Tooronga Family Dentistry in Glen Iris

Archives for February 2015

The advantages of Sleep Dentistry.

Having dental treatment while you are asleep, also known as Dental Sedation, Sleep Sedation, and Sedation Dentistry , has several advantages:

  1. A reduction in the awareness, which allows for more extended treatment to be performed at once, without experiencing any of it.
  2. No recollection of the treatment which allows for more complex procedures to be performed like wisdom tooth extraction or implant placement.
  3. It alleviates the fear, anxiety and discomfort that may be associated with the treatment.
  4. It allows for treatment to children, autistic spectrum disorder or those with functional behavior problems.
  5. While having the dental procedure you are unaware of the sight, smell and sounds of the treatment.

To achieve the right level of sedation a special dental anesthetist provides and monitors the patient constantly. Our dental anesthetist has 2 years full time training in medical anesthesia and as such is also trained in general anesthesia he is board certified in dental anesthesia in North America, holding both a Diploma from the National Dental Board of Anesthesia and a Fellowship in dental anesthesia from the American Dental Society of anesthesia.

The treatment provided during the dental sedation is at the same meticulous standards that I provide always and the dedicated anesthetist ensures that the sedation is safe, leading to a comfortable and successful outcome.

If you have any questions or would like to make an appointment please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Nutritive and Non nutritive sweeteners and your teeth.

In order to reduce the caloric intake, many people prefer to use non-nutritive sweeteners instead of sugar. One of the most common sweeteners is aspartame, which can be found in diet soft drink, food and pharmaceutical products.   They are used in very small quantities in foods and beverages and contribute very little to no energy to the food.

In addition to non-nutritive sweeteners, there are also nutritive sweetener and are often confused with the previously mentioned non-nutritive sweeteners. However, in contrast to non-nutritive sweeteners, their relative sweetness is equal or lower than that of sugar. A commonly used nutritive sweetener is xylitol, and replaces sugar in baked goods, toothpaste, candy and sugar-free gum.  The energy values for nutritive sweeteners are lower than for sugar ranging from 1.6 to 3.0 Kcal per gram.  These sweeteners are useful as an alternative to sugar for people with diabetes as they provoke a much smaller increase in blood glucose and insulin compared with ingestion of glucose.

The non nutritive sweeteners and the nutritive sweeteners are beneficial in tooth decay prevention. The reason is that bacteria cannot break these products and use the byproducts to form a glue that helps them stick to your teeth or to form acid which breaks down the tooth once the bacteria are attached to it. The addition of sweeteners to chewing gum improves their decay prevention properties, since chewing stimulates the secretion of saliva that neutralizes the acids produced by bacteria.

In conclusion sweeteners are better for your teeth and your diet too.

I hear loud noises when I eat.

Next to our ear we have a very special and unique joint, called the Temperoromandibular joint or TMJ, that connects the jaw and the skull. It is unique both in it’s structure and function. The way the joint works is by a combination of 2 movements, a rotation which is the common movement to all other joints and a sliding movement which allows for the jaw to open further. For this second part of the joint movement our body had developed a special piece of tissue called the “disk” which is unique to the TMJ.  The disk is there to facilitate the sliding movement of the jaw. When thing go wrong in the joint, we have Temperoromandibular disorders which can originate from either muscle or joint problems and they manifest themselves with headaches, pain around the external ear, neck pains, joint clicking that in severe cases can result in jaws that ‘lock’ in the open or closed position.

At times we hear, a click or a scraping noise when we yawn or chew, the reason for it is some derangement in the position or structure of the disk. The closeness between the joint and our ear magnifies the noise several times, so it feels like everybody can hear it, but usually they cannot.

The treatment for the jaw will depend on what is wrong in the jaw. A good advice is to lessen the load on the joint by:

  • Eating soft foods.
  • Stop or reduce chewing gum.
  • Avoid wide yawning, singing and biting your nails.
  • Try and stop clenching your jaw or grinding your teeth. At times this is difficult since most of us do it while sleeping or concentrating in something else.
  • Massage your affected muscles and apply a heated pad to increase blood flow to the affected muscles.

If there is pain in the joint or the condition persists please contact us to have a thorough examination.