Because of the lost bone in your jaw over time, dentures can become loose and not fit properly. When this happens, your dentures begin to rub in places that they didn’t before. This can cause sore areas in your mouth from the improper fit. If left untreated, this can cause inflammation and even infections in the mouth. When your dentures become uncomfortable and begin to rub in your mouth, it’s time to visit your dentist!

Gastrointestinal Problems

When dentures no longer fit snugly in your mouth, you can begin to have problems chewing. Loose or ill-fitting dentures don’t make it easy to chew food. You begin to chew food less thoroughly. When this happens, you can have stomach problems resulting from food that’s not been chewed enough. When your stomach needs to digest these larger food particles, indigestion can result.

Headaches

Your dentures shouldn’t cause you any pain. If you find that your dentures don’t fit the way they used to, you could begin having headaches. The wrong fit can cause your bite to change in addition to your chewing habits. This could create tension in areas where there wasn’t tension before, as your jaw and teeth may be compensating for the ill-fitting dentures. If you begin having dull headaches or earaches, talk to your dentist!

Trouble Speaking

When your dentures just don’t fit right, speaking can feel like a chore. You may mispronounce words or be anxious about your dentures looking askew in your mouth. Our teeth help us to pronounce words correctly and smile with confidence. When your dentures aren’t fitting correctly, you may hide your smile or avoid speaking because of anxiety or fear.

What Can You Do?

If you notice any type of change in your dentures, it’s time for a visit to your dentist! Since people who wear dentures are susceptible to jaw bone loss year after year, it’s inevitable that your dentures will change. The only way to retain your facial structure in addition to your jaw bone after losing teeth is to take advantage of dental implants. Dental implants actually encourage new jaw bone growth and never need to be replaced or changed thanks to their sturdiness and similarity to your natural teeth!

Talk to your dentist about changes in your dentures or the benefits of getting dental implants. You may even be a candidate for all-on- four dental implants, where a denture is adhered to only four dental implants in your mouth rather than getting dental implants to replace all of your teeth. Dentures can be challenging because they change over time—talk to your dentist about what you can do today!

Image courtesy of artur84 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Medications

Certain medications can cause an unpleasant taste in the mouth. If you’re on several different ones, you may have to consult your doctor about which one it could be! Sometimes being on certain medications can cause everything you eat to have an odd or unpleasant taste, while other times, you sense of taste may be inhibited. Medications that can cause an adverse taste in the mouth include: Azelastine (nasal spray), Antabuse (to help with addiction), certain antibiotics, anti-inflammatory, and even chemotherapy drugs.

Tobacco or Alcohol Use

Tobacco products can cause an unpleasant taste in the mouth as well as drinking alcohol, especially if you do these two things regularly. The bad taste in your mouth won’t go away until the root cause is identified. If you use chewing tobacco or smoke, chances are that bad taste in your mouth could be caused by the chemicals in these products. Drinking alcohol could also lead to a chronic bad taste in your mouth. This is because overconsumption of alcohol can lead to production of excess bile by the liver, which can be absorbed into the bloodstream and make its way to your mouth to produce a foul taste. This can also happen when your liver is affected by poor diet and toxins as well.

Infection

An infection in your mouth could be the culprit behind that unpleasant taste. If you’re not brushing and flossing regularly, you’re leaving your mouth susceptible to oral infections that could alter your sense of taste. These infections could include gum disease, tooth decay, cavities, or even abscesses. While brushing and flossing regularly is vital for your oral health, you should also visit your dentist regularly to ensure you’re not experiencing infections such as gum disease or tooth decay. Dentists can often spot the signs of infection long before you experience any symptoms such as chronic bad taste!

Injury

If you’ve had a recent head injury, that bad taste in your mouth could be the result of some nerve damage. Usually people who have experienced a head injury and have bad taste find that it goes away as the body heals itself. Talk with your doctor if you’ve experienced a head injury to see if it could be the cause of that lingering bad taste.

Brushing and flossing may keep your chronic altered sense of taste at bay, but it won’t solve the problem. Talk with your doctor about which of your medications could be causing it, or you may have an infection or be experiencing the effects of using tobacco and alcohol regularly. Solve that bad taste in your mouth by discovering the root cause!

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What Is TMJ?

TMJ is short for temporomandibular joint. This is the joint that is used when we speak and chew. TMJ disorders are a broad range of conditions that affect a person’s ability to open and close their mouth. While many problems can contribute to TMJ disorder, one of the most common is a crooked bite.

What Are the Symptoms of TMJ?

When a person is experiencing a TMJ disorder, many symptoms occur. These include:

– Sound when chewing or speaking

– Pain

– Popping

– Clicking

– Grinding

– The joint itself

– Surrounding face muscles

– Neck

– Difficulty chewing

– Jaw fatigue

– Loss of range of jaw motion

– Grinding teeth

As the condition progresses, other symptoms can appear. For example, grinding may wear teeth unnaturally and result in damage to the teeth. Other long-term TMJ disorder symptoms may be vertigo, tinnitus, ear pain, light sensitivity, and back pain. It is, therefore, important to have a TMJ disorder checked out by a professional, even if you feel you can live with it.

How Can TMJ Dentistry Help Me?

TMJ disorder treatment begins with a thorough examination to determine the cause of the problem. Again, this often goes back to an abnormality in a person’s bite. Because of this, the primary treatment involves correcting the issue with a person’s bite.

Depending on the degree of a person’s TMJ disorder, several forms of treatment may be recommended:

Mouth Guard (or dental splint) – Because a person with TMJ may grind their teeth, a custom fit mouth guard can protect the teeth from unusual wear. While this does not correct the underlying issue, it is an inexpensive way to prevent further damage to the mouth.

Orthodontics – Sometimes, misaligned teeth can cause a person’s bite to be off. If this is the case, orthodontics may be able to correct the issue.

Bite Correction Appliances – In some cases, a person’s bite can be realigned without orthodontics. Specially fit appliances decompress the joint by forcing a person to bite correctly and keeping the tongue properly positioned. Such a device is worn overnight and at times during the day and is used long-term until the pain stops.

TMJ Arthroscopy – In certain situations, a dentist may deem it necessary to perform a minimally-invasive procedure to correct the alignment of the patient’s jaw. It is an outpatient procedure with about a week of recovery time.

Pain Relief – If a patient is in severe pain, NSAIDs, such as ibuprofen, may be prescribed to reduce swelling while the condition is being treated.

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The Effects of Diabetes on Oral Health

When your blood sugar is high on a regular basis, it can have several different effects on the mouth. First of all, diabetes can lead to a dry mouth. When the mouth is dry, bacteria can spread faster. This leads to tooth decay and gum disease. Diabetes can also result in fungal infections in the mouth. These infections feed on sugar.

Early Warning Signs

The following symptoms can tip you off that high blood sugar is starting to take its toll on your oral health:

Inflammation – Before periodontal disease sets in, it is usually preceded by inflamed gums. This inflammation is caused by a buildup of bacteria, plaque, and tartar along the gumline.

Dry Mouth – Your saliva keeps your teeth healthy by washing away bacteria. Unfortunately, high blood sugar dries out the mouth leading to decay.

Thrush – Thrush is a fungal infection of the mouth. Sugar feeds it. When a person’s blood sugar is high, saliva sugar levels are increased as well. It is a sure sign of diabetes that is out of control.

How Dental Health Affects Blood Sugar

Unfortunately, the system can quickly become self-perpetuating. High blood sugar causes infection in the mouth. That infection, in turn, makes it difficult to control blood sugar. Is there anything you can do?

Controlling Your Health from Two Sides

You need to address this issue from both fronts. First, it is important to check your blood sugar regularly, stick to a low or no-sugar diet, and take your diabetes medication according to schedule. Keeping your blood sugar under control will keep your oral health under control.

On the dental side of things, you need to be sure to care well for your teeth and gums. Brush and floss on a regular schedule using the proper techniques. You may need to see your hygienist for a cleaning more often than the recommended six-month intervals to ensure that tartar does not build up. Your dentist can also address infections. Curing these will help you to keep your sugar levels under control.

If you suffer from diabetes, do not resign yourself to lost teeth and oral infections. You can win the battle, and your dentist will help.

The post Are Diabetics More Susceptible to Oral Health Problems? appeared first on Your Dental Health Resource.

1. Apples – An apple a day keeps more than just the doctor away. Apples are also good for your teeth. How can this be? After all, apples are mostly sugar, right? The fact is that apples are really good at increasing the amount of saliva produced. Saliva keeps the amount of bacteria in your mouth low. This is really true of most fresh fruits and vegetables, so if apples aren’t your favorite, you can eat more carrots, celery, or other crisp foods.

2. Xylitol Sweetened Gum – Xylitol is a natural sweetener and is superior to sugar and artificial sweeteners when it comes to oral health. Xylitol actually fights the bacteria that many other sweeteners promote.

3. Milk – When you hear milk is good for teeth, your first thought may be that calcium is the most important factor. While calcium is good for your teeth and bones, that’s not why milk makes the list. Milk acts as a base in the body, meaning that it raises the pH level in your mouth. Since bacteria in the mouth thrive on an acidic pH, drinking milk works against sugars and other acidic foods. In fact, one study showed that when milk is imbibed after a bowl of sweet cereal, teeth are helped to resist decay.

4. Unsweetened Tea – Green and black tea both fight bacteria that is commonly formed in the mouth. Unfortunately, adding sugar to the tea negates these benefits, so you may have to switch to unsweet depending on how you presently drink your tea. Tea not only delays that formation of plaque, but it also helps keep gums healthy.

5. Water – Adding more water to your diet can wash bacteria from the mouth, keeping your teeth cleaner between brushings, and raise pH levels, thus restricting plaque formation. Also, tap water often has higher levels of fluoride. Of course, bottled water may have fluoride removed, but you can fix that by the brand of toothpaste you choose. The fact is that fluoride is not the reason you need to add more water to your diet.

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Aesthetics – A dental implant is designed to look just like the tooth that was lost. Painstaking care goes into shaping the crown to match the look and color of your other teeth. It’s obvious when a person is wearing dentures. Implants look far more natural, whether it is one tooth or entire mouth full of implants.

Feel – Dental implants feel more like a natural tooth. In fact, you may sometimes forget that one of your teeth is a replacement. It will not affect your ability to speak naturally, unlike dentures that may make a person unintelligible. Also, since the implants are screwed or cemented in, you don’t have to worry about glue weakening over the course of the day. They won’t fall out or slide out of position.

Durability – Dental implants are just about as tough as an actual tooth. As long as you keep your implants clean, you should never have a problem with them. At most, you may need an occasional adjustment. Plus, screw-in implants provide the added benefit of easy replacement. If you somehow do break a crown, the titanium implant will still be there, ready to accept a replacement.

Long-Lasting – Dentures are a short-term solution. The generally only last about five years, 10 at the most. Bridges last a little longer. Perhaps you’ll get 10-15 years out of those with proper care. Dental implants, however, are designed to last 25 years or more if well-cared for. In fact, if you take good care of your implants, you are likely only to need one set.

Before writing off dental implants as being too costly, consider the cost multiple sets of dentures as well as the cosmetic and practical advantages that implants have to offer. When it comes to matching the look and feel of your natural teeth, dental implants are the perfect replacement.

Whether you are missing one tooth or many, dental implants are an excellent long-term solution for ultimate smile restoration.

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Crooked Teeth

When your wisdom teeth are impacted, they can’t emerge through the gums because they often have nowhere to go. At the age your wisdom teeth come in (usually in the latter teenage years, or, around twenty years of age), your other teeth are set in their places and will not move easily. The impacted wisdom teeth can come in at odd angles and disturb the neighboring teeth, namely your second molars. Impacted wisdom teeth can also be responsible for crowding, which can cause crooked teeth. Crooked teeth have more problems than just affecting the aesthetic value of your smile—they can be difficult to brush and floss, therefore missing vital areas where plaque and bacteria can grow, and they can even cause an improper bite, meaning it will affect the way you chew food and could even lead to teeth grinding.

Ruin Orthodontic Work

At the age your wisdom teeth come in, you’ve likely had orthodontic work done, meaning any problems with your teeth have been corrected and your smile looks great. Impacted wisdom teeth are not good news when it comes to your completed orthodontic work! As a result of their impacted nature, the teeth can affect both your upper and lower rows of teeth by pushing on your teeth and making all of your teeth move, therefore ruining your orthodontic work. It’s best to get impacted wisdom teeth removed before they cause too much damage in your mouth, and you may even need more orthodontic work if you let them go for too long. Your orthodontic work likely cost you time, money, and some painful adjustments—don’t let your impacted wisdom teeth ruin all of that!

Problems with Adjacent Teeth

When your impacted wisdom teeth begin to come in, they’ll likely cause problems with your neighboring teeth. As they develop, they’ll create limited space between your second molars and themselves. This creates more room for plaque and bacteria to grow, and can even lead to cavities and tooth decay in that area. Third molars are often located so far back in the mouth that they can be difficult to properly brush in the first place, but having impacted third molars (wisdom teeth) on your second set of molars can create problems. In addition to the movement they’ll create as a result of pushing, you’re more at risk for cavities and other problems back there as your impacted wisdom teeth continue to develop.

Although impacted wisdom teeth can overcrowd your smile, you don’t have to suffer the impact! Your dentist can help determine whether or not your wisdom teeth are impacted and talk with you about treatment. Impacted wisdom teeth often need to be removed to help prevent further damage to your smile, but this is a common procedure that requires minimal healing time.

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