Why is brushing so important? Because it gets rid of food particles stuck on your teeth that feed bacteria. These bacteria produce an acid that creates cavities and gum disease. But what about the food particles in between your teeth? Toothbrushes can’t reach there, which is why flossing is so important.
Watch this short video with some dental floss tips, then call our Winnipeg, MB dental office at 204-977-8515. Even with proper brushing and flossing, you still need regular visits for a dental cleaning and dental exam.
Your teeth are covered by strong, durable enamel. It protects the tooth, but it also gives your teeth the translucent white color associated with a healthy smile.
However, time can be unkind to your enamel. You can collect chips and cracks. The biting edge can wear down. And stains can build up until your smile look dull and brownish.
Thankfully, you can call our Winnipeg, MB dental office today at 204-977-8515 and schedule dental veneers to help with these problems. Once dental veneers are placed on your teeth, those damaged and stained teeth will look healthy and beautiful.
Dental Veneers Are Covers For Your Teeth
How your smile looks matters more than some people think. That’s because our teeth do much more than chew — they are part of how we communicate.
A smile can say many things: You’re happy, nervous, excited, and more. If you don’t smile when you greet someone, they assume something is wrong. That’s why having a smile you love showing people is important.
Dental veneers help with that. They are shell-like covers for the front of your teeth. Veneers are custom-shaped to fit your teeth in particular, and they’re colored to look like healthy teeth. Our dentists will use their training and expertise to place veneers artfully on your teeth. As soon as the dental veneer procedure is complete, your smile can look healthy and bright again.
That’s why you should call Lakewood Dental Centre today and schedule your appointment for dental veneers. Your damaged and stained smile will not get better on its own.
How Dental Veneers Have Changed
Where did dental veneers come from? Unsurprisingly, they came from Hollywood. In the early days of movies, actors often had bad teeth. (So did everyone those days.) When the camera came in for a close-up, those damaged and stained teeth really did not look good on film.
Since actors wore makeup on their face, getting “makeup” for teeth seemed natural. But early dental veneers had problems. They were made from acrylic, which didn’t look very natural. Worse, they would only stay on the teeth for a little while; they kept falling off.
Eventually, they found a solution by looking to house painters. To get paint to stick to a wall, painters often scuffed up the wall. Paint would adhere better to a rougher surface than a smooth one. Dentists began gently scuffing up the front of teeth, and sure enough, dental veneers stuck solidly.
By the 50’s and 60’s, acrylic gave way to porcelain and similar materials that looked much more like natural enamel. Today, dental veneers look so much like real teeth that it’s very hard to know the difference. And they can stay on your teeth for a decade or longer.
Benefits Of Dental Veneers
Here are some of the benefits you can enjoy after getting dental veneers.
HIDE SMALL GAPS
Remember that you are repeatedly chewing food each day for years and years. All that pressure can slowly but surely move your teeth out of alignment. The results aren’t big, but even small gaps between your teeth are noticeable.
Dentists can make your dental veneers a little too big in places. Once bonded to your teeth, they can cover those small gaps and make it look like you just finished an orthodontic treatment.
COVER UP STAINS
It’s not just years and years of chewing that can give your smile a problem. Drinking coffee, tea, wine, or any dark drink can leave behind stains on your enamel. This is a very slow process, so you usually don’t notice anything at first. But years later, your smile can be dark and stained.
Dental veneers can correct that. They cover the visible part of the tooth, so all stains will be hidden. Instead, all anyone will see is the translucent, white color of your veneers.
SEAL DAMAGE
Chips and cracks are more than just a cosmetic dentistry problem. They can get worse over time. For example, a hairline crack can get longer and wider thanks to years of chewing food. This can put your whole tooth in jeopardy.
Thankfully, dental veneers can help. Not only will your veneers hide chips and cracks from view, they will seal the damaged spots so they won’t get worse over time.
Call Lakewood Dental Centre today at 204-977-8515 or use our online form to make your next appointment for dental veneers. Cosmetic dentistry like this will make your smile look much better, but veneers can also help keep your smile more healthy.
You’ve been places where the people who work there clearly don’t want to deal with you. Just walking in, you can sort of feel an atmosphere that can make you feel tense and unwelcome. When it comes to dental treatments like fillings and dental crowns, you really don’t want to experience that in a dental office.
Thankfully, you can call Lakewood Dental Centre today at 204-977-8515 and work with a friendly, welcoming dental team. Dr. Dhillon and Dr. McDermid are your Winnipeg dentists who know much more than dentistry. They know how to help you feel relaxed. The same goes for our entire team. At our Winnipeg, MB dental office, you’ll be treated like a member of the family.
There are many restorative dentistry treatments designed to repair and save your teeth. Dental crowns, root canals, cavities, and more can restore a tooth that’s damaged or giving you pain. However, not everyone gets these treatments in time. There are also cases when the damage is just too great and there’s not enough tooth left to save.
That’s why you should call our Winnipeg, MB dental office at 204-977-8515. Although our dentists can often save such teeth, there are times when you a dental extraction is the best way to keep your mouth healthy.
The Dangers Of Ignoring Damaged Teeth
You should keep your natural teeth whenever possible. Although a dental implant is somewhat like regrowing a lost tooth, it’s not. That’s why our dentists are trained in restorative dentistry treatments. It’s better to save a tooth than replace it.
But sometimes, leaving that tooth in your mouth will only lead to bigger problems. Here are some situations where a tooth removal might be the best choice:
- A tooth has been weakened by infection and could break in your mouth.
- That infection might spread to other parts of your body.
- A toothache grows very painful and cannot be otherwise relieved.
- The jawbone around one tooth can deteriorate.
By making an appointment today with Lakewood Dental Centre, you can have your teeth thoroughly examined by our dentists. Using that data, you can determine if a dental restoration or a dental extraction is the best option moving forward.
When Dental Extractions Can Help
Again, our dentists will do what they can to save your natural teeth. But here are some of the conditions where a dental extraction is probably best.
You have an overcrowded smile.
Your primary teeth (also called baby teeth) are supposed to fall out on their own. But it’s not impossible for one or two to get stuck and never come out. Then there are the unusual situations where you are simply born with too many permanent teeth. Either way, you end up having an overcrowded smile.
In these situations, a dental extraction can help. Besides helping your smile look better, taking care of an overcrowded smile can help your bite close like it should. This can help avoid TMJ disorder or worn spots on your teeth.
Gum disease is making a tooth fall out.
Gum disease is caused by harmful bacteria, the same ones who cause cavities. Once these infect your gum tissue, your gums start to recede from your teeth. That infection will also eventually cause your jawbone to deteriorate. You will start to feel your teeth get loose before they finally fall out.
Gum disease treatment can help, but if a tooth is going to be lost anyway, a dental extraction is often safer. By controlling when and how the tooth is removed, you can avoid swallowing the tooth or having it break off in your mouth.
An infection inside your tooth spread too far.
Those same bacteria can slip past your enamel and infect the dental pulp on the inside. (This often happens when a tooth is cracked or when a cavity gets too deep.) When this occurs, you often have a bad toothache. Worse, the infection can make your enamel brittle. Root canals can remove the infection, but it might be too late if it’s not done in time.
If the infection spreads too far in your dental pulp, it might be too dangerous to keep that weak tooth in your jaw. Not only can that tooth break apart, the infection can spread to other parts of your body. That’s when a dental extraction can help.
A wisdom tooth is giving you problems.
Most people have problems with their wisdom teeth. That’s because they finally come in much later than your other teeth. Sometimes, the wisdom teeth try to pop up too close to (or even partially underneath) your second molars. Then there are times when your wisdom teeth never fully come in. These impacted teeth are much more prone to tooth decay.
That’s why a dental extraction of your wisdom teeth can be helpful. By removing the teeth causing the problems, you can eliminate those problems.
Call Lakewood Dental Centre today at 204-977-8515 or use our online form to schedule your next appointment. Our dentists can use restorative dentistry treatments to strengthen and restore damaged teeth, but sometimes, the only thing left to do is remove them.
Years of enjoying dark food and drink (like wine, coffee, tea, tomato sauce, and more) can turn even the brightest smile into one that’s dark. A smile full of bright, white teeth looks very good.
Call Lakewood Dental Centre today at 204-977-8515 and schedule your appointment for professional teeth whitening. With three types to choose from (Zoom, KöR, and Opalescence), your smile can soon look bright and healthy again. Here’s how teeth whitening works.
Are you tired of seeing that empty gap in your smile? Missing a tooth can be embarrassing, but it can also hurt your dental health. Without that tooth, your other teeth can slide out of alignment. Your jawbone will also start to weaken.
Call our Winnipeg, MB dental office today at 204-977-8515 for an appointment to get a dental implant. This restorative dentistry treatment uses a natural-looking replacement tooth and an artificial tooth root. After getting a dental implant procedure, your smile will look better and let you chew with confidence.
Holidays are a time to get together with family and friends for big dinners. In particular, Easter is connected to candy and treats. That means your family’s teeth can be at risk around this holiday. All of that sugar can lead to cavities and gum disease.
Call our Winnipeg, MB dental office today at 204-977-8515 and schedule your next appointment. Easter can be rough on your family’s teeth, so regular dental exams are needed to make sure there aren’t any problems hiding.
How Food & Drink Affects Your Family’s Teeth
When it comes to protecting your teeth and gums, you already know how sugar is a problem. But why? It’s because harmful bacteria thrive on energy-rich sugar. As they grow and multiply, they produce an acid that damages your teeth and gums. This is how you get tooth decay and gum disease.
Although bacteria love sugar, they can eat almost anything you can. Carbohydrates are packed with energy, so bread, pasta, and potatoes can increase your risk of cavities and gum disease similar to sugar. But just about anything you eat leaves behind food particles that support those bacteria.
There’s one other thing your family need to be aware of: acid. Some foods like wine, pickles, and coffee are naturally acidic. Other foods like pop have acids added to them to balance how sweet they can be. Any of these acids can erode your enamel and leave you with weakened teeth.
That’s why brushing, flossing, and regular dental visits are so important. The more you keep your mouth clean, the more you can decrease your risk of dental health problems.
Tips For Helping Smiles Get Through This Holiday
Here are some specific ways you can help your family limit the damage all those Easter foods and drinks can cause.
Rinse with plain water after meals and snacks.
Because cavities and gum disease are made worse by those food particles on your teeth and gums, it makes sense that washing them away will help. After your meals and snacks, rinse your mouth with water. This can also get rid of acids coating your teeth so they won’t do much damage.
Limit how much pop people drink.
Regular pop is full of sugar. Drinking this coats your teeth and gums with sugar, increasing your risk of dental health problems. But all pop — even diet — is also highly acidic. You might be doing better by drinking diet pop, but that acid is still damaging your teeth. Enjoy the holiday but limit how much pop you and your family drinks. Water is always the better choice.
Put any Easter baskets away.
It’s an Easter tradition to lay out baskets filled with all kinds of candy. That’s fine! You don’t want to take away all sweets because this is a holiday after all. Besides, your kids might rebel. But there’s no reason to leave these baskets out all day long. After everyone has tried some candy, put the candy in the freezer and the baskets away.
Skip colorful and sticky chocolate.
All candy can hurt your teeth, but some do more damage than others. Candy that’s bright orange, blue, or some other color can stain your teeth. You won’t get orange teeth! Instead, those teeth will start to lose their whiteness. Sticky candy is a problem because sugar gets stick all over your mouth. This just makes cavities and gum disease more likely.
Replace some of that candy with toys and games.
Speaking of candy, there’s no reason why every gift for this holiday has to be some form of sugar. Some candy is fine, but replace some of those sweets with more healthy alternatives. In fact, small toys and games make a great replacement because they’re fun but will not hurt your teeth.
Call Lakewood Dental Centre today at 204-977-8515 or use our online form to schedule your next appointment. A dental cleaning helps get rid of plaque and tartar that those bacteria create, while a dental exam will help find problems while they are still small and easier to treat.
Technically, a gap between your teeth or some dark stuff near the gumline is small. Compared to your body, all your teeth are small. But smiles are important to us. It’s how we communicate. That’s why these “small” problems can look very big in your smile.
Call our Winnipeg dentists today at 204-977-8515 to schedule your next appointment. Cosmetic dentistry and restorative dentistry can help with those small problems. As you can see below, the change is definitely not small.
You need to brush and floss regularly to protect your teeth. Harmful bacteria can spread and cause tooth decay. But did you know these same bacteria can hurt your gums as well?
If you have gum soreness or see some blood after brushing, you might have gum disease. This needs to be taken care of soon, as untreated gum disease can lead to drastic problems like losing your teeth.
Call our Winnipeg, MB dental office today at 204-977-8515 to schedule an appointment for gum disease treatment.
What Is Gum Disease?
Gum disease is a condition caused by harmful bacteria that live in your mouth. Don’t worry, everybody has them in their mouths.
These bacteria feed off tiny particles of food and drink that get trapped on your teeth and gums. They can eat anything you can, but they thrive on sugar. (That’s why candy and dessert is bad for your teeth.) As they grow, the produce an acid. When this happens on your teeth, you get cavities.
But when this happens on your gums, you get gum disease. It’s when harmful bacteria damage and eventually infect your gum tissue.
Gum disease can be broken into two stages: early and advanced.
- Early gum disease is called gingivitis. The bacteria are damaging your gums, but they have not infected them yet. With gingivitis, you usually have some bleeding, tenderness, and halitosis or bad breath.
- Advanced gum disease is called periodontitis. Here, those bacteria have gotten below the surface and truly infected your gum tissues. With periodontitis. You usually have bigger problems.
That’s why it’s important to get gum disease treatment as soon as you start seeing the signs.
Gum Disease Signs
Here are some of the signs that you might have gingivitis or periodontitis:
- Discolored gums.
- Bleeding after brushing and/or flossing.
- Tender or swollen gums.
- Halitosis (bad breath).
- Loose teeth.
- Receding gums.
If you have one or more of these signs, call us today at 204-977-8515 to schedule your next appointment for gum disease treatment.
Why Gum Disease Can Be A Major Problem
Gum disease usually starts out small. You could see a little blood after brushing but not much, and you might have bad breath on occasion. But here are some of the problems you can face if your gum disease is ignored for too long.
Gum disease can lead to losing your teeth.
As the bacteria damage and infect your gums, your gums start to recede from your teeth. This takes away some support teeth need to stay put. But your jawbone also starts to deteriorate when you have gum disease. Combined together, and gum disease can lead to some of your teeth falling out.
The infection that comes with gum disease can spread.
When your gum disease advanced to periodontitis, you have a bacterial infection in your gum tissue. This infection can easily slip into your bloodstream and get carried to other parts of your body. As your immune system fights it, you get problems with inflammation. But some bacteria can escape and infect your body elsewhere.
Gum disease can give you chronic halitosis.
With gingivitis, your gums are under attack by those bacteria — and losing. As gum tissue cells die off, you start to get a bad odor from your gums. Halitosis (or bad breath) like this can be chronic. You can brush and pop mints all you like, but it’s not going away until the gum disease is treated.
Gum Disease Treatments At Our Winnipeg Dental Office
At Lakewood Dental Centre, you can get two gum disease treatments:
Scaling and root planing: This deep cleaning treatment removes plaque, tartar, and bacteria from your gumline and below it. This can reduce irritation of your gums and help alleviate your gum disease.
Perio Protect: To fight the bacteria more directly, you can use Perio Protect. This system delivers antibacterial medication right on and below your gums. By taking care of the bacteria, you can take care of gum disease.
Call Lakewood Dental Centre today at 204-977-8515 or use our online form to make your appointment for gum disease treatment before those problems get much worse.