New Year Dental Resolutions

by Clock-AdminPosted on December 13, 2022 Posted in Advice

The New Year is traditionally a good time to make life changes. Why not aim for healthier teeth and gums too?

Most of you are probably at that pre Christmas stage where a lot of things are put on the backburner. The priority right now is to complete any workload before the big day and make sure that you have presents bought and enough food and drink stocked to make it a celebration to remember.

Now is generally not the best time to make huge life changes, but that changes considerably when New Year arrives.

Whether people actually make new year resolutions or not these days, most of us would probably accept that we use January 1st (or 2nd if we have celebrated a little too hard the night before!) to take stock and make a few changes in our lives. Traditionally these have been things like giving up smoking or drinking less, but it is also a good opportunity to look at how much care and attention you pay to your teeth and gums.

To help you with this, the team at the Clocktower Dental, Implant & Facial Centre have a few suggestions to help you along.

Refresh your tooth cleaning equipment

You may have been given a new electric toothbrush for Christmas, but if not, the New Year is probably a good time to invest in one. You are likely to find a few good bargains in the January sale and an electric toothbrush is a good investment for better oral health. Dentists generally agree that these are more efficient than a manual toothbrush at removing food particles and bacteria from the teeth and gum line.

While you are out shopping, we recommend that you pop a packet of floss in your basket. Don’t worry if you think you don’t know how to use it; you can always look it up online and the hygienist at our Epsom dentist will always be happy to demonstrate how to use it correctly during your next appointment. Just adding this cheap and simple step to your teeth cleaning regime can make a big difference to your oral health.

Check your chocolates!

There is every chance that you will, over Christmas, accumulate a lot of chocolates and other sweets. These may have been presents or you may have simply bought far more than you actually ate. The problem is what to do with them all. Whilst the odd chocolate won’t do too much harm, the fact is that if we eat too much sugar, tooth decay and other dental issues are likely to arise. You could donate excess to a charity or the homeless, but whatever you decide, it’s never the best idea to simply munch through them all. Your waistline will thank you too!

Make this a new start too. If you are in the habit of buying sweets, chocolates or even biscuits, ask yourself, when you are about to pop them in your shopping basket, if you really need them. The chances are that you often buy them out of habit. Try to put them back and opt for a healthier option such as fruit, or even a cheese selection as this will help to neutralise excess acidity of your mouth. It also brings calcium and other vitamins and minerals that help to build strong and healthy teeth.

Stop smoking

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Beating Your Fear Of The Dentist

by Clock-AdminPosted on October 10, 2022 Posted in Advice

Our Epsom dental team offers tips to help you keep your appointments

Most of us have probably experienced at least some discomfort and anxiety as our dental appointment approaches. Some of us might be worried as we have a treatment scheduled, but even going for a checkup, whilst painless, can raise the ‘what if they find something wrong’ feel of dread.

If this sounds familiar to you, it is probably because it is experienced so widely. Despite knowing that all dentists in the UK are highly trained and qualified, a visit to the dentist seems to raise more concerns than seeing a GP, for example.

There are many possible reasons for this. A bad experience in the past won’t help of course, but there is also a school of thought which claims that our dental phobia is largely due to the treatment taking place so close to our senses .. i.e. sight, sound, smell etc.  Whatever the reason though, dental phobia can be a real problem and whilst, for some it simply means a slightly unpleasant experience; for others it may mean a missed appointment which can lead to more problems later on.

Tackling the fear……

Most of you will probably have heard of the book ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’. This encourages us to acknowledge our fear but then do whatever it is that is making us anxious. Naturally, some people will allow their fear to prevent them from doing things. Where this is, for example, a fear of flying, it means missing out on a holiday. Where there is a fear of dental treatment, it can result in some serious oral health issues, especially if you continue to miss appointments.

And here is the ‘catch 22’. If you go to the dentist, then yes, there is a chance that you may need to have a tooth filled or extracted. Our Clocktower Dental, Implant & Facial Centre team will always make sure that we do all we can to make you as comfortable as possible, but there is no getting away from the fact that very few people would describe an invasive procedure as enjoyable. The flipside of this is that if you decide not to keep your appointment, especially when treatment is needed, the problem won’t go away and in nearly all cases, may quickly deteriorate.

What might have been a small filling that required a straightforward and quick procedure, can  quickly become a larger cavity, quite possibly causing a very painful toothache. The infection could also spread to the roots of the tooth, leaving you needing a root canal treatment. Worse still, the tooth, now in a weakened state, could simply break and the prognosis be so poor that it needs to be extracted. The reality is that if you decline early stage treatment, you are very likely to suffer much more later on.

This is a fact that you should bear in mind and simply ignoring the issue doesn’t mean that you have escaped your fear. Unfortunately it is very likely that this will intensify and the treatment you eventually need will be more significant. It really does pay to get any problems sorted out early on.

Easing anxiety

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Does Losing A Single Tooth Matter?

by Clock-AdminPosted on August 23, 2022 Posted in Advice

All too often, we accept the loss of a single tooth without much concern, but here’s why it’s likely a mistake

Few of us will be lucky enough to go through life without having to have at least one tooth extracted or perhaps lost due to a youthful accident. Assuming that the lost tooth is an adult one, there will be no replacement tooth to come through afterwards, unlike our childhood teeth. This presents a dilemma. What do we do, leave the gap or replace it with a denture or dental implant?

This dilemma is often resolved if the tooth that has been lost is one of the more visible teeth at the front of the mouth. Few people are likely to be happy leaving a gap there and are almost certain to take steps to complete their teeth in order to avoid that gappy smile. The same cannot always be said if the tooth is one that others won’t see, such as towards the rear of the mouth. On one level, this is understandable as it doesn’t at least immediately change your appearance, but there are other possible consequences as we will now see.

Single tooth loss and possible problems

Having ruled out the possibility of losing a tooth changing the way that we look, what other reasons might there be for us to encourage our Epsom patients to replace a missing tooth that is not visible? Actually, there are a few good reasons.

Crooked teeth

One consequence of losing a tooth that may not occur to some of our Clocktower Dental Implant & Facial Centre patients is that it can cause the rest of your teeth to start to move. This is because, with a full set of teeth, there is nowhere for your teeth to go as other teeth around them prevent their movement. Once a tooth has been lost though, this inevitably creates a space and the teeth on either side of the gap can start to move gradually, leaning towards that space.

Even if you feel that this isn’t too big of a problem as these teeth are also hidden, remember that, like a set of falling dominoes, once those teeth start to move, they also create spaces for others to move. Although this won’t happen quickly, you may well eventually end up with a mouthful of crooked teeth that would require orthodontics like Invisalign to correct the problem.

Teeth cleaning difficulties

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Extractions – Immediate Aftercare

by Clock-AdminPosted on August 12, 2022 Posted in Advice

What to do directly after a problematic tooth has been removed

Extracting a tooth is nearly always a last resort. This procedure can be used where a tooth has badly decayed or is broken to the point where a filling or crown would not be practical and wouldn’t offer any significant benefit if carried out.

There is no getting away with the fact that extracting a tooth requires invasive dental treatment. Some teeth come out relatively easily whilst others, such as impacted wisdom teeth are often more problematic and may even require hospitalisation in order to extract them.

Whatever the nature of the treatment though, it is important for patients of the Clocktower Dental, Implant & Facial Centre to remember that once the tooth has been removed, care needs to be taken in the area where it has been extracted.

Initial care

As you would imagine, once a tooth has been removed, the area will bleed slightly. The first step is to stop this. This is done by placing a piece of clean gauze over the area and asking you to bite on it for a short time. Not only will this absorb the initial blood but will encourage a blood clot to form which will fill the cavity that has been left. This is an important part in the recovery process as this blood clot protects the cavity and will eventually allow it to heal fully.

Care at home

One of the most important things to do at home is to take care not to dislodge the blood clot. If this happens very soon after leaving our Epsom dental clinic, the likelihood is that it will bleed again and, using either the spare piece of sterile gauze we provide you with or, if not to hand, a clean handkerchief or similar, start to repeat the process. If the clot is dislodged and is not bleeding, you may well be left with a ‘dry socket’. Although this may eventually heal on its own, it can be painful and feel quite similar to a toothache. Even if the pain is not too bad, we do recommend that you contact us. In many cases we can help to resolve the problem by replacing the missing clot using a special type of dressing.

Because a blood clot is not very strong it can be dislodged if we simply return to our usual routine. There are a number of things that we can, and should, do in order to make sure that it remains in place.

First of all, do not use a toothbrush in this area. This doesn’t mean that you don’t need to keep it clean though and we recommend that you use a warm (but not hot) saline solution which you gently tip over the area and allow it to fall from your mouth. You should neither ‘swill’ the solution or spit afterwards as these violent actions could cause the clot to fall out.

As time goes on and the clot becomes more established, you will be able to start bruising the area, albeit very gently and with a toothbrush that has soft bristles.

Eating and drinking

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