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Don't Let Dieting Impact Your Oral Health

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Don't Let Dieting Impact Your Oral Health

Like many people who need to lose a few pounds, I try diet after diet in an attempt to find one that finally works for me. I learned the hard way that I need to make sure any diet will not harm my teeth, even if it does help me lose a few pounds. I learned this lesson when following a grapefruit diet. There are many versions of this, but the version I tried had me eat a grapefruit alone several times each day. It was supposed to suppress my appetite. I helped keep me from munching on unhealthy snacks, but the acid in the fruit took a toll on my tooth enamel and I quickly started getting lots of cavities. I created this blog to remind people that change up their diets often to make sure the foods they are eating are not harming their teeth.

If You Want To Improve The Look Of Your Old Dental Work, Now Is The Time

26 August 2015
 Categories: Dentist, Blog

Technology has made improvements in many industries, and a lot of progress has been made in dental materials over the decades. There are two main reasons why your old dental work might not look very nice – and luckily, it's not difficult to fix.

Problem: Older Materials

One dental material that's changed a great deal is composite resin. Older formulations of resin had a tendency to yellow over time like an old plastic, which is certainly not the look you want for your teeth. Newer resins do a much better job of holding up over time; it's impressive what having new resin color-matched to your teeth can do to make dental work less conspicuous.

Problem: Colored Materials

The second reason isn't linked to the age of your dental work, although materials like gold for crowns are much less common on visible teeth today than in the past. A gold tooth is never going to look like a real tooth; other common colored materials include silver amalgam fillings or gold bridges.

Solution: Full Replacement

Whether your problem is discoloration or simply a material that doesn't look natural, there's one thing you can do to fix it: replace the dental work. What this entails will depend on the type of work you're replacing.

Small fillings, for instance, can often be simply removed and replaced with tooth-colored fillings in porcelain or newer, higher-quality composite. Crowns and bridgework can also be replaced easily in almost all cases – although fixed bridges can be trickier. In many cases, since replacing a fixed bridge requires the bridge to be broken off and remade, patients use this as an opportunity to get dental implants for a completely natural look.

Larger fillings may need to be replaced with crowns because their removal might compromise the integrity of the tooth. And dental work on front teeth, which is a common place to see discolored old composite fillings, has another option as well: shave off some of the composite and install a new top layer. This, too, will depend on the size of your fillings.

Since dental work can also simply wear down over time, it's a good idea to have your existing work checked by your dentist; your regular tooth-cleaning is a good time for this. Then you can discuss your options and your specific situation with a professional dentist, like those at Village Family Dental, to decide which solution is best for you.