Now that summer is officially here, we’re all starting to plan those well-deserved vacations or long weekends away. Naturally, you also need to pack. So you load up on clothes, snacks, medications, and everything you may possibly need. Yet you forget your toothbrush. What do you do when you’ve reached your destination and it’s time to brush those pearly whites? Take some advice from our dental office in Asheboro.

Solution #1

Even if you’re without a toothbrush, you should still do something to rid your mouth of the bacteria that accumulates over time and after meals. But how? With a paper towel!

A clean, sturdy paper towel can go a long way toward getting your teeth clean until you have a chance to get to the store and buy another toothbrush. Simply find the thickest paper towel you can, wet it, dab on some toothpaste, and wrap it around your finger. Place your towel-wrapped finger along the gum line and gently scrub outwards. Then follow the same technique on the backs and chewing surfaces of each individual tooth. Don’t forget about the tongue! Scrub it as best as you can. When you’re done, rinse well.

Solution #2

If you forget both a toothbrush and toothpaste, this tip is for you.

Start by washing your hands with soap and warm water, but don’t dry them. While fingers are still wet, take your index finger and begin to scrub it over each individual tooth, the backs, and chewing surfaces. If a paper towel or soft wash cloth is handy, wet it and follow up your finger cleaning with a gentle brush of the cloth. Rinse, swish, spit, and repeat if necessary.

Solution #3

If you have no toothbrush and no toothpaste, but have some handy ingredients, you can make your own temporary paste to use with the above tip. All it takes is some water, salt, or baking soda. One or two teaspoons of salt or baking soda dissolved into warm water act as a gentle abrasive for your teeth, and can be an adequate replacement to toothpaste if needed.

This summer, or any time you’re away from home and find yourself without a toothbrush or toothpaste, follow the tips above. While these aren’t long-term solutions and a proper toothbrush and toothpaste should be found as soon as possible, they can go a long way in getting dangerous bacteria off your teeth. And as always, keeping up with appointments at our dental office in Asheboro are crucial to maintaining a healthy smile for a lifetime.

Accepting patients from Asheboro, Randolph County, Randleman, and nearby neighborhoods.

We always encourage the patients at our Asheboro dental office to brush and floss everyday — usually in the morning and before hitting the hay at night. But brushing after meals, including lunch at work, is just as important. In fact, keeping up with your oral hygiene while at the office is better for your mouth, and your job.

While skipping the toothbrush post-lunch probably won’t get you fired, just like brushing alone won’t reward you with a promotion, good oral health is important for your career. In a study conducted by the Academy of General Dentistry and Oral-B, we found out just how your smile, teeth, and breath affect the workplace.

The Findings

• 40% of respondents cited a smile as the first thing they notice about a co-worker
• 32% said bad breath was the least attractive trait
• 75% ate two times or more a day while at work
• 14% brushed their teeth following a meal!

If you’re part of that 14%, you’ve made us proud, keep it up! If you’re in the other 86%, don’t’ worry, we’re here to help.

The Importance of Post-Meal Brushing

When we eat, our teeth are exposed to many elements including starches, sugars, and acids. If these are left on the teeth, bacteria will begin to attack the tooth enamel and make teeth more susceptible to decay. Even if there’s no evidence of food remaining in the mouth, these dangerous bacteria are growing and causing damage. This makes brushing after meals crucial for a healthy mouth.

Switch It Up

Brushing after lunch is a great step to ward off any lingering bacteria, but there are two other main meals we typically eat throughout the day — breakfast and dinner. Many patients we talk to typically brush their teeth before digging into their bacon and eggs each morning. Try switching it up and brushing after. Same thing with dinner. The sooner you can brush after eating, the better (unless the food is high in acid, then wait about an hour). Brushing after these meals is just as important as storing a toothbrush in your office desk drawer and using it after lunch.

While brushing after meals is important to oral health, it’s still necessary to maintain recommended appointments to our dental office in Asheboro. With a proper at-home, and at-work, oral health care routine and regular visits with us, we’ll help keep your smile healthy and your co-workers happy.

Welcoming patients from Asheboro, Randolph County, and Randleman.

We usually talk a lot about tooth health, proper oral hygiene, and how important it is to take care of your teeth. However, all of us at our dental office in Asheboro want to take this opportunity to talk about an often forgotten part of your overall oral health. Your tongue.

Your tongue is a pretty amazing muscle. Not only is it one of the strongest muscles in the body, it serves many purposes including chewing, swallowing, and talking. But it can also hold a lot of bacteria and other smile-damaging particles. This makes proper tongue care just as important to proper teeth and gum care.

Why to Take Care of Your Tongue

Making your tongue a daily part of your oral hygiene routine has lots of benefits.

• Yum!! A cleaner tongue means your taste buds aren’t covered with bacteria or acid, so food tastes better. This benefit alone makes us want to go brush our tongues right now!

• Keeps Teeth Healthier. Your tongue and teeth are in contact most of the day, everyday, which means your teeth are constantly exposed to whatever is on the tongue. If bacteria and acid are lurking on your tongue, the chance for tooth decay and erosion greatly increases.

• Ahhh, Fresh! While there are many reasons behind bad breath, an uncared for tongue is often a culprit. Giving your tongue the attention it deserves is a great way to keep bacteria and bad breath at bay However, if your bad breath doesn’t go away, see your dentist as soon as you can as it may be a sign of something serious.

Give Your Tongue Some Love!

Every time you brush your teeth, make sure you gently brush your tongue too. With over 10,000 taste buds on the tongue, it creates a lot of space for gross stuff to hide. A quick brush with your toothbrush can help. If you have trouble brushing your tongue, which is pretty common, ask your dentist about a tongue scraper.

At our dental office in Asheboro, we want to make all of our patients aware of the importance of proper tongue care. Make sure to brush at least twice a day, including your tongue, and floss once a day. And as always, regular appointments with us can help catch any problems before they become serious.

Accepting patients from Asheboro, Randolph County, and Randleman.

Your body endures a lot of changes during pregnancy. Your feet may swell, you may be sore in strange or new places, and your teeth may decay. It’s true, your teeth are not one of the more popular concerns during pregnancy but at our dental office in Asheboro, we’re here to tell you they should be.

Why is it so important to keep an eye on your teeth during pregnancy? One reason is morning sickness. Morning sickness causes stomach acids to enter the mouth and if left there, the acid may erode enamel and lead to decay.

What to do if Morning Sickness is Plaguing You

We wish we had a solution to end morning sickness for every pregnancy. But we do have some ways you can decrease the chance of it affecting your smile.

• Rinse with water. Swish some water around in your mouth following a bout of morning sickness to remove some of the acid from your teeth.
• Wait an hour. Wait at least an hour before brushing after you’re sick. Rinse with water in the meantime. Acid may weaken enamel. Brushing can scratch the enamel and lead to decay.
• Keep drinking water. The more water you drink, the lower the acidity level in your mouth will be.
• Smear on toothpaste. Putting a dollop of toothpaste on your finger and rubbing it on your teeth can further protect them against acid.
• Use a tongue scraper. After vomiting, if you take a tongue scraper across your tongue, you can successfully remove some of the acid that may stick around on the tongue and then transfer to the teeth.

If you’re pregnant, we’d love to see you at our dental office in Asheboro. Not only is it important to get a check up during pregnancy to ensure there are no scary problems lurking in your mouth, we will help minimize your risk of decay. Let’s keep your teeth healthy throughout your pregnancy and for years to come.

Accepting patients from Asheboro, Randolph County, and Randleman.

At our dental office in Asheboro, we’re pros at getting and keeping our neighbors’ smiles healthy and beautiful. But what we want to make sure all of our patients know is that dental care for their pets is just as important.

1. Choose the right tools

When you decide to start brushing your animal’s teeth, it’s important to choose the proper brush. There are canine-specific toothbrushes that you can buy, or a clean piece of gauze wrapped around a finger will work just fine. When it comes to the toothpaste, ask your vet what’s best. Never use human toothpaste on an animal as it could cause stomach problems.

2. Use the right technique

Brushing animals’ teeth is very similar to brushing your own. Make sure to hold the brush or your gauzed-wrapped finger at a 45 degree angle and gently rub in small circles. The cheek side of the teeth often accumulates the most tartar, so try to pay extra attention in that area. Brushing should occur two or three times a week.

3. Know the signs of disease

Some signs of an issue with your pet’s oral health could include:

• Bad breath
• Excessive drooling
• Swollen gums
• Loose teeth

If you notice any of these symptoms, schedule an appointment with your vet.

4. Select a healthy diet

Just like humans, your pet’s diet can go a long way toward keeping teeth healthy. There’s specially formulated food your vet can recommend that will help control plaque and tartar formation. When it comes to snacks, avoid table scraps and choose healthy dog treats instead.

Make sure to keep your pet’s smile in its best shape by following the tips above and visiting the vet regularly. To keep your smile healthy, maintain regular appointments at our Asheboro dental office and make sure to brush and floss daily.

Accepting patients from Asheboro, Randolph County, Randleman, and surrounding areas.

You work hard, and you deserve the right to play hard too. That’s the whole reason for vacation days. But too often, vacation days are used for something other than fun times with the family. In fact, 164 million work hours are lost each year because of dental problems. At our dental office in Asheboro, we’d prefer you save days away from the office for something fun other than visiting us (although we promise we really like seeing you!), and we know just the way.

It’s All About Prevention

There’s plenty of reasons we recommend you come to see us at least twice a year. Sure, we love to see you and catch up on how things are going, but in order to ensure your mouth isn’t lurking with some scary stuff, we need to get you in the chair and check out what’s happening.

Preventive appointments with your dentist in Asheboro are crucial to catching any potential problems before they become big, big problems. There’s a common belief that if you have a problem with your teeth, you’d know it. Unfortunately, that’s not true. Many times when you start to become aware of a problem, it’s already progressed into something more serious.

Gum Disease

Gum disease is one of those sneaky oral health concerns that can show no symptoms. However, when it does, it’s usually overlooked as normal. We’re talking about bleeding gums when you brush or floss. Bleeding is never ok and is a sign that something needs serious attention. If caught early on, gum disease is treatable. If it’s left to fester, it can lead to tooth loss and whole-body problems like heart disease and stroke.

Cavities

Cavities rarely have any symptoms early on, and if you keep regular hygiene appointments, we often catch them in the beginning stages, making them easier to treat. It’s when we don’t catch them before they have a chance to affect the nerves when you will have pain. When this happens, treatment is usually more advanced and may warrant a root canal or another procedure.

Don’t let dental problems keep you from enjoying your time off. Make an appointment at our dental office in Asheboro. We’ll make sure to get and keep your smile in it’s healthiest form so it’s ready for all those smile-inducing moments this vacation.

Accepting patients from Asheboro, Randolph County, Randleman, and surrounding areas.

When you think of spit, do you think of bad manners, gross droplets on the sidewalk, or even worse, a bottle full of chewing tobacco saliva? Most people think of spit as something pretty gross and detestable. However, at our dental office in Asheboro, we think spit is pretty neat, and we’d like to tell you why.

25,000 Quarts

An average human produces about 25,000 quarts of spit throughout their lifetime. That’s enough to fill your swimming pool this summer. Though we don’t recommend it. We’d like you to keep your spit in your mouth for a couple reasons.

Spit is incredibly helpful when it comes to the health of your mouth and teeth. Each time you eat, you produce more saliva. That’s not a coincidence as one of saliva’s main purposes it to help clear the mouth of food particles that may get stuck behind. It’s also fantastic at neutralizing acids and protecting teeth against decay. If salivary glands aren’t producing enough spit, you’ll start to experience dry mouth. With dry mouth comes a whole host of problems including oral infections and increased risk for cavities. All that spit isn’t so bad anymore, is it?

DNA Insights

Your spit can give you a fantastic window into your own DNA. A slight swab of spit from your cheek will contain cells. Inside each cell is a nucleus. Inside each nucleus there are chromosomes which are made up of DNA. There are many organizations out there that can then analyze your DNA-filled spit and provide you information on what they find that truly makes you, you. All from a little spit.

Save a Life

Every three minutes, someone in the United States is diagnosed with blood cancer. BeTheMatch.org is an organization that strives to raise the awareness of blood cancers by increasing the bone marrow donor registry. Bone marrow is one of the most common treatments of blood cancer, and it’s often hard to find a compatible match. How is this related to spit? All it takes to get on the registry is a little swab of your cheek. Be The Match then scans the registry for each patient to help find donors for patients.

At our Asheboro dental office, we’re full of fun facts about spit, teeth, and your mouth. If you’d like to know more cool trivia, give us a call today and schedule an appointment. We’d love to have you!

Welcoming patients from Asheboro, Randolph County, Randleman, and surrounding areas.

It’s an inevitable fact. We’re all growing older every day. With age and body changes, medical issues tend to erupt, and dental care becomes even more important. At our dental office in Asheboro, we’d like to explain why regular visits for seniors is so crucial for a healthy body.

Healthy Mouth, Healthy Body

The mouth is the window to the rest of the body, and a lot of oral health problems are linked to problems elsewhere in the body. This makes it incredibly important to let your dentist in Asheboro know if you have certain health conditions that can affect your oral health. Some of these diseases include diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. When your dentist knows what’s going on in the rest of your body, they’re able to treat you properly. However, just like whole-body conditions can impact your oral health, your oral health can impact the rest of your body.

Gum Disease

Gum disease is incredibly prevalent among the older population. In fact by age 65, 1 out of 4 has gum disease. Additionally, the American Academy of Periodontology estimates 20-30 percent of adults have gum disease severe enough to put them at great risk for tooth loss. Gum disease not only increases the chance of losing natural teeth, it greatly affects the rest of your body.

This scary oral health disease has been linked to very serious conditions including diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. Gum disease is treatable so it’s important to catch it early before it creates some dangerous problems. There are several things that can make someone more susceptible to developing gum disease including:

• Poor oral hygiene
• Bad diet
• Smoking
• Medications

Dry Mouth

Speaking of medications, they can work wonders in easing pain or treating chronic problems. However, they can also lead to a very dry mouth. Dry mouth is a big concern in keeping a mouth healthy. Without saliva, teeth are at increased risk for decay, oral infections can develop, and could lead to gum disease.

Grandparents, parents, and any elderly person should be seeing a dentist regularly to ensure optimal health. If it’s been awhile since the last dental visit, give our Asheboro dental office a call.

Accepting patients from Asheboro, Randolph County, Randleman, and nearby neighborhoods.

Even if you brush twice a day, floss once a day, and maintain regular visits to our dental office in Asheboro, you may be causing damage to your teeth without even knowing it. There are many common habits that most of us do subconsciously, and these habits can be detrimental to teeth.

1.  Teeth Are Not Tools. No matter how easy it may seem to simply use your teeth to open that bag of chips, remove that tag from new clothing, or open that jar of nail polish, it’s definitely not worth it! Using teeth as tools to open any pesky package can result in serious damage like chipped teeth and broken restorations. Saving a few seconds by using teeth instead of grabbing the proper tool just isn’t worth it.
2. Brushing Softly is Best. There’s no need to vigorously scrub your teeth. In fact, doing so can create serious damage. Hard bristles and rough brushing can contribute to sensitivity, worn down enamel, and irritated gums. Instead, choose a soft bristled toothbrush and gently brush teeth at a 45 degree angle for best results.

3.  Cool it on Ice Crunching. Ice is one of teeth’s worst enemies. It’s not only super hard, it’s also super cold; two things that don’t go well for teeth. Crunching on ice is a great way to fracture teeth and get tiny cracks in them. Down the road, these tiny cracks lead to much bigger problems.

4.  Keep Fingers Away! Biting nails is another dental habit that leads to tooth damage, among other things. Your fingernails are dirty and biting them allows all the germs hiding underneath to enter the body (yuck!). Also, fingernails are hard, really hard, and chronic biting can cause teeth to shift, break, or crack.

5.  And Pens Too! Like nail biting, it’s a common habit to park a pen or pencil between your teeth at meetings or when deep in thought. This, too, places a lot of pressure on teeth, causing them to shift, crack, or damaging dental restorations.

All habits are hard to break, and dental habits are no exception. So try your best to catch yourself and work on fixing them. Need some tips for helpful ways to break a habit? Talk to any of us at our Asheboro dental office!

Accepting patients from Asheboro,Randolph County, Randleman, and surrounding areas.

Our old friend the sun has a bad habit of disappearing quite often during the winter months. During the few hours of daylight we do have, it’s usually too cold to go sit outside and soak up some rays, or we’re all stuck indoors at work. When the sun decides to hibernate during the winter, our most plentiful supply of vitamin D is compromised. That’s bad news to all of us at our dental office in Asheboro!

You Are My Sunshine, My Only Sunshine!

The sun — it can give us a mood boost, jump start our immune systems, and keep our planet from freezing solid. Of course it has other benefits like giving us a nice summer glow and keeping us warm. Perhaps the most important thing the sun does (at least according to us!) is supply us with a whole lot of vitamin D.

It’s All About Vitamin D

Vitamin D is a pretty cool nutrient that not only helps boost our immune systems, but also can lower blood pressure, help the pancreas produce insulin, and aid in the absorption of calcium. Since we all know that calcium is crucial for strong bones and teeth, vitamin D is super important for a strong, healthy smile.

Where to Get Vitamin D

Like we often see during the winter, sometimes the sun isn’t a viable source of vitamin D. When this happens, it’s important to make sure you’re getting an adequate supply from somewhere else. Some great ways to keep up with your vitamin D intake is by:

• Eating Eggs and Fatty Fish
• Drinking Milk
• Taking Supplements

Having enough vitamin D is extremely important for your smile and your body. If you aren’t getting enough of it, you may develop a vitamin D deficiency. That’s serious stuff. In fact, research has linked a lack of vitamin D to osteoporosis, increased risk for type 1 diabetes, and even breast, colon, or prostate cancer.

No matter how you take your vitamin D, make sure you have some daily. Not just for a healthy smile, but for a healthy body. As always, regular appointments at our dental office in Asheboro can help keep both healthy for life.

Serving patients from Asheboro, Randolph County, Randleman, and nearby communities.