Williamsburg Dental Blog

Historically, myths begin as a way to explain misunderstood concepts. Before humanity learned about weather patterns, they blamed angry gods for storms. Before you learn the truth about dentures for missing teeth, you may believe in the common myths explained below. Knowledge of reality can help you make smarter decisions about your smile and feel better about wearing your dentures properly every day.

At lunch with friends, you start to tell a hilarious story, but in the middle of it, you feel your lower denture loosen. Speaking becomes more challenging, and you’re afraid that those around will notice or struggle to understand you. What could cause your lower denture to become loose? What can you and your dentist do to keep it in place? Answer these questions in the content below.

Communication only works when both parties understand each other enough. However, when you can’t speak clearly, your meaning can become lost, isolating you from the people around you. During the initial few weeks when you get new dentures, you may find talking clearly has become harder than you think. However, don’t get discouraged; it’s temporary inconvenience! In this post, you’ll learn about ways dentures can complicate communication and ways to overcome it.

As you await the arrival of your bundle of joy, you may find yourself feeling the urge to prepare, a tendency called nesting. You get the nursery ready, buy diapers and other supplies, perhaps cook or freeze meals in advance, and surround yourself with what you’ll need to welcome your baby!

In your nesting, you may wish to take care of personal tasks as well. For instance, you may want to finish dental work you need or want to get done like dental implants to replace missing teeth. However, this phase is not the appropriate time to address this issue. Keep reading to learn more about why you shouldn’t get dental implants during pregnancy!

Whether you’re a perfectionist or rather laidback, getting dental implants should motivate you to keep them as long as possible. After all, you’re taking significant time, money, and effort to replace your missing teeth, so make them work and last! Sometimes, oral problems can be challenging to recognize on your own without advanced training, but if you are aware of the signs and not ignoring them, you can notice issues early on, giving you better chances of holding onto your dental implants for the rest of your life.

Whether you call yourself a foodie or not—you love it. When you had a full smile, you looked forward to meals and snacks, and perhaps you would love to cook or bake as a hobby again. Maybe you love expressing your creativity in the kitchen. However, during the first week after you have a dental implant placed, your diet needs to adapt to help you bounce back from the procedure. Here is a list of foods you should stay away from for a while if you want to limit complications and have a smoother recovery.

Work is busy. You do a good job of oral hygiene at home. You have kid activities and errands. It’s not convenient now, so you’ll get to it later. You can come up with a hundred excuses for skipping a dental cleaning appointment, but this choice comes from poor judgment.

Try as you may, you likely won’t be able to catch every little piece of food debris and white, sticky plaque even when you brush and floss diligently. Within hours of eating, the plaque hardens and adheres to your teeth, and it becomes quite difficult to remove it on your own, which means you need a professional’s help! What can happen if you miss your regular cleaning appointment? Plenty!

When you speak, your brain clearly controls your mouth. It tells you what to say and how you feel. However, did you know that your mouth can have a profound impact on your brain? As one of the most common diseases in the world, advanced gum disease afflicts around 50 percent of the adult population over the age of 30 in the United States, and it is the leading cause of adult tooth loss worldwide. Although ignoring this “minor” mouth infection may be tempting, you put your mental and overall health at risk. Keep reading to learn how poor oral health can mess with your brain and lead to negative thoughts and feelings.

As the sixth most common kind, oral cancer doesn’t receive much public attention overall. While not as prevalent, this type comes with a high mortality rate: a little less than half of diagnosed patients will live longer than five more years. This morbid fact exists, not because cancer has not been adequately researched, but because it is often discovered in more advanced stages—when treatment comes too late.

Like other types, early detection of oral cancer can substantially increase the chances of survival. When you understand who is at a higher risk of oral cancer, you can keep a sharper eye out for signs like red or white scaly soft tissue, lumps or bumps, sores that don’t heal, and other irregularities in and around the mouth. Here are groups who should be extra diligent and see their dentist often to be screened for oral cancer.

When do you need to wear a sports mouthguard? Perhaps the answer seems obvious—when you play football, rugby, or hockey. Or when you practice martials arts, wrestling, or boxing. In these scenarios, you predict you’ll be struck in the face at some point, and it’s smart to prepare for it with an impact-absorbing appliance to protect your teeth. Otherwise, you could lose teeth in your smile and have a lot of pain! Other than these more obvious situations, what are other sports where you should wear a mouthguard? Keep reading to find out!