I’m in the smile business. I can take an ugly smile and, in most cases, make it a very attractive one. Sometimes it’s something simple. At other times it’s not. Often, it depends upon how much I have to change to get there, as well as what people, themselves, are willing to do toward an end.
But the smiles I really care about the most are those that start on the inside.
Sure, I treat diseases. I also repair things that are broken down, replace things that are missing, prevent things that shouldn’t happen from happening, and more. It’s all part of the job. But at the end of the day, the thing I value the most are the smiles.
In today’s day and age, it seems that people are so focused upon the problems around them; they find it harder and harder to find the smile within them. After all, the media works hard to put our attention on earthquakes, hurricanes, flooding, unemployment, inflation, recession, terrorist attacks, famine, wars – and that’s just before breakfast. Who the heck wants to smile after that?
It’s really enough to make someone want to give up, to lose hope, or maybe even feel sorry for themselves. I sometimes think that’s actually the point: to beat us down. If we are all depressed, maybe they can sell us happiness in the form of something material thing, or package it in a pill. Maybe Madonna was right when she sang “Material World” after all.
So what can we do about it?
Start with a smile.
If it doesn’t feel natural, go ahead and force yourself. It actually takes courage to smile in the face of adversity, but that resolve is one thing no one can take away from you. It is also the gift you can give to another that costs you nothing – yet it will be cherished long after you have given it.
A smile is powerful because it emanates from you and when given genuinely, is truly valued.
Over the years I have accomplished many things both within my immediate profession and outside of it. People have paid me good money to help them with their problems but, when the time comes to hang up my dental handpiece, I know that it won’t be the dollars that mattered most or that I am even likely to remember. It will be the six year-old who came back and gave me a hug after I finished her filling, or drew me a picture. It will be the young man who made a special trip back to my office one evening, just to take me aside and say “Thank you. You don’t know how much fixing my smile has helped my self-esteem.” It will be the young lady who gasped, and finally took her hand away from her mouth (after always covering it up), when I showed her her new smile. Okay, she cried, but she was really happy. That made me happy too. And so I smiled. In fact, when I think about those moments I still smile.
Smiling and kindness are the two “secret” weapons we have to battle the insanity surrounding us. I say, let’s use them as weapons of mass destruction. If destruction is to be the order of the day, then let’s destroy the pessimism, the fear, the cynicism, and the hatred. Think of it as a form of biological warfare. Wouldn’t it be great if smiling and kindness went viral?
If you are starting to think, “Oh, that sounds great, but it’s a little naïve,” then maybe the “Dark Side” is winning. I don’t think happiness is at all sentimental or corny. It is the pay we get for living.
People search for happiness their entire lives. Yet, someone much wiser than I once stated that all the happiness you will ever find lies within you. So why not start with a smile?
I hope you enjoy the following video. May it make you smile. 🙂 If it does, why not send it to a few friends?
Smile
Smile though your heart is aching Smile even though it’s breaking When there are clouds in the sky, you’ll get by If you smile through your fear and sorrow Smile and maybe tomorrow You’ll see the sun come shining through for you
Light up your face with gladness Hide every trace of sadness Although a tear may be ever so near That’s the time you must keep on trying Smile, what’s the use of crying? You’ll find that life is still worthwhile If you just smile
That’s the time you must keep on trying Smile, what’s the use of crying? You’ll find that life is still worthwhile If you just smile
In almost any field there are basics, the fundamental facts or principles from which other truths can be derived.
Without an understanding of these basics we lack the building blocks for greater knowledge or competence. For example, before we can write we learn our ABCs. Geometry first requires an understanding of arithmetic, and so on.
Lacking these basics, we can become lost in a sea of information, lacking the correct drops of water that hold the answers to our questions or allow us to be effective.
Know the basics of automotive care and you are likely to have a car that runs well and needs few repairs. Understand the basics of grammar and you can communicate.
What, then, are the basics of dental care?
While there are several key concepts which I cover in some of my earlier articles, there is one often overlooked principle I want to briefly cover herein.
Let’s first assume you are already in good dental health or, perhaps you weren’t, but now you got things under control. You are starting off with a “clean slate.” So, what do you do now?
The simple answer is taking a look at what got you there.
You spent months and maybe hundreds, even thousands, of dollars to handle dental problems that may not even have been causing you pain. Things feel good and you have gotten the clean bill of dental health from your doctor. What now? Continue to do what fixed the problem.
Did you start brushing after meals? Good. Continue.
Did you change your diet to reduce refined carbohydrates? Good. Continue.
Do you floss every day? Good. Continue.
Do you come back for your regular visits? No?! Why not?
If that was a successful part of the formula, don’t make the mistake I see so many people commit. There is probably many a dentist who will vouch for the fact that patients come in to them and say: “Yeah, I had a bunch of dental work done somewhere about fifteen years ago and it is starting to come apart.” When asked about the time of their last dental visit: “Oh, it was around then. Since my teeth were fine, it didn’t see the point of going in for a dental visit.”
Didn’t see – that’s a key point. There are many conditions that the patient neither sees nor feels. More importantly, dental health has a direct relationship to overall health. So the fact that one doesn’t feel gum disease, bone loss, dental cavities or oral cancer – especially in the early stages is a poor excuse not to see your dentist. Regular checkups are fundamental to defending yourself against serious problems. Caught early, your treatment can be approached conservatively, saving you time in the dental chair, the potential discomfort of extensive work and, of course, money.
Why is it that patients who visit the dentist regularly seem to need less dental work? I’d like to think it also has to do with their increased care and effort – but that effort includes keeping up with regular visits. These checkups can prevent small problems from turning into big ones and help to keep your existing work in good shape. Don’t be a penny wise and a pound foolish. See your dentist at least twice a year.
Consider this article a public service announcement. I really dislike it when patients lose their teeth unnecessarily. My practice philosophy is that if a person has a dental problem, the goal is to handle that difficulty first, but then empower the patient with the correct knowledge that will keep him out of trouble from there on out. Ideally, my hope is that most future visits to my office will only be for routine maintenance.
Unfortunately, and all too often, I encounter new patients with teeth that are so badly decayed there is little hope of salvage. Possibly just as frequently, I find these patients scheduling a checkup – usually after a long absence from dental care – who are surprised to learn that they have any cavities at all. Sometimes they will think they lost a filling when, in fact, a piece of their enamel has broken away.
Why are they surprised? The common denominator seems to be the idea that cavities are supposed to hurt.
Well, sometimes they do hurt. But most of the time – especially in the early stage – they don’t.
In fact, by the time a tooth does start to hurt you it’s usually pretty bad. More often than not, it is so bad that a dentist is evaluating whether it can be treated with endodontic (root canal) therapy or whether it needs to be extracted. A little understanding of basic dental anatomy is helpful here.
Take a look at the illustration at the bottom of this post.
The outer layer of the tooth is comprised of enamel. This is the hardest substance in your body. It breaks up your food and is designed to last you a lifetime.
And now, here is the important part for you to understand: it doesn’t contain any nerves.
It is more than ninety-five percent mineral. Water and organic materials make up the balance. And because it doesn’t have nerves, it doesn’t have feeling. This is actually quite practical since it wouldn’t do to have pain every time you bit into something. On the other hand, it also means that it can be decayed without giving you a warning.
In fact, decay can also travel into the supporting layer – the dentin – and still not cause you pain. It usually has to travel pretty close to the inner layer that contains the blood vessels and nerves – the pulp – before you feel it. Of course, by then, the tooth has generally undergone considerable destruction.
Another factor that makes spotting decay difficult is the way it spreads. I have drawn two black triangles into the enamel above. Notice that the narrow point is on the outside of the enamel. The broader base faces the inside of the tooth. This is how decay usually travels. Sometimes, it will undermine the interior of the tooth while the outer, harder enamel still maintains its form . . . until it eventually crumbles because the underlying supporting dentin has been eaten away by decay.
Many cavities also form at the contact point between two teeth. These are areas that you simply cannot see. Even the dentist needs an x-ray to spot these cavities in most cases.
So what does all this really mean? Spotting decay is not always that easy. As dentists, we use visual examination, but we also rely on probes, x-rays, and even laser detection devices to locate cavities. Even then, it can be difficult to find cavities under existing fillings.
Don’t rely on pain to tell you if you have a cavity in your tooth. If you do, you can be assured that your treatment is likely to be more uncomfortable, expensive, and may even result in the loss of a tooth that could have been treated much more easily earlier in the game.
If you have a loved one, who still has their teeth and hasn’t seen a dentist in a while, have them read this article. You may be saving them from quite a bit of discomfort – not to mention time and money – if they catch potential problems before they are hopeless.
Some of you may be thinking, “No big deal. If it’s that bad, I’ll just pull it.” OK, sometimes that is necessary, but therein lies a lesson for another day.
Sounds like a pretty basic question for a dentist, doesn’t it? In fact, I’m not really asked that question often because “everybody knows” you should brush your teeth twice a day. But should you really?
After all, you can pick up almost any tube of toothpaste and it says right there” brush twice daily, or as directed by your dentist”.
Some time ago, I started asking patients how often they brushed their teeth when they came in for their periodic cleanings. The most common answer – by far – is “twice a day.” My next question is usually, “Yes, but when during the day do you brush?” As you read this, many of you who do brush twice daily are thinking “when I get up and again before I go to bed.”
If you have experienced dental cavities, that could be part of the problem.
When I mention this to patients I usually get this sort of silent stare. It’s kind of a cross between, “well that makes no sense at all” or, “then I might as well just give up.”
Let me explain.
It starts with an understanding of what causes dental cavities. There are a few basic elements. The most obvious is that you need to have a tooth. Additionally, you need cavity-causing bacteria. Then you also need a fermentable carbohydrate. This is an important point. Carbohydrates include sugars and starches, but the process of fermentation creates acids. Once the acids form, there is another element that comes into play: time.
If we break these factors down further, it is useful to look at what we can control in the cavity-causing process. For the sake of argument, let’s assume we are starting out with a full set of teeth, so that’s not entirely in our control. Next, there is the factor of cavity-causing bacteria. We all have both good and bad bacteria in our mouths. While I could get into a discussion of promoting the good and suppressing the bad, this is also not always easily controlled.
The next two factors, however, we have a great deal of control over.
We can control what we eat. Recognition of which foods are acid forming is also useful. But I’m a realist and understand that sometimes we are just going to eat (or drink) those things anyway.
And this is where the time factor comes in.
A little analogy may be helpful here. What would you do if you spilled a strong acid on your bare skin? Chances are you would run right over to the nearest sink and try to wash it off. But what if you had a leather jacket on and didn’t notice right away? First of all, you would end up with a hole in your jacket, but eventually – with time – it would reach your skin and start to hurt.
It’s much the same with teeth. Your enamel is a protective layer that doesn’t have any feeling because it is mostly mineral and doesn’t contain any nerves. But given enough time, the acid – even a weak one – breaks through and gets to the underlying softer and more sensitive areas. So, don’t give it time.
Change your brushing habits and do so after every meal. About a half hour after eating is ideal. If you absolutely can’t brush on occasion, chewing a sugarless gum (preferably containing xylitol) can help.
What most people do, though, is wake up and brush. Then they have breakfast and don’t brush. The acids that are formed following the meal slowly dissolve our tooth enamel. Roughly when the acids wear off, they have another meal or a snack and freshen up the acid. Few people brush after lunch, so it’s a few more hours of wearing the enamel away. Just when that acid wears off people freshen it up again with dinner. They don’t always brush after dinner either, so the acid now has even more time to work. Finally, they brush before going to bed. This cycle can, and typically does, go on for days, weeks, months and years. Given enough time, the cavity becomes large enough to require a filling.
So, if you only eat two meals a day, brushing twice a day is probably fine. But if you eat three times a day, how often should you brush? You get the idea.
The really odd thing is that I can go over this with someone thinking they get it. A couple of years later, I’ll ask: “How often do you brush your teeth?” Believe it or not, the answer is often the same as when I asked the first time. Hopefully, however, you will get it. Remember also that you can’t ignore flossing and expect to escape cavities, even if you do brush after every meal. The area between your teeth can’t be reached by the toothbrush bristles. About a third of all cavities filled by dentists occur in this location.
Nevertheless, if you follow the advice above I think you will find yourself encountering far less tooth decay over the years. Hoping it works for you as well as it has for me.
I have been practicing dentistry for just over twenty years. In that time, I have had strangers, friends and family ask me questions about their dental problems. Maybe this question is one that has come up for you too. One of the more frequent queries I run across goes something like this:
“I recently went to the dentist and I was told I needed to have a filling done. It didn’t bother me before, but it does now – and what’s more, I’m being told I’ll probably need a root canal! Did I mention the tooth wasn’t bothering me? But now I’m looking at over $2,000 in dental bills, because once I’m done with the root canal I’ll have to put a crown on the tooth!”
Are you thinking, hmmm, that darned dentist probably should have just left the tooth alone?
Yeah, that’s usually what they are thinking too.
One of the first questions I then ask is: “Was there already a large filling on the tooth?” Invariably, the answer has been “yes.” In which case, my response is usually “Well, then, it’s really not that unusual.”
The first thing to understand is that the tooth was already treated before. The fact that it already has a large filling, suggests that either the original decay was extensive or it had to be replaced several times. Depending upon the location in the mouth, and severity of pressure placed upon the teeth, fillings do require replacement. Teeth are also not immune to new decay and larger fillings do not typically last as long as smaller ones.
So, picture a filling that originally came close to the nerve. Now, there is either new decay between the old filling and the remaining tooth structure – putting it even closer to the nerve – or there may be a fracture occurring between the tooth and filling because there is not enough enamel left to support the filling. Either way, the nerve is under assault.
The next comment is usually “Well, since it wasn’t bothering me, shouldn’t he have just left it alone?” Trust me, this is not a favorite situation for your dentist either. If he leaves it alone, the likelihood of it turning into a root canal is higher. Then the question becomes “why didn’t he tell me about it sooner?” And if it doesn’t turn into a root canal the patient risks losing the tooth if it fractures. So, really, the tooth’s chances of remaining calm are better if it is treated sooner.
Probably the biggest problem here is the omitted communication. Most of the time, the patient simply wasn’t told there would be a risk of post-operative sensitivity. While the dentist can’t entirely control whether the tooth will recover from a deep cavity or not, it helps when the patient knows there is a chance of later discomfort. The moral of the story: don’t put off your dental treatment. Small cavities conserve more tooth structure and seldom bother you afterwards. Large or deep feelings always put the tooth at risk of more treatment or greater discomfort.
Dr. Richard Walicki is a dentist practicing general and cosmetic dentistry. While we hope you find the information contained herein interesting and useful, this blog is for informational purposes and is not intended to diagnose any oral disease. Dental conditions should be evaluated by your dental health professional or a qualified specialist.
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Sure, I treat diseases. I also repair things that are broken down, replace things that are missing, prevent things that shouldn’t happen from happening, and more. It’s all part of the job. But at the end of the day, the thing I value the most are the smiles.
