A dentist is responsible for overseeing the health of your teeth and gums, but can a dentist really make you healthy? You’d be surprised at the connection between your oral health and overall health. As a leading Warrenton VA family dentist, we focus on ways we can improve your smile and your health.
When you come to our office, we’ll assess every aspect of your oral health. Our doctors and dental staff have taken countless hours in continuing education to learn the cutting-edge ways to give people a better smile. You can become part of our family dental office when you call us today at 540-253-1377.
Today we want to share a few ways that great dentistry can improve your health.
Giving You Healthier Gums
Healthy gums makes your mouth and body healthier. Gum problems are a big deal for many reasons. Gum disease, what we dentists call periodontal disease, is the leading cause of tooth loss in adults. (Yes, it’s gum disease and not decay or dental trauma that claims the most teeth). Gum disease typically starts small. Patients will experience bleeding or swollen gums, but the problem can quickly take over the mouth. Severe gum disease, periodontitis, often causes the tooth to separate from the gums or the bone to deteriorate around the tooth. Gum disease can claim several of your teeth extremely quickly.
As bad as having failing teeth is, the problems with gum disease don’t end there. Gum disease is also linked to serious medical problems like heart disease and diabetes. The bacteria in gum disease is also found in these two issues. While there is no known cause-and-effect relationship between gum disease and these issues, we do know that having gum disease increases your risk for these two problems. Our office is using state-of-the-art techniques to measure your gums and effectively remove any infections, so you don’t have to worry about tooth loss or overall health problems.
Replace Missing Teeth With Dental Implants
Having no teeth or failing teeth is an overall health crisis that up until recently was hard to resolve. Just a few decades ago, the standard treatment for missing teeth was dentures for rampant tooth loss or bridges for single tooth loss. Bridges require a great deal of preparation of healthy teeth and functionality is an issue with dentures because they are not fixed into the mouth.
Today, our office is using dental implants to replace missing teeth. What’s so great about dental implants is that they can be used to treat single tooth loss or extensive tooth loss. Implants are made from titanium, a material that is biocompatible allowing the implants to actually merge with the bone. Once the implant heals, it’s part of your body and acts just like a natural tooth. We can restore it with multiple restorations, including full arches of new teeth.
One implant solution that is widely popular with our edentulous patients is All-on-4. We place four dental implants around the arch and then restore those implants with bridges. The biggest difference is that the upper palate is left open, so you can experience new tastes and sensations that your traditional dentures would have otherwise covered up.
When you select dental implants, you can eat whatever you want again and improve your health in the process! You’ll look great and feel great!
Resolving Your Sleep Issues
Tossing and turning at night and snoring throughout the night are signs of sleep apnea, a serious issue that can increase your risk of problems like heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Sleep apnea occurs when you experience pauses in breathing, and it’s possible to die from sleep apnea complications. People with severe sleep apnea will experience dozens of pauses in breathing every hour. When you stop breathing your blood pressure rises, and your body goes into distress. When that happens hundreds of times a night, it can do some serious damage to your body.
There are two types of sleep apnea, central sleep apnea and obstructive sleep apnea.
The most common form of sleep apnea is obstructive sleep apnea, and we longer have to treat this problem with a CPAP machine. We’re using a much smaller, more convenient oral appliance to treat sleep apnea. It looks like a mouthpiece and works by moving the lower jaw forward so the airways stay open while you sleep. With just this oral appliance, we’re able to reduce your sleep apnea symptoms and reduce your risk of the health issues linked to sleep apnea.
Schedule Your Appointment Today
As you probably already figured out by reading this, great dentistry can improve your overall health. Our dental professionals take pride in offering excellent, life-changing services because they know that great dentistry can improve a person’s health and quality of life. We’d love to meet with you and discuss your smile goals. Give us a call today at 540-253-1377 to schedule an appointment.