Archive for November, 2009

We have so much to be thankful for! But in spite of the really great things like family, health and God’s grace to us, I’d like to focus on the traditional thanksgiving dinner.

In my family we make a big deal about traditional foods… maybe you do too! Do you ever see folks having a hard time chewing their thanksgiving turkey (“veggie” in my house) because they have some back teeth missing, or maybe the pressure of biting hurts one side or the other? Or maybe they pass on pecan or pumpkin pie, because the some teeth are sensitive to the sweetness. Or possibly they can’t enjoy ice cream on their pie – the cold hurts their teeth. Isn’t that sad??

Especially around the holidays, when so many wonderful foods make their appearance, it seems tragic not to be able to enjoy eating. Healthy teeth don’t hurt! And having healthy teeth in a nicely balanced bite lets you enjoy food and family for the holidays!

Sometimes people ask me why we do periodontal pocket measurements, or “gum numbers”, and what do those funny numbers mean anyway?

Periodically we measure how the gums attach to teeth. This is a good indicator of how healthy the gums and support systems for the teeth are. 

The line where the gums “stop” and the tooth shows is the gingival crest. The gums end here, but do not attach to the tooth at this point. There is a small groove or crevice, called a “sulcus” along the edge of the gums. (This is so you have a place to catch popcorn hulls!) The gums attach to the tooth at the bottom of this groove. In a healthy situation, this groove is two to three millimeters deep.

When plaque, which is leftover food junk, is left around the edges of the gums for even 24 hours, it starts to mineralize. That’s a fancy way of saying it turns into concrete. We call that “calculus” or “Tartar”. It is rough like the sidewalk, instead of smooth and glassy like tooth enamel should be. The gums don’t like that rough stuff, and to make matters worse, plaque builds up even faster because it sticks so well to the rough tartar. The gums get red and puffy, and it’s like they want to run away… the attachment moves deeper, which makes that groove deeper. A deeper groove means it is easier to get more stuff in there, and the condition continues to get worse.

To make things more complicated, the bone that supports the tooth wants a bit of distance between it and the gums’ attachment point. So if the attachment moves down the tooth, the bone dissolves away to maintain that distance. If this disease progresses far enough, there is too little bone support to keep the tooth, and the tooth comes out! Ouch!

So the “gum numbers” we take are to confirm that all is healthy with the tooth support system. We’d like to see all numbers in the one to three range. If there are deeper numbers, we call that area a pocket, and want to fix the problems before they get too large! We’re all about saving teeth!

I have to tell you about one of my favorite patients! She is nine years old and as cute as can be. She saw us for her very first dental visit when she was three years old. She loves coming to the dentist! (And we love seeing her!)

A few weeks ago her dad told her they were coming to our dental office. She was very excited, and talked on for days about how much she was looking forward to the visit. Finally her dad teased her, “Danielle, I was just kidding… we’re not really going to the dentist.” She replied very seriously, “Dad, you may joke about something like going to Elitches (a local amusement park), when we’re not really going, but not something like going to the dentist. Besides, I looked in your schedule and saw that we really are going!”

She had a great visit, as usual. As they were driving home, her dad mentioned that he needed some additional work and would be returning soon. She said “you are so lucky, dad! You get to come back to see the dentist!”

As Dave Barry would say, “I am not making this up!” Unfortunately, not all patients are as excited to see us as cute little Danielle is, but we really try to make all dental visits as comfortable and fun as possible. If you know someone that is afraid of going to the dentist, or just dreads it, you can tell them that today’s dentistry can be fun!