When you already suffer from sensitive teeth, however, there are certain foods that it can be helpful to avoid. Here are the top foods to avoid if you have sensitive teeth!

Hot Foods

Extreme temperatures aren’t good for our bodies or our mouths. Hot foods can cause pain in people who suffer from sensitive teeth. These include foods that have high temperatures such as hot soup, tea, coffee, or very hot meals. It’s easy to avoid these foods—simply wait until it cools down a little! There’s no need to drink piping-hot drinks or eat very hot foods. They can even burn your mouth, tongue, or esophagus!

Cold Foods

Many people find that cold foods are one of the biggest aggravators of sensitive teeth. These include foods such as frozen treats like ice cream, popsicles, and frozen yogurt. If you have very sensitive teeth, even drinks with ice in them could cause your teeth to hurt. Request for your drinks to be served without ice, and opt for less extreme versions of these treats such as cold yogurt rather than frozen!

Acidic Foods

Acidic foods can actually erode enamel as well as cause further pain to those with sensitive teeth. Often sensitive teeth are the result of enamel that’s been worn away. Acidic foods include citrus fruits, tomatoes, and beverages like coffee, alcohol, and soda. Dairy and meat products also tend to be acidic, but typically only people with highly sensitive teeth may have a problem with these foods.

Sugary Foods

Sugary foods are also very acidic and can not only contribute to enamel erosion, but can be very painful to people with sensitive teeth. These include drinks such as soda and sports drinks, foods like candy,baked goods, and sugary cereals or other processed foods. Cutting down on your consumption of sugary foods will not only help with tooth sensitivity, but will help contribute to a healthier smile!

Spicy Foods

Not everyone with sensitive teeth will be sensitive to spicy foods—in fact, some aspects of spicy foods, such as the high vitamin C and water content in peppers, can help teeth. However, sometimes spicy foods can cause acid reflux, which can cause damaging and extremely acidic stomach acids to get into your mouth through your esophagus. If you suffer from sensitive teeth and acid reflux, avoid spicy foods!

Sensitive teeth have a cause, and you can treat your sensitive teeth and relieve the pain by scheduling an appointment with your dentist. You can also prevent tooth sensitivity and stop it from getting worse by ensuring your teeth are healthy, not brushing too hard, and limiting sugary foods. Avoid these top foods if you have sensitive teeth!

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What Is Full Mouth Reconstruction?

Full mouth reconstruction is an extensive procedure to restore the oral health of a patient. Treatment may be performed in a number of ways. Here are a few treatment options:

Dental Implants – To replace missing teeth, dental implants may be used. This involves implanting a titanium post to hold a custom made crown.

Bridges – In some cases, a bridge may be used when there is just a small gap due to a missing tooth. The bridge is held by crowns that are placed on the two surrounding teeth.

Bone Grafts – Sometimes, teeth are lost due to a decrease in bone density. This makes it difficult to get a dental implant to graft properly. A bone graft may need to be performed before any other dental work can take place.

Dentures – If all of a person’s teeth need to be replaced, dentures are a less expensive option than implants (and are more likely to be covered by insurance).

Crowns – Crowns are placed over damaged teeth to keep them from deteriorating further. This allows a patient to keep their original tooth. However, the coloration and shape of the cap will not only protect the tooth but allow it to match the rest of the mouth.

Fillings – Fillings keep cavities from causing further problems. Cavities can often be filled with a composite substance that matches the tooth color.

Who Is it For?

It is easier to understand situations that make full mouth reconstruction necessary now that we have discussed the processes involved. Some of these circumstances are:

– Individuals who are missing teeth.

– Victims of an accident that has caused oral damaged

– Victims of a disease that has caused oral damage

– People who have multiple cavities, cracked teeth, or other oral care problems

– Individuals suffering from bone loss contributing to lost teeth

– People who have experienced significant damage due to gum disease

– Anyone who is not happy with their smile and wants to improve it with modern dentistry

The fact is that full mouth reconstruction can help anyone from the elderly who are experiencing problems to those who are looking to make their smile more aesthetically pleasing. Whether the damage was caused by an accident and needs to be performed in an emergency or is the result of years of wear and damage, the final product can be a smile that you are happy to show off and a mouth that allows you to talk and chew normally.

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The main reason why dentists recommend dental crowns as a treatment option, is because there is little tooth structure left, once the old filling and cavity is removed. If you restore the tooth with “just another filling,” there is a significant chance the filling will break, or worse, more of the tooth will break.

Dental crowns protect the teeth from further breakdown. Your teeth are subjected to cracks everyday with just normal wear and tear. Arguably dentists can crown all of our teeth due to cracks…but they don’t do that. Dentists look to only crown the teeth that are weak and subjected to fractures.

In my own experience, I’m finding that most dental insurances today do not cover a tooth that breaks if a filling in that tooth was placed less than 2 years ago! So you run the risk of not getting coverage for a dental crown, if your newly placed “large filling” breaks. So with this in mind, sometimes by having your dentist do a filling, they are not saving the patient any money or time should break within 2 years.

If the filling covers more than 1/2 of the tooth, you most likely would benefit from something stronger.

The tooth featured in this picture had a “large filling”. The tooth cracked, not the filling. If this filling was done less than 2 years ago, the patient’s [media-credit id=14 align=”alignright” width=”350″][/media-credit]insurance would not cover for it to be repaired or replaced. In this situation, the patient has to pay the full cost of the crown because the original treatment plan compromised on a weaker restoration.

It is important to understand why teeth in certain cases should be crowned and the associated risk of fractures. Discuss treatment options with your dentist and ensure that you are getting the best dental care for the long-term health of your smile.

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