"Cracked Teeth"

A very common occurrence is to have a crack in a tooth. The teeth most likely to suffer from cracking are these that have been heavily filled during the life of the tooth. The cavity which causes the need for the filling also causes a weakening of the remaining tooth structure. Like all materials, teeth are subject to stress fatigue. After many bites on the tooth (stress cycles) a hairline fracture can develop, usually at the bottom corner of the cavity. A person that is predisposed to clench or grind their teeth due to life stress will have a much higher likelihood of creating stress cracks in their teeth, even in teeth that have never had a filling.
Once cracks are created in the enamel of the tooth, it hurts to bite because of the flexing of the enamel crack. As the tooth flexes microscopically, the nerve located deep in the interior of the tooth is stimulated via very small tubes situated in the inner core of the tooth, below the enamel. These small tubes run down to the nerve and fluid in the tubes runs down to the nerve creating pressure – which you feel as a sharp pain. The nerve in the tooth is aggravated by the crack and by bacteria being pumped into it via the small tubes. The nerve then becomes inflamed because of the toxins in bacteria. A classic symptom of nerve inflammation is hot and cold sensitivity.
If nothing is done, the crack continues to slowly propagate (spread) like a crack in the windshield of your car. Sometimes the crack goes off to the side of the tooth and a fragment of the tooth breaks off. The crack can also go deep into the root and at times right into the tooth nerve. It is hard to predict the course of the untreated cracked tooth, but usually it is a slow downhill slide as the crack deepens. It is not a good idea to leave a cracked tooth untreated, because a small crack can be corrected effectively, but a bigger one can lead to root canal treatment or extraction of the tooth should the crack split the tooth root completely.
Unless the crack is immobilized and splinted together, the tooth is very likely to deteriorate. Although various methods have been employed in an attempt to stick the crack together, chewing forces are extremely powerful and these patch-up solutions are fairly unpredictable and ineffective. The only effective solution is to bind the whole tooth together with a "cap" or crown, so that any chewing force moves the tooth as a whole, rather than splitting it apart.
Those of you in your adult years who have had a lot of dental work done over your lifetime have a much higher risk of suffering from cracked tooth syndrome. If you are noticing hot & cold sensitivity or pain when biting on firm foods, seek help from your dental professionals and they will evaluate your condition and recommend solutions.

"You Mean I Have Another Cavity"

Person after person resists going to their dentist out of avoidance to learn of just how healthy or unhealthy their mouths are. The frustration for a very large percentage of the public is trying their best to take care of their dental health daily and yet at their dental check-up they learn once again that they have a cavity.
Why is it that people can work consistently and intently on caring for their dental hygiene and still have damage to their teeth? Tooth healthiness or wellness can be envisioned as a "Three Legged Stool". Each leg of the stool is a variable, which must be considered in order to keep teeth healthy and sound.
The first leg of the stool is what we inherit when we are born, our dental genes. This is the variable we have no control over. Yet, heredity is the least important variable that influences tooth health long-term. Even though we do not have control of our heredity, this variable can be compensated for with effort toward the other two variables.
The second leg of our dental tooth stool is oral hygiene. It depends on how effective we are at properly cleaning every surface of every tooth multiple times a day. Almost every person who enters a dental office is using a toothbrush everyday. Yet, 90% or more have never been taught how to be the most effective with using dental hygiene tools (toothbrush, floss, perio-aids, etc).
The last leg of our stool (and by far the greatest influence) is nutrition. Most people believe sugars we eat or drink cause cavities. Yet, the sugars are only the food & energy source for bugs (bacteria), which live in all human mouths. The oral bugs use sugars (solid or liquid form) as food, covert it to energy and then release waste product into our mouths. This waste from the bugs is the real culprit to tooth enamel since it is a potent ACID. These acids dissolve the calcium out of our teeth leaving a damaged hole or cavity.
Our strong recommendation to our patients is to look closely at the amount and frequency of solid or liquid sugar intake they have daily. It is not just candy and cookies, but also soft drinks, power drinks, gum, mints, coffee and tea with sugar, etc. The less sugar we give the bugs the lower the acid levels will be and the less likely you and/or your children will have tooth damage.
See your dentist today and learn more of the nutrition tooth relationship.

Amalgam vs. Composite Fillings – Which is Best?

For well over a hundred years, dentists have "filled" teeth with dental amalgam. Basically, dental amalgam consists mostly of silver with trace amounts of copper and tin mixed with virtually pure mercury to produce a putty-like mass, which hardens in about an hour. In my grandfather’s day, this was mixed with a mortar and pestle, but now there is a machine specially made to mix these components together. The resulting "filling" is very hard, but is colored silver to black, which makes it cosmetically questionable in today’s esthetically-conscious market.
About fifty-years ago, composite resin filling material burst upon the market. Basically a very high-grade, specialized plastic, composite was originally two pastes mixed together to then set or harden within a few minutes. This means that they set only on an exposure to a very intense blue light, giving the dentist almost unlimited time to shape or contour the filling. Today’s composites are extremely varied as to strength and polish-ability reflecting the requirements called for in different parts of your mouth. Teeth are etched with a mild acid, producing microscopic grooves in the enamel. Composite is then bonded into the individual teeth and, when properly done, is almost impossible to separate from the tooth without the proper dental equipment. Best of all, they are tooth-colored, with hundreds of shades available to match any particular tooth producing a very life-like result.
For many years, the dental community has been split on the appropriateness of using dental amalgam in humans. Many accusations have been leveled at amalgam, including suggestions that mercury leaking from the restorations causes everything from Multiple Sclerosis to Autism. Many studies have been done over the years and results have been produced to support every possible position. This continues to be a hot topic in dentistry. However, the American Dental Association has continued to endorse the use of dental amalgam without reservation.
Composite resin is slightly more expensive than amalgam, due to the fact that it is somewhat more labor intensive and the materials are more expensive. Nevertheless, most patients today opt for composite for esthetic reasons. This certainly seems to be the direction operative dentistry is going. Millions of dollars each year are invested in research related to making composites stronger, more beautiful, and longer lasting. Amalgam is what it always has been and probably always will be: a utility dental material with limited application.