Top 5 Dental New Year’s Resolutions

Who are we kidding; most resolutions are dying on the vine two weeks into the New Year push, right?

And it’s already January 6^th, but that’s not going to stop us from publishing this sarcastic snippet of satirical social dental substance.

With the interest of breaking some resolutions and still promoting social-centric dental health info, here is a list of the Top 5 dental health resolutions we can (should) all feel free to break this year.

1. Brush 1x per Day
2. Never Floss
3. Drink Copious Amounts of Coffee & Smoke Cigarettes Like it’s the Roaring ‘20s
4. Ditch the Dentist
5. Keep Our Dentist to Ourselves

Can we not see the folly behind such proclamations?

What Gives?

Maybe we’ve lost it altogether, and the weight of the Holidays has led us to succumb to stupid suggestions.

No more feeling guilty for not keeping up with the exercise regimen, no more beating ourselves up for not taking care of that rotten tooth, no – not in 2012.

This year we can all take comfort in the fact that if we ignore our dental health; our overall physical health will suffer too.

But in no way will we brush our teeth twice a day; if we cut out just 2 minutes each day, that amounts to an additional 730 minutes we can devote to binge eating and continuing the sedentary lifestyle.

Forget about flossing, what is the attraction there?

Gum disease, red bleeding gums, bad breath, periodontitis, receding gums…all sounds peachy to us!

Bring on the coffee and smokes.

In fact, make it a triple-dipped all-foam all-fat double latte – Venti, por favore; and add the acrid accoutrement with a nice smooth Marlboro Red finish.

Mmmm…Welcome the flavor country!

If that’s not something to wake up to every morning, who knows what is. And who cares what some doctor says!?!

Speaking of which, why visit the dentist once a year, never mind twice a year?

Eventually, all 32 teeth – or what’s left of them by the time we get done with ‘em – will just rot right out of our heads.

Ipso facto, we no longer need to see the dentist…an estate planner perhaps, but certainly not any dentist!

So, if we resolve to; not even brush our teeth enough to keep away the cavity creeps, forget the floss, pound smokes and joe like it’s a job, stay away from our trusted neighborhood dentist, we certainly can’t be relied upon to share this same local dentist with friends and family.

They can fend for themselves when it comes to ignoring their own dental health.

Let them suffer with everyone else out there that deals with dental anxiety, shoddy toothworkmanship, exorbitant health care related fees, and revolving door family dentistry.

We’d rather spend the money meant for our oral health on something more enduring, like a HDTV.

For all we care, our friends and families can go grab a ticket abroad for their dental care…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What Are Your Gum Disease Numbers?

Swift, silent, and deadly…

No, this isn’t another blow-by-blow breakdown of the Navy Seal invasion on Osama bin Laden’s Pakistan compound.

We’re talking about the cavity creeps and their incessant advancement toward total tooth and gum domination.

Gum disease has already been linked to plenty of other physical ailments, like heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and even premature birth; but there is a simple way to fend off gum disease or periodontitis – FLOSS!

The next time your dentist (or hygienist) gives up the dental intel, take the time to mentally catalogue your gum disease numbers…2…3…4…3…3…2… if we hear anything over 2 or 3 we need to remain diligent, if we hear 4s we need to reinforce our oral defenses!

Here are some signs of gum disease courtesy of Colgate.com:

• Red, swollen and/or tender gums
• Bleeding gums when brushing or flossing
• Receding gums
• Changes in your bite, or the way your teeth fit together
• Persistent bad breath

For some humorous take on the numbers of healthcare in America, and the role social media plays in the way Americans take in (and hopefully SHARE) this important information, check out this video from the Mayo Clinic:

 
And CARE enough to SHARE this info with your social circles!

 

Why Going to the Dentist is Like Getting an Oil Change

It’s been said that an oil change every 3000 or so miles goes a long way toward maintaining the longevity of our vehicle’s engine. Jalopy or Jetsons, we’ve pretty much followed this rule as a mandatory maintenance milestone.

Whether or not that recommendation still holds true or not, was the question posed by the NY Times in an article published last September.

It seems that with advancements in fuel technology and engine components, that long standing belief might not hold water anymore…or oil.

Even in the face of this conflicting info between generational automotive axioms and technological leaps forward in everything from manufacturing to maintenance, we can still relate oral health to auto care.

Preventative Maintenance

No matter which side of the oil change debate our family resides, hopefully we can all agree that the main reason – benefit – for changing the oil is to take some preventative maintenance.

Internal engine parts need proper lubrication, changing the oil at regular intervals ensures contamination is kept to a minimum and viscosity is optimally maintained.

This precautionary action maintains optimal engine performance while also saving us money.

The idea being if we invest a small amount of money regularly toward maintaining peak engine performance, we ultimately save ourselves from having to fork over huge sums of money later for things like cracked heads, busted seals, and sludge covered valves.

If we ignore this regular attention to our vehicles, it will come back to bite us in more places than the bank account.

This same principle can be applied to dentistry too, at least from our perspective as dental patients.

Just as internal engine parts require lubrication, our teeth and gums require proper care and preventative maintenance to sustain our own optimal oral health.

Replace cracked heads with cracked teeth, and sludge covered valves with visible tartar build-up, and things start to come into focus.

We need not walk around with a busted grill just because we’ve ignored our smile appeal.

Ignore the dentist and not only will we resemble Austin Powers from the nose down and the chin up, we’ll be doing even more of a disservice to our overall health too.

It’s no secret that oral health directly correlates with overall physical health. Recent studies have linked periodontal disease to breast cancer, even to complications inhibiting conception and negatively impacting pregnancy.

This is no joke. For a little preventative dental maintenance, we can not only save ourselves money in the long run, we can also make sure our internal operating systems are at peak performance…or at least somewhere near approaching healthy.

Read more about how oral health affects overall health in this study published in the August 2010 issue of the Journal of Periodontology. Researchers found that subjects who maintained a healthy weight and had high levels of physical fitness had a lower incidence of severe periodontitis.

Periodontitis, or gum disease, is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects the supporting bone and tissues around the teeth. Gum disease is a major cause of tooth loss in adults, and research has suggested gum disease is associated with other diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis. (Another Reason to Stay in Shape: Healthy Teeth and Gums – perio.org)

Does a regular cleaning, oral cancer screening, and possible diabetes indicating, dental exam appointment really seem like a better choice than ignoring the inevitable?

Don’t change our oil, and our vehicle’s engines will die earlier than they should.

Don’t take care of our teeth…and we can always get dentures, right?