Brushing Before Bed for Healthier Teeth

Hopefully, you are well aware that you should be brushing your teeth twice a day and flossing at least once in a 24-hour period (according to the ADA).  But, what’s the big deal about brushing before bed, especially when we’re just going to wake up and do it again in the morning?  Can you guess?

What Happens to Teeth

Our mouths are breeding grounds for bacteria.  This is normal.  What’s not good is that when food is left behind. We are essentially inviting these little critters to a buffet.  The bacteria release substances that erode enamel which is the number one cause of tooth decay, gum disease and more.  Not to mention if you are a soda drinker, you are leaving acid on your teeth that continue to cause damage to enamel until it is neutralized.  Drinking water right after helps, but you should brush and floss before a long stretch of sleep.  We produce less saliva when our mouths are inactive which means we are laying down another defense measure.

Your Best Defense is a Good Offense

Dr. Williams believes in regular nightly brushing which basically wipes your slate clean before trotting off to bed for several hours.  After removing food particles through brushing and flossing, do not ruin the good you’ve accomplished with any midnight snacking.  The bacteria will not be fueled without food particles and won’t be able to reproduce, thereby reducing harm to your teeth.

Try to make brushing and flossing your teeth before bed part of your regular nighttime regimen and not a burden.  You’ll be surprised at how many other life-improving benefits pop up because of this one addition to your evening.  Your teeth will last longer and you should see a dramatic improvement at your check-ups with Dr. Williams.  If you are overdue for your cleaning, why not start with an even cleaner slate and have any plaque removed that is currently there?  Set yourself a baseline and see if nightly brushing and flossing makes a difference for you.  Believe it or not, tooth loss is not a necessary adjunct to the aging process.  With proper care to keep bacteria in check, your teeth can last a lifetime.

Contact our office today to book an appointment and feel free to ask our staff about nightly brushing and flossing if you have more questions.

What to expect when getting CEREC?

A friendly, healthy smile goes a long way to making an excellent first impression, but if you have decayed or damaged teeth, you might be used to hiding your smile. Crowns, or caps that cover tooth damage, can restore your smile and provide you with a confidence boost. Thanks to leading-edge technology, you can get that confidence boost faster than ever with CEREC crowns.

Short for Chairside Economical Restoration of Esthetic Ceramics, CEREC technology allows dentists to develop, produce, and place your crowns at a single appointment. This means that you can see your smile go from frightening to flawless in a single day. Because the CEREC procedure is significantly faster and more convenient than the process of having crowns made in an offsite lab, many dentists and patients have begun turning to this new technology to restore smiles.

CEREC vs. Traditional Crown Process

The CEREC process is simple and quick, taking about two to three hours from start to finish. This includes the time it takes to prepare the tooth for the CEREC crown, create the crown itself, and bond it. On the other hand, the traditional crown placement process takes about two weeks and at least two dental visits. With a traditional crown, your dentist will prep the tooth for a new crown, then take molds of the tooth or teeth that need crowns and send the data to a lab, which will create a crown specifically designed to fit in your mouth. This can take several weeks. In the meantime, you will wear a temporary crown. Finally, your dentist will schedule another appointment, during which he or she will use a dental bonding agent to place your crown. If all goes as planned, it will fit and no adjustments will need to be made in which case the crown would have to be sent back to the lab.

How Does CEREC Work?

With CEREC, your dentist will use in-house, cutting-edge technology instead of an offsite lab to design and implement your tooth during a single office visit. Using an intraoral camera, design software, and a milling machine, your dentist will examine your teeth, input data into the software program, design a crown using that software program, and send it to the milling machine for grinding that same day. The entire milling process can take as little as six minutes.

What are the Advantages of CEREC?

With CEREC, your dentist can identify the need for a crown, prepare the tooth for a crown, make the crown and cement the crown in one sitting. Any adjustments to the crown that need to be made can also be done during that one dental appointment. Patients don’t have to come back later to complete the crown process. Patients don’t have to take two or more days out of their busy schedules to get a crown. Patients can even watch their crown being milled right before their eyes!

When you need a dental crown, it’s important not to ignore it and at Sierra Dental Care of Green Bay, we make the entire crown dental experience, a quick, comfortable, and effective one! Call us today!