Tag: student
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What Are These White Spots On My Child’s Teeth?
Those are white spot lesions! Let’s talk a bit about why they happen and what we can do about them. What Are White Spot Lesions (WSLs)? White spot lesions are simply areas of decalcification of our enamel. Before we have a true cavity (a cavity results from decay entering the inner layer of our tooth,…
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So You Lost Your Tooth
You’re putting up the Christmas tree after Thanksgiving (hopefully) and, while carefully placing ornaments, you turn around to be greeted by your kid swinging a branch. You look down to reveal your front tooth in your hand and you’ve quickly realized what has happened – you just lost your tooth! Quick – let’s review what…
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Let’s Talk Fluoride
I have a patient at least once a week tell me they don’t use fluoridated toothpaste, and I promptly ask them to divulge why. Let’s talk about why dentists recommend the use of fluoride and why I believe you should use it, too. What Is Fluoride? The CDC states the following about fluoride – ‘Fluoride…
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How Long Will My Crown Last?
More often than not, patients ask me how long their restorations will last. Why should they get a crown when they have a filling that’s doing just fine? There’s a lot of factors that go into the treatment plan a dental practitioner creates, but I think it’s important to understand the longevity of the restorations…
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What Is Combination Syndrome?
The study of prosthodontics allows us to create appliances for those who are missing teeth, and give those who are edentulous a chance to speak and chew properly again. Edentulism (the process of losing teeth) comes with it a host of issues – the syndrome we are going to discuss today has a ‘combination’ of…
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Tobacco And Its Effects On Oral Health
Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death in the United States. CDC, 2021 For most of us, we’ve been told about the dangers of tobacco and its detrimental effects on our health since we were children. The cat’s been out of the bag on tobacco for a while now –…
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The Lingual Nerve
The lingual nerve is a part of the mandibular branch of the trigeminal nerve (V3). The lingual nerve provides general sensory information to the floor of the mouth, the lingual mucosa, as well as the anterior 2/3rds of the tongue. What makes the lingual nerve so special? The lingual nerve has two ‘special’ roles –…
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Local Anesthetics and When to Use Them
What is a local anesthetic? Local anesthetics are one of the safest, most reliable ways to achieve anesthesia in dentistry. Local anesthetics contain three parts – an aromatic group, an intermediate chain, and a secondary or tertiary amino terminus. The portion known as the ‘intermediate chain’ is the basis for the classification of anesthetic, which…
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Extraction of the Maxillary First Premolar
What does the maxillary first premolar look like? The maxillary first premolar has the longest crown of any of the maxillary posterior teeth and has a prominent mesiolingual developmental groove on its mesial side. The maxillary first premolar is single rooted for the first 2/3rds of the tooth – only until the apical 1/3rd does…
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Maintaining Space in the Primary Dentition
When it comes to children, maintaining the amount of space available in their arch is very important. If space is not maintained, the permanent teeth may not have room to erupt, causing long-term problems that may have complications in the future – such as the permanent premolars ectopically erupting (erupting in a space they aren’t…
Teeth & Chiefs 