MOST OF US can still remember what it was like to lose a baby tooth, especially that major Big Kid milestone of losing the first one. How did it happen for you? Did it take longer for you to lose a tooth than most of your classmates, or were you the one who knocked a tooth out on the playground before you knew it was loose? Regardless, losing a tooth is a big deal for kids, and now that we’re parents, we want to help that be a positive experience for them.

Establish the Right Mindset First

While losing baby teeth is a perfectly normal part of growing up, it can still be a scary new experience for little kids, particularly the first time it happens when they don’t yet know what to expect. Parents can make it easier by encouraging the right mindset. Emphasize that losing a tooth is part of being a big kid! Help them focus on what an achievement it is to lose a baby tooth instead of dwelling on how it might hurt. This can be exciting!

Helping With a Loose Tooth

The technique is as important as a good mindset. We would discourage parents from chasing their kids down with a pair of pliers or tricking them with that old “I just want to feel it!” ruse to get close enough to pull the tooth. Encourage them instead to gently wiggle the tooth on their own with their tongue, a tissue, or a clean finger. Let them set the pace and only intervene if they ask for your help pulling the tooth.

You can also make it fun by coming up with a creative way to pull it, like this:

Come Up With a Creative Reward

The standard way of giving a child a good incentive to brave the pain of losing a tooth is the Tooth Fairy, but why not make things a little more unique? Your child might be more motivated by a promise of a trip to the ice cream shop or a new toy. What would be the most exciting prize for your child when they complete this rite of passage?

Come to Us With Your Concerns

If you’ve followed all these tips for how to make it fun and exciting but your child is still afraid of losing a tooth, we can help! As a pediatric dental practice, working with children is our specialty. If their teeth don’t seem to be becoming loose when they should, you can also bring them to us so we can investigate why that is.

We’re excited to hear about your child’s adventures with their loose tooth!

Top image by Flickr user Leigh Blackall used under Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 4.0 license. Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

MARCH IS WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH, so we’re celebrating two trailblazers for women dentists in North America. They paved the way for women in all dental specialties, including pediatric dentistry, orthodontics, and endodontics.

Lucy Hobbs Taylor

Lucy Hobbs Taylor, born in 1833, was the first woman to earn an actual dental degree in North America. After multiple rejections at dental schools, she found a professor to teach her privately and opened her own practice at age 28.

She was soon recognized by her male peers for her skill and gentle chairside manner and was accepted into the Ohio College of Dental Surgery. She received her degree in 1866, married a Civil War veteran, and trained him to be a dentist too! They established a successful practice together in Lawrence, Kansas.

Emeline Roberts Jones

Like many dentists in the mid-1800s, Emeline Roberts Jones, born in 1836, didn’t receive a formal degree. Because she was a woman, she likely would have been rejected by the newly established all-male dental colleges anyway. At age 18, she married a dentist. He was dismissive of the idea that a woman could be a dentist, but she took that as a challenge and trained herself behind his back using extracted teeth.

Eventually, she became his partner and even continued practicing dentistry after he died to support their children. She traveled around Connecticut with her portable dentist’s chair until finding a permanent home for her practice in New Haven, where she worked until retiring in 1915.

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

CANKER SORES MIGHT be small, but they tend to mean days of distracting discomfort. They are shallow ulcers that can develop on the insides of our cheeks or lips, and eating or even talking around them can be difficult. There are a few things that are common triggers of canker sores.

The Major Canker Sore Triggers

The usual suspects for causing canker sores tend to be one of the following:

1. A tissue injury from a bitten lip or cheek. When the area swells up after the first time you bite it, it only makes it easier to bite again!
2. Long periods of high stress can put a lot of strain on the immune system, leaving the mouth more vulnerable to canker sores developing.
3. Sickness strains the immune system too, which means we’re more likely to develop canker sores on top of an infection we’re already fighting off.
4. Highly acidic foods can be hard on the tissues of the mouth, such as lemons, strawberries, tomatoes, and pineapple. Spicy foods too!
5. Poking braces wires or ill-fitting dentures can rub the cheeks the wrong way and lead to canker sores.

Easy Remedies for Canker Sores

It’s very helpful to identify the main trigger if you are prone to canker sores because that will make it easier to prevent them and fight back. Things like cutting back on acidic foods, using dental wax to protect against poking brackets and wires, and working to reduce our stress levels and give our immune systems a break will all help. If these solutions don’t apply to what’s causing your canker sores (or if you’ve tried them and they don’t seem to be helping), try these tips:

• Rinse your mouth with warm salt water to help the healing process go faster and reduce inflammation.
• Use topical medication or painkillers to reduce discomfort.
• Find a toothpaste that doesn’t contain sodium laurel sulfate (but still contains fluoride!).
• Minimize irritation by brushing with a soft-bristled toothbrush.

Preventing Canker Sores

As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and in the case of canker sores, it’s better to stop them from forming than having to deal with them once they appear. This includes things like getting lots of B12, iron, and folate, which we can do by incorporating carrots, salmon, parsley, spinach, kale, and yogurt into our diets.

Good oral hygiene is also critical. In the same way that being sick makes us more vulnerable to canker sores, not keeping plaque under control in our mouths can make it harder for our bodies’ natural defenses to effectively prevent oral health issues, canker sores included.

Come to Us With Your Questions About Canker Sores

We hope we’ve addressed your big questions about canker sores, but we’re happy to answer any you may still have. We want to supply our patients with all the information they need to maintain the best oral health possible.

We have the best patients!

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

NEXT TO BRUSHING, the best tool we have for preventing tooth decay and gum disease is daily flossing, which is why it’s important to help our kids develop a flossing habit early on. Here are some great tips for parents with kids who are learning how to floss:

1. Explain what flossing does for their teeth. They will be more motivated to floss if they understand why it’s important.

2. Help them see flossing as one of the coveted Big Kid skills, like tying their shoes or riding a bike without training wheels. They’ll be excited to prove how grown up they are by flossing.

3. If using traditional floss, demonstrate pulling out the right amount (about eighteen inches) and loosely wrapping it around their middle fingers, with just an inch or two left in the middle to slide between teeth.

4. Help them get the hang of good flossing technique. Use a back-and-forth motion and form a C-shape around a tooth to slide the floss down to the gums without snapping. Flossing should be gentle, not painful!

5. Show them how to move the floss along so they’re using clean floss for each tooth. The point is to get rid of plaque, not just move it around!

6. If traditional floss is too challenging, use floss picks or flossers instead.

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license. Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

THERE ARE A NUMBER of reasons why someone might need a new dentist in Midlothian, VA. Maybe their insurance changed, they’re new to the area, or they simply haven’t looked for a dentist yet.

Whatever the reason, if you don’t already have a great local dentist, it’s a good idea to choose one now so that you and your family can get regular dental exams and so that you’ll be ready in the event of a dental emergency. Here are a few ways to make sure you find the best dentist in the Midlothian area to take care of your family’s dental health needs.

Five Factors to Consider in Your Search for a Dentist in Midlothian, VA

Many variables play a role in big decisions like which dentist in Midlothian is right for you and your family, and while the ranking is up to you, here are five that should be on every patient’s list.

1. 1. The location of the practice is definitely something to consider. How close is it to your home, or to your child’s school? Is the distance convenient enough that twice-yearly checkups will be easy? Set up a range based on your answers to these questions and look for dentists inside it.
2. 2. What is the reputation of the dentist in Midlothian? Within the radius you’re willing to travel, which dentists have the best reputations among their other patients? Find out by checking Yelp and Google, and ask around if you know any of the patients in person. You can also get recommendations from neighbors and friends.
3. 3. Do you need a dentist in Midlothian with a certain specialization? Do you need a family practice, someone particularly good with kids, someone who specializes in diagnosing and treating gum disease or root canals, or someone who offers dental implants? Be sure to research different types of dentists to find the one that suits your needs best.
4. 4. As important as it is to get high-quality dental care, cost is an important factor too. What’s your household’s budget for dental care? Do you have dental insurance or can you get it? Keep in mind that preventing oral health problems or treating them early will be much cheaper than waiting until they get serious, so slightly greater upfront costs are often well worth the investment.
5. 5. How comfortable are you around the dentist? It doesn’t matter how affordable and skilled a dentist is if you can’t relax in their practice. Go in for a visit ahead of time to get a sense of the place, the team, and the dentist. Good dentists always prioritize patient comfort!

We Can’t Wait to Meet You and Your Family

Hopefully, this list gives you a good place to start in your search for a great dentist in Midlothian, but if you’re still uncertain and live or work in the area, come see us! We can answer your questions about our practice and find out if we’re a good fit for you and your family’s dental needs.

We love meeting new patients!

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

THESE DAYS, THERE are so many toothbrushes to choose from that it’s hard to find the right one for ourselves, let alone our kids. It’s not as simple as just picking one, because not all children’s toothbrushes are created equal. Let’s go over a few of the factors to consider when searching for the perfect toothbrush for your child.

The Experts on Toothbrushes

Our top goal as dentists who work with young patients is to provide better dental care for families, which includes knowing which toothbrushes will be most helpful for children who are learning how to take care of their own teeth. Here’s a handy guide that can help you navigate the toothbrush aisle the next time you need to replace a toothbrush (which should be every few months — certainly by the time the bristles look bent).

Electric Versus Manual

The first big question you might be asking is whether to get a manual toothbrush or an electric one for your child. While both types of toothbrushes have the same capacity to clean teeth, with recent studies showing that electric toothbrushes remove as much plaque as manual toothbrushes, electric toothbrushes might be the better choice for some kids.

A child with a tendency to brush too hard, who has limited dexterity, who needs help getting to their molars, or who has special needs and difficulties may be more effective brushing with an electric toothbrush. If your child is great at brushing and wouldn’t benefit in this way, a manual toothbrush will be just great for them!

Search for the ADA Seal of Acceptance

A good way to narrow down the pool of toothbrushes to choose from is to only look for toothbrushes with the American Dental Association’s Seal of Acceptance. The Seal is awarded to toothbrushes every year by the ADA’s Council on Scientific Affairs, supported by a team of more than 750 leading scientists in fields like microbiology, pharmacology, toxicology, and chemistry. You know you can trust an ADA-approved toothbrush!

Bristle Hardness

This one might seem a little counterintuitive. We tend to think that firm bristles mean more effective scrubbing. However, we’re not trying to scrub out tile grout when we clean our teeth; teeth and gum tissue can be damaged by overbrushing, particularly with hard bristles. This is why we recommend soft-bristled brushes to our patients, especially for young children. Soft bristles are better for gums but still effective against plaque and food debris.

Toothbrush Size

It’s important to find a toothbrush that fits your child’s hand and mouth. They won’t be able to brush effectively with something too big, so make sure it’s a child-sized brush. A non-slip grip might also be a good idea if they have a tendency to drop their toothbrush.

Help your child brush for two minutes with this catchy toothbrush song:

Input From Your Dentist and Your Child

If you’d like our recommendations for great toothbrushes, we are happy to give them, but don’t forget to ask your child which toothbrush they like too! Once you’ve narrowed the options down to a few that meet all the requirements you’re looking for, let them choose their favorite color or cartoon character. They’re more likely to brush with a toothbrush they like!

We love seeing those healthy little smiles!

Top image by Flickr user Niklas Gustavsson used under Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 4.0 license. Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

IDA GRAY WAS BORN in Clarksville, Tennessee in 1867. She became an orphan when her mother died in her early teens, after which she went to live with her aunt in Cincinnati. While Gray attended segregated public schools alongside her aunt’s three children and worked as a seamstress, she found time to work in the dental offices of Jonathan Taft, an early advocate of training women as dentists.

Ida Gray’s Education and Practice

After three years working in Taft’s office, Gray had learned enough to pass the entrance examinations into the University of Michigan’s School of Dentistry, where Jonathan Taft had previously served as the dean, and begin her studies in 1887. She graduated three years later, making her the first Black woman to become a dentist in the United States. She opened her own office in Cincinnati, where she serviced patients of all races and was celebrated as a role model for women.

Continuing Career and Retirement

After marrying James Sanford Nelson, Gray moved her practice to Chicago, where she earned a reputation for her gentleness with pediatric patients and inspired another patient, Olive M. Henderson, to become the second Black woman dentist in Chicago. She was heavily involved in her community and continued practicing until her retirement in 1928. After the death of her first husband, she remarried William A. Rollins. She died in 1953 at 86 years old.

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

MENTAL HEALTH AND physical health are tied together in ways we don’t always expect. That even extends to the relationship between oral health and stress. Fortunately, there are a lot of tools we can use to protect our smiles from the effects of stress.

Stress Could Be Behind a Teeth-Grinding Habit

Habitual teeth-grinding and jaw-clenching are called bruxism. Clenching and grinding are natural responses to frustration and stress for many people. The typical signs of bruxism include a sore jaw and, eventually, flattened chewing surfaces of the teeth. Bruxism brings with it significant oral health risks, and the people with this habit might not even notice they’re doing it — particularly for those who grind their teeth in their sleep.

Stress Can Compound the Symptoms of TMD

Another oral health condition stress can contribute to is temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD), a disorder of the muscles, joint, and nerves in the jaw that is associated with chronic facial pain. Stress is believed to be one of the factors leading to TMD, which has symptoms like frequent headaches, pain in the jaw joint, and popping and clicking of the jaw.

Stress Weakens the Immune System

A brief period of stress is something the body can deal with pretty well, but chronic stress puts a major strain on the immune system, making it harder to fight off oral health issues like infections, canker sores, dry mouth, gum disease, and cavities.

Make Oral Health and Hygiene a Priority

Considering all the negative effects stress can have, good oral hygiene habits become particularly important. That includes brushing for two minutes twice a day using a soft-bristled toothbrush and fluoride toothpaste, flossing once a day, and cutting back on sugar intake. Giving your teeth and gums better tools to fight off oral health problems might not be a solution to the stress in your life, but it can help you feel a little better and more in control.

The Dentist Is Your Best Ally

Dental health experts such as our team want to help our patients stress less when it comes to their oral health. We know that just the idea of going to the dentist can be stressful for a lot of people, but we’re here to help. We encourage you to keep up with your regular dental checkups and keep a prevention mindset when it comes to oral health issues rather than waiting until an issue gets much worse to finally get treatment.

We want to help our patients smile easier AND healthier!

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

SUGAR GOES BY MANY NAMES and hides where we’d least expect it. Molasses and maltose? Sugar. Corn syrup and sucrose? Sugar. Honey and agave nectar? They’re sugar too!

We Consume a Jaw-Dropping Amount of Sugar

Sugar in some form is added to 74 percent of packaged foods, and the average American consumes 57 POUNDS of added sugar every year. That’s a lot of fuel for the harmful bacteria living in our mouths (particularly during orthodontic treatment when there are so many extra nooks and crannies for food to stay trapped after meals and snacks).

Sugar Versus Oral Health

Sugar has many negative health effects, but as dental professionals, we’re focused on how it impacts our teeth. Sugar consumption is closely linked to gum disease and tooth decay, and it can eventually lead to needing treatment like fillings and root canal therapy.

Cutting Back on Sugar

So how can we avoid sugar when it has so many disguises? The easiest way is to cut out sugary sodas, fruit juices, and cereals for ourselves and our kids. We should also pay attention to food labels and try to buy foods with less added sugar. Finally, if we make more of our food from scratch, we’ll have better control of how much sugar goes into it!

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license. Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

IT CAN BE DIFFICULT to get any enjoyment out of a cozy mug of hot cocoa if every sip comes with a jolt of pain from sensitive teeth. An eighth of the U.S. population (including kids!) deals with some level of tooth sensitivity, so what causes it and how can we protect our teeth?

The Nerves Inside Our Teeth

A healthy tooth consists of a protective outer layer of enamel over a more porous layer of dentin, with a pulp chamber at the center. Dental pulp is made up of nerves and blood vessels, and those nerves receive sensory input for things like pressure and temperature changes through the thousands of microscopic tubules running through the dentin.

When Sensory Input Works Against Us

Enamel erosion is one of the main causes of tooth sensitivity. If the protective enamel layer wears down, then it exposes the tubules in the dentin, which leads to the nerves suddenly getting a lot more stimulation than they like. They get a nasty shock when the tooth comes in contact with anything too hot or cold, or sometimes even anything too sweet or sour.

Other Causes of Sensitivity

Gum recession can expose the root of a tooth, which doesn’t have enamel protecting it the way the crown does. If overbrushing, teeth grinding, or gum disease leaves the root exposed, it can become very sensitive. Tooth injuries and cavities can also cause sensitivity because they weaken the structure of the tooth and compromise the enamel in other ways.

Sometimes teeth are temporarily sensitive after dental treatment!

Ways of Protecting Your Teeth

Fortunately, there are a few ways to fight back against tooth sensitivity and also ways to prevent it. Make sure to brush with a soft-bristled brush to prevent further enamel erosion or gum recession. It doesn’t actually take stiff bristles to effectively clean our teeth. Another way to combat the effects of sensitivity is to use special toothpaste formulated for special teeth, and it will also help to avoid sugary and acidic foods and drinks — especially soda.

Get Help from the Dentist

There’s no need to suffer tooth sensitivity in silence; make sure the dentist knows! They can determine what’s causing the problem and provide solutions, including a fluoride varnish to strengthen tooth enamel, a prescription for a desensitizing toothpaste, or even a dental restoration or gum graft to cover exposed roots in more severe cases.

Thank you for being part of our practice family!

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license. Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.