America's Dental Expert
Sectioning Teeth During Extractions
Extracting a tooth is never a simple procedure. The most unpredictable teeth to extract have multiple roots. Molars usually have three roots.
Depending on the anatomy of each molar root, how the roots develop, your dentist may elect to section the tooth to make the entire tooth easier to extract.
America's Dental Expert, Dr. Shawn Van de Vyver, explains why sectioning teeth, even during uneventful extractions, makes the procedure easier, faster, and reduces post operative discomfort.
Do you have a dental question for America's Dental Expert?
Send your dental and other oral health related questions to America's Dental Expert, Dr. Shawn Van de Vyver, at DrVan@americandentalexpert.com
America's Dental Expert
Bone Loss and Sinus Drops / Sinus Pneumatization
One of the serious consequences or side effects of losing a tooth is the jaw bone erodes over time. In the lower jaw, bone melts away and develops into a curved area where the tooth once was. In the upper jaw, bone loss occurs from both sides of where the tooth was, the top area called the crest, and the bottom area which is the floor of the sinus.
When the sinus area expands into the jaw bone, enough to communicate with the oral cavity, it's called pneumatization.
Bone loss and sinus dropping are two big consequences of missing teeth without replacing the spaces with dental implants.
Do you have a dental question for America's Dental Expert?
Send your dental and other oral health related questions to America's Dental Expert, Dr. Shawn Van de Vyver, at DrVan@americandentalexpert.com
America's Dental Expert
Consequences of Losing a Tooth
Sometimes, a patient comes into my office in so much pain that the only thing they want is for me to extract their tooth.
It's hard to evaluate your options clearly if you're in severe pain.
There are lots of consequences of having a tooth extracted, leaving you with a space.
In this episode of America's Dental Expert, Dr. Shawn Van de Vyver reviews the myriad side effects of getting a tooth extracted, leaving you with a space. They're more than simply a gap in your smile.
Do you have a dental question for America's Dental Expert?
Send your dental and other oral health related questions to America's Dental Expert, Dr. Shawn Van de Vyver, at DrVan@americandentalexpert.com
America's Dental Expert
3D Printing in the Dental Office
A lot has changed in dentistry, in just the past couple years even. One area that is quickly evolving is laboratory work.
Traditionally, impressions are poured up in stone, making for a messy, contaminated, dusty lab area.
One area that is changing the fastest is the incorporation of 3D printers into the dental laboratory.
In this episode America's Dental Expert explains how 3D printers are making dental offices more efficient. Shawn Van de Vyver, D.D.S. also discusses how 3D printing can improve the patient experience and lower the cost of dental care to the average patient.
Do you have a dental question for America's Dental Expert?
Send your dental and other oral health related questions to America's Dental Expert, Dr. Shawn Van de Vyver, at DrVan@americandentalexpert.com
America's Dental Expert
Snoring and Tooth Grinding in Kids
Snoring is not good, and it's especially bad when it occurs in kids. Snoring in patients under 14 years old should never happen. Snoring is a sign of a sometimes severe condition; sleep apnea.
In this episode America's Dental Expert explains what sleep apnea is and what it means when it occurs in pediatric patients. Shawn Van de Vyver, D.D.S. also discusses teeth grinding during sleep in kids.
Sleep apnea quite literally means no oxygen during sleep.
Teeth grinding in kids is another sign of sleep apnea, but it can also be benign. Some kids grow out of their teeth grinding when their adult teeth erupt into their mouth.
Do you have a dental question for America's Dental Expert?
Send your dental and other oral health related questions to America's Dental Expert, Dr. Shawn Van de Vyver, at DrVan@americandentalexpert.com
America's Dental Expert
Bite Splints and Night Guards
Some dentists think half of Americans should be wearing a night guard when they sleep, and America's Dental Expert is no different.
Night guards, also known as bite splints, are acrylic appliances that protect your teeth from wearing down while you sleep. But why would patients get a bite guard custom made from their dentist when they can pickup a generic one from the local drug store?
In this episode America's Dental Expert explains the process how bite guards are traditionally made and the newest procedures for taking digital impressions and printing bite guards right in the dental office.
Do you have a dental question for America's Dental Expert?
Send your dental and other oral health related questions to America's Dental Expert, Dr. Shawn Van de Vyver, at DrVan@americandentalexpert.com
America's Dental Expert
Root Canals and Crowns
You know it as the worst procedure to get done at the dental office. Even worse than pulling teeth!
It's the dreaded root canal. I don't think I've come across a single patient who has had a GOOD root canal experience.
And after every root canal, you need to protect the fragile tooth underneath with a crown. Many times I get asked when I prescribe a crown as the recommended treatment to restore a broken tooth "Do I need a root canal?"
The answer is - usually not.
This is another one-way street in dentistry. Every time you get a root canal you need a crown on the tooth, but NOT every time you get a crown do you need a root canal.
A crown can be done on a healthy tooth and it isn't necessary to do a root canal on it. That isn't ALWAYS the case, but it usually is.
Do you have a dental question for America's Dental Expert?
Send your dental and other oral health related questions to America's Dental Expert, Dr. Shawn Van de Vyver, at DrVan@americandentalexpert.com
America's Dental Expert
Deep Cleanings for Life
The term "deep cleaning" is an unfortunate description for what dentists and dental hygienists call periodontal maintenance.
Periodontal maintenance is a dental cleaning AFTER treatment. A "regular" dental cleaning implies there has never been periodontal treatment performed.
When do patients receive periodontal maintenance instead of prophylaxis (a "regular cleaning")? Periodontal maintenance is performed after scaling and root planing, which is therapy to treat moderate to severe gum disease, or periodontitis.
Once you go through periodontal therapy, the healthy environment needs to be maintained. So, once you go through treatment and have subsequent maintenance appointments (deep cleanings) you will ALWAYS have maintenance appointments.
This is like a one-way street past the point of no return. Once you have a deep cleaning, every cleaning appointment after that, for the rest of your life, should be considered a deep cleaning periodontal maintenance.
There's no turning back, unfortunately. And this isn't just me saying this. That is what the American Dental Association requires, as described in the Code of Dental Procedures and Nomenclature.
Do you have a dental question for America's Dental Expert?
Send your dental and other oral health related questions to America's Dental Expert, Dr. Shawn Van de Vyver, at DrVan@americandentalexpert.com
America's Dental Expert
All Zirconia Implants
With dental implants becoming more popular and prevalent, and implant education readily available on the internet, patients can do their own research and hear from friends and family how their implant treatment went.
One area of contention is all-zirconia implants. Dental implants are typically made of titanium alloy. But some dentists place implants made of zirconia.
Why would they do this? you ask? Zirconia implants are white, while titanium implants are dark gray and look like a traditional metal. There can be major problems with zirconia implants, though, that might not make them suitable for implant treatment.
Do you have a dental question for America's Dental Expert?
Send your dental and other oral health related questions to America's Dental Expert, Dr. Shawn Van de Vyver, at DrVan@americandentalexpert.com
Why You Should Clean Your Tongue
Some of my patients complain of bad breath even when they brush their teeth two, sometimes three, times a day.
So what's the cause of their bad breath?
One possibility is they have dirty tongues.
There are hundreds of tiny hairs on the top of our tongues that harbor germs, bacteria, and food debris. Those bacteria survive on your tongue and produce foul smelling odor.
You need to scrape your tongue and clean it regularly to remove all those germs and debris.
One option is to brush your tongue after brushing your teeth or use the back side of the toothbrush head. Some manual toothbrushes have contours and dimples on the back of the brush head to scrape your tongue with and disturb the bacteria.
Another option is to buy a tongue scraper specifically from a drug store. Using the tongue scraper will remove the plaque from your tongue and get rid of the bad breath.
You could also just use your dental floss. After you're done flossing all your teeth, use the floss to scrape your tongue 5 or 10 times to remove the germs from in between the cilia. (don't forget to spit it out!)
Send your dental and other oral health related questions to America's Dental Expert DrVan@americandentalexpert.com
Let's Be Brutally Honest
Look, let's be honest with one another. You're not flossing every day, are you? If you're skipping the flossing portion of your morning routine you're missing out. I mean, you're missing out on actually cleaning your teeth.
The crowns of your teeth have 5 surfaces: front / back, in / out, and the top biting surface. If you're skipping 2 of those, that's 40%, ALMOST HALF, of your teeth that aren't getting cleaned. That's like going to the bathroom and only wiping the left side!
So, I'm sure I've convinced you that DAILY FLOSSING IS A MUST.
How to Floss Correctly
Sure, everyone SAYS they know how to floss, but do you REALLY know how to floss correctly?
Many of my patients complain they can't reach the back of their mouth with the floss because they can't open wide enough or their fingers are too big. That's because they aren't holding the floss correctly.
Most people wind the floss around each of their pointer fingers. You need to cram a few more fingers in your mouth if you do it that way.
Try winding the floss around your middle fingers instead. I know, it feels kind of weird the first couple times. With the floss wrapped around your middle fingers, your pointer fingers are freed up to guide the floss in between your teeth. Yes, even all the way in the back.
Send any dental related or oral health questions to America's Dental Expert DrVan@americandentalexpert.com
This question was recently asked by one of my patients, and is a somewhat common occurrence with denture wearers. There are a couple reasons why you would need a bone graft before getting dentures because of your sinuses, and I’ll go through what the reasons are and give you a general overview of the treatment process.
In order to talk about why you might need a bone graft, I should tell you first what a bone graft is, what your sinuses are, and what happens to your sinuses and how it relates to teeth, dental implants, and dentures. Most often, the patients who need dentures are older patients. Dentures (some folks call them “plates”) are complete replacements for a full arch of teeth. If you need dentures, that means all your teeth need to be removed, or all your teeth are missing.
It makes sense that most denture patients are in their 50’s and older, because, even with poor home care, even if you have lots of tooth decay and gum disease, your teeth might actually last a while before causing any real problems. Sure, you might have a ton of decay and need lots of root canals, fillings, crowns, and extractions, but the disease process will take a few years.
A sinus is the medical term for a space. There’s nothing in the sinus (usually), and it’s where air can pass through. Your nasal sinus is the space behind your nose where air passes when you breathe through your nostrils. If your kids pick their noses a lot (like mine do) and they’re looking for some big goobers, they’re picking their nasal sinuses clean. Your maxillary sinuses (we all have two maxillary sinuses, one on each side of our face) are located below your eyes, behind your cheekbones.
When you lose a tooth or multiple teeth, there is no longer a reason for your body to keep maintaining the bone level in that area. As a result, the maxillary sinus will migrate downward over time. If your tooth has been missing for a long time, the sinus may have drifted so much so there is no longer enough bone to support anything, like a dental implant, partial, or a full denture. The bone is the support foundation, and if the sinus has migrated so much so there is no longer sufficient bony support, we may prescribe treatment to modify the sinus location and add substitute bone in the area.
Most often, substitute bone is added to support a dental implant. A dental implant is basically a screw that is inserted that, over about four months’ time, becomes cemented to the bone. We call that process ‘osseointegration’. Before we can simply add bone, we need to lift the sinus up to its previous position. That is why the bone graft procedure when we add substitute bone under the sinus is called the sinus lift procedure.
There are typically two approaches to a sinus lift procedure. If you’re only missing one tooth and the sinus needs a small to moderate amount of bone substitute, then pushing the sinus up from where the tooth was may be the suitable approach. This is called a crestal sinus lift, because the surgeon (or in my case, dentist) lifts the sinus from the crest of bone. The other approach is coming in from a small, temporary window at the side of the sinus. From the side, the surgeon lifts the sinus up and packs in a moderate to large amount of bone substitute.
I hope this explanation of the sinus lift bone grafting procedure was helpful to you. If you have more questions about dental implants, bone grafts, or sinus lifts, please email me at DrVan@GLDentistry.com or submit an appointment request below with your concerns.
America's Dental Expert, Dr. Shawn Van de Vyver of Great Lakes Dentistry, discusses the options for teeth whitening to give you the beautiful smile you deserve.
Please send any questions you have directly to Dr. Shawn Van de Vyver at Great Lakes Dentistry at DrVan@GLDentistry.com
Request an appointment online at www.GLDentistry.com
Call our office (248) 435-8880
and email DrVan@GLDentistry.com
Dr. Shawn Van de Vyver describes what a dental implant is and how it can improve your smile.