Dental Health Advice Newsletter 5

SMILE!

YOUR LATEST NEWSLETTER FROM DENTAL HEALTH ADVICE, October 2017

Welcome to the FIFTH newsletter from Dental Health Advice!

Hi, my name is Dr Richard Mitchell. I've been a dentist since 1979, working in the United Kingdom, Barbados, Germany, Australia and now Spain. I've written my website and monthly newsletters to give honest and reliable dental advice that doesn't depend on you being a patient of ours. I also want to explain my knowledge as simply as I can... what better way than online?

Please feel free to contact me direct with suggestions and feedback!

In this issue:

Tooth Fairy Letters; Your Tooth Fairy Letters
In The News Recently; Antibiotics for 3 days only!
Fun Facts!
Bacteria In Fallen Out Baby Teeth; The Dangers of Bacteria in Baby Teeth
Product of the Month Review; TheraBreath Mouthwash
Cosmetic Corner; Composite Bonding

Tooth Fairy Letters

Tooth Fairy Letters. I’d really love to see the tooth fairy letters that your kids have written! We all know that kids can come up with the funniest things, especially when it comes to letters to the Tooth Fairy.

So dig out those letters that your kids have written, and take a photo on your phone and email it to me, through the Contact Me page!

IN THE NEWS RECENTLY

Antibiotics Only Needed for 3 Days!

There has been a discussion in medical circles about HOW LONG you should take a course of antibiotics for. We’re all used to being told to “take the whole course of antibiotics, until the bottle is finished”.

BUT the U.S Centers for Disease Control and the U.K. Public Health England have both changed their guidance on antibiotic prescribing recently.

It seems that there is NO SCIENTIFIC BASIS for the 5 to 7 day prescriptions. This started in the 1950’s when antibiotics were new and doctors were afraid of bacteria developing resistance.

BUT THE OPPOSITE IS TRUE.

In 2010 there was an analysis of 24 scientific studies, which showed that the LONGER your course of antibiotics, the more likely you are to get an antibiotic resistance.

SO, for most people, a THREE DAY course of antibiotics will be enough to kill the infection.

You can read all about antibiotics used in dentistry at Tooth Abscess Antibiotics.

Fun Facts

Bacteria in Fallen Out Baby Teeth

Dangers of bacteria in old teeth

A recent article in the news has highlighted the dangers of bacteria growing in the teeth that your kids have shed. Do you keep all your kid’s old baby teeth? Read on!

When you have your kid’s old baby teeth in a little box, bacteria can grow like crazy in there! Definitely NOT healthy.

So what can you do?

You have to be VERY careful here. Basically you have to soak all the old baby teeth in a diluted solution of household bleach overnight. And then rinse them out several times with fresh water. AND THEN dry them out thoroughly, for several days, somewhere warm and dry. That will kill the nasty bacteria that will be living on AND INSIDE your kid’s old baby teeth!

Product of the Month

Product of the month - My favourite mouthwash is the TheraBreath Perio Rinse, developed by dentist AND bacteria specialist Harold Katz. I like this product because it has a solid scientific base for the things in it!

But I ALSO like those tiny brushes that can go in-between your teeth, to go where the mouthwash can’t. IDEALLY you will dip your tiny brush into the TheraBreath Oral Rinse, then wiggle the brush into the space between each of your teeth.

Check out my report on TheraBreath products, at Best Mouthwash.

Cosmetic Corner

COMPOSITE BONDING

It sounds like something from the yacht construction industry! BUT in dentistry it’s a way of building up a tooth with tooth-colored filling material, to improve the appearance or to build out a broken-down tooth. Here are some photos of recent teeth that I have done some composite bonding on, to improve the shape AND the colour. Much less invasive AND cheaper than caps or veneers. What do you think?

The image above shows the situation BEFORE composite bonding.

And the next image shows how things looked AFTER composite bonding. MUCH BETTER!

Thank you for reading my newsletter - Smile! - I hope you enjoyed it, had some fun and learned something useful. I know I had a lot of fun writing it! See you next month,

Happy Flossing!

Dr. Richard