Starting in 2007, when the first e-cigarette was introduced in America, the claim made by e-cigarette manufacturers has been that vaping was a harmless alternative to cigarette smoking, and that was a claim that intuitively made sense. The American Lung Association says that the average cigarette contains 600 ingredients which, when burned, create more than 7,000 chemicals, many of which are cancer-causing or toxic. Surely, e-cigarettes had to be less dangerous than that.
How To Safely Whiten Teeth
Home teeth whitening can be done in a number of ways:
- The whitening product is placed in a plastic mouthguard or tray that fits over the teeth, allowing the teeth to soak in the whitener.
- The whitener is contained in an adhesive strip that sticks to the surface of the teeth.
- Whiteners, in the form of a thick gel, can be painted on the teeth.
Over 50? See How Bone Health Effects Oral Health
Osteoporosis is one of the most common problems for adults over 50. According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF), half of all adults age 50 and older either have osteoporosis or have low bone density and should be concerned with their bone health.
Give Kids a Great Smile for the New School Year
Each year as kids head back to school, parents do everything they can to be certain their children are prepared for the upcoming year. To ensure a child’s general health, some schools require physical examinations prior to the start of school. Some require proof that children are current on all immunizations and booster shots. Some require vision and hearing tests. No parent would minimize the importance of a child starting the school year in the best physical shape possible. And yet, some parents overlook the importance of ensuring a child’s good oral health as the academic year begins.
We’re Open and Can’t Wait to See You!
While these continue to be somewhat difficult times, the office of Dr. Brei is happily – and safely – returning to normal.
Did you know that our office has been open for emergencies throughout the COVID-19 pandemic? We’ve been here, standing by to help all those with any type of oral issues. In preparing the office for emergency work, we created a number of procedures to keep our patients and our staff as safe as possible. As we re-open, we will maintain those same safeguards so that everyone visiting Dr. Brei’s office feels confident that their well being is our first priority. To maximize everyone’s safety, we’ve put in place the following procedures:
Good Oral Health is on the Tip of Your Tongue
If you have kids, you may want to share this fascinating list of animal-tongue facts:
- An anteater’s tongue is two feet long and a half-inch wide
- A chameleon’s tongue is nearly twice as long as its body and moves at 13 miles-per-hour
- A snake’s forked tongue collects airborne molecules that tell the snake the direction of prey
- A blue whale’s tongue can weigh up to 2.7 tons—as much as a full-grown elephant
- A cat’s tongue has backward-facing barbs to help separate meat from bone
- A dog’s tongue can keep it cool when it pants, as moving air evaporates moisture on the tongue, lowering the blood’s temperature
The human tongue by comparison is pretty boring, quietly moving around in our mouths for our entire lives. Yet—unless we accidentally bite it—we probably never think about it.
The Best and Worst Beverages for Your Teeth
We think about beverages a lot during the summer when we’re hot and thirsty, but we should drink fluids all year round. In the summer, we’ll sometimes guzzle anything that’s handy, just to quench our thirst. Other times of the year, we can be a little more thoughtful about our choice of beverages, so maybe January is an ideal time to discuss beverages and their effect on teeth. That way, when summer arrives, we’ll all be in the habit of drinking fluids that can benefit us, but not harm our teeth.
How to Prevent Baby Bottle Tooth Decay
Congratulations! Your baby is about to celebrate its first birthday, and your little bundle of joy is developing right on schedule according to all the best baby books.
Your baby is still on the bottle, but that’s okay; the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests weaning a baby off the bottle by the time they’re 18-months old, so you’ve got some time. And your baby got their first teeth about six months ago with the teeth on either side of the front ones coming in just a couple months ago.
Why Wisdom Teeth Need to Be Removed
Are your back teeth hurting you? If you don’t take care of your back teeth, you could wake up with major dental problems.
Because wisdom teeth often have no place to go, they can get stuck, or impacted, growing beneath a second molar. If they are unable to push up through the gums, they’ll push sideways, growing horizontally or at an angle and emerging from the side of the gums. Wisdom teeth can also strong-arm their way into the mouth, pushing aside or damaging second molars, which can cause a chain reaction and move all the teeth.
Poor Oral Health May Cause Other Health Concerns
The human body is mostly a closed system. Bacteria or viruses that want to get in have only a couple of avenues of entry—nose, mouth, eyes—or through a cut or puncture in the skin. Our bodies are pretty successful at keeping danger at bay and, while we have developed the means to fight off most bacteria and viruses, that hardly means that we’re immune to everything. Here in Arizona, scorpions and rattlesnakes are incredibly efficient at making holes in our skin, into which they inject venom that spreads quickly, wreaking havoc on the central nervous system.