Author Archives: Sixth Avenue Dentistry

Crown Problems

If you have a crown on your tooth, you may periodically run into certain problems. Perhaps your crown hasn’t been properly fitted to your natural tooth structure, or maybe you have suffered some degree of decay or similar wear and tear that has compromised the integrity of your fixture. Fortunately, most problems with crowns are fairly easy to remedy.

One of the more common problems is sensitivity on the crowned tooth. You may only need to brush with a toothpaste designed for sensitive teeth. If your pain is limited to when you bite down, the problem may be that your crown is fitted too high up, and you should alert your dentist.

If your crown comes loose or falls off, you will want to bring it to your dentist as soon as possible. The delicate insides of your tooth are now fully exposed, inviting serious decay. If you cannot get to your dentist in short order, clean off your tooth and the crown and replace it with temporary tooth cement.

Is Your Tea Giving You Throat Cancer?

You’ve probably read a lot about the benefits of drinking tea. Indeed, most types of tea boast a long list of valuable health benefits. Knowing this, it will probably come as a surprise that you may also be increasing your risks of throat cancer with your daily tea time.

This information is coming to us from a study on esophageal cancer patients. It was found that those who claimed to regularly drink more than a liter of hot tea were more likely to suffer from the disease. The culprit appears to be the high temperature of the drink, which harms the delicate tissues of your throat and puts you at risk of developing malignant growths.

If you like drinking tea, there’s no reason that you can’t enjoy its benefits and simultaneously avoiding an increased cancer risk. All you need to do is watch the temperature of what you drink. Tea of above sixty five degrees is responsible for giving you an substantially higher risk, and tea over seventy degrees is even worse. To get your tea into the safe level, allow it to sit for at least four minutes after the water is done boiling. Meanwhile, be sure to have your regular checkups with 6th Avenue Dentistry in the South Seattle district to watch out for harmful developments in your mouth and throat.

Do I Need a Wisdom Tooth Extraction?

Not everybody needs to have their wisdom teeth extracted. Indeed, it’s not everybody who develops wisdom teeth at all. If you do develop them, they will generally erupt in early adulthood; if you don’t experience any new tooth eruptions during this period, you’re probably in the clear.

Even if you have wisdom teeth, you may not necessarily need to have them extracted. Some people are able to go their whole lives with a full set of wisdom teeth, never experiencing any special problems for them. Your wisdom teeth only need to be removed if they serve to crowd your other teeth, pushing them out of alignment or bringing about TMD’s. The average mouth is simply not big enough to accommodate wisdom teeth, but the occasional lucky individual has more space than the average person.

If our dentist determines that you require a wisdom tooth extraction, there is no reason to dread. Modern dental technology allows that such extractions are a reasonably simple and painless process. Talk to Sixth Avenue Dentistry for more information.

Warning Signs of TMD

Many people overlook the importance of their jawbone as it relates to their oral health. The two are very closely related, with problems in one often leading to problems in the other. This is why it is important to watch out for the warning signs of temporomandibular disorders, commonly known as TMD’s. TMD’s come in the form of a wide range of irregularities in the jaw bone, the warning signs of which can include any of the following:

  • Pain or tenderness in the area of your face, mandibular joint, neck, or shoulders, particularly when you are exercising your jaw
  • Bruxism, or tooth grinding
  • A decreased ability to open the mouth wide
  • Your jaw occasionally locks into position
  • Clicking, popping, or grating in the jaw joint when you open or close your mouth
  • Tired facial muscles
  • Dizziness
  • Toothaches
  • Headaches
  • Swelling on either side of your face
  • A change in the way your teeth fit together
  • 2828Earaches, tinnitus, or similar hearing problems

If you have reason to believe that you might have a TMD, consult our dentist at Sixth Avenue Dentistry.

Don’t Wait Until Your Tooth Hurts to See Your Dentist

Far too many people make the misguided assumption that they do not need to visit their dentist if they are not feeling pain in their teeth. Unfortunately, this is an assumption that can invite serious problems upon yourself.

One of the big problems with tooth decay is that it can penetrate fairly deep into your tooth before you start to feel anything. Bacteria only needs to get through the thin enamel layer for you to require dental work, and you likely won’t experience any pain until it passes all the way through the hard dentin and invades the fleshy pulp on the inside of the tooth. Once this happens, you have passed the point of needing a simple filling and will require a root canal.

It is only by coming in for regular dental checkups every six months that you can expect to discover tooth decay before it turns into a more painful and more costly problem. So, the next time you are due for a cleaning at our South Seattle dentist office, don’t make the mistake of putting it off.