Your Child and Getting a Mouth Guard.

As the winter months are upon us my kids, and perhaps yours,

are starting up things like indoor soccer, wrestling, or basketball.

No doubt that these activities will lead to a few bumps and bruises.

In time these bumps, bruises, and even broken bones will heal.

Something that would not heal however, is a broken tooth.

Teeth, unlike bones, will not grow back.

To save teeth requires root canals, crowns, and any number of other things.

Please Please Please.......

get your child a mouth guard to wear during their sporting events.

The ones that you can buy from the store and mold to your

child's teeth will do, but a custom made mouth guard from

a dentist is always the best way to assure the best way to go.

I don't care if you get one from me or the other guy.

That is not the point.

The point is to protect your child's teeth.

They will have them for a very long time.

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Meth Mouth

There is a drug out there known as Meth.

Its not good for a whole boat load of reasons.

But seeing as how I am a dentist I will focus on the dental problems.

The first problem is that Meth causes your salivary glands to stop producing spit.

This may not seem like a big thing, but it is.

Just imagine if your tear ducts stopped producing tears.

Your eyes would dry out in a big hurry.

Dry eyes would be painful and damage would begin to occur.

Same thing with teeth.

Dry teeth will end up being painful and damaged teeth.

(Early meth use)

The next problem is that Meth will make a person grind their teeth.

Scientists really aren't sure why but they have seen it enough to know that it happens.

Grinding of brittle dry teeth will cause fractures to begin happening.

(Moderate Meth use)

Finally Meth will cause people to just not care anymore.

And when you really don't care about your teeth you really don't

take care of them and you really don't care eat of drink anymore either.

The black spots on the gums are what's left of the teeth.

They have either rotted, been broken down to, the gums.

(Severe Meth use)

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It shouldn't be too hard to pull out, should it?

This happens all the time.

People, who neglect their teeth, will wait until they have a tooth that is

broken off at the gums to come to my office to get it extracted.

The laugh a little nervous laugh and say...

"well, not much left so it should be pretty easy yo pull out, huh?"

The answer to that is, NO.

Imagine getting a fence post out of the ground.

Not the easiest thing in the world, right?

Now, take a chain saw and cut the fence post off at the ground.

How easy is that going to be now?!

If you want a tooth out, please, please, please, do not wait until

it is so broken down that there is nothing to grab on to.

It is NOT easier.

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Tori

Tori.

Ever heard of the word?

A tori is a lump of bone that resides in the mouth.

Most people that have tori think nothing of it because they have always had it.

Well, not everyone does have it.

But even if you do have it it really not that big of a deal.

Its just bone and likely wont ever cause you any problems.

One of the only time that it may cause you problems is if you need a denture.

Dentures are very hard to fabricate over the top of tori.

It is only a minor problem however due to the fact that tori can be removed.

So if you have a hard boney lump that has been in your mouth forever,

it may not hurt to get it checked out, but more often then not its simply just a tori.

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My Crown Just Fell off!!!

You are eating a meal and all of a sudden you feel something crunchy.

You search for the crunchy item with your tongue and pull the item out.

Its one of your crowns!

You don't know how it happened but it just came off.

First Rule: Do not panic.

Crowns can come off for several reasons.

Some of these reasons are very very easy to fix.

So just because your crown came off does not mean that its the end of the world.

First thing to do is to look into the crown.

If its empty then things are in good shape.

This means that the cement that holds the crown on simply broke loose and you just need to get it re-cemented.

If there is a bunch of stuff in the tooth then you may have a little more of a problem on your hands.

What is in the crown may be fragments of the tooth. If there are a lot of fragments then you may need to have a new crown made due to the fact that that one may not fit any longer.

So until you can get to the dentist to find out exactly which case is yours, what can you do?

Try to stick it back on.

If it fits snuggly then you may just be able to baby it until you get in to the dentist.

If it fits loosely then you can simply put a bit of toothpaste into it and then stick it back on.

The toothpaste will make up the difference in the fit of the crown and help keep it on.

Call your dentist ASAP and get his/her opinion.

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Mouth Guards

As the summer months draw near that means that children

will begin to play all kinds of sports.

Football, basketball, soccer, and all kinds of other

outdoor leagues and camps will have kids running around like crazy.

No doubt that these activities will lead to a few bumps and bruises.

In time these bumps, bruises, and even broken bones will heal.

Something that would not heal however, is a broken tooth.

Teeth, unlike bones, will not grow back.

To save teeth requires root canals, crowns, and any number of other things.

Please Please Please.......

get your child a mouth guard to wear during their sporting events.

The ones that you can buy from the store and mold to your

child's teeth will do, but a custom made mouth guard from

a dentist is always the best way to assure the best way to go.

Dr Ellis on Facebook

Dr Ellis Website