Put your dental problems to bed

When it comes to your dental health, consistency counts. Establishing simple routines and practicing them faithfully are the best ways to keep your mouth healthy and your teeth strong.

Taking care of your teeth during the day can prevent dental problems, but nighttime oral care is just as important. That’s because neglecting your teeth at night can undo all your daytime efforts. For starters, the American Dental Association recommends brushing your teeth both in the morning and at night with fluoride toothpaste, flossing between teeth before bed, and limiting between-meal snacks — that includes those late-night ones too. Find out what other steps you should be taking.

Watch What You Eat

Have you heard the saying, You are what you eat? Believe it or not, it also applies to your teeth. Remind yourself of it, especially if you're tempted to snack before bed. Go for healthy options. Calcium-rich foods, like milk and yogurt, will help keep your teeth strong. Fiber-rich foods, like apples, broccoli, and almonds, stimulate saliva production, which reduces the number of bacteria in the mouth. And whole grains, like brown rice and whole-grain pasta, provide iron and vitamin B for healthy gums, and magnesium for strong teeth.

The Worst Foods for Your Teeth

Sticky foods like taffy, gummy candies, and caramel cling to your teeth, providing the fuel that harmful bacteria need to multiply. At night, because you don't swallow as much while you sleep, the bacteria in your mouth can easily multiply. Avoiding sticky foods will help keep their numbers down and protect your teeth. If you do indulge yourself in a sweet and sticky treat, be sure to brush and floss soon afterward. Also, watch out for foods, like popcorn kernels or hard candies, that can break a tooth if you bite down too hard on them.

The Biggest Enemy

Plaque, the bad guy in the battle for healthy teeth, is a film of bacteria on the surface of your teeth. When you eat carbohydrate-rich foods like sugar, breads, pastas, and soda, the sugars and starches help the bacteria multiply and release acids that harm the enamel of your teeth over time and lead to cavities. However, you can sleep easy knowing that when you brush, floss, and rinse with a fluoride mouthwash, you're also attacking plaque at the same time

Fighting Gum Disease  

Gingivitis, an early form of gum disease, occurs when plaque builds up below the gum line and hardens into a substance known as tartar. Left untreated, gingivitis can develop into a more serious form of gum disease called periodontitis — a leading cause of tooth loss in later years. Red, swollen, tender gums and bleeding after brushing or flossing are early warning signs that gingivitis may be developing. Brushing and flossing regularly — during the day and before bed — are the best ways to prevent gingivitis

The Best Ways to Fight Plaque

Cavities occur when the acids in plaque break down enamel, the tooth's outer surface. The best way to prevent cavities is to brush in the morning and brush and floss before bed each and every night. Why? Because the bacteria that create plaque are constantly dividing and multiplying, so must be removed regularly. Fluoride, a mineral contained in most toothpastes, protects teeth by bonding with enamel and creating a harder surface. Toothbrush options include manual toothbrushes, and for extra brushing strength, power brushes.

 

Drill and Fill

Once plaque breaches the tooth's defense system of enamel and causes a cavity, a filling is required to re-create a hard, protective surface. After numbing the area, the dentist uses a drill to remove the weakened enamel and replaces it with a filling material, such as metals like gold, base metal alloys, and dental amalgam, or with white composite materials that match your natural tooth color. The material is selected by you and your dentist based on a variety of factors, including where the cavity is located, how large it is, and the cost.

Morning Breath vs. Bad Breath

When you wake up in the morning, your mouth is dry from not swallowing much throughout the night, and that's what typically causes "morning breath." Chronic badbreath (known medically as halitosis) can be caused by eating such foods as garlic or onions, which enter the bloodstream and are exhaled with every breath. It can also be the result of poor oral hygiene — if so, regular brushing and flossing can provide relief. Certain medical conditions can also cause halitosis, so if bad breath is a recurring problem for you, talk with your dentist or doctor to pinpoint the cause.

 

Show Off Your Pearly Whites

As we age, tooth enamel can become discolored and dull. Avoiding substances known to stain teeth (coffee, tea, red wine, and tobacco products, for example) can help prevent stains in the first place. A whitening toothpaste can add an extra brightening boost, removing surface stains. If brushing alone doesn't remove stains, many in-home and professionalteeth-whitening options are available. If you use a whitening product, be sure to follow the directions faithfully, especially when using the product overnight. Not doing so can damage your enamel and lead to bigger problems.

Don't Skip Your Appointments

Regular trips to your dentist are just as important as your daytime and nighttime oral routines. That's because seeing your dentist frequently gives him or her the opportunity to catch problems early – before they turn into major trouble. Talk to your dentist about how often you should visit, but in general, two to three visits a year are normal. If it has been a while since you've seen your dentist, schedule an appointment today. Doing so could save you thousands of dollars in expensive dental work down the line!

Dealing With Dental Emergencies

Sometimes, dental emergencies arise — a tooth gets knocked out or broken; a crown lifts off. When such mishaps occur, call your dentist immediately and describe the problem in as much detail as possible. He or she will schedule an office visit and advise you on what to do in the meantime. Quick action can make the difference between saving a tooth and losing a tooth.

Put Dental Problems to Bed

As you can see, when it comes to having healthy teeth, slow and steady wins the race. Daytime and nighttime oral care at home, paired with regular dental checkups, can head off most — if not all — dental problems. It's that easy! Just develop these good dental habits, and you'll be well on your way to putting dental problems to bed.

Join the Fight to Save Antibiotics; Preventing Super bugs

As you learned in our blog post last week, Misusing antibiotics can mess with your immune system and make it impossible for your body to fight against lethal infections. Here are five simple things you can do to help prevent superbugs.

1. Use antibiotics correctly. Work with your doctor to determine if an antibiotic will truly help what's ailing you, then follow her instructions. Any time you skip doses, don't finish a course, or drink alcohol when you're on the meds, you make the antibiotic less effective and give bacteria a chance to become resistant.

2. Buy meat labeled "raised without antibiotics" or "organic." Those exact phrases mean that antibiotics were not given to the animal needlessly. Watch out for wording; labels that say "all natural" guarantee nothing. Some good, antibiotic-free brands: Applegate Farms, Murray's Chicken, Bell & Evans, and Niman Ranch. Can't find these in your market? Tell your grocer to stock up and that you and your friends will buy! Also ask your kids' school to serve meat that was raised without antibiotics. Chicago Public Schools just became the largest district in the country to do this.

3. Ask your favorite restaurants if they use meat raised without antibiotics. If a company like Chipotle can do it, why can't others? "Things will only change if we ask for changes," says Gail Hansen, a public health advocate with the Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming.

4. Spread the message. "Like" the group Save Antibiotics on Facebook, and get friends to do the same. Awareness is key: Most people have no idea which illnesses require antibiotics, nor do they know how much the drugs are used in food animals. "Unless you grew up on a farm, why would you know that?" says Hansen.

5. Tell Congress to pass a law. The Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act would withdraw the use of antibiotics that are vital to humans from food-animal production unless the animals are diagnosed with illnesses. Says U.S. Representative Louise M. Slaughter, who introduced the bill: "Send a letter to your member of Congress — along with this article! — and tell them to sign the bill and get it passed." Personalize your own letter at saveantibiotics.org/moms/action., then get your reps' addresses at senate.gov and house.gov.

 Author:  Erin Zammett Ruddy; Redbook Magazine

Antibiotics are not candy; overuse of antibiotics create potentially lethal superbugs

We pop antibiotics like Skittles, and if we keep it up, they will seeon become useless againis potentially lethal superbugs.

On New Year's Eve 2009, Jacquie Allen, 42, was told by doctors that her son Brody might not live through the night. What started a few days earlier as a strange pimple on his knee had morphed into a full-blown attack on the 12-year-old's body. "One day he was perfectly healthy and the next he was in septic shock," says Jacquie, who lives in Southern California with her husband and their five children. "He became completely swollen and jaundiced, and his organs were failing. They tested him for everything, but no one could figure out what was wrong. I felt like I was on an episode of House." Finally, doctors determined that Brody had methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. It's a type of staph (a bacteria many of us have on our skin) that has become resistant to most antibiotics and can cause infections that are hard to diagnose, tricky to treat, and sometimes fatal. The infection quickly spread to Brody's joints. "They pumped him full of antibiotic after antibiotic, but nothing was working," Jacquie says. Eventually, Brody's elbow became so inflamed that the only option was risky surgery. "The surgeon came in and said, 'Your son is going to die if we don't get that infection out now.'"

Brody made it through the surgery, but the MRSA was unrelenting. It took two more major operations to remove the infected tissue and stop the MRSA's spread. The Allens spent 19 days in the ICU. Before they left, Brody had a catheter implanted in a large vein in his arm so his parents could administer high doses of strong, specialized antibiotics around the clock for the next four months. He was told he'd never have full use of his arm again.

The doctors were wrong: Brody ultimately recovered completely, and now pitches for his Little League baseball team with the arm he almost lost. But we should all commit his story to memory, particularly any of us who have ever taken an antibiotic "just in case," or called the doctor asking for a prescription to help our child kick a stubborn cough. You see, every time we use an antibiotic, we give bacteria a chance to adapt and outsmart the medicine, explains Margaret Mellon, Ph.D., senior scientist of the Food and Environment program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. The bacteria develop and share resistance, so the next time they come in contact with the drug, it's a little less effective. There are already numerous strains that have outsmarted some of our strongest meds, and a few that are immune to virtually all of them.

The problem is cultural as well as medical. Americans take antibiotics carelessly, prophylactically, almost recreationally, and our overuse is creating superbugs that no drug will be able to kill. My friend Amy, who sold Zithromax (or the Z-pak, as this popular antibiotic is known) at points in her career as a drug rep, says, "At parties, people thought it was extremely impressive that I had a Z-pak hookup." Some came right out and asked for samples, though she never caved. We pop antibiotics when we don't need them, we skip doses, we don't finish the full course because we feel better in six days instead of 10 — and all those mistakes give the bacteria a chance to stick around and become resistant, explains Lauri Hicks, a medical epidemiologist and the director of the "Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work" campaign for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Consumers aren't the only problem: Another major contributing factor in this crisis is the overuse of antibiotics in the farming industry, Mellon says. It's standard practice to feed low doses of antibiotics to chickens, pigs, and cows to make them grow faster and keep them from getting sick in crowded conditions. The United States Food and Drug Administration is finally starting to tackle agricultural use of antibiotics, but the rest is in our hands, and our doctors'. Preserving the effectiveness of antibiotics is "a huge public health issue," says Mellon, "and we need to start taking it more seriously right now."

The unkillable bug is coming

Ever get two days into your course of antibiotics, feel miraculously better, and think, Wow, that's magic? Well, it is. "When antibiotics came about in the 1940s, they completely transformed medicine, saving the lives of millions who would've died of these infections," says Arjun Srinivasan, M.D., a medical epidemiologist at the CDC. Moreover, without antibiotics, lifesaving treatments like chemotherapy, organ transplants, and even simple surgeries would not be possible. "These drugs dramatically improve our lives," says Srinivasan. But the magic is at serious risk as resistant bacteria pick up steam.

MRSA is the most well-known superbug, but it's certainly not the only one. "We've seen new forms of resistant disease emerge over the last decade, and they will keep coming until we can get a handle on the overuse of antibiotics," Mellon says. The CDC, for example, has warned of the potential threat of untreatable gonorrhea. The second most commonly reported infectious disease in the United States, it has become less susceptible to a strong class of antibiotics called cephalosporins, typically the last line of defense. There are also resistant strains of E. coli causing hard-to-treat urinary tract infections. (Believe it or not, one strain of antibiotic-resistant UTIs has been traced back to the chicken we eat.) When a UTI isn't stopped, it can progress to a kidney infection and then to a blood infection, says Lance Price, Ph.D., a microbiologist at the Translational Genomics Research Center in Flagstaff, AZ. "Blood infections have a 40 percent mortality rate. You can basically flip a coin to see whether you'll live or die." Srinivasan cites another example: "A type of bacteria called carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, has become resistant to all antibiotics," he says. If you pick up the infection, which can cause kidney, bladder, or blood infections, there is no treatment — and you're four times more likely to die from it than if you get a similar infection that isn't resistant to antibiotics.

Making matters worse, there are no new antibiotics in the pipeline. "It takes about a decade for a medication to go through the approval process, so we can be pretty sure we won't have new antibiotics to turn to when the current ones stop working," says Mellon. It's a real wake-up call; adds Srinivasan, "The doomsday scenario some doubters said would never arrive, in some cases, is already here."

Even when it's not life-threatening, dealing with a stubborn infection is frightening. I know firsthand: During the month I breast-fed my son, Alex, I had repeated bouts of mastitis, an infection common in nursing moms. I went on antibiotic after antibiotic, but the infection kept returning — because, it turns out, it was MRSA. I got on a specialized (as in $7,000) antibiotic and had a few surgical procedures on my breast, which cleared the bacteria. Meanwhile, Alex was battling the superbug too — he got it from the hospital nursery and gave it to me — constantly erupting with boils in his diaper area that had to be drained and treated. In the four months we dealt with MRSA, I spent $800 in copays alone. But that was nothing compared to the emotional toll. Every blemish we saw on Alex's body led us into a what-if-it's-MRSA? spiral. As if caring for a tiny new human weren't stressful enough.

Forgetting the personal price of these run-ins with superbugs, "the loss of effective antibiotics is also a huge drag on our economy," says Mellon. One recent study pegs the cost to the U.S. health-care system at upwards of $26 billion a year. The good news is we can do something about it. "The better we use antibiotics, the less of an opportunity we give these bacteria to develop and spread," says Srinivasan. "If you do a really good job of reduc-ing antibiotic use, not only do you hold resistance steady, you can actually see it go down." In other words, we have the power to reverse this crisis. And we must.

You — and your doctor — can help

Saving ourselves from the scary but all-too-real attack of the superbugs means we have to change our habits and attitudes, fast. "We're a society that seeks a quick fix to every problem," says Hicks, "and for a long time, people have thought that the magic pill for any illness is an antibiotic." But antibiotics only work on bacteria, not viruses — meaning they do nothing for a cold, the flu, bronchitis, and even most sinus infections. Doctors know this, of course, but they often dole out the meds anyway, mostly to please their patients. "People get a runny nose and think they must have an antibiotic," says Srinivasan. "They either ask for it outright or the doctor thinks, Oh, if I don't give her a prescription, she'll be disappointed." It seems crazy, but fear of letting down a patient can compel a doctor to grab her prescription pad. "We've also heard from doctors that not writing a prescription would take additional time, because they'd have to sit and explain to the disgruntled patient why she doesn't need it," says Hicks. My friend Liz only has to call her doctor and say, "I think I have strep," and a prescription arrives at CVS within the hour. She also takes a Z-pak with her on vacations just in case she gets sick. That overuse may have caught up with her: Liz often comes down with bronchitis in the winter, but this year, it turned into pneumonia. She needed two types of antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory steroid to clear it. It's a lesson for all of us, reminds Hicks: You may not care about the larger public health threat, but if you want antibiotics to continue to work for you, use them sparingly.

Just as important, we need to quit stuffing our kids full of these meds at the first sign of a sniffle. Three out of 10 children who visit their pediatrician with a simple cold toddle out with a prescription. So when you or your kids see the doctor, let her know you're not desperate for a script, that you just want advice on the best way to treat the illness, suggests Hicks. When it comes to colds, instead of plying ourselves with drugs, we should be treating the symptoms with OTC meds and nasal sprays, and do what we results-oriented Americans hate most: wait it out.

The point is not to avoid antibiotics at all costs, it's to use them correctly. This is the idea behind the CDC's "Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work" campaign, with the arguably catchy line "Snort, sniffle, sneeze, no antibiotics, please!" The message seems to be making its way into the national dialogue. It even showed up last season in a scene on 30 Rock: When Jack told Liz Lemon to take something for her cough, she deadpanned, "I'd rather see if it gets better on its own. Do you want me to go on my antibiotic rant? It's endless. You'll beg for death." Go ahead and rant, experts say. "This truly is a national emergency," warns congresswoman Louise M. Slaughter. She introduced the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act, a bill that limits the use of antibiotics on farms to treating sick animals. But five years later, Congress has yet to pass it. "We're taking what I think was the best medical breakthrough of the last century and destroying its efficacy," she says. "But if we band together, we have the power to solve this problem."

Author: Erin Zammett Ruddy; Redbook Magazine

Have a safe summer ~ take our quiz to test your hot-weather health IQ

1. Your husband runs out of the ocean yelling that he's been stung by a jellyfish. Do you:

(a) Pee on him. If Friends taught you anything, it’s that urine is the best antidote for a jellyfish sting.

(b) Pour vinegar on the area.

(c) Douse the wound with cool freshwater.

2. In the seventh inning of your daughter’s softball game, you see a flash of lightning, followed 10 seconds later by a clap of thunder. You don’t panic because:

(a) The number of seconds between flash and clap tells you the storm is 10 miles off; there’s time to finish the game.

(b) The kids are wearing sneakers, and rubber protects people from lightning, so they should be safe.

(c) As long as the rain holds off and you can see blue sky, it’s okay to stay outside.

(d) None of the above; you should gather up the kids and get them inside pronto.

3. The most dangerous creature you’re likely to encounter this summer is:

(a) A dog

(b) A bee

(c) A shark

(d) A rattlesnake

4. A drowning child is most likely to:

(a) Be quiet, still, and low in the water.

(b) Struggle to get an adult’s attention by waving and splashing.

(c) Yell for help repeatedly.



5. It’s a sweaty 90-degree afternoon and you’re hosting a backyard barbecue. The leftover burgers and potato salad are out on the picnic table. It’s safe to leave them unrefrigerated for:

(a) No more than 30 minutes

(b) No more than an hour

(c) No more than three hours



6. An hour into a hike, you notice the trail is littered with poison oak. Thankfully, you know that a good way to avoid a rash is to: 

(a) apply a protective cream on exposed skin before leaving the car.

(b) Take a warm, soapy shower once you get home.

(c) Pour Gatorade on any exposed skin.



7. You check on an elderly neighbor during a scorching heat wave. Her skin is red and she is complaining of a headache and dizziness. You take her temperature; it’s 104 degrees. Your next move should be to: 

(a) Lower her temperature with a cool shower, or a spray from a garden hose.

(b) Give her a big glass of ice water to drink.

(c) Call 911.


8. You’re having a beach day with your kids. You apply sunscreen:

(a) As soon as they’re done swimming. They won’t get sunburned when they’re in the water.

(b) Every two hours, or more often if they’re sweating or constantly in and out of the ocean.

(c) At 10 a.m., when the sun’s rays are first strong enough to damage the skin.


9. It’s boating season! The best way to survive an accident on the water is to:

(a) Hold on to a life ring and have a whistle handy.

(b) Wear an approved personal flotation device.


10. The most likely victims of fireworks injuries are:

(a) Males under age 20

(b) Firefighters supervising municipal displays

(c) Dads showing off for their kids

Answers

1. (b). The acetic acid that makes up vinegar neutralizes many types of jellyfish venom. Rinsing with cool freshwater will only make the pain worse, and despite what you may have seen on sitcoms, there’s no evidence that urine is an effective treatment.


2. (d). As soon as you see lightning, head indoors (a metal roofed car is your next-best bet). One-sided shelters like dugouts offer no protection; neither do rubber-soled shoes. And that old counting rule? You actually need to divide by five; a 10-second delay means the storm is just two miles away.

3. (b). In the average year, 43 Americans die from bee stings, 20 to 30 from dog bites, 5 to 10 from rattlesnake bites, and maybe one from a shark attack. If you have difficulty breathing or develop all-body hives after a bee sting, seek immediate medical attention.

4. (a). A drowning person is usually unable to yell or splash. Keep an eye on kids who aren’t strong swimmers; sudden silence may be the only sign they’re in trouble.

5. (b). To avoid food poisoning, cook meats thoroughly and refrigerate leftovers promptly. When temperatures soar over 90 degrees, food should not be left out for more than an hour.

6. (a). Protect yourself ahead of time by slathering on a topical cream like Ivy Block, which contains the active ingredient bentoquatam. The plants’ poisonous oil binds to skin and often becomes impossible to wash off after just 15 minutes.

7. (c). The elderly are at high risk for life-threatening heat stroke. Once EMTs are on the way, cooling the person’s skin with water becomes the top priority. Do not offer food or drink, as muscle spasms sometimes accompany heat stroke, which could cause choking.
8. (b). The sun’s rays can cause skin damage in as little as 15 minutes, and both UVA and UVB rays can penetrate water. Apply a broad-spectrum sunscreen throughout the day to ensure full protection.

9. (b). Of the 672 Americans who died in recreational boating accidents in 2010, nearly three-fourths of them drowned. Keeping a life ring and other safety gear on board is advised, but wearing an approved flotation device is the single best precautionary measure.

10. (a). Kids and teenagers suffer more than half of all fireworks-related injuries, and boys are nearly twice as likely to be hurt as girls. Leave the lighting and setting to adults or, better yet, professionals.

BY KALEE THOMPSON

Grand Rapids Press - Parade

We all wish you a safe, fun filled summer season!

~ Brian S. Nylaan, D.D.S. , Kris, Olivia, LeAnne, Val, Shauna, Dana, Julie & Kaitie

www.nylaandental.com