Eating Right for Healthy Teeth Means More than Avoidance of Unhealthy Foods: Top 10 Foods to Increase or Add to Your Diet

It’s a given that sugar-laden foods wreak havoc on teeth and require extra-vigilant hygiene to keep teeth healthy. But you can do more than avoid certain foods to help your smile. Following are 10 teeth-toughening foods to increase or add to your diet.

Celery

Because celery is coarse and requires a lot of chewing, eating it produces extra saliva, which neutralizes the bacteria that causes cavities. Additionally, chomping on naturally abrasive foods massages gums and cleans between teeth.

Cheese

With its low carbohydrate and high calcium and phosphate content, cheese helps balance the pH in your mouth, which decreases decay, preserves and rebuilds tooth enamel, and helps to produce saliva.

Green Tea

Green tea contains catechins that kill the bacteria in your mouth that turn sugar into plaque. Catechins also kill the bacteria that cause bad breath.

Kiwis

Kiwis pack more vitamin C than any other fruit and vitamin C is necessary to prevent the breakdown of collagen in your gums. Too little vitamin C is often a precursor to periodontal disease.

Onions

Onions contain powerful antibacterial sulfur compounds that kill the bacteria in your mouth associated with cavities and bad breath. Eating them raw is best.

Parsley and Mint

Great for bad breath, these herbs contain monoterpenes, volatile substances that travel quickly from your bloodstream to your lungs, where their odor is released via your breath. Best if eaten after a particularly pungent meal.

Sesame Seeds

Chewing sesame seeds is a great way to cleanse the teeth of plaque and help build tooth enamel. They’re also high in calcium, which helps preserve the bone around your teeth and gums.

Shiitake Mushrooms

The sugar found in abundance in shiitake mushrooms is a great plaque fighter. Like other teeth-toughening foods, raw is better than cooked.

Wasabi

The isothiocyanates in wasabi—those chemicals that provide the wicked bite in the Japanese root served often with sushi and sashimi—also inhibit the growth of cavity-causing bacteria.

Plain Old Water

Drinking water keeps your gums hydrated and is the best way to stimulate saliva production—your body's greatest defense against the bacteria that cause plaque and cavities. Rinsing your mouth with water also helps wash away trapped food particles that decompose in the mouth and cause bad breath.

For questions about dentures, dental implants, periodontal disease or general dentistry including accelerated orthodontics, call the Ferber Dental Group a 561-439-8888 or visit http://www.ferberdental.com.

Pros and Cons of Accelerated Orthodontics

Accelerated orthodontic treatment is the dental procedure that involves moving and straightening teeth using a combination of braces and surgery in order to achieve a speedier outcome than with traditional braces alone. In some cases, accelerated orthodontics can reduce the time needed for correction from as long as three years to as short as six months or less.

Using traditional orthodontics, if the mouth is too small to accommodate the existing teeth or the teeth too numerous—both of which can account for misalignment—the dentist would likely remove one or more teeth to make room and then apply braces. The adjustment of the remaining teeth to fill the gap left behind during traditional orthodontics is what can take a considerable amount of time.

Using accelerated orthodontics, no teeth are removed. Instead, the dentist shaves away material from the edges of all the teeth, in effect narrowing each, so the distance required to move is greatly reduced.

The pros to such a procedure are pretty straight forward. Time, of course, and also the improved aesthetics during the period of correction; there are no unsightly gaps to fill in and in many cases, the braces can be attached to the back of the teeth.

The technique is quite specialized, however, which adds significantly to the cost. In addition, there is more discomfort associated with accelerated correction. Not only are the teeth moving through the gum tissue at an accelerated rate, but they’re also migrating through the jaw bone faster, both of which can cause pain.

For questions about dentures, dental implants, periodontal disease or general dentistry including accelerated orthodontics, call the Ferber Dental Group a 561-439-8888 or visit http://www.ferberdental.com.

The Truth About Silver Fillings

Silver fillings (a.k.a. amalgams) are made of alloy that usually contains combinations of silver, copper, tin and mercury. It’s this last ingredient, mercury, that for years has concerned the general public, and mostly the issue has to do with a story that ran in the New York Times in 2003. The story reported that a United Nations environmental conference in Kenya called for a worldwide crackdown on mercury pollution, listing various sources, including silver fillings, which the story said exposes humans to the highly toxic heavy metal.

Since then, there have been claims that the mercury in amalgam causes everything from autism, Alzheimer’s and multiple sclerosis to all sorts of neurological disorders, which by all valid accounts is simply not true. Many heavy hitters—including the American Dental Association, Alzheimer’s Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, Autism Society of America and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society—back the scores of studies and data that conclude there is no scientific evidence of a connection between neurological disorders or other diseases and the use of amalgam. Nor does the removal of silver fillings affect these conditions. The reason amalgam is used is because it’s a durable and affordable material. The material has been used to restore the teeth of more than 100 million Americans.

So, how can something containing mercury be safe? Good question with a relatively simple answer. There are many elements that by themselves are toxic; however, when combined with certain other elements, become inert. Chloride by itself, for example, in liberal enough quantities is deadly. Combine it with just the right ratio of sodium, however, and it becomes sodium chloride—table salt. The mercury in silver fillings is not harmful because the mercury is transformed in the process of making an alloy much like sodium and chloride are completely transformed when combined to make table salt. The mercury binds chemically to the other metals to make a stable alloy.

For questions about dentures, dental implants, periodontal disease or general dentistry, call The Ferber Dental Group a 561-439-8888 or visit http://www.ferberdental.com.

The Four Different Types of Dentures. Part IV of a 4-Part Series.

Implant retained dentures are the fourth and final denture type and involve placing two or more dental implants into the jawbone and then attaching the denture to those implants.

To install a dental implant, a hole is drilled into the jawbone and a titanium screw is fitted into the hole. After several months, the bone integrates (fuses) with the screw, and a post is attached to the base of the screw. This post juts through the gum into the mouth, and can either be fitted with a porcelain tooth, to which the denture is secured, or in some cases, the denture can be attached to the post directly.

Implant retained dentures are an option for patients who cannot tolerate full dentures because of an overactive gagging reflex. The dental implants allow smaller multiple dentures to cover the top or bottom jawbone, which often is a more comfortable alternative to full dentures. In addition, as wearers of full dentures age, the jawbone tends to resorb over time, changing the shape of the mouth, and in some cases eventually making full dentures impossible to wear. Implant retained dentures allow the denture to remain stable even as the bone recedes.

For questions about dentures, dental implants, periodontal disease or general dentistry, call The Ferber Dental Group a 561-439-8888 or visit http://www.ferberdental.com.

The Four Different Types of Dentures. Part III of a 4-Part Series.

Because full dentures can be difficult to stabilize, Cu-Sil partial dentures were created. Unlike full dentures where the few remaining natural teeth must be removed, Cu-Sils allow one or more natural healthy teeth to be left in the mouth to help anchor the denture. Even one single healthy tooth left in place can be enough to fully stabilize a Cu-Sil denture.   

Cu-Sils are fashioned with holes to allow the remaining natural teeth to poke through. These holes are fitted with stable silicone gaskets that hug the natural teeth and maintain the suction needed to anchor the denture.

While a nice alternative to full dentures, they’re not recommended for people who still have a lot of healthy evenly distributed teeth because the complexity that would be required of the Cu-Sil design to fit properly around numerous natural teeth would impede the denture’s function. Cu-Sils are considered transitional dentures and used primarily for people whose few remaining teeth will likely be lost in the near future. 

For questions about dentures, dental implants, periodontal disease or general dentistry, call The Ferber Dental Group a 561-439-8888 or visit http://www.ferberdental.com.

The Four Denture Types. Part II of a 4 Part Series

There are four different types of dentures: standard, immediate, implant-retained and Cu-Sil partial dentures. In Part II of this series, we’ll be discussing immediate dentures.

Immediate or temporary dentures are actually made before the natural teeth are extracted.  The patient walks into the office, is measured and fitted with the immediate prefabricated denture, the teeth are extracted, and the denture is inserted directly over the open sockets. 

The construction of an immediate denture requires only one or two preliminary appointments before the insertion date, depending on how many natural teeth the patient has left. Although immediate dentures are a quick fix, naturally occurring changes in the jaw bone and the healing process over the first year make them more uncomfortable than other types of dentures and generally require them to be periodically relined. 

For questions about dentures, dental implants, periodontal disease or general dentistry, call The Ferber Dental Group a 561-439-8888 or visit http://www.ferberdental.com.

The Four Types of Dentures. Part I of a 4-Part Series

There are four different types dentures: standard, immediate, implant-retained and Cu-Sil partial dentures. In Part I of this series, we’ll be discussing standard dentures.

Standard dentures can take as many as four visits to complete. The first appointment consists of an oral examination, sometimes x-rays and a set of impressions of the upper and lower gums or edentulous. These impressions are poured with plaster to form accurate models of the shape of the edentulous ridges and to determine the shade, size and shape of the teeth that will be placed on the new dentures. In special cases, surgery might be warranted to remove tissue or alter bone that will interfere with the stability of the denture.

The second appointment determines the length of the new teeth themselves. The horizontal plane of the teeth should be parallel to the horizontal plane between the pupils of the eyes. During this visit, the line up of the bite is measured using a loose-fitting denture base and rim of wax to approximate the position of the teeth. Not only is the ability to chew correctly affected by this measurement, but also the ability to speak correctly. Once the correct relationships are determined, the rims are sent to the lab where they’re used to fabricate the “wax-try-in,” a loosely fitting tray with the actual final plastic teeth embedded in wax so that adjustments can still be made.  

Appointment No. 3 is where the wax-try-in is tried on. This gives the opportunity to see how the denture looks and works before committing the teeth to a permanent setup. At this time, if the teeth look too long, or the patient clicks when talking, or the midline is wrong, etc. the denture can still be adjusted.

The fourth appointment is where the final denture is inserted. At this stage, the teeth have been embedded in permanent plastic. Although the teeth are no longer adjustable, tiny adjustments can be made to accommodate fit and comfort of the denture over the gum.

For questions about dentures, dental implants, periodontal disease, call The Ferber Dental Group a 561-439-8888 or visit http://www.ferberdental.com.

It’s Never Too Late to Improve Your Smile

At the Ferber Dental Group, by the time we see patients, usually they’ve already made the decision to have dental work done, and so the question of whether or not they’re too old to worry about their smile rarely comes up. But there’s a large population of people hiding in the shadows, reluctant to smile and convinced that, because of their advanced age, dentures, implants, veneers and other cosmetic procedures designed to improve their smile either aren’t possible, are too expensive or just impractical at this stage of life.

Sure, there are a lot of reasons not to fix your smile, but if bad teeth are preventing you from the simple pleasure of smiling, then you owe it to yourself to look into options for a new smile. Although there can be some increased challenges to cosmetic dentistry as patients age—especially in cases of advanced bone loss and periodontal disease—cliché as it sounds, it’s never too late. If you want to enjoy smiling again, the Ferber Dental Group can help you find an option that is gets you the results you want at a price you can afford, no matter how old you are.

Over the years, we’ve improved the smiles of hundreds and hundreds of senior patients, including friends and family. And we’re happy to report that the No. 1 feedback in common from virtually all patients in their 60s, 70s and some even in their 80s is that their only regret is not having the work done sooner.

At the Ferber Dental Group, we firmly believe that a bright, attractive smile is the cornerstone to a butterfly effect to a higher quality of life. You’ll be happier inside and it’ll show on the outside. Others are much more apt to approach and engage with someone smiling than someone not, and from there, who knows where life will lead.

So call 561-439-8888 or visit http://www.ferberdental.com and make an appointment today to discuss your options for improving your smile and turning over a new leaf.