Yellow teeth
Monday, June 7th, 2010
Yellow teeth are perfectly natural however many people think it is unnatural and a sign of an unhealthy lifestyle. As with most humans we all have different genetic make ups and as a result some people will have darker teeth whilst others will have whiter teeth. So rest assured yellow teeth are perfectly natural.
Teeth are made up of 4 main parts; the enamel, dentine, cementum and pulp. The pulp and the cementum are found beneath the gum but it is the enamel and the dentine that cause yellow teeth. The enamel is the hard outer part of the tooth that surrounds the yellow dentine beneath. The enamel of your teeth is semi translucent which means that the colour of the dentine beneath shows through.
How yellow your teeth are depends on:
- The Thickness of the Enamel
- The colour of the dentine beneath the enamel
- Your dental care routine
Obviously the thicker the enamel the less translucent the tooth will be meaning that less of the dentine can be seen. The natural colour of your teeth is largely determined by how dark a yellow colour your dentine is but poor dental care can also make a difference. If you don’t take care of your teeth then the enamel can become damaged by bacteria and disease.
Discoloured or stained teeth is not the same as having yellow teeth, the yellow is intrinsic. Staining is on the tooth surface and can easily be removed by a hygienist. Staining can be prevented by limiting the amount of coffee & red wine consumed, smoking and eating curries can also stain and discolour teeth.
Is there any treatment to make my teeth whiter? Yes, it may be possible to acheive a whiter brighter smile by teeth whitening also known as bleaching!
Bleaching is quick, inexpensive, and can be accomplished in the comfort of your home or if you prefer with our in surgery Zoom 2
Why have discoloured, stained or ageing teeth when with our state-of-the-art whitening process we can brighten your smile?
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Bad breath?
Thursday, June 3rd, 2010
Bad breath, sometimes known as halitosis, is a common problem that can affect anyone of any age. Most people experience short periods of bad breath at some point in their lives and it is estimated that up to 50% of people suffer from persistent bad breath.
In most cases bad breath is caused by bacteria in the mouth living off food debris, and is frequently a sign of gum disease. Eating strongly flavoured foods, such as onions and garlic can cause your breath to smell unpleasant, as can smoking and drinking a lot of alcohol. Occasionally bad breath can be a result of an infection or illness, or a result of taking some kinds of medication.
Good oral (mouth) hygiene alone can usually prevent and treat bad breath. Your dentist can advise you on how to improve your oral health and refer you for further investigation if it is thought there may be another cause for your bad breath.
Causes
There are a number of different causes of bad breath:
Poor oral hygiene
The most common cause of bad breath is poor oral hygiene.
Naturally occuring bacteria that coat the teeth, tongue, and gums can cause plaque (the soft white deposit that forms on the surface of the teeth), gum disease and ental decay. These bacteria combine with saliva and food in the mouth to break down food particles and proteins, this process releases an unpleasent smelling gas. If you do not brush and floss your teeth regularly, any food that is trapped between your teeth will will be broken down by the bacteria and cause bad breath.
The rough surface of the tongue can also harbour these bacteria so, as well as brushing your teeth, cleaning your tongue can help to control bad breath.
Medical conditions
Medical causes of bad breath are rare, but they can occur.
Dry mouth (xerostomia) is a condition that affects the flow of saliva. This can cause bacteria to build up in the mouth and cause bad breath. Dry mouth can be caused by salivary gland problems or continually breathing through the mouth instead of the nose. As you get older you may produce less saliva which can then lead to bad breath.
Other medical conditions that can cause bad breath include:
• infections in the lungs, throat or nose,
• bronchitis,
• sinusitis,
• diabetes,
• liver or kidney problems, and
• gastritis and food reflux.
Crash dieting, fasting and low carbohydrate diets, such as the Atkins diet, can also cause bad breath. The breakdown of fat produces chemicals called ketones that can be smelt on the breath.
Food and drink
Eating strongly flavoured foods, such as garlic, onion and spices often cause your breath to smell. Strong smelling drinks, such as alcohol and coffee, can also cause bad breath. This type of bad breath is usually temporary and can be easily avoided by not eating or drinking these types of food or drink. Good dental hygiene also helps.
Medicines
Sometimes, certain medication can cause bad breath. Medicines that have been associated with causing bad breath include nitrates (sometimes used in treatment of angina), some chemotherapy drugs and phenothiazines (tranquilizers). You should discuss possible alternatives with your GP.
Smoking
If you smoke, your breath is likely to smell of stale smoke. As well as making your breath smell, smoking also causes staining, a loss of taste and irritates your gums, increasing your risk of gum disease, which is another cause of bad breath. Stopping smoking will lower this risk and prevent smoke-related bad breath.
Diagnosis
The easiest way to find out if you have bad breath is to ask a close and trusted friend, or family member, for their honest opinion. Visit your dentist to confirm that you have bad breath and get a diagnosis of the likely cause.
If your bad breath is being caused by poor oral hygiene, your dentist will be able to clean your teeth and give you advice about how to keep your teeth and gums healthy. Regular dental check-ups help to spot signs of tooth and gum decay early on and to prevent bad breath developing.
If you have bad breath you could try keeping a diary of all the foods you eat and any medication you are on, and take this to your dentist at your next check-up. On the basis of the diary, your dentist may be able to suggest ways to solve the problem.
If you have changed your dental hygiene routine and still think you have bad breath, you may need to visit your GP to check the cause of your bad breath. There may be an underlying medical cause for the problem that needs further investigation.
You should not try to mask the smell before visiting your dentist or GP, as this will make it more difficult to find out what is causing the problem.
Treatment
The treatment for bad breath depends on what is causing it. The simplest and most effective treatment is usually to improve your dental hygiene. To avoid bad breath, you need to keep your mouth and teeth clean by regularly brushing your teeth and gums, flossing in between teeth and keeping your tongue clean.
How can your dentist help?
Your dentist can recommend the best way to clean your teeth and gums and show you any areas you might be missing. Regular check ups with your dentist will make sure any plaque is removed from your teeth, especially in all those hard to reach areas. It will also make sure any signs of gum disease are noted and treated early on.
Prevention
To prevent bad breath you need to treat any gum disease and keep your mouth clean and fresh, the following measures can help:
- Brush your teeth and gums for two minutes, twice a day with flouride toothpaste,
- Floss your teeth, brushing alone only cleans about 60% of the surface of your teeth,
- Eat a healthy, balanced diet, and cut down on strongly flavoured or spicy food
- Reducing your alcohol intake,
- Stop smoking,
- Brush your tongue or use a tongue cleaner to clean right to the back of your tongue,
- Use an antiseptic mouthwash (just before bedtime) as recommended by your dentist or pharmacist.
- Drinking plenty of fluids, and cutting down on coffee,
- Chewing sugar-free gum after eating, or if your mouth feels dry,
- Cut down sugary foods and drinks which promote an increase in the number of bacteria in your mouth, and
- Regularly visits to your dentist (as often as recommended).
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Polish German Hebrew & Romanian speaking dental practice in Golders Green – North West London
Thursday, May 27th, 2010
When choosing a practice or dentist you should consider their ability. The practice should keep up to date with the latest techniques, and the equipment should be modern and clean.
All of the above requirements are very important but you may feel it is just as important to be able to communicate to the dentist in your own language. We find that the patients are more relaxed when communicating in their mother tongue, the patients have a better understanding of treatment required and the proceedures involved.
All our dentists speak Hebrew as well as Rachel our hygienist, we also have dental nurses who speak Polish (Polski), German (Deutsch) & Romanian.
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knocked out or broken tooth?
Thursday, May 13th, 2010
Knocked out tooth – If a tooth is completely knocked out of your mouth, carefully rinse the tooth in warm water if it is dirty. Be careful not to scrub the tooth or remove any tissue that is still attached to the tooth. If possible, gently replace the tooth in its socket in your gum and hold it there. If this isn’t possible, place the tooth in a cup of milk. Get to the dentist as quickly as possible and make sure to take the tooth with you. It may be possible for the dentist to restore the tooth in your gum if the root is intact.
Broken tooth – The most common cause of a broken tooth is a blow to the face or biting down on something hard. Children may break a tooth falling off a bicycle or during other active play. If you have a broken tooth, you will need to see the dentist as soon as possible. Rinse your mouth with warm water. If your gum is bleeding, press a piece of gauze on the area until the bleeding stops. If you are able to save the pieces of the tooth, again put the pieces in some milk and take them to the dentist. Depending on how the tooth was broken, it may be possible for the dentist to glue the tooth back together.
Place a cold compress over the cheek or lips to control swelling and take an over-the-counter pain reliever if needed. Your dentist will determine whether or not you need a root canal as well as the best method to repair the tooth.
Teeth can be damaged in a variety of ways, and you may not immediately know how bad the damage is. The important thing to remember is that if something happens to damage or break a tooth, get it checked by your dentist as soon as possible.
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Harris Sidelsky has an article published in the BDJ
Wednesday, May 12th, 2010
Harris Sidelsky has just had an article published in the May 8th issue of the BDJ on resin composite contours.
You may indeed ask what it is all about?
Harris has a special interest in Minimal Invasive dentistry. An example of this would be, if you had a hole in a tooth, the aim would be to remove the decayed part of the tooth without removing healthy tooth substance. In an ideal world, you would also want the end product to look like an undamaged natural tooth.
Believe it or not, this is not easy to achieve. In many of the existing techniques healthy tooth tissue would be destroyed to get to the decay and it is often very difficult to recreate the original shape of the tooth.
Harris article describes his filling technique which reproduces the exact shape of the original tooth at the same time preserving the maximum amount of your tooth when removing the decay. The technique is so amazing you would not be able to tell that a filling has been placed.
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Ian Davis – Toothville images added to the Wellcome collection library
Wednesday, May 12th, 2010
Ian Davis has had a selection of his Toothville images added to the Wellcome Image library.
Wellcome Images is one of the world’s richest and most unique collections, with themes ranging from medical and social history to contemporary healthcare and biomedical science.
enter Toothville or Ian Davis in the search field on the right hand side of screen.
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Comments & Feedback!
Thursday, April 22nd, 2010
Feedback is essential when running a business, whether it’s negative or positive, it helps us fine tune our exceptional customer care.
We hope that your experience with us was a positive one, if you have a moment to spare it would mean a lot to us if you could leave your comments below.
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The world of Toothville
Monday, April 12th, 2010
Ian being interviewed by the BBC
Dr Ian Davis has always been creative and often expresses this through his hobby of photography, as well of course, in cosmetic dentistry.
Over the past year, he has combined photography with dentistry to produce original dental photographic art, that has literally gone nationwide. So far his art has been shown in The Metro, Daily Mail, Evening Standard and The National Geographic. He has submitted a Triptych and artistic photo book of Toothville to the Royal Academy of Art for their summer exhibition.
If you would like to view or purchase any of the Toothville pictures please visit www.toothville.com
links to articles:
http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/805676-dentist-creates-amazing-tooth-art
http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=2529
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8590006.stm
http://www.staytune.aghst.com/2010/02/staytune-toothville-liven-up-surgery.html?zx=a4eb98d854c47e1
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“Thank you, Dr Sidelsky”
Monday, March 22nd, 2010
We love to receive feedback as it helps us fine tune our exceptional customer care.
We received this “thank you letter” from a nervous young boy recently treated at the practice, it makes all the effort worthwhile!
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Staff meeting
Thursday, March 4th, 2010
We had a very productive staff meeting today, we discussed how to get across to the public our passion for exceptional customer service, painless and minimal invasive dentistry.
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T: 020 8458 1611 F: 020 8455 3361
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