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This month is National Children’s Dental Health Month.
To celebrate this event, the Kaiserslautern American will be featuring weekly articles from the 86th Dental Squadron focusing on various aspects of oral health.
In addition, the 86th Dental Squadron will also be visiting schools and many local clubs and organizations.
Below is a list of planned visits:
• Tuesday: Ramstein Child Development Center
• Thursday and Feb. 19: Sembach Elementary and Intermediate schools
• Feb. 22 to 26: Ramstein Elementary and Intermediate schools
• Feb. 25: Ramstein Library Story time
Mouth guards protect your smile
It’s easy to take some things for granted until they’re suddenly gone.
Have you ever thought about how it would feel if you lost one or two of your front teeth? You’d probably avoid smiling. It would be uncomfortable talking with someone face-to-face. It wouldn’t be easy pronouncing certain words. And how about eating an apple? Until your teeth are gone, you might not miss them.
Each year, thousands of teens get hurt on the playing field, the basketball court, or while skateboarding, biking or during other activities. Blows to the face in nearly every sport can injure your teeth, lips, cheeks and tongue.
A properly fitted mouth guard, or mouth protector, is an important piece of athletic gear that can protect your teeth and smile. You may have seen them used in contact sports, such as football, boxing and ice hockey.
But you don’t have to be on the football field to benefit from a mouth guard. New findings in sports dentistry show that even in non-contact sports such as gymnastics, roller blading and field hockey, mouth guards help protect teeth. Many experts recommend that a mouth guard be worn for any recreational activity that poses a risk of injury to the mouth.
There are three types of mouth guards: The ready-made, or stock, mouth guard; the mouth-formed – boil and bite – mouth guard; and the custom-made mouth guard made by your dentist. The most effective mouth guard should have several features: it should be resilient, tear-resistant and comfortable. It should fit properly, be durable and easy to clean and not restrict your speech or breathing.
Generally, a mouth guard covers only the upper teeth, but in some cases the dentist will instead make a mouth guard for the lower teeth. Your dentist can suggest the right mouth guard for you.
Here are some suggestions for taking good care of your mouth guard:
• Before and after each use, rinse it with cold water and clean it with a toothbrush.
• When it’s not used, place your mouth guard in a firm, perforated container. This permits air circulation and helps prevent damage.
• Avoid high temperatures, such as hot water, hot surfaces or direct sunlight, which can distort the mouth guard.
• Check it for tears, holes and poor fit. A mouth guard that’s torn or in bad shape can irritate your mouth and lessen the amount of protection it provides.
• Have regular dental checkups and bring your mouth guard along so the dentist can make sure it’s still in good condition.
• Don’t take your teeth for granted. Protect your smile with a mouth guard.
Oral piercings not as safe as you think
Piercing, like tattooing, is just one of today’s popular forms of body art and self-expression. Piercing may seem daring, cool and totally safe, but piercing the tongue, lips, cheeks or uvula (the tiny tissue that hangs at the back of the throat) is not as safe as some would have you believe. That’s because the mouth’s moist environment – home to huge amounts of breeding bacteria – is an ideal place for infection.
An oral piercing can interfere with speech, chewing or swallowing. That may seem like a mere inconvenience until you consider that it may also cause: excessive drooling, infection, pain and swelling, chipped or cracked teeth, injuries to the gums, damage to fillings, increased saliva flow, hypersensitivity to metals, scar tissue and nerve damage.
These harmful effects can happen during the piercing, soon after or even long after the procedure.
An infection can quickly become life threatening if it’s not treated promptly. For example, oral piercings carry a potential risk of endocarditis, an inflammation of the heart valves or tissues. Bacteria can enter the bloodstream through the piercing site in the mouth and travel to the heart, where it can colonize on heart abnormalities. This is a risk for people with heart conditions and, in the worst of cases, results in death.
After a piercing the tongue may swell. There have been reports of swelling serious enough to block the airway. And it’s very possible to puncture a nerve during a tongue piercing. If this happens, you may experience a numb tongue – nerve damage that is sometimes temporary, but can be permanent. The injured nerve may affect your sense of taste or how you move your mouth. And damage to the tongue’s blood vessels can cause serious blood loss.
In addition, piercing jewelry can sometimes cause allergic responses to the pierced site. The jewelry can even get in the way of dental care by blocking X-rays.
Don’t pierce on a whim. The piercing will be an added responsibility to your life, requiring constant attention and upkeep. Talk to your dentist for more information.
