Category: Ask a Dentist

How Does Sleep Apnea Work?

Apnea is a temporary cessation of breathing for at least 10 seconds. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is the more common form of apnea that occurs when the throat muscles relax, causing the breathing to completely stop or reduce to 10 percent of the normal level. Because one cannot get enough air, the oxygen level in…


Snoring, Bad Breath, May Be Signs of Foundational Health Issues

When you sleep, the muscles in your tongue, throat, and soft palate (the roof of your mouth) all relax. Snoring is the hoarse or unmelodious sound that occurs when air flows past relaxed tissues in the throat, causing rattling and vibration of these tissues as you breathe, due to the obstructed air movement. Of the…


What Are Dental Implants?

Modern-day dental implants were developed in 1952 by a Swedish orthopedic surgeon, Professor Per-Ingvar Brånemark. He found that titanium could be integrated into living bone with a very high degree of predictability and did not seem to suffer long-term soft tissue inflammation or ultimate rejection. He discovered at his laboratory in Sweden that titanium integrates…


The Most Common Untreated Dental Disease May Be Linked to Cardiovascular Disease, Others

Untreated dental caries is the most prevalent condition worldwide, affecting 2.4 billion people and 32 percent of the population. Why?  It’s because we just love those sweet, sticky eats and drinks. It would not be so bad if we immediately rinsed with water to help neutralize the resulting acids, but of course we never do…


What to Do in Case of Dental Emergencies

Dental emergencies cover a wide spectrum of events. Some situations are more urgent than others, and it doesn’t help that it is difficult to see inside the mouth to localize the site of any problem. In an out-of-hours situation, and if one does not have one’s own dentist, particularly if there is pain and increasing…


Ask a Dentist: Tooth Whitening

Back in the 1970s, orthodontists were seeing that some of their patients who were wearing braces had very poor oral hygiene and thus had periodontal (gum) issues—the gums were swollen and inflamed. To help with this condition, the orthodontists would apply low doses of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in its known capacity as a wound cleansing…


Ask a Dentist: Veneers

A veneer is like a false fingernail, but instead of enhancing the top surface of a finger, a veneer is bonded onto the front surface of a tooth. Preferentially, veneers are attached on to the enamel (outside) surface of a tooth. Full preparation of a tooth is not needed, and in many cases, no preparation…


Dental Crowns: From Alloys to Zirconia

My front tooth is broken, discolored, looks different than the tooth beside it—it just doesn’t look nice. It looks like you need a crown or a veneer. By the 1960s, it became increasingly possible to restore teeth to highly aesthetic renditions of the originals. As with an inlay (mentioned in a previous article), a dental…


A Rundown on Dental Fillings

In the past, moviegoers hanging onto the edge of their seats during some climactic moment, watching their leading actor shout out at the top of his lungs, might have found themselves somewhat jarred from the immersion when the close-up revealed a mouth full of black fillings. Perhaps such details were overlooked, though, since many in…


Ask a Dentist: Causes and Cures for Shrinking Gums

A lingering glance in the bathroom mirror may bring you the unsettling realization that your gums are shrinking or red, or that your teeth are longer. What’s going on? Truth be told, it didn’t happen overnight. The condition may have been quietly developing for years, but now it’s clearly visible. Someone may have said something…