterilizes more effectively and safely than traditional chemical sterilizers; not only this, but it also stimulates healthy gum healing and helps infuse the bone structure with strengthening minerals.

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

How Ozone Therapy Lessens Dental Pain

If you have been treated with ozone therapy before, possibly during your own root canal or periodontitis treatment, did you notice any difference in how painful the process was… or wasn’t?  Ozone actually contains pain-alleviating properties; so instead of a chemical sterilizer (which might cause additional pain to the procedure, or even spark an allergic reaction in the patient), ozone actually gives a slight soothing, clean feeling to the area because of its natural healing qualities. This makes ozone therapy ideal for treating painful afflictions such as canker sores, abscesses, and other disease/wounds. Quick healing ensues, which saves yet another need for prolonged painkiller use!

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

How Ozone Promotes Speedy Dental Recoveries

Because ozone is so effective in destroying vast amounts of bacteria and germs so quickly, one may look forward to a quick recovery from an ozone-assisted therapy or rehabilitation. The bacteria are virtually nonexistent during treatment, and for a while thereafter. They therefore cannot multiply and spread as fast as they could originally. Also, because these bacteria are not present, the body’s natural immune system is given its chance to shine and “focus” on healing the battle wounds instead of constantly fighting the losing battle.

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

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Benefits of Using Ozone in Holistic Dentistry

Last fall, I was told that using ozone in my dentistry would bring major changes to my practice; more convenience, less occupied office space, and a one-solution-works-for-all ease of use really has upped our efficiency and, yes, quality, too, of dentistry. For one, you may look forward to a quicker visit. Ozone, in the gas form, can reach into the tiniest cracks and crannies in your tooth, and cleanliness is guaranteed during your root canal or gum disease treatment.

Also, this high sterilization, unlike drugs, medications, or other harmful ways of destroying bad bacteria in your mouth (AND the good bacteria, for that matter), is completely side-effect-free, causes no allergic reactions, and works at the same level of powerful decontamination for every single person.

Ozone is particularly wonderful in that it maintains aesthetic qualities; it does not damage any tooth surfaces, other hard tissues, or soft tissues. Past methods of removing an infected area of tooth included actually removing the bacteria-laden tooth structure itself with lasers, drills, air abrasion, etc., to remove the bacteria! Practicing holistic dentistry and restoring teeth with minimal invasion of the natural structure, ozone works great for us. It almost “washes out” the infection with no deterioration, damage, or discomfort.

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

Ozone and Periodontal Disease

I just went over how ozone is beneficial to the root canal therapy procedure, but it definitely doesn’t stop there. Ozone’s uses for treating periodontal disease (a.k.a. gum disease) are numerous as well.

Periodontal disease can develop as a result of a number of causes, one of them most commonly being a simple lack of thorough and committed brushing and flossing of teeth. Other causes, such as tooth damage, injury, bad habits (smoking, tobacco, junk food, etc.), or another present disease. Symptoms of periodontal disease and gum recession might even be an allergic reaction to a certain food, substance, or medication; but that is something that should be looked into by your physician. The symptoms of gum disease might range from mere gum soreness or inflammation to severe deterioration of hard and soft tissues in and around the mouth. If left untreated, it can lead to tooth loss.

There are a few options for treatment, depending on the severity of the case: a deep-cleaning or surgery. Both require absolute sterility to be successful and to heal properly, and, of course, this is where ozone is again put to work. Ozone attacks and eliminates the bacteria and infectious organisms, providing successful treatment and a healthy environment for quick healing. Ozone is safe for the whole body and leaves no side effects or allergic reactions like medications or drugs do.

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

Ozone and Root Canals

I wrote not too long ago about the uses of ozone in root canal therapy. After the cavity has progressed too far and affects the tooth’s root, nerves (that’s the “ouch” factor), and sensitive life-giving anatomy, a root canal is required to clean out and seal off the damage. The highest level of sterilization is crucial to a successful root canal, as you are permanently sealing off the tooth and preserving its strength for the rest of your life.

Ozone makes the sterilization job easy… using ozone gas or ozonated water, we can continuously “wash off” the tooth being operated on in a safe, drug-less, bacteria/germ-free environment. Ozone even speeds up the process, providing us with health benefits enough to quicken healing and recovery. Less pain is experienced, and it will not cause any side effects.

But, still, brush and floss your teeth consistently so you can avoid cavities and the whole root canal scenario in the first place…

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com