All Your Adult Teeth Should Fit in our Mouths?

I wrote a post on pericoronitis some time ago, and it remains the most popular post on this blog.

I’m going to pose a new concept for many readers:  Did you know that all of our adult teeth are supposed to fit in our mouths? And did you know that the reason they don’t is because of nutritional deficiencies starting from the time of conception in the womb and carrying on into a child’s adolescence? Crowded, crooked, and impacted teeth are a result of underdeveloped skull, facial, and palate structure. The exact causes behind an underdeveloped skull and skeleton are details for another post, maybe a different blog entirely, or you can overwhelm yourself with incredible information on this site or in this book. However, although other factors contribute, you can be sure that diet plays the leading role in determining both short- and long-term tooth and bone health.

That being said, if we and our mothers all had perfect diets, pericoronitis would be a rare infection. But it is not. Pericoronitis is ubiquitous nowadays because the health of our society has swiftly deteriorated in the last century, thus wisdom teeth have no room to grow straight or emerge quickly in our small skulls and narrow palates. It’s too bad that the time for prevention and healthy bone development is long past by the time wisdom teeth start coming in for most people. Invasive surgeries and removals are not only normal, but expected.

Since wisdom teeth typically grow in crookedly, large pockets between the tooth and gums form as the tooth erupts slowly, partially, or in the wrong direction. These pockets are hard to see and reach for cleaning. They are perfect breeding grounds for infection if malignant bacteria find their way to the area and set up camp. The infection feels more serious than it really is, but it should be monitored because it could easily spread and become a sincere threat to your immune system (although the pain is almost always enough to get your attention). It can last for about two weeks, give or take. The minute your gums feel sore in the area is the minute you need to find a sink, an irrigator, and hydrogen peroxide. A clean mouth and a steady intake of probiotics are essential for overcoming this miserable form of gum disease.

Anyone out there suffering from it right now? My next post will go over some of the more useful, natural ways to soothe the pain and help your body fight the infection.

 

Why Conventional Dental Products Can be Bad for You

We Americans tend to take our high standards of hygiene and the available hygienic products for granted. Think about it. Compared to the rest of the world, we are pampered with so many different commercial concoctions to keep ourselves tidy and smelling fresh. It defines our culture. We are dirty and unrespectable if we don’t use these chemicals to de-grease, de-hair, de-plaque, or deodorize our bodies.

The toothbrush aisle is quite a sight nowadays. As a lover of simplicity, I often question these kinds of presentations. Do we really need 30 different types of floss? 100 different toothpastes? endless “new and improved” toothbrush designs? Why is there still a need (at least they give us the impression of “need”) for newer, better, stronger products?

It is true that different people have different needs, different wallet sizes, different preferences, etc. I understand there is no one-size-fits-all. But I think we are spoiled.

What also bothers me is that we are “spoiled” with these things that are not good for our health.

Conventional dentistry fixes you up just enough so that for a while your teeth seem to work fine, but eventually a new problem will crop up and you’ll eventually need to go back. You are still dependent. That’s what keeps us dentists in business.

The Philosoraptor can be clever sometimes.

I try to play it safe by supplying more natural dental hygiene products to my patients. We shouldn’t have to rely on foreign chemicals and substances when caring for basic hygiene. Those with poor dental health should take a look at the root of the problem — the health of the body and gut — instead of falling for the newest commercial product. For a truly lasting effect, your oral and dental health rely on your overall health, not tubes of minty who-knows-what.

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

LANAP Dental Laser Protocol

LANAP stands for Laser-Assisted New Attachment Procedure. It is a special protocol taken when treating patients with a dental laser. The LANAP method is designed not only so the need to cut into tissue is eliminated, but also so it biostimulates the body’s regenerative properties so that healing is quicker and completely natural. Dental lasers are mostly used for treating varying stages of gum disease, but can be applied to other procedures as well, such as implants or anything involving soft tissue.

Traditional invasive cutting, reshaping, and suturing when treating severe gum disease causes a lot of pain, bleeding, and slow healing. Treatment with a dental laser is gentle enough that it may allow you to go back to work the very next day! Lasers in dentistry are about as cutting-edge (pun intended) as technology gets right now, and the results are extremely satisfying for patients.

This video is a quick demonstration of the LANAP gum disease treatment process. It is animated, so the squeamish in the audience need not fear any gore. Seeing how it works will help you understand what goes on beneath the gums where you can’t see, and also why it is so important to proactively keep your teeth clean and healthy.

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

Dental Care While Pregnant or Breastfeeding, Pt. 1

In a world slightly more health-conscious than the current one, women of childbearing age would spend their young years pursuing good physical health in preparation for future pregnancy. Thankfully, there is a growing movement among younger generations towards taking a more natural approach to health, diet, and medicine. However, bad health, bad habits, and bad food choices are still much more prevalent than good, which is already setting the foundation for our children, our children’s children, and so forth. It could be a long time, if ever, before the majority of society is thriving on good health and vitality.

It seems that taking one or two health classes as a middle or high school requirement is nowhere near enough to get young people thinking about their potential futures as parents. But preparation before conception (i.e. the early, “irresponsible” years) is what makes for healthy pregnancies, healthy babies, and healthy future generations. Many pregnancies turn out fine once the mother is aware and is following guidelines set by her doctor. However, many do not turn out fine — an increasing number, sadly. And even those who do might suffer later from certain deficiencies or susceptibility to many diseases.

Now back to what’s relevant to this blog. Because most moms-to-be are already in a state of malnourishment in one form or another (awful symptoms are only indications of mom’s nutritional deficiencies which could have been around since her own conception), this is reflected in her oral health as well. Remember, your teeth and gums are part of your entire body. They are not isolated from the effects of poor nutrition, and no amount of cleaning and surgery can undo or prevent those effects.

Back to the perfect world:  Ideally, from conception we would have been fed the best of nutrients from our mothers in utero; been raised through infancy on nutrient-dense breastmilk containing the best qualities of mom’s mindful, nourishing diet; and then raised through childhood and adolescence on real food, regular physical activity, and plenty of sunshine. This is what sets the stage for strong fertility and hormone function in the future.

But this is not the case for most of us. We have sickness and disease and infections, and they must be treated. The mouth is no exception. Hormonal disruption caused by pregnancy, as many people know, can also cause increased oral sensitivity and inflammation. At least one dental visit during pregnancy is recommended, but more may be required if a woman is having an especially difficult time handling painful and/or bleeding gums, cavities, canker sores, or maybe something more severe.

Usually these problems can be cleared up with a dentist’s help after a good cleaning and examination, and also if the woman takes good care of herself regularly at home. But things get a little more complicated in the medical/dental world when a lady is pregnant or breastfeeding. She should not be exposed to most chemicals and drugs that are used nowadays for treatment, for she has another fragile life to sustain who can be greatly affected for the worse by these things.

Since I don’t want to talk your ears (eyes?) off, I’ll go into more details about these drugs and chemicals and what is or isn’t safe for pregnant/breastfeeding moms in part two.

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

Dental hygiene and Irrigation

I am stating the obvious when I say that the Internet is the foremost consulted source of knowledge and answers to the world’s questions. We do it without thinking. Where was the transition, and why, in retrospect, does it feel like it happened without us noticing? Once upon a time, there was no cyberspace, no “online,”no instant mental gratification (unless you lived next-door to a library). What did we do all day? How did we work? As a dentist highly reliant on the latest technology available, the Internet has become a part of the skeleton of my practice. Without it, my practice would have fizzled out long ago in this fast-paced world.

But I do not mean to get all philosophical with you today. Today’s post just got me partly reminiscing about days gone by when society was more “awake” to the physical world around it, but also causing me to express gratitude in how much computers have transformed science and medicine and my own work.

In the online world of patients searching for solutions for their dental diseases and ails, oral irrigation has been quite a popular topic lately. I must say it’s for good reason. It is one of the best at-home dental hygiene routines you can maintain at home.

Pericoronitis, in particular, seems to be the central purpose for which people seek healing and relief through irrigation. Pericoronitis, if you remember, is an infection which develops under a gum flap of emerging teeth — usually the wisdom teeth of young adults. It is caused by the body defending itself from a foreign invader, which is usually an overabundance of bacteria feeding on a particle of uncleaned food. The pain is quite severe. The infection will remain swollen for up to several days or a few weeks. Even someone in good health has a tough time kicking this infection in less time, which is why it is so important to prevent it in the first place. Irrigation does just that, and it does it very well.

In those hard-to-reach areas around your teeth — and there are many — an oral irrigator shoots thin streams of water, ozone water, or diluted oral cleansing solutions, gently forcing out the debris that is not supposed to be there. Finely squirted liquid crawls into the places that floss can’t reach, effectively cleansing and leaving the mouth refreshed. How does this help healing and preventing infections? We’ll look into that tomorrow.

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

Holistic Treatment Important for Dental Injury

Holistic treatment is especially useful when treating dental injuries. Preserving as much of the natural structure of a tooth as possible is already priority; therefore, it becomes a matter similar to any other day’s objective: restore the tooth with minimal invasion, and allow clean healing so that the tooth’s natural strength and function is reinforced.

Dental injuries can happen in countless ways: car accidents, falls, sports accidents, work accidents, etc. Even rough-housing children commonly get their teeth whacked on, as I’m sure many frazzled mothers have dealt with. Hopefully those children haven’t had their adult teeth come in yet; if not, their baby teeth do not require the kind of work that adult teeth do because they will be falling out anyway. Of course, the area should be monitored over the years by the dentist. Always make sure you’ve got his stamp of approval. Their baby teeth are not as valuable as their adult teeth, but monitoring is definitely advised so any injuries do not impede or interfere with the adult tooth development and emergence.

Unfortunately, matters are usually more urgent and painful when dealing with an injury. It is also unfortunate that, when injured, a patient completely loses control over the condition of his teeth. Suddenly, serious damage has been done, and he needs an emergency appointment to determine the immediate fate of his dental health. It is a big difference from the day-to-day control he has (and probably takes for granted — take heed!) over his oral hygiene regimen that ultimately determines the general condition of his teeth.

The anticipation of injury, while not a very happy thought, is also a good reason to ensure that your dental and general physical health is good so the foundation for a healthy, strong recovery has already been set.

 

Irrigating and Rinsing for Pericoronitis

Irrigators are particularly useful for cleaning wisdom teeth. Wisdom teeth, because they are so far back in the mouth, are hard to see, let alone reach or clean well. The area surrounding them is especially prone to gum infections because, when wisdom teeth are emerging (or haven’t emerged properly), the gums are “in limbo” — not fully shrunken and tightened around the still-emerging third molars — and are usually full of loose pockets that trap all kinds of food and bacteria. When this area gets infected, pericoronitis develops.

Pericoronitis is somewhat similar to gingivitis, except it is specifically centered around one or more wisdom teeth. Unfortunately, it is quite common and is very painful. The symptoms of pericoronitis include redness and swelling in the area, pain, jaw stiffness, slight discharge, bad taste, and swollen lymph nodes in the neck. If left to itself, the infection will spread and become more serious.

Depending on the state of the wisdom tooth’s development and how well it is frequently cleaned, pericoronitis may or may not be a recurring infection. Those with unhealthy diets and poor hygienic habits will be more prone to the infection than those who stay on top of their physical health and daily thorough oral hygiene.

If you are one of many unfortunate battlers against pericoronitis, it is important to remember that cleanliness is priority. The two best recommendations I can make for healing would be frequent irrigation and rinsing. In my office, we could zap it out pretty quickly with ozone gas and a dental laser.

At home, as soon as you start feeling pain and swollenness in the area around the tooth, you need to immediately begin flushing it out with an oral irrigator several times a day (certainly after each meal). I can supply ozonated water to irrigate with, but hydrogen peroxide (don’t swallow!) and a bit of baking soda also work well. Be sure the tip of the irrigator reaches down under the gums in the swollen area. It will be uncomfortable, but if you nip it in the bud, you’ll save yourself far more severe pain down the road.

Along with frequent irrigation, you can also rinse your mouth during the day with a baking soda solution. You only need a pinch (1/8 tsp or less) per mouthful of warm water. This will provide some relief as the infection heals and help keep the rest of your mouth clean.

Brushing and flossing should be done after every meal — which should also consist of healthy foods — if it is not too painful to eat in the first place. Some find that temporarily resorting to liquid foods only (such as homemade smoothies and soups) causes less discomfort and keeps the mouth cleaner. Increasing superfoods to help your immune system along is a good idea.

Following these steps, the infection should resolve itself in a week or two. Yes, an entire week… or two! Keep your wisdom teeth sparkling — pericoronitis is not a pleasant experience that resolves itself overnight!

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

Irrigating Infections Away

Inflammation, redness, and painful swelling of the gums are unfortunate complaints among the general public. Gingivitis — the name for this inflammation of the gums — is most often caused by teeth and gums that are not cleaned thoroughly. The bad bacteria get out of control and cause pain. One might experience just a little bleeding or sensitivity when flossing, or a mouth so swollen it becomes too painful to eat. It is a vicious cycle: a small infection produces pain, which begets difficulty to clean, which begets more infection, which begets more pain…

Yes, it is definitely something you want to avoid. If you have frequent “sore spots,” you may need to reevaluate how effective your at-home cleaning routine is. It is good to pay attention to how your gums are doing every day and to be very thorough about cleaning them out, even if it hurts a little. It is better to deal with a little pain now than unbearable pain in the future.

Sometimes, though, regular hygiene at home isn’t enough. In most cases, if gingivitis has developed into a more serious problem, patients on their own can heal from diligent care at home using an irrigator. Daily irrigation gently keeps the gums cleaned out and restores the proper environment for healing. Patients who suffer from mild to severe gum disease report that their gums gradually heal, shrink up against the teeth, return to a normal pink color, and are able to function normally again because the inflammation is greatly reduced. Not to mention, the need for chemicals and drugs is greatly reduced, if not eliminated. Oral irrigation is highly recommended for healing infections, particularly early gum disease or any inflammation around the teeth.

Whether or not you are prone to gum disease, if you do not have an oral irrigator, we recommend you look into investing in one. Not only will your teeth be so much healthier and low-maintenance, but you will save headaches and money for dental expenses in the long run.

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

Oral Irrigators and Oral Irrigation

Oral irrigators are one of the most valuable tools you could keep near the bathroom sink. An oral irrigator “flosses” your teeth with liquid, cleaning the deeper or more sensitive areas that floss can’t reach. It does not replace floss, but adds to its effectiveness. Cleaning out the pockets between your gums and teeth is the most important step you take to keep your mouth clean. Flossing catches the larger, stickier chunks of plaque that build up in your gums and around your teeth; irrigation deeply washes out anything that the floss misses — and you’d be surprised at how much debris is still rotting in your gums even after a “thorough” brushing/flossing!

Oral irrigators can be used with plain water — we use ozonated water — but special mouthwash-like liquid concentrates are also made for them that can be used at home. We have chosen a supplying company that makes 100% natural, chemical-free concentrates that taste great and do a great job of keeping bad bacteria at bay. Ask us about ordering some if you’d like to try it.

Irrigation should be done about once daily. A good time would be before you go to bed. You are done eating for the day and will want to clean your teeth before sleeping and leaving any food particles to sit in your mouth overnight. Like flossing, after a little while you’ll be able to see and feel a difference in your teeth after irrigating. Your gums become stronger and healthier and your teeth stay whiter. Irrigation is excellent, also, for healing from minor infections and early gum disease. But that post is for tomorrow.

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

Sedation for Routine Cleaning

If you have never been to our office, whether for a routine cleaning or for oral disease treatment, you’ll find that holistic methods do not make the experience very different from a conventional office visit. For those of you who are absolutely terrified or loathe to go to the dentist, that probably doesn’t do much for you (though we do have other options that might appeal to you). But you should actually be aware that — for a routine cleaning and checkup, for example — our standard protocol calls for things that might bring you more comfort, security, and satisfaction with your visit.

If you are due for x-rays, we will do those for you quickly and as comfortably as possible. Each room has a big screen where you can instantly see the digital x-ray images taken of your teeth. We’ll discuss any potential problems if they appear. Every few visits we will also probe your teeth to measure the gaps or pockets between your teeth and gums. The smaller the gap, the better. You want your gums to be nice and snug against your teeth because that indicates there is no good place for bacteria to grow and cause infection. Deeper pockets indicate spots that are probably hard to clean, and therefore may be an infection waiting to happen. We will give you advice steering you in the direction you should take to help those gaps close up, also considering any pain or inflammation you may be experiencing.

Then the hygienist will perform the cleaning, polishing, and flossing. The better you take care of your teeth by daily brushing and flossing at home, the speedier this part will be. We always finish off the cleaning with a quick ozone irrigation. Oral irrigation is the best part. If you’ve never heard of it, it is basically “flossing” with water or whatever liquid* you put in the machine reservoir. In our office, we use ozone water. The ozone effectively kills off any remaining bacteria released during cleaning, and also brings a cool, soothing sensation that will leave you feeling refreshed.

After that, I will check for cavities or other problems; if none are found, you’ll be sent on your way with some restocked dental care supplies and a bright smile.

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

*I’ll give you some more information on oral irrigators in the next post.