Sheridan Dentists Explain Other Reasons for Tooth Loss

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pretty girl covering mouthRecently, we discussed why severe gum disease is the leading cause of adult tooth loss, as well as the destruction of your smile’s foundation. However, gum disease isn’t the only manner by which one or more of your teeth can leave the nest. To help you preserve a whole and healthy smile, your Sheridan dentist, Dr. Coon, explains a few other common reasons behind adult tooth loss.

Extreme Tooth Decay

While gum disease attacks your gums and jawbone, tooth decay directly attacks the structures of your teeth and leads to holes called cavities, which continue to grow until treated. Typically, tooth decay can be treated by removing the decayed structure to halt the spread of infection, then replacing the extracted tooth structure with a dental filling. In some cases, severe decay can render your tooth useless, and if left untreated, your tooth can fall out or require extraction. (more…)

filed under: Patient Education, Tooth Loss

82801 Dentist: Try This Homecare Quiz

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toothbrush and dental flossMaintaining thorough and consistent homecare can do wonders for your mouth. By brushing and flossing correctly, you can keep harmful bacteria from damaging your teeth and gums, keeping your smile healthy and functional. Therefore, to help you maintain your oral health, your 82801 dentist, Dr. Coon, has created this quiz to sharpen your homecare skills. (more…)

filed under: Healthy Living, Oral Health

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Sheridan Dentist Discusses Teeth Stains and Whitening

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smiling couple white teethA beautiful smile can light up a room because it is, well, bright. Thus, if you see yellow or dull teeth when you look in the mirror, chances are that you don’t feel your smile is capable of lighting up a room. Thankfully, cosmetic dentistry has developed teeth whitening treatment, which can remove stains and lighten teeth several shades. But did you know that teeth whitening is ineffective against a certain type of stain that discolors teeth? Read below as your Sheridan dentist, Dr. Coon, takes a closer look at teeth stains and shares the solution to stains that cannot be lifted with professional whitening treatment. (more…)

filed under: Cosmetic Dentistry, Teeth Whitening

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Sheridan Dentist: 38 Percent of Children Grind Their Teeth

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sleeping child with animalHave you ever heard the sound of teeth grinding against one another? It can be disturbing, especially if the teeth in question are part of a smile you adore. But did you know that children rarely receive treatment for bruxism (teeth grinding)? It’s not an oversight either. Below, your Sheridan dentist, Dr. Coon, explains why bruxism treatment is rarely necessary in young children. (more…)

filed under: Family Dentistry, Preventive Dentistry

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Dental Cleanings in Sheridan: More Important than You May Know

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checking teethWhile most people are aware that brushing and flossing your teeth twice a day is vital to keeping your smile clean, but how often do you visit your dentist for a regular dental checkup and cleaning? Your daily hygiene ritual is fairly simple and can be practiced in a matter of minutes every day, but visiting the dentist’s office every six months may seem like more of a chore. Your Sheridan dentist, Dr. Coon, explains why your dental cleaning is also vital to your smile’s health, and why you shouldn’t ignore professional maintenance when caring for your oral health.

What Your Toothbrush Can’t Do for You

The point of brushing and flossing your teeth is to control the buildup of dental plaque, which contains over 600 different kinds of oral bacteria. Some of these germs produce acid that erodes your tooth enamel (the strong protective layer around your teeth), and others can irritate and inflame your gum tissue, paving the way for gum disease. While brushing and flossing is essential, however, it is not full-proof, and missing a spot of plaque now and then is natural. After about 48 hours, dental plaque calcifies (hardens) into tartar, which is more stubborn than plaque and cannot be removed with your toothbrush and floss. (more…)

filed under: Oral Health, Preventive Dentistry

The Beauty of Dental Implants, with Your Sheridan Dentists

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beauty smileThere are a number of options for restoring your smile after losing one or more teeth, each designed according to the amount of teeth lost and their pattern within your mouth. However, dental crowns, bridges, and partial/full dentures focus only on replacing the crowns, or visible portions, of your teeth, which is necessary to once again complete your smile, but does not effectively address the destruction that follows the loss of healthy teeth. Your Sheridan dentist, Dr. Coon, has extensive experience restoring our patients’ smiles after they’ve suffered tooth loss, and explains why dental implants are a must-have for eligible patients who need to replace one or more teeth.

The Discrete Destruction of Tooth Loss

While manmade replacement teeth offer a variety of anchors, including intricate frames and powerful dental adhesives, your natural teeth provide the sturdiest base of all—healthy tooth roots, which are embedded in your jawbone. (more…)

filed under: Dental Implants, Restorative Dentistry

Porcelain Veneers—A New Face for Your Smile in Sheridan

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attractive young woman with a confident smileYour smile is one of the most dominant features of your face. It plays an important role in first impressions, and can significantly impact your self-confidence, for better or worse. Luckily, like other aspects of your appearance, you can tweak your smile’s visage to improve its aesthetic value and your pride in showing it. When it comes to giving your smile a makeover, however, limiting the disturbance to your healthy tooth structures is vital to maintaining your good oral health in the process. To this end, porcelain veneers provide the optimal solution in many smile makeover cases that involve multiple tooth blemishes on more than one tooth. Your Sheridan cosmetic dentist, Dr. Donald Coon, explains the diversity of porcelain veneers, and why they’re ideal for providing your smile with the face it deserves.

What are Porcelain Veneers?

In the quest to provide dental restorations and replacements that closely resemble the real thing, dental porcelain is perhaps one of the most valuable resources. Used for a variety of treatments, including dental crowns and dentures, porcelain is also used to create dental veneers. Essentially thin wafers of dental porcelain, veneers are small shells that are custom-designed to match the contours of your smile, and the porcelain is specially layered to mimic the light-reflecting properties of natural tooth enamel. Porcelain veneers are bonded to the front surfaces of your teeth and can simultaneously cover a variety of cosmetic blemishes, including severe tooth stains, unsightly chips, odd spaces, and slightly misaligned teeth, among others. (more…)

filed under: Cosmetic Dentistry, Porcelain Veneers

Sheridan Dentist Explains How Gum Disease Leads to Tooth Loss

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covering mouthIf asked, many people might answer that tooth decay is the leading cause of adult tooth loss. It would be a logical assumption, considering over 90% of adults in America have been affected by cavities in at least one of their permanent teeth. However, they’d be wrong—more adults lose their teeth to aggressive gum disease than any other cause, although fewer people are affected by it (about 80%) than tooth decay. Your Sheridan dentist, Dr. Donald Coon, explains how gum disease works to destroy your smile’s foundation and your ability to retain your natural teeth.

Your Smile’s Foundation Under Siege

While tooth decay attacks your teeth and gum disease afflicts your gums and jawbone, both diseases begin with the silent but destructive accumulation of dental plaque—the sticky substance that you can sometimes find on the surfaces of your teeth and along your gum line. (more…)

filed under: Gum Disease, Patient Education

Sheridan General Dentist—Weird Human Tongue Facts

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whoa tongueDo you brush and floss your teeth at least twice a day? Do you include your tongue during these rituals? Most people think first of their teeth and gums when contemplating their oral health, but your tongue is also a vital part of your mouth’s health and function. It helps you enunciate your words clearly, and move food to the back of your mouth for swallowing. Then again, not everything pertaining to the human tongue is of vital importance, even if they are interesting. Your Sheridan general dentist, Dr. Coon, explores some of amusing, but lesser-known, facts about the human tongue.

What You Don’t Need to Know About the Human Tongue

  • Your tongue is often hailed as the strongest muscle in your body. Technically, however, it’s a group of muscles, which work without the assistance of bones (a unique structure called a “muscular hydrostat”). An elephant’s trunk and an octopus’ tentacles are other examples of muscular hydrostats. (more…)

filed under: Fun Facts, Patient Education

Learn How Invisalign Clear Braces Can Improve Your Smile in Sheridan

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pretty young woman inserting clear alignerHow would you like a straighter smile? Many older teens and adults are dissatisfied with crooked teeth, but are hesitant to undergo traditional orthodontic treatment to correct them, which involves a network of metal braces connected by metal wire. While the aesthetic concern is understandable, the importance of straight teeth to the function of your smile should trump any potential embarrassment you may feel about wearing braces. Nevertheless, knowing that your teeth should be straight doesn’t always prevent the negative effect braces can have on your social and professional confidence. Luckily, you no longer have to choose between crooked teeth and conspicuous metal braces—with Invisalign clear braces from your Sheridan dentist, Dr. Coon, you can straighten your smile without announcing your treatment to the world.

The Science Behind Invisalign Clear Braces

Traditional braces use brackets that are connected by wires to control the prescribed movement of your teeth. Some innovative orthodontic treatments utilize white brackets and wire that blend in with the color of your teeth, making them unnoticeable from a distance. Invisalign clear braces, however, eschews the philosophy of bracket-and-wire apparatuses and instead utilizes a series of clear acrylic aligners that fit snugly over your teeth. Each successive aligner gently forces your teeth a step closer towards their desired positions, and advancing your treatment simply requires changing your clear aligner. (more…)

filed under: Invisalign, Patient Education