Smile  Sense
Winter   2011
Smiles by design                                 Susan B. Dunn, DDS
1304 Buckley Road, Suite 203                                    Joan L. Armstrong, DDS
Syracuse, NY  13212
(corner of 7th North St & Buckley Road)
(315) 474-1711
National Children's Dental Health Month
Each February, the American Dental Association (ADA) sponsors National
Children's Dental Health Month to raise awareness about the importance
of oral health. NCDHM messages and materials have reached millions of
people in communities across the country.

Developing good habits at an early age and scheduling regular dental visits
helps children get a good start on a lifetime of healthy teeth and gums.
February
is
Children's
Dental Health Month
Are you prepared for a dental emergency?
Thousands of dental emergencies—from injuries to a painful, abscessed tooth—take place every day. Would you know what to do if
your child broke a tooth or had a tooth knocked out while playing outdoors? What if you had a bad toothache in the middle of the
night and couldn’t get to the dentist until the next day? Knowing what to do can lessen the pain and save a tooth that might otherwise
be lost.
Keep your dental office phone number and an emergency number where the dentist can be reached after hours with other
emergency numbers, such as your family doctor, and fire and police departments. Some families post these numbers on the
refrigerator or inside a kitchen cabinet door near the phone. Call the dentist immediately for instructions on how to handle a dental
emergency.
Toothache: Rinse the mouth with warm water to clean it out. Gently use dental floss or an interdental cleaner to remove any food or
other debris that may be caught between the teeth. Never put aspirin or any other painkiller against the gums near the aching tooth.
This could burn gum tissue. If the toothache persists, try to see the dentist. Don’t rely on painkillers. They may temporarily relieve
pain but your dentist should evaluate the condition.
Knocked-out (avulsed) tooth: Try to find the tooth! This may not be as easy as you think if the injury took place on a playground,
basketball court or while skateboarding, so try to stay calm. Hold the tooth by the crown and rinse the root in water if the tooth is
dirty. Don’t scrub it or remove any attached tissue fragments. If it’s possible, gently insert and hold the tooth in its socket while you
head to the dentist. If that’s not possible, put the tooth in a cup of milk and bring it to the dentist. Time is critical for successful
reimplantation, so try to get to your dentist immediately.
Broken tooth: Rinse your mouth with warm water to clean the area. Use cold compresses on the outside of the cheek to help reduce
the swelling.
Tongue or lip bites or wounds: Clean the area gently with a clean cloth and apply cold compresses to reduce any swelling. If the
bleeding can’t be controlled, go to a hospital emergency room or clinic. You may able to reduce bleeding from the tongue by pulling
it forward and using gauze to put pressure on the wound.
Objects caught between teeth: Try to gently remove the object with dental floss. Never use a sharp instrument to remove any object
that is stuck between your teeth. If you can’t dislodge the object with floss, contact your dentist.
Possible broken jaw: Apply cold compresses to control swelling. Get to the hospital emergency room immediately.
Sipping, Snacking and Tooth Decay
Many parents across the country will issue a common refrain at dinnertime tonight: ―You’d better eat that--it’s good for you!‖ There’
s another old favorite in the parental arsenal of dietary admonitions: ―Don’t eat that—it’ll rot your teeth!‖ Now more than ever, kids
are faced with a bewildering array of food choices -- from fresh produce to sugar-laden processed convenience meals and snack
foods. What children eat and when they eat it may affect not only their general health but also their oral health.
Americans are consuming foods and drinks high in sugar and starches more often and in larger portions than ever before. It’s clear
that ―junk foods and drinks gradually have replaced nutritious beverages and foods for many people. For example, the average
teenage boy in the U.S. consumes 81 gallons of soft drinks each year! Alarmingly, a steady diet of sugary foods and drinks can ruin
teeth, especially among those who snack throughout the day. Common activities may contribute to the tendency toward tooth decay.
These include ―grazing‖ habitually on foods with minimal nutritional value, and frequently sipping on sugary drinks.
When sugar is consumed over and over again in large, often hidden amounts, the harmful effect on teeth can be dramatic. Sugar on
teeth provides food for bacteria, which produce acid. The acid in turn can eat away the enamel on teeth.
Almost all foods have some type of sugar that cannot and should not be eliminated from our diets. Many of these foods contain
important nutrients and add enjoyment to eating. But there is a risk for tooth decay from a diet high in sugars and starches. Starches
can be found in everything from bread to pretzels to salad dressing, so read labels and plan carefully for a balanced, nutritious diet
for you and your kids.
Reduce your children’s risk of tooth decay:
- Sugary foods and drinks should be consumed with meals. Saliva production increases during meals and helps neutralize acid
production and rinse food particles from the mouth.
- Limit between-meal snacks. If kids crave a snack, offer them nutritious foods.
- If your kids chew gum, make it sugarless – Chewing sugarless gum after eating can increase saliva flow and help wash out food and
decay-producing acid.
- Monitor beverage consumption – Instead of soft drinks all day, children should also choose water and low-fat milk.
- Help your children develop good brushing and flossing habits.
- Schedule regular dental visits.
Oral Piercing: Not as safe as you think
Piercing, like tattooing, is just one of today’s popular forms of ―body art‖ and self-expression. Piercing may seem daring, cool and
totally safe because some celebrities use piercing to flaunt their particular style or attitude. But piercing the tongue, lips, cheeks or
uvula (the tiny tissue that hangs at the back of the throat) is not as safe as some would have you believe. That’s because the mouth’s
moist environment—home to huge amounts of breeding bacteria—is an ideal place for infection.
An oral piercing can interfere with speech, chewing or swallowing. That may seem like a mere inconvenience until you consider that
it may also cause:
- Excessive drooling (something you won’t see in hip fashion magazines!)
- Infection, pain and swelling
- Chipped or cracked teeth
- Injuries to the gums
- Damage to fillings
- Increased saliva flow
- Hypersensitivity to metals
- Scar tissue
- Nerve damage
These harmful effects can happen during the piercing, soon after, or even long after the procedure.
An infection can quickly become life threatening if it’s not treated promptly. For example, oral piercing carries a potential risk of
endocarditis, an inflammation of the heart valves or tissues. Bacteria can enter the bloodstream through the piercing site in the
mouth and travel to the heart, where it can colonize on heart abnormalities. This is a risk for people with heart conditions and, in
the worst of cases, results in death.
After a piercing the tongue may swell. There have been reports of swelling serious enough to block the airway. And it’s very possible
to puncture a nerve during a tongue piercing. If this happens, you may experience a ―numb‖ tongue—nerve damage that is
sometimes temporary, but can be permanent. The injured nerve may affect your sense of taste, or how you move your mouth. And
damage to the tongue’s blood vessels can cause serious blood loss.
In addition, piercing jewelry can sometimes cause allergic responses to the pierced site. The jewelry can even get in the way of
dental care by blocking x-rays.
Don’t pierce on a whim. The piercing will be an added responsibility to your life, requiring constant attention and upkeep. Talk to
your dentist for more information
Sippy Cups and Your Child’s Teeth
As soon as teeth appear in the mouth, decay can occur. One of the risk factors for early childhood caries (sometimes called baby
bottle tooth decay or nursing mouth syndrome) is frequent and prolonged exposure of a baby’s teeth to liquids, such as fruit juice,
milk or formula, which all contain sugar.
Tooth decay can occur when a baby is put to bed with a bottle. Infants should finish their naptime or bedtime bottle before going to
bed. Because decay can destroy the teeth of an infant or young child, you should encourage your children to drink from a cup by
their first birthdays.
Many training cups, also called sippy or tippy cups, are available in stores. Many are ―no spill‖ cups, which are essentially baby
bottles in disguise. ―No spill‖ cups include a valve beneath the spout to stop spills. However, cups with valves do not allow your
child to sip. Instead the child gets liquid by sucking on the cup, much like a baby bottle. This practice defeats the purpose of using a
training cup, as it prevents the child from learning to sip.
Don’t let your child carry the training cup around. Toddlers are often unsteady on their feet. They take an unnecessary risk if they
try to walk and drink at the same time. Falling while drinking from a cup has the potential to injure the mouth.
A training cup should be used temporarily. Once your child has learned how to sip, the training cup has achieved its purpose. It can
and should be set aside when no longer needed.
Tips
For sipping success, carefully choose and use a training cup. As the first birthday approaches, encourage your child to drink from a
cup. As this changeover from baby bottle to training cup takes place, be very careful:
- what kind of training cup you choose
- what goes into the cup
- how frequently your child sips from it
- that your child does not carry the cup around
Talk to your dentist for more information. If your child has not had a dental examination, schedule a ―well baby checkup‖ for his
or her teeth. The American Dental Association says that it is beneficial for the first dental visit to occur within six months of the
appearance of the first tooth, and no later than the child’s first birthday.
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