Xylitol Reduces Decay

Saturday, July 11th, there was an article in the Los Angeles Times, entitled "Xylitol Syrup Curbs Decay Of Baby Teeth in Study". This article stated that xylitol was much more effective than fluoride in reducing decay. Fluoride works by making the teeth stronger. Xylitol works by reducing the decay forming bacteria and therefore the lactic acid produced by the decay forming bacteria. Fluoride and xylitol can work together to give a greater reduction than either alone. The most effective form of xylitol is the gel form, applied directly to the teeth.

Cavity Contro.l

What can you do if you are a high caries risk person?
Brush and floss correctly using a Sonicare toothbrush.
Limit between meal sweet snacks, especially those containing sugar.
Substitute snacks rich in protein, such as cheese
Use xylitol containg gum or suck on xylitol mints 5 times per day.
Brush 2 times daily with Prevident Plus toothpaste ( 5000 parts per million fluoride)
Get a fluoride varnish treatment for all of your teeth every 3 months
Use MI paste several times daily on teeth (this paste contains calcium and phosphate)
Have sealants placed on any molar unfilled teeth.
Use a baking soda rinse (2 teaspoons in 8oz of water) 4 t0 6 times per day
Get BW xrays every 6 months until have no caries

Dealing with Decay

Everyday I see patients with cavities. Usually, if they have been coming regularly to their check=up appointments, these lesions are small. But sometimes, all of a sudden, they have huge cavities everywhere on the root surfaces. Things change and now they are at extreme risk. They may have started taking medication that dries up the mouth. Maybe they had a change in diet. They may have started drinking a diet drinks or Gatorade.Maybe they stopped using fluoride toothpaste or brushing with the Sonicare. Maybe they never flossed. Anyone of these factors could cause a problem but several at the same time can definately cause cavities to happen. Next blog is what you can do if you are at extreme risk.

CAMBRA

When I went to dental school, I thought I learned everything I needed to know about cavities. Now we are having to deal with an epidemic of oral disease occuring in all ages, especially the older and younger patients. To treat the problem we need to assess each persons risk factors and then manage those risk factors to correct the problem. Both the risk asasessment and interventions are bases on the concept of altering the caries balance. The caries balance is a model where pathological factors (bacteria, absence of heathly saliva and poor dietary habits) battle the protective factors(saliva, sealants, antibacterials, fluoride, and an effective diet). With the use of CAMBRA there is evidence that early damage to teeth from dental caries may be reversed and the manifestations of the disease perhaps prevented all together.

Office Update

1. This past weekend I completed my DOCS (Dental Organization for Conscious Sedation)course in San Francisco. It was a well organized informative session. I am excited to now have my California Permit. I don't know how many dentists have their permits, but I am proud that I have one. Now I will be concentrating on the implant course at Loma Linda. I am planning to be doing more bone grafting as the year proceeds. I was able to join the AAID ( American Academy of Implant Dentists) as a result of being envoled in the course. I thought everything would be slow this week as the 4th of July is on Friday, but we actually seem pretty busy with people wanting to get stuff done before the holiday.

Updating the blog

Since I last wrote in the blog I have been attending many classes in the dental field. I attended a 4 month mini-residency in Dental Sleep Medicine at UCLA taught by several doctors in the field. The course director was Dr. Dennis Bailey. I really learned alot. Many people dignosed with sleep apnea ( closing of the airway during sleep) are not comfortable with the often prescribed CPAP machine. There are many different type of dental appliances that are designed to hold the airway open while the patient is sleeping. We learned which type of appliance to use in different situations. Most of these rely on moving the jaw forward and opening the bite. We were able to treat patients at UCLA, and it was exciting to see such a good response from the patients. I especially liked the good air appliance that Dr. Bailey has developed. Since the class I have made several of these appliances and they seemed to work really well.
In April I went to Chicago, where I took a class in oral conscious sedation given by DOCS ( Dental Oral Conscious Sedation) In June in San Francisco I will complete the training. In this class you learn about the latest drugs to relax the patient and help every patient to have a comfortable experience in the dental office. There are estimated to be 11 million people in the state of California that never go to the dentist because thet are so afraid . We are already able to use drugs to reduce anxiety that the dental appointment brings about and have found that people do alot better when they are comfortable.
I am attending the 2008, implant maxi course at Loma Linda. This is a 9 month intensive course, that allows you to do implant surgeries on your own patients at Loma Linda. It is fabulous. I have taken it before and feel comfortable placing implants where there is enough bone. Now I am learning more about bone grafting. This will be usefull where there isn't enough bone. We have guest lecturers from around the world. We also get to join the AAID (American Academyof Implant Dentistry)

Newsletter and Website

We have a new newsletter that was just sent out. It is posted on our web-site www.robertacervenydds.com. It covers our new music, new chairs, dry mouth, and a few other dental subjects.