Think of your teeth as a great wall. If one or more pieces of the wall are missing, it allows a place for foreign intruders to enter. In this case the intruders could be bacteria, which can lead to other problems and be very uncomfortable. Your local medical or dental professional can assist you through the procedure of dental implants to bring your smile back. Whether you were struck, involved in an accident or altercation, or just have a bad tooth, there are several reasons why you should always make sure your “wall of teeth” are kept in tact.

Shifting Teeth

When a tooth is missing, it can cause the teeth around the missing tooth socket to shift. They will start to grow in more crooked and this can alter your bite and have lasting consequences. Your top jaw and bottom jaw will also fall out of alignment, which can lead to TMJ Syndrome. Your beautiful smile will start to be affected and this is why it’s important to see a dentist about implants right away.

Gum Disease

Your teeth aren’t the only things affected by leaving a tooth missing. Your gums might be affected by the bacteria that can creep into the missing tooth socket. Your other teeth being shifted may also prevent you from being able to brush your gums correctly and this is another way bacteria can build up.

Face Shape Alteration

Eventually, if a missing tooth is not tended to properly, your jawbone may start to deteriorate and this can lead to your bone structure being altered. What was once a preventable predicament involving a simple dental implant has now grown into a larger problem affecting your outward physical appearance.

These are just some of the reasons it is important to maintain regular dental check ups and brush/floss your teeth daily. By getting into the habit of this now, you will be decreasing your chance of having complications due to missing teeth. If you are in an accident or end up having a missing tooth, seek out an implant dentist and they’d be happy to help you through this ordeal. It is much better to seek help sooner rather than later as time passing without a tooth can have tremendous consequences down the line. Keeping your wall of teeth in tact will also leave you with a more approachable and confident smile.

If you have had porcelain veneers put in, you probably know that from time to time they can become dirty. Veneers are tricky and if you have the older, coarse material veneers you may want to think about an update. The porcelain is more durable but they can still get dirty. Unfortunately whitening gels do not work on porcelain veneers, but there are several ways to ensure that your veneers stay as glowing as the day you got them.

Polishing

Make sure that you are going in for a routine polishing every couple of months. The dentists have tools that can dig deep into the veneer and polish it back to its bright and white originality. Sometimes after a while, food or dark drinks like red wine can collect at the top of the veneer. This, combined with the gums natural recession with aging can create a small brown ring around the veneer. This can be taken care of by stopping by your local dentist. They will polish your veneers and get rid of the nasty brown line. This will hopefully bring your smile and veneers back to their original whiter selves.

Trauma

If you’ve experienced any kind of striking or trauma to the face, it can directly affect your veneers. While the veneers themselves can not be whitened. It might be possible to whiten the entire tooth. Your teeth contain dentin, which is the tissue inside a tooth. If you are struck, your dentin can start to brown. This may give the appearance of your veneers starting to brown. Try this…place some whitening gel on the back of the affected tooth. Do this routinely and the whitening gel should slowly seep through and restore the tooth’s dentin. This will then, in turn, restore the appearance of the porcelain veneer and bring your smile back to its original color.

If you have questions about caring for or maintaining your porcelain veneers it is a good idea to schedule a time to talk to your friendly neighborhood dentist. They will be able to offer advice that is specifically geared towards your predicament and they will be able to take you through the steps for proper at home treatment of the veneers. Porcelain veneers can be tricky but you don’t have to lose hope if they start to darken. Usually a simple polish is all they need to keep you smiling confidently!

Wisdom teeth are tricky. They can sometimes cause multiple problems, even requiring surgery to get rid of them. Other times they just sit there, growing in your mouth without any noticeable feeling of pain or discomfort. But when they do decide to ‘act up’ you’ll definitely feel it. Wisdom tooth migraines can be a terrible ordeal to suffer through. However, once you understand what is causing this pain, you can better talk to your dentist about correcting it.

So what exactly is going on in your mouth? As your wisdom teeth slowly peek out of your gums, your gum will naturally create a little pillowed gum pouch where the tooth is trying to push through. Rather than bite down on this pouch many people change their bite or adjust their jaw position. This is not a good idea. Changing your bite can have lasting effects and create what is known as a ‘bad bite.’ Having a bad bite results in your jaw muscles being used incorrectly and this is when headaches can start to occur. Your jaw will start to spasm if it’s being held in the wrong position for too long and this spasm is why wisdom teeth migraines are particularly painful.

Treating your wisdom tooth headache

Don’t worry! There is a solution. The best way to stop wisdom teeth headaches is to, of course, remove all wisdom teeth. This will ensure that you do not experience any more pain from these devious little teeth. Talk to your dentist or an oral surgeon about the procedure. If only one tooth is giving you problems or is “impacted” you may want to consider just getting the one removed. Or if you want to go ahead and get them all removed you can save any potential headaches or impacted wisdom teeth in the future.

In any case, you should definitely be aware of your mouth and if you start to feel wisdom teeth creeping in, you should seek help. You want to make sure you fix the problem sooner rather than later. By talking to an oral surgeon or dentist, you’ll be able to deal with these not so wise mouth bandits once and for all. Your friendly dentist will assist you in figuring out the best plan of attack against your wisdom teeth and this will ensure that the annoying wisdom tooth headaches are a thing of the past!