1. What is a mouthguard? A mouthguard or mouth protector is a protective appliance that covers the teeth and gums to prevent or reduce injury to the teeth, gums, jaws, and lips during sports or other activities prone to injuries.
2. Who should use a mouthguard? Children, adolescents or even adults who participate in contact or injury prone sports should use a mouthguard.
3. What do you mean by contact sports? Mouthguards are used most commonly in sports such as boxing, football, hockey and lacrosse. The American Dental Association recommends protection for 27 different sports, including basketball, soccer, water polo, rugby and more. The governing bodies of football, boxing, ice hockey, men's lacrosse and women's field hockey require mouth protection. It's a good idea to use a mouthguard during any activity that could result in a blow to the face or mouth.
4. What does the mouthguard protect against? A mouthguard protects against breaking or dislodging teeth or injuring jaws, gums, lips, or tongue, all injuries that can happen when you engage in contact or injury prone sports.
5. What are my choices for mouthguards? The best choice is a custom-made mouthguard fitted and made by a dentist. Stock mouthguards that are one size fits all can be bought off-the-shelf in stores, but there is no guarantee of fit or protection. A third type is a “boil and bite” guard, in which the guard material is heated and then shaped by biting down on the softened material. This offers some attempt at fitting that is better than off-the-shelf, but not as good as a mouthguard that is designed specifically for you.
6. Why is it better to get a mouthguard from our office than to buy one at a store? Studies have shown that store-bought stock or boil-and-bite mouthguards do not offer the same protection as a custom-made mouthguard. In our office we will make a mold of your mouth and design your mouthguard to fit your individual characteristics. It will be comfortable and easy to clean and will not restrict your speech or breathing. It will be made of resilient and tear-resistant materials, properly adapted for maximum protection, comfort and injury protection.

Wearing a properly fitted and properly used mouthguard prevents injuries to teeth, jaws, gums, lips, or tongue when you or your child participates in contact sports. Make an appointment with us to discuss your custom fitted mouthguard. To learn more read the Dear Doctor magazine article “Mouthguards.”

Oral cancer accounts for approximately 3% of cancers in men and 2% in women. That may not sound like a lot, but the disease often isn't detected until it has progressed to its later stages when it's harder to treat and the outlook for survival is significantly diminished.

The main areas where oral carcinomas (cancers) occur are:

• the tongue (most common location, particularly the sides and underneath)
• the lip (especially the lower one),
• the oral cavity (the mouth), and
• the pharynx (back of mouth and throat).

Risk Factors You Can't Control

Even if you can't change these risks, awareness helps raise your vigilance in order to catch potential problems early when treatment options and positive outcomes are greatest.

• Heredity
• Aging — More than 90% of all oral cancers occur in individuals over 40. However, the incidence among younger people has been on the uptick recently, perhaps related to lifestyle behaviors.
• Race — African Americans have a higher incidence of oral cancer than Caucasians.

Risk Factors You Can Address

• Smoking and chewing tobacco — Smokers are at five to nine times greater risk and snuff and tobacco chewers at about four times greater risk
• Alcohol — Moderate to heavy drinkers are at three to nine times greater risk; the higher the alcohol content, the greater the risk
• Chronic sun exposure — Often connected with lip cancers.
• Viral infections — Namely the human papilloma virus “HPV 16,” which has been linked to sexual transmission (oral sex) and cervical cancer in women.

One way you can address these risk factors is to have a diet rich in fruits/vegetables, which are high in antioxidants because they been found to have a protective effect against a variety of cancers, including oral.

As part of your routine oral hygiene, you should be closely monitoring any non-healing changes in your mouth (e.g., ulcers or sores, white or red patches on the tongue). And rest assured that as part of your regular check-ups, our office performs a comprehensive visual screening for signs of oral cancer.

If you would like more information about oral cancer prevention and detection, please contact us or schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can also learn more about this topic by reading the Dear Doctor magazine articles “Oral Cancer” and “Diet and Prevention of Oral Cancer.”

It may alarm some people, but finger or thumb sucking is a completely normal activity for babies and young children. In fact, sonograms often reveal babies sucking a finger or thumb while still in the womb! However, if children are allowed to suck fingers, thumbs or pacifiers indefinitely, it can become problematic, with serious consequences particularly as they get older.

The list below contains important facts about thumb sucking and pacifiers that all parents of young infants should know.

• The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry recommends that parents and caregivers encourage children to stop thumb sucking by age 3.
• Recent studies have shown that pacifier use after the age of two may cause long-term changes in the mouth; thus these researchers recommend stopping pacifier use by 18 months.
• If thumb and finger sucking habits do not stop soon enough, the upper front teeth may tip toward the lip or not come into the correct position in the mouth.
• Most children who suck their thumbs or fingers tend to stop between the ages of 2 and 4.
• For obvious reasons, a pacifier habit is often easier to break than a finger or thumb-sucking habit.
• One tip for encouraging older children to stop this habit gradually is to use behavior modification with appropriate rewards given at pre-determined intervals to refrain from using a pacifier, or sucking fingers or a thumb.

Be sure to inform us if any of your children suck their fingers, thumb or a pacifier so that we can begin monitoring their development. Our general recommendation is that you schedule an appointment around your child's first birthday.

Root canal, or endodontic (“endo” – inside; “dont” – tooth) treatment, is often wrongly perceived as a highly unpleasant experience and one that causes tremendous pain. However, the truth is that the procedure actually relieves the pain being caused by an infected and inflamed tooth pulp (inside of the tooth). Advances in dentistry have made treatment virtually pain free and it can be completed relatively quickly, usually in a single visit. Left untreated, infection can spread into the bone immediately around the tooth's root, so prompt attention is the best course of action.

If the term “root canal” still sends shivers down your spine, don't despair. Here is some information that should help put your mind at ease.

• Root canal treatment is necessary when deep decay or trauma has caused the inside (pulp) of the tooth to become inflamed or infected. Symptoms of infection can include sharp pain when biting down, lingering pain after consuming very hot or cold foods, a dull ache and feeling of pressure near the infected tooth, and tender gum tissue surrounding the infected tooth.
• After a local anesthetic is administered to numb the infected tooth and its surrounding area, we will make a small opening on the chewing surface of the tooth. This will allow us to remove dead and dying tissue from the pulp and to then clean and disinfect the root canals. Using small instruments, we will shape the canals and seal them with biocompatible filling materials.
• You may feel slight tenderness at the treated site for a few days, but this is quite manageable and can be relieved with over-the-counter (OTC) non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory pain relievers such as aspirin or ibuprofen. You should refrain from chewing on the treated tooth until your follow-up appointment. A crown or other restoration may be needed to protect the tooth and restore it to full function.

If you think you might be a candidate for a root canal treatment, schedule an appointment as soon as possible. If you would like to learn more about the process of root canal treatment, please read the Dear Doctor magazine article “Common Concerns About Root Canal Treatment.”

Parenthood comes with no manual — if it did it would surely include many essential tips to make your job easier while improving your children's lives. One important fact that surprises many people, is the age you should take your children to the dentist for their first dental appointment, age one. The reason that the age one dental visit is so important is that it establishes the foundation of oral healthcare for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, some parents wrongly assume that because primary teeth “fall out anyway,” they do not need to worry about them. Nothing could be further from the truth!

One problem children may face is Early Childhood Caries (ECC) tooth decay. This is a type of tooth decay that occurs from sucking on a bottle filled with sugary liquids such as formula, juices and fruity drinks for extended periods of time and from a sleep-time bottle. ECC can affect all the primary (baby) teeth in infants soon after they come into the mouth.

Bringing your children into our office for their age one dental visit enables us to establish a friendly, trusting relationship with the whole family while we assess your children's oral health. During this consultation we will identify if the teeth and jaws are developing correctly, whether habits such as sucking on baby bottles are causing tooth decay or if there are other underlying issues that may indicate future problems. And this ounce of prevention often enables us to stop an anticipated problem before it even starts.