Archive for the ‘general dentistry’ Category

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The Importance of Flossing in Leeds

Monday, February 6th, 2012

The main cause of nearly all dental problems starts with the build up of bacteria in the mouth and around the teeth. It is for this reason why both brushing and flossing are so important in preventing the onset of problems such as gum disease and tooth decay.

Everybody knows that it is important to brush your teeth at least twice a day, this is common knowledge. It isn’t as widely known however, that brushing your teeth does not remove all bacteria and food debris from your mouth. Bacteria are able to ‘hide’ in the gaps between teeth, here they are inaccessible to toothbrushes and can build up to form plaque and create problems for the individual whose mouth they are colonizing.

It is therefore essential to remember flossing as part of your daily dental hygiene routine. Flossing enables you to reach the crevices between teeth where bacteria thrive, removing them ensures that you are taking all the necessary steps in preventing gum disease.

If the people of Leeds do not floss at least once a day they may find that they develop much more serious and complicated problems. If bacteria is allowed to build up in the gaps between teeth, it eventually hardens and turns into tartar, a substance which, unlike plaque, is hard to remove and must be treated surgically by a dentist. The bacteria within tartar can produces toxins, chemicals which will cause inflammation of the gums and lead to a condition known as Gingivitis. Untreated gingivitis can lead to toxic inflammation of not only the gums but the bones beneath them too, ultimately resulting in the loss of teeth.

 

Tags: Teeth cleaning, Teeth cleaning Leeds, Leeds, Oral hygiene

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Emergency Dental Treatment in Central Leeds

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

Dental emergencies can be a pain, not just in the physical sense of the word. Whether it be severe toothache or an abscess, sometimes waiting for an appointment with your local dentist just isn’t an option. In these cases it is possible to organise an ‘out -of -hours’ appointment with a local clinic through their emergency service.

In central Leeds there are several emergency clinics that can be contacted if you experience any of the following: toothache, broken or chipped teeth, lost fillings, abscesses, swelling or oral bleeding. In the case of most emergency dental practices you should ring the number provided and arrange an immediate appointment to address your problem. However, some clinics may utilise a ‘request emergency call back’ system by which you can enter your details online and a member of the practice will contact you as soon as possible in order to book an appointment or give professional advice.

In some cases, the emergency practice may advise going straight to A&E for serious dental problems, these include: facial swelling due to an abscess, a fractured or badly injured jaw, loss of consciousness due to a blow to the head and excessive oral bleeding.

There are NHS emergency clinics available and your local clinic can be found by ringing NHS direct or using the services directory. Out-of-hours dental care will cost £17.00 unless you are eligible to receive free NHS dental treatment. There are also private emergency clinics available to call, but the cost of treatment from any of these practices will be significantly higher than the NHS.

 


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Perfecting Oral Hygiene in Leeds

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

Beautiful teeth are a labor of love and an ongoing project in Leeds that, if you get right from the start of time, will keep your teeth in your mouth until the end of time. Talking about oral hygiene and getting back to basics can sound like you have to be taught at school again, but for some, it needs to be done. Most of us think that if we just buy the products and chuck them into our mouths that that should be enough to halt the onset of tooth decay and gum disease; however the stark reality is different. We have to make sure we are brushing correctly with the right brush, with the right toothpaste and then floss afterwards-after all the products are there to choose from. If you find yourself having to have something done to your teeth each time you go to your dentist, then it means you are getting it wrong at home so you should really sit down with your dentist and work out between the two of you what it is that you do to your teeth on a daily basis. Oral hygiene is not just about the obvious cleaning process, it is also about diet and lifestyle too- so it is all about getting the perfect balance.

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The Art of the Dental Check-up in Leeds

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

If you have a magnificent dentist in Leeds, you may well be ignorant of just exactly how good they are when you pop in for a dental check-up and think it’s just a look inside and a quick clean. But any dentists worth their weight in salt will be checking for things that you take for granted. Depending on the age of a patient, they will follow a strict guideline laid down by general procedures of practice to ensure your mouth is healthy. The basic check-up will involve searching for signs of decay in the teeth, disease in the gums, erosion, and then treat if necessary followed by a clean and polish. But the dentist should also take digital x-ray as well to check for problems in other areas in the mouth such the way your mouth is ‘biting’, check the jaw joints for wear, the roots of the teeth and the gum line. They will check your fillings and any other fitting you may have had done. But the best thing of all that you get from a dental check-up is the chance to have a say about your concerns. It’s not all about axes and hammers with dentists’, they can be gentle and offer a really good counseling service to you when you have problems. Most important of all, they can give you advice about dental emergencies and what to do in a crisis. A check-up should be embraced and used constructively, after all, in general, you only have two a year.

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Waterlase removes Pain in Leeds

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

On of the greatest fears of people when they go to their dentist inLeedsis that of the drill and the injection. It has always had a bad image and most of us loathe it. But good news folks, because it very much looks like this type of treatment has had its day. Technology moves at a fast rate and with it, society tries to keep pace as well as it can, as do all elements of the medical world, especially dentists, and it seems that the flavor of the decade right now is the laser. This has revolutionized dentistry in a manner you could only dream of as a patient years ago and state of the art right now is Waterlase. This device uses a tiny laser to do the work that a drill would, and whilst burning away at the debris of the tooth, fires a finite jet of water at the area where the laser is working on. That’s the technical bit out of the way, so why is it better you cry? Well, there is no vibration that a drill causes so no further damage is caused to the tooth and because it is so precise, it is virtually pain-free, removing the need for injections. It reduces damage to the gum tissue around the teeth and so the patient heals much faster. For the squeamish amongst us, the idea of the pain from most dental treatments has now become a thing of the past and banished the drill to where it belongs- hell.

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The Ups and Downs of Fluoride in Central Leeds

Monday, January 16th, 2012

The more we learn to understand and discover things as we go through, the more we tend to question that the things we have always used and taken for granted are in fact, doing us any good and in the case of fluoride, many dentists in central Leeds are starting to opt out of its support and advocate alternative toothpastes. The reason for this has come from years of research worldwide into the effect fluoride has on the teeth. It has always been championed in the past as a savior of teeth- helping to re-mineralize the enamel in the teeth and offer protection from dental caries by helping to break down the bacteria that causes plaque, which is why most dentists will offer fluoride treatments to help support this fight. It is also considered to help in the growth of children’s teeth during those tricky years, which is why it is a mineral added to drinking water. Yet there are parts of the world that have no fluoride in their society at all and there is no indication what-so-ever that there are increased cases of tooth decay, in fact, it is quite the opposite. It is also considered that too much fluoride in the bloodstream can act as a poison and cause brain damage as it leaves deposits all around the deposit. In some cases with children who tend to swallow more toothpaste than they spit out, too much fluoride can kill a child. Extreme maybe, but many dentists consider keeping a child fluoride free. The thing is it is everywhere as we speak.

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How to Fight Bruxism in the City of Leeds

Sunday, January 15th, 2012

If you live in the city ofLeeds, you will know it is a bustling town and with that can come a lot of stress and anger on a daily basis. What is required at the end of the day is to learn how to totally wind down and relax. You do not need to drink coffee, just a nice herbal tea; have a hot bath, with soft music and aromatic candles and take a book to bed with you. Why? Well, if you are taking the stress and anger of the day to bed with you, you are probably going to be suffering from Bruxism- teeth grinding. Unwinding is one of the elements of beating this problem, as is wearing a gum-shield to protect your teeth from wearing down. Anger management is also the answer because you need to identify why you are wound up each day. Even though you don’t notice you are clenching your teeth together and grinding throughout the day, as well as night, you probably are if you get stressed out. Now if this is left unchecked, you are in danger of doing some serious damage to yourself. As has been said, firstly you with be destroying your teeth, but more serious than that, you are putting unnecessary stress upon the jaw joints and soon the will breakdown and then you are starting to really damage yourself. The jaws will start clicking and aching and then become painful. But further to that, you will be affecting your hearing, doing damage to your neck and causing problems in your upper back. Look out for the signs and ask your dentist for help.

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The Connection between your Heart and Sleep Apnoea on Leeds

Saturday, January 14th, 2012

Sleep is one of the rare times in our hectic lives inLeedswhen we get a chance to recuperate from a hectic day in the city and get ourselves ready for the next day- and so it goes on. But it does rely on the fact that we are in perfect working order throughout and we live a healthy regime. Sleep apnoea is a condition though that preys on anything that goes wrong in the body. If you are a serial drinker or smoker, on medication, obese or have suffered damage to your nervous system at some point, you may well suffer from this condition. When we sleep at night, we need air into the lungs to ensure that the rest of our body functions correctly but if this is blocked in any manner what-so-ever, it will interfere with the natural breathing process between the brain, lungs and heart. The brain delivers messages to the heart to keep going and pump blood around the body. This in turn returns the favor by keeping the lungs going by pumping oxygen back into the brain. Take out the oxygen and the whole system breaks down. Irregular breathing during sleep trips up the heart and stops the other two. Yes, the body is resilient and will fight back- but only for so long and then the heart will stop. If you find yourself troubled with fatigue first thing in the morning and throughout the day, it means you are not sleeping right and getting enough air into yourself at night. Your dentist can supply you with the right device to help open the airways, but everything needs to change as well otherwise your body will refuse to co-operate.

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The Problems of Central Apnoea in Central Leeds

Friday, January 13th, 2012

The body is a complex field of things that rely on other things to keep going in centralLeeds, but throw a spanner into the works of anyone of these and the rest will also suffer. Central apnoea is a result of one of these chains being broken and generally this is caused by severe complications within the body such as anything to do with the spinal chord from the top to the bottom or have had heart problems in the past. Heavy medication can do this too, but you know you are in trouble if you are suffering from things like heavy fatigue throughout the day or are restless when you sleep. The thing is that it is a very complex thing to deal with but you need to be able to regulate your breathing to ensure there is enough oxygen getting into your body, especially at night. Your dentist can supply you with devices to ensure your airways are always free when you sleep and advise you with breathing techniques to practice throughout the day.

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The Dangers of Tooth and Gum Disease in Leeds

Thursday, January 12th, 2012

It is always easy to take a devil may care attitude towards life in a city likeLeedswith all its wayward wonders and glamour. But in doing so it is also easy to ignore the health issues that affect your body and more over, your mouth as well. It is very easy to miss things that happen in the mouth, especially if you start to skip dental appointments. The thing here is that things get wildly out of control before you are aware of it and when plaque starts to attack around the gums, the gums themselves become infected with disease and then start to leak toxins into the body’s blood. After a long, long period of time, the heart liver and kidneys will simply stop fighting against this constant poisoning bombardment and as harsh as it may sound, you will fall into a period of ill-health and then die. Any sign of weeping or bleeding in the gums is a sure sign that your gums are in the throws of problems and clearly your lifestyle and how you are caring for your teeth isn’t working. It is important that you enlist advice from your dentist to get yourself out of this potentially fatal quagmire. Depending on how much you have let yourself go will define the course of treatment you need. You have been warned!

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