Our Auburn dentists are proud to be able to offer sleep apnea treatment for our patients. This unfortunate condition affects the lives of many Americans, many of whom don’t even know that anything is wrong. It can sap your energy, increasing stress levels and contributing to heart disease, so be on the lookout if you think you may be at risk.

Sleep apnea is a condition in which you frequently stop breathing while you sleep. This forces your brain to wake up, often only partially, so as to start the air flowing again. You could potentially have your sleep cycle interrupted throughout the night without even being aware of it. If you think you might have sleep apnea, look for the following symptoms:

• You’re prone to loud snoring.
• Your partner reports that your breathing occasionally stops while you sleep.
• You sometimes wake up suddenly, choking or gasping for air.
• You frequently wake up with a sore or dry throat in the morning.
• You sleep restlessly, or suffer from insomnia.
• You are unusually sleepy during the day, even if you think you got a full night’s sleep.
• You suffer from frequent morning headaches.
• You experience forgetfulness and changes in mood.

Sleep apnea is very difficult to diagnose, and can only be properly identified by a medical professional. To find out more about sleep apnea and to explore your options for getting treatment, contact Auburn Avenue Dental.

When you need to get rid of the stains on your teeth, you can call our Auburn dental clinic for a whitening. But how can you keep your teeth from staining more in the future? Unfortunately, tooth-staining substances are all around us, so much so that you can’t reasonably expect to avoid them all. Common staining agents include the following:

• Tea. This is particularly true of common dark teas, but even herbal white tea has the potential to erode your enamel and leave its stain upon your teeth.
• Coffee. Tannins in the coffee build up on the enamel.
• Any kind of smoking or nicotine use. Nicotine causes the yellow teeth.
• Sodas, colored and flavored beverages. We’ve all seen the blue tongues.
• Berries. Not only can they stain your tongue, the strong pigmentation present in berries are also in jellies, jams, juices, and the dark wines that they go into.
• Colorful candies and other sweets.

Obviously, this list represents not only a lot of common indulgences for many people, but also many of the very healthiest substances you can eat. Therefore, instead of cutting these all out of your diet, consider some easy stain-fighting practices that can allow you to enjoy your favorites without tarnishing your smile. You can drink your more colorful drinks through a straw, not letting them linger among your teeth. Keep a glass of water handy as you enjoy staining foods to help you rinse away pigments before they can settle. And remember, when all else fails you can always count on our dentist at Auburn Avenue Dental!

It’s no mystery that smoking is bad for you. You’re probably familiar enough with it’s potential to give you lung cancer, high blood pressure, and similar issues. However, it can also take its toll heavily on your teeth and gums.

Indeed, the smoke that you inhale is very harsh on the delicate tissues in your mouth. As you smoke, you may find that your gums slowly recede. Meanwhile, as the smoke dries out your mouth and impairs your ability to produce saliva, you’re less able to protect yourself from bacteria. This is to say nothing of the heavy staining it inflicts on your teeth, the poor circulation, and the heightened risk of oral cancer that you are subjecting yourself to.

Further, as bad as smoking is for your own teeth, the people around you are suffering many of the same problems from the secondhand smoke. For your own sake, and for the sake of your friends and family, do what you can to kick the habit! Talk to our Auburn dentist to learn more about how you can be getting the best out of your oral health.

Children’s Dental Well-being

Pediatric dentists are not just the teeth doctors for children but also serve as educators for the children’s parents. The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that as soon as a child reaches one year old, he should be acquainted already with his dentist. They advocate that early detection is important to maintain oral health, to pave the way to convert bad habits to good, and to treat all cases as necessary and as simple as can be.

Auburn Avenue Dental extends the same tenets to children and their parents. Our clinic is a child-friendly and safe environment for infants, toddlers, and teens, with the amenities to keep them joyfully engaged and comfortable. We have a full complement of staff who are dedicated to

Our Auburn dentists have the skills and qualifications to manage and treat children’s oral problems – teeth, gums, and the entire oral cavity – throughout their developmental years. We take pains to assure and educate our patients’ parents and guardians. It is essential that information about their charges’ special needs are understood and managed. We give programs for basic oral hygiene, caries and gum assessment, preventive advice for injuries to the teeth and mouth, proper diet, and information on growth and development.

Hence, it is also the parents’ responsibility to build the proper foundation for their child’s oral care. Choosing Auburn Avenue Dental is just that good start.

From Color to Cancer

Dental professionals, as our Auburn dentists, will encourage the smoker to kick the habit. Teeth show the visible signs of this deadly addiction quite clearly. Cigarettes’ nicotine and tar components attach themselves to tooth surfaces, become sticky and attract food debris and bacteria. They become colonized areas where underneath the decay cavities form, usually in the backs of the teeth and under the gums. Hardened and resistant to routine brushing and flossing, they turn brownish. The decrease saliva flow of smokers is incapable of hydrating the mouth or washing away cigarette debris.

Apart from the yellowish coloring of tooth surfaces and the accompanying undesirable breath, more serious effects of smoking are predictable. Smokers have a higher risk for gingivitis and periodontal disease. Their oral healing capacities are delayed, salivary glands are blocked, and loss of bone in their jaws is hastened. This is not to mention the risk for oral cancer – which may involve the throat, tongue, jaw bone, or floor of the mouth. Not a pretty picture.

Quitting starts now: Dentists of Auburn

Your dentists of Auburn, from the Auburn Avenue Dental Clinic, are a bunch of caring, like-minded professionals towards smoker-patients. Come over for a cleaning and, possibly, a whitening to start you off fresh. Our dentists can give counsel, prescribe some smoking-cessation meds, or recommend support groups or alternative healing; whatever works for you. Routine oral hygiene should still be a must. And, lovingly, though sternly, they will tell you to quit.

Do you ever feel that you have a harder time of keeping up good oral health than those around you? The unfortunate truth is that, even if you are diligent in your brushing and flossing, some people simply have genetic tendencies towards dental problems. These can come in numerous forms, including the following:

• Some people have a genetic disposition to gingivitis. If many people in your family have suffered from gingivitis, you may have similar problems.
• A bleeding disorder can be genetic, and such disorders have unfortunate implications on your dental care.
• Crooked teeth can be the result of genetics. If there are a lot of braces in your family, you may need to get braces as well.
• There are some disease that tend to run in families. Diabetes, for example, can be inherited from your parents, and has unfortunate effects on your oral health.

If you have a genetic tendency towards bad oral health, talk to our Auburn dentist. There are ways we can work to accommodate your problem and get the best out of your dental treatments.

What makes for a tooth-friendly diet? You probably already have a good understanding of what you’re supposed to not do, like eating lots of refined sugars and drinking a lot of soda. However, there are also plenty of “do’s” to be mindful of if you want to foster a strong and healthy mouth. Be sure that you are getting enough of the following in your diet, and you’ll have an extra edge in fighting off tooth decay and gum disease.

• Calcium: You need calcium to rebuild your teeth. Good calcium sources include dairy products, fish, and tofu.
• Vitamin D: Your body uses this vitamin to help absorb calcium. Get your vitamin D with brief periods of sun exposure.
• Vitamin C: A lack of vitamin C can cause loose teeth, weak gums, and infections. Fruit is a good source of this vitamin.
• Fiber and Whole Grains: Vegetables, grains, and other low-sugar, high-fiber foods serve to naturally scrub your teeth as you chew.

Talk to our Auburn dentist to learn more about how you can foster good oral health in your daily routine.

Do you have a child with a loose tooth? This can be an exciting time for a child, but it can also be somewhat uncomfortable. After all, the looser your tooth becomes, the more difficult it can be to chew food. So, when is it appropriate to get in there and yank the offending primary tooth out?

In general, it is best to allow a tooth to fall out on its own. Your child’s mouth is a very delicate place, and it is difficult to yank out a loose tooth without doing unnecessary damage to the surrounding gums. If you are concerned that the tooth may come out at a bad time and be swallowed by your child, don’t worry; the tooth should be small enough that it will pass harmlessly from his or her system.

It’s only when a permanent tooth begins to come in under a tooth before it has come out that you should think about taking special measures. At this point, there is some risk of the permanent tooth coming in improperly. Talk to our dentist in Auburn to learn more about dealing with a loose tooth.

Bulimia is an eating disorder some people develop when they have an unhealthy fixation on staying thin. They will eat as much as they like at meals, but then purge the food from their bodies before it can be absorbed into their system. People who do this generally look much healthy on the outside, but they are suffering from serious malnutrition and other health problems on the inside, including problems with their oral health.

The big problem with bulimia, as it pertains to your mouth, is that it generally involves regurgitating your food multiple times every day. This exposes your fragile throat and mouth to the harsh acids of your stomach. Over time, it is destroying your tooth enamel, gums, and even your esophagus. It is therefore that bulimic individuals are known to lose teeth.

If you or a loved one struggles with bulimia, do the right thing. Seek out professional help to manage your eating disorder, and contact our Auburn dentist to get the best out of your teeth.

Keeping your teeth white is a constant struggle. With this in mind, many people turn to whitening toothpaste as a shortcut. After all, what better way to battle the subtle, gradual staining of your teeth than with a subtle, gradual whitening product? Unfortunately, if you are using a whitening toothpaste, you probably aren’t getting the effect that you were looking for.

If you look closely at the fine print on a whitening toothpaste, you’ll probably notice that it promises to whiten teeth “by removing surface stains”. This means that it is scrubbing away staining substances before they settle into your tooth, while the stains you already have remain largely untouchable. Any product that has the power to bleach away stains that have already taken hold is going to require longer exposure to your teeth than the two minutes you use your toothpaste for. Any bleaching substances in your paste is probably only serving to make your paste more abrasive on your fragile gums.

If you want to restore your teeth after they have been heavily stained, make an appointment with our Auburn dentist for a professional and effective whitening treatment.