Even though a toothbrush looks normal, it contains millions of bacteria that are introduced into your mouth each time your brush. With that in mind, here are some suggestions to minimize the bacteria that your toothbrush harbors.

1)      Don’t brush where you flush. When you flush your toilet, thousands of bacteria are sprayed into the air. If your toothbrush is nearby, it starts collecting the bacteria that was in your toilet. Isn’t that a stomach-wrenching thought?

2)      Keep your toothbrush dry. Bacteria thrive in warm and moist environments and these conditions allow bacteria to replicate. By keeping your toothbrush dry, you minimize the numbers of bacteria and make your brush more sanitary.

3)      Keep your toothbrush to yourself. The human mouth harbors hundreds of millions of bacteria. By sharing your toothbrush, you introduce new strains to your mouth that can be more aggressive and cause gum disease.  Even keeping your toothbrush in the same cup or container as a family member causes the spread of bacteria.

Since toothbrushes can harbor so many bacteria, it is recommended that you change your toothbrush every 3-4 months. Don’t wait until the bristles fray or your brush develops mold!!! Yes…this can happen. Here are also other times when you want to change your toothbrush.

1)      When you are finished recovering from a cold. A cold is usually passed from person to person, when people sneeze and spread the bacteria or viruses via saliva droplets. Every time you brush your teeth, a toothbrush is saturated in that same saliva and harbors the cold-causing bacteria or viruses. Therefore, once you recover, it is very important to change your toothbrush and not introduce the bad bacteria back into your system.

2)      When you have your teeth cleaned. The purpose of a dental cleaning is to remove plaque and calculus that you have not been able to remove on your own. It is usually found in hard to reach places and has been in your mouth for a couple of months. These plaques have been able to grow and usually contain a more aggressive type of bacteria. When a dentist or hygienist removes them, your mouth returns to health. If you go home that evening and brush your teeth with your old toothbrush, you are just re-introducing the aggressive types of bacteria back into your mouth. A new toothbrush will help you keep your mouth healthy!

As always, feel free to email or call us with any questions you have. You can always check out our blog for updates on our office or for new insights into the field of dentistry. The web address is www.FordDentalGroup.com/blog.

Lastly, the biggest compliment our office can receive from you is the referral of a friend or family member. If you want to go one step further, you can also give us a great review on google, http://goo.gl/6iBx4. We look forward to seeing you soon.

With your dental health in mind.

Ford Dental Group

Even though a toothbrush looks normal, a toothbrush contains millions of bacteria that are introduced into your mouth each time you brush. So with that in mind, there are certain key times during the year when you want to replace your toothbrush. The easiest one to remember is when you get your teeth cleaned. When you see your dentist and hygienist, they are removing plaque and bacteria from your mouth. By replacing your toothbrush then, you keep your mouth cleaner and don’t reintroduce the bacteria that the dentist or hygienist just removed back into your mouth. Another good time to replace your toothbrush is right after you have been sick. Saliva harbors a lot of bacteria and viruses that cause the cold and flu and by replacing the toothbrush, you don’t introduce those bugs back into your mouth.

Here is a link to an article from U.S. News a couple of years ago that also talked about tips to keep your toothbrush clean. http://www.usnews.com/news/50-ways-to-improve-your-life/articles/2008/12/18/change-your-toothbrush-more-often 

As always, feel free to contact us through our website, www.FordDentalGroup.com, if you have any questions or give us a call at 714-842-7431.

Ford Dental Group- Dentist in Huntington Beach, CA

It is a short article on bruxism or teeth grinding. The constant grinding of your teeth against each other can have a drastic impact on your mouth. Tooth structure begins to wear away, and once tooth structure is removed, nothing can be done to grow tooth structure back. The outer layers of your teeth, enamel, is the hardest structure in your body and the underlying layers, dentin, is really soft. Once, the enamel wears away, grinding your teeth can cause rapid wear and ultimately causes a tooth to break or fracture. Bruxism can not only cause tooth loss, it can cause headaches, muscle spasms and jaw joint pain.

Unfortunately, grinding your teeth is neurological in nature and some people can be completely unaware that they do it. Most times, the person’s partner tells them that they are grinding or a dentists notices wear patterns on a person’s teeth. Since it happens while people are sleeping, it is not something that a person can just stop doing. Dentists can make a mouth piece known as a night guard that can help prevent the teeth from wearing away or breaking. The mouth piece is worn at night and absorbs the pressure people put on their teeth from grinding.

Grinding your teeth can also occur more frequently when you are stressed. It is your bodies’ way of relieving the stress; unfortunately, it causes damage to your teeth.

If you have sore muscles or jaw joints when you wake up in the morning, it is probably a sign that you are grinding your teeth. If you are in the Huntingon Beach area and need a dental evaluation for a bruxism, feel free to schedule an appointment through our website, www.FordDentalGroup.com.

16511 Goldenwest St, Huntington Beach, Ca 92647 714-842-7431

Researchers at a dental school in Sweeden took jaw study models of 30 dental students in the 1940′s and recently took the same study models on 18 of those original 30 dental students. The researchers found out that people’s lower jaws shrink over time, especially in the lower mandible region. As the jaw shrinks, the teeth move back and become more crowded.

Unfortunately, the researchers can’t point to one thing that causes the jaw to shrink. It appears to be multifaceted. My hypothesis has to do with bone density. As we get older, we lose bone density; sometimes it can be more severe in patients with osteoporosis. The bone loss is usually thought to occur in your back or hips, but it really happens everywhere, including your jaw. So, if your teeth need bone to stay firmly in place and the bone is being lost from the front of your jaw, your teeth move slightly inward and become more crowded.

To help prevent some of the anterior crowding, we can make you a lower retainer, that will help keep your teeth in place. Ask us about it at your next appointment.

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact us through our website, www.FordDentalGroup.com.

16511 Goldenwest St, Suite 107, Huntington Beach, CA 92647

Dentist Huntington Beach

The article reminded me of a newsletter that I wrote last year to my patients. http://www.forddentalgroup.com/pdf/Spring2010.pdf It talked about the protocol that we follow in our office to screen for many common chronic diseases and also suggested that dentists may be relied on in the future to screen for many of these conditions. Additionallty, I discussed how saliva may be a subsitute for blood to diagnose many chronic conditions in the future.

Feed back is always appreciated. Hope you enjoy the post.

The club has been putting on this project for at least 15 years and I have personally attended at least 6 of these events, starting back when I was a Key Clubber at Marina High School. It is awesome to see the smiles on the children as they pick out new clothes.

This year, Chris Epting attended from the Huntington Beach Independent and did a great write up on Kiwanis, Clothe the Children and also interviewed me on my dental work in Haiti. Check out the article. Hope you enjoy it and have a happy holidays!

Check out our website, www.FordDentalGroup.com, for updates and newsletters.

1) You need to have a website. That website needs to be updated regularly, look modern and stand out from your competition. The world is evolving. People used to look things up in the yellow pages or the phone book. Now, people go online and look things up on websites. Google is the new phone book, your website is your advertisement in the phone book.

2) You need to be on Facebook, Twitter or some form of social media platform. Small businesses stay in business because people in local communities visit and use their goods and services. They become popular through word of mouth reviews. People talk about certain places with their friends in person; or people can now tweet and facebook their friends and give reviews through the internet. Most people now stay in touch via Facebook or Twitter rather talking on the phone or having lunch or coffee. By being involved with social media, your practice  can be apart of those digital conversations. My office gets a majority of our new patients from our existing patient base. When patients post that they visited our office, their friends see that. By posting articles or comments on dentistry, it provides awareness to people and educates the public that regular dental check-ups are needed. 

3) You need to take care of your customers. The dentist in the article talks about pampering their patients with warm towels and bottles of water in the waiting room. You don’t necessarily have to do these things; however, you do need to take care of them. Remember, dentistry is a people business. Your patients are your number one priority and you need to treat them well.  If you don’t have patients, you don’t have teeth to work on and your practice won’t survive. 

I think the article is trying to feed off the notion that dentist make a lot of money and are using marketing gimmicks to maintain their plush incomes. I see these gimmicks as something every business in the 21st century must do to survive.

I appreciate your comments and feedbacks. Please let me know if you have any questions by reaching me through my website, www.FordDentalGroup.com.

I wanted to go in another direction quickly and talk about something that is often overlooked and underappreciated, saliva. That’s right; we are going to talk about the stuff that makes your drool and slobber!  There is a reason behind the saying, “My mouth is watering.” It’s because your saliva is composed of 98% water; however, it’s the 2% that makes saliva so important. The 2% contains electrolytes, antibacterial agents, and digestive enzymes. The electrolytes consist of calcium, phosphate, and bicarbonate that create a buffer and protect your teeth from forming cavities. The antibacterial agents in saliva like lactoferrin and immunoglobulin A help kill bacteria and viruses and help protect us from getting sick. The enzymes like amylase helps break starches and aid in food digestion. Saliva also acts as a natural lubricant, so you aren’t constantly biting your cheeks, tongue or lips. Saliva also creates the suction so dentures don’t fall out.

Now this brings us back to the questions that I posed above. Why are dentists concerned about diseases that affect other part of your body besides your mouth? These conditions and especially the medications used to treat these conditions can lead to decreased saliva flow and ultimately lead to xerostomia (dry mouth). There are over 400 medications and the list grows each day that cause a decrease in your saliva. The most common types of medications are antihistamines, antidepressants and blood pressure medications; however, there are many more that can affect your saliva production. Additionally, cancer treatments like chemo and radiation can damage your salivary glands and can have drastic effects on saliva production. 

If you have noticed your mouth feeling dry or are taking some of the medications listed above, please let us know at your next appointment, and we can give you some suggestions and products that relieve your symptoms. It is extremely important that we treat this condition early. If not treated, it can cause rampant decay and extensive tooth loss.

The holiday season and the end of the year are fast approaching. This also means that your dental benefits will be expiring as well. So, if you have been postponing some dental work or just have not been in for awhile, now is a great time to schedule an appointment and use those insurance benefits before you lose them.

We hope that our office exceeds your expectations. If we do, please let your family and friends know about our practice. Additionally, we would appreciate your reviews on Google Local. It helps let others in the area know about our dental practice. Please copy and paste the following link, goo.gl/6iBx4 into your address bar and give us a great review.

As always, please let us know if you have any questions. You can call us at 714-842-7431 or reach us through our website, www.FordDentalGroup.com, under the Contact us link.