Periodontal Disease

If left undiagnosed and untreated, periodontal disease can do some serious, irreversible damage to your smile.  Periodontal disease can also compromise your overall health, making you susceptible to serious infection, malnutrition and other serious complications.  Here at our Oyster Bay practice, we’re committed to educating our patients on the risks of periodontal disease and what they can do to prevent its harmful effects.

The best ways to stop periodontal disease before it starts is to practice diligent oral hygiene. That includes daily brushing and flossing, maintaining a sensible and healthy diet, reducing sugar, alcohol and tobacco, and staying current with biannual dental checkups.

It’s also important to be on the lookout for any warning signs that could indicate the early stages of periodontal disease, these include:

• Bleeding of the gums during or after brushing and flossing.


• Redness, swelling, soreness and discomfort that affect your gums on a regular basis.


• Gum recession and exposed portions of the tooth root


• Bad breath or a foul taste regardless of what you’ve recently eaten or even after you’ve brushed and rinsed.


• Loose or easily moveable teeth.


• Changes in bite alignment or the stability of prosthetic dental work

If you notice any of the above symptoms, please contact us promptly and arrange an appointment.

Source:

http://www.nidcr.nih.gov/DataStatistics/FindDataByTopic/GumDisease/PeriodontaldiseaseAdults20to64

Bleaching and Whitening

There’s a reason why we all want our smile to be just a little bit (or even a whole lot) brighter. A stunning while smile give us confidence. It makes us want to smile more.  A whiter smile also inspires us to take better care of our teeth.  And best of all, revealing a bright, happy smile spreads positivity and affects those around us for the better. Here at our practice, we offer Zoom bleaching and whitening to help our patients realize the effects of a brighter smile. We offer Zoom specifically as it’s a very simple and efficient way to achieve dramatic and resilient smile brightening results.

Zoom whitening is a one-time, chair side procedure that takes about an hour in total. It’s a non-invasive surface treatment that doesn’t involve any pain and gives you a chance to relax as you wait for Zoom to take effect.  The results amount to a shade improvement of up to ten shades, which can be maintained with diligent brushing and flossing, as regular oral care checkups.

If you’ve wanted to brighten your smile professional, our Zoom bleaching and whitening services are great reason to finally have your smile enhanced.  We invite you to visit us for a consultation and find out is this whitening and bleaching method is right for you.

Head and Neck Radiation and Impact on Dental Health

If you are to be treated with radiation for cancer of the head and neck, there are many things you should know regarding the effect on your dental health.

As radiation is so effective in eliminating malignant cancer cells and tumors, it can also damage healthy tissues that comprise your teeth, gums, salivary glands and jaw.  Subsequently, you may experience soreness, discomfort, dry mouth, tooth decay, reduction of taste receptors, jaw stiffness and other concerns. As you undergo and complete radiation treatments, you should rely on a prosthodontist to help assess, manage and treat your oral health.  Here at our practice, we’ve helped many patients maintain and restore their dental health as they treat and recover from head and neck cancer.

We offer a variety of preventative and restorative capabilities, as well as treatment experience and expertise, that’s needed to help you save and renew your smile. We also provide surgical and prosthetic options that have helped many head and neck cancer patients regain a real sense of recovery.

To learn how we can help you protect your oral health when undergoing head and neck radiation, we invite you to contact us through our website and arrange a consultation.  

Source: http://www.nidcr.nih.gov/OralHealth/Topics/CancerTreatment/HeadNeckRadiation.htm

Head and Neck Cancer

Cancers that affect the head and neck can have a serious effect on the oral and nasal cavities, the sinuses, throat and other vital areas.  We’ve treated many patients who have been affected by head and neck cancer and need specialized prosthetics as a result.  Two of the most common types of prosthetics we provide are custom facial prosthetics and custom intraoral prosthetics.

As head and neck cancer can affect the external tissues of the ears, nose and eyes, as well as the jaw, teeth, gums, pallet, prosthetic are often needed to restore the function and appearance of these features following treatment.  Creation and placement of these prosthetics is one of our specialties.

We helped many patients with complete prosthetics which contribute to full recovery from head and neck cancer.  Our objective is to help patients regain a sense of normalcy and renewal as they move beyond the effects of cancer.  If you or someone you know is in need of custom prosthetics due to injury or the effects of head and neck cancer, please call us directly and arrange a consultation.  Images of our custom facial prosthetic work and our custom intraoral prosthetic work can be found right on our website.    

Source: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Sites-Types/head-and-neck

Oral Cancer

Are you due for your oral cancer screening? If you’re over fifty, use tobacco products and have a family member who’s been diagnosed, you are probably due for an oral cancer screening.  Even if you have a clean bill of health, older adults should make oral cancer screenings a regular part of their yearly health exams.

Oral cancer can have a devastating effect, but if it’s caught in its earliest stages, chances of full recovery are significantly improved. We use a variety of comprehensive and advanced technology that gives us full insight into your oral health, and that includes detection of any abnormalities or problem areas that could easily go undetected.  If you’re not sure whether or not you’re due for an oral cancer screening or if you’re an adult who’s never had one, it’s better to yield on the side of caution. We look forward to your visit for a comprehensive exam and giving you the peace of mind and information you need to protect and preserve your health. 

Sleep Apnea

If something affects you when you’re alseep, how can you tell? That’s one of the problems with sleep apnea. Many people are affected and don’t even know it.  Even their sleep partners often mistake sleep apnea as snoring and don’t recognized the serious health effects until it’s too late. Fortunately, there are a few common signs and symptoms that may indicate you or someone you care about has sleep apnea.  If you notice any of the following, please be proactive in seeking a diagnosis and any necessary treatment:

• Daytime sleepiness, fatigue or regular drowsiness


• Dry mouth, sore throat and/or headaches that frequently occur upon waking


• Abrupt awakenings followed by shortness of breath, as well as gasping or choking while asleep


• Loud snoring, which remains the most prominent though easily dismissed sign of sleep apnea.

If left untreated, sleep apnea can amount to some serious health risks that include stroke and heart disease.  Thankfully, there are a variety of treatments, therapies and procedures that can correct sleep apnea and eliminate its harmful effects.  We can help sleep apnea patients here at our practice; so if you or someone you love may be affected, please call us for more information on how we can help.

Invisalign

Should you choose Invisalign? If you are in need of mild to moderate smile alignment, and you’re seeking a discreet way to correct cosmetic crowding, gaps or tooth misalignment, Invisalign may be a great choice for you. However, there are a few things to consider when it comes to clear tooth aligners:

• Invisalign takes some getting used to.  When you first wear your aligners, you’ll notice they don’t totally conform to your teeth. Even though they’re custom created for you, they are designed to gradually shift the alignment of your teeth. Each aligner is design to suit a projected smile design increment, so when you initially wear them they may feel snug or ill-fitting. That is inherent to the process and shouldn’t be cause for concern.

• You will need to remove your aligners when you eat or drink beverages that are hot, acidic or could potentially stain your tooth enamel. Drinking cool water with Invisalign is fine and actually quite beneficial for your teeth, but other beverages can stain the plastic of your aligner or get trapped between your tooth surface and the aligner, causing staining and decay.

• Invisalign aligners should be cleaned separately from your teeth and require a specific cleansing solution, in which the aligners are submerged. You should also keep a separate toothbrush exclusively for manual cleaning of your aligners.

• You can remove Invisalign for special events, but remember, if they aren’t on your teeth, they aren’t treating your teeth. Make sure you promptly return them to your smile when possible and wear them on an everyday basis.        

There are a number of other factors to keep in mind when you decide to try Invisalign, but they remain one of the most popular and convenient methods for discreetly correcting cosmetic misalignments.  The best way to determine if Invisalign is right for you is to visit for a complete consultation. We look for forward to seeing you and answering all of your Invisalign questions.