A Quick Guide to Management of Dental Pain

Everyone (dentists included!) has experienced dental pain at one point or another in life. If you're lucky, your friendly neighborhood dentist may just be one phone call away. But what happens if your tooth starts to hurt at midnight on a long weekend and you can not see a dentist right away?

If in addition to tooth pain you are also experiencing facial swelling, fever, and/or difficulty in swallowing or breathing, you need to go to hospital emergency right away for treatment. Though rare, dental infection can lead to airway obstruction which can be fatal.

If swelling and fever are absent and all you have is a sore tooth, there are a couple of steps you can take at home to alleviate the pain. Depending on the etiology of pain, hot or cold packs on the outside of the face or holding hot or cold water in your mouth may help. Try either hot or cold and see which one works. If both hot and cold make the pain worse, make sure your foods and fluids are lukewarm instead. It is very important to keep hydrated and take in food despite the toothache so your body can keep fighting the infection and also you will be less likely to feel unwell due to low blood sugar when you are at the dental office.

One other important aid is pain medication. It is often easier to control pain at the onset of pain rather than taking the medication only when you can not tolerate the pain any longer.

The first medication of choice would be some type of anti-inflammatory or NSAIDS, such as ibuprofen (e.g. Advil, Motrin) since most dental pains are inflammatory in origin. If you are unable to take NSAID due to history of GI bleeding or allergy, acetaminophen with or without codeine may be the second choice.

If you have any concerns regarding potential allergies to medications, you can ask your doctor for tests. We all know it is not easy to find a family doctor, but the newly opened Oasis Medical Centre is right across the street from Metro Dental Care and they may be accepting new patients.

If your dentist or doctor has prescribed an antibiotic for you, don't expect it to work right away. Depending on the type of antibiotics prescribed, it can take up to 48 hours to kick in.

At the end of the day, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Catching a potential problem with a tooth and treating it early will help you avoid that midnight toothache.

Removing Your Wisdom Teeth: It could be a smart move!!

Wisdom teeth removal is often a rite of passage for teens and young adults. Older individuals are often surprised when dentists suggest their wisdom teeth to be removed because "they have never bothered me!". However, regardless of age, there are many reasons why wisdom teeth may warrant removal and they can be either roughly categorized as
1. Necessary: Wisdom teeth MUST be removed to restore health. Existing wisdom teeth may be decayed or the gum tissues around the teeth may be inflamed (pericoronitis), or the orientation of the wisdom teeth may be causing damage to adjacent tooth or periodontia.

2. Preventive: The removal of wisdom teeth will prevent development of serious pathology in the future. This is particularly true for wisdom teeth that have only extruded partly through gum tissue or partially impacted due to risk for pericoronitis. However even if the wisdom teeth have fully erupted, if one can not brush or floss them properly, removal may still be considered to prevent future decay.

Early removal of wisdom teeth for valid reasons is recommended because a younger body simply heals faster than an older body. Further, the extraction will be simpler for both the dentist and patient if done before the roots of the teeth are fully formed.

Before wisdom teeth extraction a panoramic radiograph is taken to evaluate tooth morphology and its orientation. The dentist will also perform an intraoral exam to assess access to surgical site and discuss with you the benefits and possible risks of the procedure. Different sedation options may also be offered.

The Mayo Clinic has good information on this subject for readers interested in more details.

Visit Our Brand-New Website!!

Apologies to anyone who had trouble accessing our main website at www.metrodentalcare.ca

We had changed our hosting service as well as updated the looks of our pages. The navigation and content remain relatively the same but we are looking forward to updating the 'Clinic' section very soon when construction has progressed more.

Meanwhile please check for more oral-health related postings here! The next posting will be focused on 'Wisdom Teeth'.

Came across this article in the news another day. Although it's not strictly related to teeth, as dentists we are also concerned with the health of all oral tissues and their impact on systemic health. For instrance, research has shown that individuals with gum disease (periodontitis) are twice as likely to suffer from coronary artery disease.

This article explores the link between musical instruments, oral bacteria, and health:

Article written by Nancy Shute

Playing music in the band is good for kids, but maybe not so much if that
clarinet is a cesspool of bacteria and fungi.

 

That's the provocative suggestion from the Oklahoma State University for
Health Sciences, where researchers found germs galore growing on brass and wind
instruments that were used in high school band programs.

The researchers in Oklahoma City Tulsa swabbed 13 brass and wind
instruments, then rubbed the swabs on petri dishes and waited to see what would
grow. They found 295 different bacteria as well as yeasts and molds. The parts
that musicians put in their mouths were more contaminated than the rest of the
instruments, and the two clarinets showed more contamination than the other
instruments. The results were published in the latest issue of
General Dentistry.
OK, that's gross. But does having bacteria in your bassoon really
pose a health risk?

Yes, says Thomas Glass, a dentist and professor at Oklahoma State who was lead author of the
study. In the past he has tested for pathogens on toothbrushes, dentures, and
athletic mouthguards. So he wasn't too surprised to find gunk growing on band
instruments. "The bacteria can produce local infections in the mouth, in the
gastrointestinal tract, and in the respiratory tract," Glass tells Shots. Molds
can cause allergic reactions, and skin infections are a risk, too, he says.
Glass's study didn't look to see if the high schoolers who played these
grubby instruments had health problems. And there's precious little evidence of
rampant infections associated with practicing "Stars and Stripes Forever."
But a few pulmonologists have reported patients coming in with lung problems.
A letter from 1988 in the journal Chest told the tale of a 67-year-old saxophone
player with a cough and shortness of breath. He was diagnosed with hypersensitivity
pulmonitis from candida, and it turned out the saxophone mouthpiece was contaminated with that fungus. The symptoms disappeared after the musician started washing the instrument's
mouthpiece with soap and water.
More recently, a 48-year-old French saxophonist with inflamed lungs from a
moldy saxophone also got a write-up in Chest. In the same issue last September, a pulmonologist at the University of Connecticut Health Center reported on a 35-year-old
professional trombone player who had been suffering from a cough and
shortness of breath for 15 years. Those symptoms cleared up when the musician
started cleaning his instrument with rubbing alcohol.
Now, we have to point out that the General Dentistry study was sponsored by Dr. Lorenzo Lepore founder of Encore Etc., Inc. It turns out that Lepore is a dentist, and Encore Etc., Inc. is a company he founded to sterilize musical instruments.
When Shots asked Glass if he saw a conflict of interest in that funding,
particularly when he recommends sterilizing instruments with ethylene oxide, the
method used by Encore Etc., Glass said:

We are independent of any conflict of interest. All we have to do in the
article is say how we're funded. That has no impact on us in terms of our
findings.

Ethylene oxide is used to sterilize medical instruments, and it does a very
good job. It's also pretty toxic to humans. So we don't think that you're going
to be cleaning your mellophone at home with this stuff.
Glass does say that instrument cleaning products available at music stores
are probably enough to keep the microbes at bay. (Thanks to the magic of the
Internet, Shots just learned how to give a trombone a nice bath. All you need is soap, a bathtub and some fluffy towels.)
Shots can't help but ask if the good doctor isn't being a wee bit alarmist.
"Alarmist? We worry about that, we always worry about being alarmist," he tells
us. "It's not going to hurt anybody to break down their instrument once a week
and clean it." That, he says, is preventive health.
"Playing a musical instrument has a certain level of hazard," Glass says.
"You can minimize the hazard by being fastidious."

Mouthguards: Life-savers for your pearly whites

Sports is an important part of life for many Canadians. Here in Calgary we are blessed with our proximity to the Rockies and the many types of outdoor sports the open outdoors offers. However, while head injuries have often received media attention and brought on awareness of helmets, dental trauma is often overlooked, even though the health and financial consequences are no small matter. 

Dental trauma is one of the most serious oral health problems in active children and adolescents. One of the most effective ways of preventing dental trauma during physical activity is through a dental mouth guard or sports guard.

Mouth Guards can help prevent:

1. Fractured teeth or jaws
2. Lacerations to the lips and tongue
3. Damage to the bone surrounding teeth

Custom vs Over-the-counter Sports Guards

Over the counter sportsguards purchased in pharmacies are often lower in cost than custom sports guards, but are generally regarded as less effective by oral health professionals. These sports guards usually don’t fit well and therefore tend not to be worn when injuries occur. It's like having a pair of pants that's too tight or loose- it will likely be left in the corner of the closet.

In contrast, custom-made sports guards offer the greatest comfort, fit, durability, and protection against dental injuries. Because it is tailored to your teeth forms and mouth shape, you and/or your children will find it to be non-obtrusive wearing the guards during sporting activities.We can also customize the guard with various colors and logos of your choice!

Who should wear a Sports / Mouth Guard

People who participate in contact sports, in activities where there is a risk of a fall or contact with other players or equipment. People usually accept football or hockey as one of the more riskier sports for injuries to the mouth, yet approximately half of all sports related mouth injuries occur in basketball and baseball.

Mouth guard Storage

After wearing the mouth guard, the mouth guard should be rinsed thoroughly with cold or luke warm water. It should be stored in a plastic container to avoid damage. The use of hot water may distort the mouth guard.


 
Mouth Guards are Cool! 













Missing Teeth...maybe not so cool...