We cannot stress enough how important it is to see your Houston dental hygienist once every six months This will minimize the risk of tooth decay, and it will also provide you with access to the latest patient education materials regarding dental hygiene and self care.

While you are waiting for your next schedule visit, it is a good idea to get a head start on taking better care of your teeth.

The better your understanding of the decay process, the better equipped you'll be to maintain good dental health. Here's a basic rundown of the tooth decay process, start to finish.

Tooth decay starts with colonies of bacteria.

Bacteria are never loners. They live in colonies, and the colonies are big. Not all bacteria are harmful, however.

Thousands of bacteria already exist in your mouth. Most of them are beneficial. There are a few bacteria, however, that cause tooth decay. One in particular, streptococcus mutans, is a rather nasty variety that reproduces quickly and sets up large colonies wherever it’s given the chance to feast on starchy foods.

Another word for starches is carbohydrates, and you probably consume them every day in the form of pasta, bread, crackers, and sweets. These carbohydrates then build up on your teeth if you do not brush them regularly.

This buildup creates a sticky mixture of saliva, food debris and bacteria known as plaque.

Streptococcus mutans will eat any carbohydrate you eat. The starch it will eat most quickly eat is sugar. Unfortunately, the more refined the sugar is, the more the bacterial like it because they can digest it even faster than you can.

When the bacteria eat the sugars in plaque, a chemical reaction starts. The sugars are broken down into simpler elements, and one of these elements is an acid called lactic acid. Lactic acid is the acid that makes your muscles tired. It also breaks down tooth enamel and weakens the overall integrity of the teeth.

Eventually, you end up with a hold on the surface of the tooth, where the acids dissolved the enamel. This hole is a cavity-- the visible evidence of tooth decay. Once you have a cavity, the only way we can fix this is to remove the decayed portion of the tooth and replace it with a cosmetic dental filling material.

The good news is, your Houston dental hygienist can show you how to avoid this. She can teach you the proper methods of brushing and flossing when you come to the Cosmetic Dentistry Center for a tooth cleaning and dental exam. If you follow the instructions given to you by your dental hygienist, brushing and flossing will prevent the buildup of plaque on your teeth.

This keeps the bacteria from having a feast on your teeth and building colonies that produce the acids that lead to tooth decay.

Labels: Houston dental hygienists, houston dentists, tooth decay

Who cleans our teeth?
Our trained and experienced team of Houston dental hygienists handles teeth cleaning here at the Medical Center Dental Group.

What tools do they use?
Dental hygienists use a number of tools that have been used in both General Dentistry and Cosmetic Dentistry for many years. These tools include small hand and rotary instruments. One of these is the tooth scaler. It is used to remove plaque from teeth. A sophisticated tool we use is an ultrasonic tool called a Piezo scaler that cleans, polishes and removes stains.

What else accompanies a dental cleaning?
Houston dental hygienists also brush and floss your teeth with a special toothbrush and toothpaste. The brush has a small, round tip that moves around to clean your teeth, and the toothpaste has a more grainy constitution to scrape residual plaque from tooth enamel.

The dental hygienist also flosses your teeth, partly as part of the treatment, and partly as a demonstration on the proper methods of flossing. Many people floss incorrectly so we always reiterate proper technique when patients come to see us.

Do Houston dental hygienists also check for cavities?
Yes. We take x-rays of your teeth and develop these for close examination by our team of dental specialists. These x-rays are critical to finding smaller cavities that hide in the spaces between teeth, or on the edges of teeth that even dental mirrors cannot easily find.

Does it hurt to get an x-ray done?
No. You do have to hold a piece of plastic in your mouth, but you do not have to bite down on it hard to the point that it hurts.

Is the radiation dangerous?
Not in the minuscule amounts you are exposed to in a tooth cleaning. As a precautionary measure as well, the hygienist also places a blanket over you that shields your body from the x-rays so that only your mouth is exposed during the procedure.

Do you give fluoride treatments?
Yes. We do not prescribe fluoride tablets for children, but we do as professionals carefully administer fluoride as part of a rigorous tooth cleaning. Fluoride, when administered in this fashion, does make teeth stronger and more resistant to cavities.

Does the dentist participate in the tooth cleaning?
Yes. The teeth cleaning are a team effort here at the Cosmetic Dentistry Center of Houston. Dental hygienists and dentists work together. After the hygienist takes and develops the x-rays, the dentist looks at them and goes over the results with you. He or she also takes a close look at your bite (how your teeth fit together).

What do you do if you find a problem?
We minimize the fear factor and demythologize the problem first and foremost. Then we talk about options (normally more than one) to tackle the problem. Then we talk about money and how to arrange for insurance to cover the solution or an in-house payment assistant plan to be arranged.

Labels: dental hygeine, dental hygiene, Houston dental hygienists, houston tooth cleaning, houston tooth whitening, teeth cleaning, tooth cleaning

People in Houston expect a great deal of professionalism from their dental hygienists, and rightfully so. These highly trained professionals undergo extensive coursework and certification to provide a range of treatment options that are determined by the state of Texas.

Here at the Medical Center Dental Group, we make it top priority to exceed these expectations with unsurpassed care, proactive dental health management, and precision dental treatment.
Just a few of the oral health services we offer include, but are not limited, to the following:

• After a dental examination and medical records check, the results of the patients initial oral health screen is compared to the most current scientific research. Our team then factors in the impact of any oral health conditions we discover on other medical problems such as heart disease and diabetes.
• After all the facts are carefully weighed and balanced together, dental experts and hygienists work together to develop a treatment plan that is individualized and customized to each patient.
• Houston dental hygienists are trained to target specific treatment programs toward specific age groups including children, adolescents, young adults, adults in mid-life, older adults, and patients with severe medical complications.
• At the Cosmetic Dentistry Center of Houston, dental hygienists assist in monitoring for any suspicious conditions that could be indicators of severe medical problems beyond the domain of oral health. This is possible due to the fact that many systemic diseases like heart disease and diabetes often create symptoms in the mouth.
• When members of our team spot a suspicious condition that may indicate one of these diseases is present, we can immediately refer the patient to a medical doctor for an appropriate examination by an MD.
• At the Cosmetic Dentistry Center of Houston, dental hygienists also take a good, close look at the basics of dental health, including checks for periodontal disease and cavities.
• In order to check for oral cancer and other problems, we also conduct thorough head and neck examinations, along with a small tissue sample from the mouth. This is one thing we make a top priority at our office, because oral cancer is a serious matter if it is not detected early on.
• At the Cosmetic Dentistry Center of Houston, dental hygienists have spent years training for a proactive approach to dental health management. We look for ways to help patients prevent problems by providing counseling on nutrition, application of fluoride treatments, and sealants.
• We also remove any plaque or tartar we find during the examination. This goes a long way toward preventing cavities because it is this plaque and tartar that harbors most cavity-forming bacteria.
• Houston dental hygienists also assist in the exposing, developing, and interpreting of oral X-rays—a key component to every dental examination and a key ingredient to diagnosing an number of dental conditions.

Labels: dental exam, dental hygiene, dental x-rays, Houston dental hygienists