It’s not just sugar that can get at your teeth. Anything that makes your mouth more acidic can cause havoc by dissolving the external layer of your teeth known as enamel.
That includes sodas, even diet ones. Carbonated water and juices are also acidic, which causes erosion to your teeth. Once erosion starts, it’s much easier for cavities to form.
Sensitive teeth are typically the result of worn tooth enamel or exposed tooth roots. Some causes of sensitivity to cold/sweet/hot include:
If a tooth is highly sensitive for more than three or four days and reacts to hot and cold temperatures, it’s best to get a diagnostic evaluation from your dentist to determine the extent of the problem. Before taking the situation into your own hands, an accurate diagnosis of tooth sensitivity is essential for effective treatment to eliminate pain. Because pain symptoms can be similar, some people might think that a tooth is sensitive, when instead, they actually have a cavity or abscess that’s not yet visible.
In Dr Yao Xu’s post “3 Ways Your Brushing Might Be Doing More Harm than Good”, she explains that people tend to think of brushing their teeth as scrubbing away the plaque and polishing their teeth until they’re clean. As a result, many people tend to brush their teeth too hard. In reality, however, plaque sits on the surface of your teeth and can be gently wiped off your teeth. Brushing too hard can actually wear down the enamel of your teeth and hurt your gums. Dr Yao Xu always recommends using “soft” or “extra soft” toothbrushes, because even “medium” is usually too harsh on your enamel.
People who develop abscess usually suffer from pain and swelling. The swelling itself is pretty unpleasant. It is filled with pus, bacteria, and decaying white blood cells. Some other symptoms are: severe pain, redness and swelling of the gums, gum boil (a pimple-like appearance with pus), sensitivity of the teeth to cold or hot, pain when chewing, tenderness in gums, an open, draining sore on the side of the gum, fever.
Please reach out to your dentist or call Oasis Dental Centre care team at +65 62149149 if you need help with your teeth.
Sometimes, the toothache will stop because the infection has destroyed the nerves in your tooth, or the antibiotic helped the body overcome the bacteria temporarily. However, this doesn’t mean that the infection is gone. If the source of the infection inside the tooth has not been treated, the bacteria will multiply rapidly to result in another wave of infection.
The bacteria infection may continue to spread to the rest of the body if left untreated even though you stopped having symptoms. The presence of an abscess is an indication that the infection has spread to the jawbone and surrounding tissues. Infection can also spread into your tissues like the face, the floor of the mouth and even the brain.
This is the most common misconception, so you’re not alone! Remember that most patients get a root canal treatment because of pain in their teeth, and root canal treatment actually helps to relieve any pain by removing the infected tissue. This is all done under local anesthesia that numbs your tooth and surrounding gum. Please let us know if you’re still experiencing pain, and we will do our best to relieve the pain first!
For the first few days after the treatment, your tooth may feel sensitive, especially if there was pain or infection before the procedure. We will prescribe strong painkillers to minimize your discomfort, we will check in with you after the root canal treatment to ensure you are doing well.
Your tooth may continue to feel slightly different from your other teeth for some time after your root canal treatment is completed. However, if you have severe pain or pressure or pain that lasts more than a few days, please give us a call at +65 62149149.
If you are experiencing symptoms in the back of your mouth, such as persistent pain, stiffness and pain in your jaws, and/or tender gums, it may be related to the wisdom teeth. You may feel pain when you’re eating, brushing, or even throughout the day due to inflammation associated with eruption of the teeth or impaction of the wisdom teeth on other teeth. If the wisdom teeth are growing in sideways, the pain caused typically increases the longer you leave them untreated.
If you or your teen are asymptomatic, our dentists may still advise you to extract the wisdom teeth electively, usually due to existing or anticipated risks, such as gum disease or cavities related to misalignment of the teeth. As every individual is unique, the ultimate decision regarding the management of such teeth is best made by an expert dental health professional. And this decision should only then be made after clinical examination and review of factors such as your age, position of the tooth, anticipated difficulty of removal, and risks associated with the removal.
The most common time to have the procedure performed is 16-20 years of age. Although the range varies greatly due to the many reasons that someone will require wisdom teeth removal. The advantages of early wisdom teeth extraction include:
In the post 5 Fun Ways To Help Your Kids Brush Their Teeth, Dr Yao Xu gave suggestions to turn brushing into a game, some examples include:
Offer incentives. What kid doesn’t want to stay up a few minutes later at bedtime or be in charge of choosing the next movie for family night? Consider offering a simple reward or creating a rewards chart to encourage your little one to brush their pearly whites for two minutes. Don’t forget to praise them afterward for their amazing technique or super sparkly teeth.
Sit or stand behind your child in a brightly lit place, it’s easier to sit toddlers on your lap. Use your free hand to support your child’s chin. Ask him/her to open up and say ‘ah’.
For information on how to handle a completed knocked out tooth (where you can see the full root), please refer to Dental Trauma – What to do when my child takes a fall in the face and knocks his/her tooth?
If you are breastfeeding, avoid nursing children to sleep or putting anything other than water in their bedtime bottle. Do not let your child fall asleep with a bottle of milk or sweetened liquid in his mouth. Both practices promote an aggressive form of decay called baby bottle tooth decay. Try to wean your baby off the night feed at the 5th or 6th month. If he/she is fretful in the middle of the night, give him/her plain water. Encourage your child to drink from a cup as they approach their first birthday. He/she should be weaned from the bottle at 12-14 months of age.
Primary, or “baby,” teeth are important for many reasons. Not only do they help children speak clearly and chew naturally, they also aid in forming a path that permanent teeth can follow when they are ready to erupt. Some of them are necessary until a child is 12 years old or longer. Pain, infection of the gums and jaws, impairment of general health and premature loss of teeth are just a few of the problems that can happen when baby teeth are neglected. Also, because tooth decay is really an infection and will spread, decay on baby teeth can cause decay on permanent teeth. Proper care of baby teeth is instrumental in enhancing the health of your child.
The Singapore Dental Association recommends consumers to choose a whitening product only after consulting with their dentist. This is to minimise undesirable side effects such as tooth hypersensitivity, gum damage, as well as to treat the underlying causes of tooth discoloration by a professional. Up to 2/3 of users experience transient mild to moderate tooth sensitivity during the early stages of bleaching treatment. This is because the sensitivity is closely related to the peroxide concentration of the material and the contact time. However, under the help of proper techniques, there is no record on long-term adverse outcome.
While teeth will slowly darken over time, you can prolong the effect of teeth whitening through the following measures:
Veneers are thin tooth-coloured shells, custom made to fit over the front surface of teeth to improve the shape, size, colour, or alignment of the underlying teeth. Patients often choose veneers for their front teeth in the following situations:
Loosening rarely happens as the final crown or bridge is usually attached firmly by a special device to tighten the connecting screw or by utilising a strong cement. If it does dislodge, keep the crown and bring it along with you to the clinic. The dentist will clean the crown and cement it back if possible. If it happens again, there is a need to review the design to check if the forces in the implant are excessive or if the post which joins it needs to be changed. An X-ray is advised to check if the loosening has caused any problems to the underlying implant fixture within bone.
While some patients may choose to replace every missing tooth individually, dental implants are made from titanium, a very strong and lightweight material and 4 to 8 implants in each jaw may be sufficient to carry the load of the removable denture or fixed bridge, even when all your teeth have been lost. Your improved appearance and the ability to once again chew your food well will help you regain confidence and resume an active social life. Even if teeth have been lost for many years, it is still usually possible to rebuild the jawbone to place implants.
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