Television Host Nancy O’Dell Provides Advice for New Mothers
When her daughter Ashby was born in 2007, Nancy O’Dell was overjoyed; but she found the experience of pregnancy to be anxiety-provoking. O’Dell is host of the popular entertainment news show Entertainment Tonight.
After her baby was born she compiled her memories and thoughts into a book for first-time pregnant mothers. The book, “Full of Life: Mom to Mom Tips I Wish Someone Had Told Me When I Was Pregnant,” covers a wide range of topics — including oral health during pregnancy.
“While my dental health has always been relatively normal, pregnancy did cause me some concern about my teeth and gums. With my dentist’s advice and treatment, the few problems I had were minimized,” O’Dell told Dear Doctor magazine. An example of her experience is a craving for milk that started at about the time the baby’s teeth began to form. She felt that her body was telling her to consume more calcium.
As often happens with pregnant mothers, she developed sensitive gums and was diagnosed with “pregnancy gingivitis,” the result of hormonal changes that increase blood flow to the gums.
“I love to smile,” said O’Dell, “and smiles are so important to set people at ease, like when you walk into a room of people you don’t know. When you genuinely smile you’re able to dissolve that natural wall that exists between strangers.”
If you would like more information on how we can address your problems with sleep apnea, please contact us for a consultation.
Brushing and Flossing – Two Key Elements to Avoiding Dental Disease
We humans have been cleaning our teeth for millennia. While the tools and substances have changed (we don’t use twigs or pumice anymore), the reasons haven’t: we want a nice, fresh smile and a clean-feeling mouth.
Objectively, though, oral hygiene has one primary purpose — to remove dental plaque, the whitish film of bacteria that grows on unclean tooth surfaces and at the gum line. Removing this decay-causing film can drastically reduce your risk of dental disease.
Effective oral hygiene depends on two primary tasks: brushing and flossing. You should perform these tasks at least once (flossing) or twice (brushing) in a 24-hour period. Brushing involves a simple technique. You hold your toothbrush (a well-designed, multi-tufted brush) in your fingertips with the same pressure as you would a pen or pencil. You then gently scrub all of the tooth surfaces starting at the gum line, holding the brush at a 45-degree. “Gently” is the key word here: it’s possible to damage your tooth and gum surfaces by brushing too vigorously.
While brushing seems easier for people to fit into their daily routine, flossing seems to be harder. It’s just as important, though, because over half of plaque accumulation occurs between teeth, in areas where brushing can miss. Like brushing, flossing isn’t difficult to do. Holding a strip of floss taut by your fingers between both hands, and gently slipping the floss between your teeth you form a “C” shape around each tooth surface as you apply pressure onto the one surface you are cleaning. Gently move the floss up and down for three or four strokes or until you hear a squeaky clean sound (that’s when you know the surface is clean). Then you go to the other tooth surface by lifting the floss above the gum line so that you don’t damage the gum tissue in between the teeth.
You should also schedule regular checkups and cleanings with our office to supplement your daily routine. Professional cleanings remove any hidden plaque that brushing and flossing may have missed. A checkup also gives us a chance to evaluate how well your hygiene program is progressing. Our partnership in proper oral hygiene can make all the difference in you avoiding tooth decay and other dental diseases.
If you would like more information on proper oral hygiene, please contact us for a consultation.
Matthew Lewis’s Metamorphosis
Remember Matthew Lewis? You’ve seen him in all of the Harry Potter movies, where he played the bumbling Neville Longbottom: a pudgy, teenage wizard-in-training whose teeth could best be described as… dodgy. We won’t spoil the movie by telling you what happens to him in the end — but in real life, let’s just say his awkward phase is over. Today, he looks more like a young Ryan Gosling. How did this transformation happen?
Well, in part it was some “Hollywood magic” that made his teeth look worse in the films than they really were. But Lewis acknowledges that he also had cosmetic dental work performed. If you’ve ever considered getting a smile makeover yourself, you may wonder: What kinds of “dental magic” might it take to change an awkward grin into a red-carpet smile? Here are a few of the treatments we might utilize.
Orthodontics
It’s possible to correct tooth crowding, protrusion, gaps between teeth, and many other bite problems with orthodontic appliances like braces or clear aligners. While some may think orthodontics is just for teens, that isn’t so — you’re never too old to get the smile you’ve always wanted! In fact, right now about one in five orthodontic patients is an adult.
Teeth Whitening
This is a popular (and surprisingly affordable) option that can effectively lighten your teeth by six shades or more. We can do in-office whitening for the fastest results, or prepare a take-home whitening kit with a custom-made tray to fit your teeth perfectly and a supply of the proper bleaching solution. How well it will work for you (and how long it will last) depends on various factors, including the original cause of the discoloration, and your preferences for foods and beverages (such as coffee or red wine) that may cause stains.
Porcelain Veneers
Sometimes, even professional bleaching isn’t enough to get the kind of permanent, “Hollywood white” smile you’d like; that’s where porcelain veneers come in. By placing a fingernail-thin layer of ceramic over the tooth’s enamel, veneers offer a permanent, pearly white finish that looks just like your natural teeth — only more dazzling! Veneers, long the first choice of celebrities, are gaining popularity with plenty of “regular” folks.
Tooth Restorations
This category covers a wide variety of different methods and materials — like cosmetic bonding, crowns, bridges, and dental implants — which we use to repair or replace teeth that are damaged or missing. Beginning with the simple repair of small chips or cracks with tooth-colored resins, we can progress to more permanent crown restorations when more of the tooth structure needs replacement. To restore missing teeth, we have the option of using the tried-and-true bridge — or, the current gold standard in tooth replacement: the lifelike, permanent dental implant.
Of course, this is just a bare outline of the many tools and techniques cosmetic dentistry offers. We would be happy to talk with you about which ones are right in your individual situation. Will a smile makeover land you a red-carpet role? Maybe… but one thing is for sure: It will help you get the smile youâ??ve always wanted.
If you would like more information on how we can address your problems with sleep apnea, please contact us for a consultation.
Dr. Nawar Sileewa D.D.S (The Tooth Booth) 32560 Utica Road Fraser , MI 48026
(586) 293-8530 
