Perhaps it’s ice cream or a breath of crisp air, or maybe it’s a cup of hot tea or a cozy bowl of soup. No matter what it is, hot and cold tooth sensitivity is a common ailment experienced by many people. At my dental office in Buckhead, we’d like to answer some of the questions we get asked regarding tooth sensitivity to both hot and cold foods and drinks.

“Why are my teeth sensitive?”

Tooth sensitivity is caused when the outside of teeth, or the hard enamel, wears down or gums recede and the tiny tubes in the tooth dentin become exposed. Each of those tiny tubes communicates with the nerves of your teeth and when they’re left open, it can hurt when you put hot or cold things in your mouth. A lot.  It can also be caused by decay getting through the enamel and causing inflammation in the nerve of your tooth through those tiny tubes.  Hot sensitivity usually indicates that the nerve has been affected.

“What causes the exposure of those tiny tubes?”

The most common causes of the exposure of dentin and those tiny tubes to your nerve are  clenching or grinding, eating of too many acidic foods or drinks, excessive acid reflux, and brushing too often with abrasive toothpaste.  And, as already stated, decay can affect the nerves of your teeth through those tiny tubes by traveling in the dentin.

“How can I prevent the pain?”

Managing the stress on your teeth and gums from clenching and grinding.  Making sure you don’t get decay or bone loss.  Choosing the right toothpaste and toothbrush can go a long way in easing tooth sensitivity. When looking for a toothbrush, select one that has soft bristles and brush gently when using it. If your bristles are pointing in several directions, you’re probably brushing too hard. For a toothpaste choice, avoid anything that contains sodium pyrophosphate as that can contribute to sensitivity. Many whitening toothpastes and tartar-control pastes have this ingredient. Instead, select a toothpaste that contains fluoride. Finally, mind your food choices such as drinking water instead of acidic drinks like soda or juices.

Your dentist in Buckhead will determine the most appropriate option for you following an in depth discussion about your pain, your habits, and the treatments available.

If you’re still experiencing sensitivity related pain, come to my Buckhead dental office. We’ll discuss what could be contributing to it and work with you to provide the best way to ease it.

Welcoming patients from Buckhead, Atlanta, Sandy Springs, and nearby communities.

Nail biting is one of the most common habits of humans, and the behavior is typically triggered by stress, boredom, annoyingly long fingernails, or excitement. However, at my dental office in Buckhead, we want to warn our nail biters that this habit can also contribute to a multitude of dental and whole-body problems.

• Germs, germs, and more germs. Fingernails can hold a lot of germs and bacteria, almost twice as much as your hands. Nail biters are at increased risk for transferring those germs and dangerous bacteria into the body. What’s even scarier is that if gnawed off nails are swallowed, all that gross stuff that lives under the nail enters the body and may lead to other issues.

• Save some dough! According to the Academy of General Dentistry (AGD), nail biters spend an average of $4,000 more on dental bills throughout their lives than non-biters. This is mostly due to the fact that nail biting can lead to some serious dental concerns.

• Tooth damage. Nails are hard, and when we bite them, the chance for chips and cracks greatly increases. Nail biters experience more cracks or chips in their pearly whites. Even more, nail biting can lead to bruxism, or clenching and grinding of the teeth. Bruxism itself can cause jaw pain, wear and tear on teeth, and headaches.

• Ouch, my jaw hurts! Chronic nail biting can be detrimental for your jaw. In fact, constantly chewing your nails can cause TMJ Disorder. TMJ Disorder brings on its own set of issues like jaw pain, headaches, or popping or locking of the jaw.

At my Buckhead dental office, we’re always here to give you the advice you need to make sure your smile and your body are healthy. If you’re a nail biter, talk to us about it. We have tips that may help you quit, we’ll examine your mouth for any signs of damage, and work with you to get your smile in its best shape.

Serving patients from Buckhead, Atlanta, Sandy Springs, and nearby communities.

The holiday season is a time to celebrate life, enjoy those closest to you, and be thankful for the gift of a healthy life. But during the holidays, it can easy to overindulge, overbook, and overspend, putting that healthy life at risk and increasing your chance of getting sick. At my dental office in Buckhead, we’d like to share some healthy holiday hints to keep you in tip-top shape all season long.

Avoid Overeating and Overdrinking

Food. It’s probably our favorite part of the holidays, and at every party, there is bound to be a plethora of delicious delights, from the chewy cookies to the succulent hors d’oeuvres. While it’s all surely scrumptious, your dentist in Buckhead wants to encourage you to keep an eye on how much you consume to avoid overeating. Eating too much can lead to bloating, stomach pain, and a disheartening post-holiday weigh in. The same thing goes for overdrinking. Drinking alcohol in excess can mean a hurtful hangover the next day, lapse in judgement, and isn’t healthy overall. So be easy on the eggnog, watch the amount of wine, brace yourself with the beer, and alternate drinking alcohol with a glass of water.

Relax, Rejuvenate, Renew

You don’t need to accept every invite to every party. In fact, doing so can affect your sleep, make you feel run down pretty quickly, and increase your chance of illness. Don’t let running yourself ragged ruin your holidays. Avoid the stress of constantly having too much to do by maintaining a healthy work life balance, keeping your holiday budget in check, and making sure not to overbook your calendar.

Keep germs at bay

Washing your hands several times a day is always important, but during the holidays it becomes even more so. Throughout the season, we tend to interact with more people, handle more food, and visit friends’ houses a lot. All of these instances can increase the chance of swapping germs and getting sick. Decrease your vulnerability to illness and wash your hands often using warm soap and water and scrubbing for at least 20 seconds.

As always, at my Buckhead dental office, your health is at the forefront of everything we do. We want to help keep you healthy not only throughout the holidays, but throughout your entire life. Following these hints is just a small step. It’s always important to maintain regular appointments with us as well as your medical doctor to catch any problems before they become big issues and to keep you healthy for a lifetime.

Serving patients in Buckhead, Atlanta, Sandy Springs, and surrounding areas.

When you’ve taken a bit of a hiatus from seeing the dentist, you may be nervous to go back. No matter what your reasons are for avoiding dental care, the important thing everyone at my dental office in Buckhead wants you to know is that now you’re considering coming back, nothing makes us happier.

No matter why you stopped visiting your dentist in Buckhead, you’re not alone. Many people have had experiences that keep them from wanting to see the dentist. Perhaps a negative experience left you scared of the dentist, or you moved to a new area and haven’t found a dentist you trust. Whatever your reason, we understand and we’re glad to have you back.

Put Your Feet up and Stay Awhile

Your return first visit will probably be longer than your visits in the past. We’ll want to spend some time getting to know you and talking about what’s kept you away in the first place. The more we know about your situation, the better care we can provide. We’ll also want to make sure to fully evaluate your oral health and make sure you have a good understanding of your present condition so you can make decisions that are best for you.

You’re Not in Trouble

Often, patients who have been away for awhile have a fear of getting lectured to upon their return. Our team does not believe in this approach. We will not look down on you, chastise you, or lecture you. We’re so happy that you’ve made the choice to get back to health that we’ll do everything we can to make you feel safe, comfortable, and ready to pursue the care you need.

New Technology

Depending on how long it’s been since you’ve seen a dentist, there may be some new technologies available that you’re unfamiliar with. This is a good thing. Improvements in dental technology help make care quicker, easier, and less painful than ever before.

If you’re ready to see a dentist again, we encourage you to call my Buckhead dental office. We welcome you to come experience our service and our office personality. From the beginning, we’ll talk about your concerns and work with you to get your mouth healthy and smile beautiful.

Serving patients in Buckhead, Atlanta, Sandy Springs, and surrounding areas.

We all know brushing and flossing are important for a healthy mouth. However, there are some other things that are important to do, and to avoid, to keep your smile in tip-top shape. One of the things to avoid doing a lot is breathing through your mouth. While it may sound like a simple, involuntary act that’s not a huge deal, at my dental office in Buckhead, we want to let you know just how mouth breathing impacts dental health.

Breathing out of your mouth instead of your nose is sometimes caused by an underlying issue with your nasal passage. Chronic nasal obstruction (CNO) is the main reason people mouth breathe. When not enough oxygen gets into our lungs by breathing through the nose, we resort to the next best thing – mouth breathing.

Mouth breathing may lead to some serious oral health concerns. Since breathing out of your mouth dries it out, the amount of saliva decreases, which is a big problem. Saliva is important to ridding your mouth of harmful bacteria and neutralizing acids. When not enough saliva is produced, your chance of tooth decay and other dangerous problems increases.

A dry mouth is a dangerous mouth. Not only can a chronically dry mouth lead to bad breath and increase the risk of tooth decay, it can also put you at risk for gum disease and gingivitis. Gum disease is a serious oral health problem that has been linked to whole-body issues like heart attacks, strokes, and heart disease.

Mouth breathing may also  lead to allergies, poor sleep, lower oxygen concentration in the blood, and facial deformities in children. Since breathing through the mouth requires a change in posture to keep the airway open, when children are mouth breathers and it’s not caught, their faces can begin to develop into a long, narrow shape with a flattened nose and short upper lip and pouty lower lip. Breathing out of your mouth may also lead to crooked teeth, gummy smiles, headaches, and sore throats.

How do you know if you’re a mouth breather?

There are some common signs and symptoms of being a mouth breather. Some of them include:

• Dry lips
• Crowded teeth
• Snoring and open mouth while sleeping
• Increased number of airway infections including sinus, ear, colds
• Chronic bad breath

Your dentist in Buckhead can also tell if you breathe out of your mouth, which makes regular appointments even more important.

If you’re suffering from mouth breathing and are ready to fix the problem, give my Buckhead dental office a call. We’ll work together to determine what’s causing you to breathe out of your mouth and discuss the best way to fix it, not only for the health of your mouth, for your entire well being.

Serving patients in Buckhead, Atlanta, and Sandy Springs.

If you’ve previously been required to take antibiotics before an appointment with your dentist in Buckhead, we have some important news for you. Recent research shows that using antibiotics as a precaution to infection may not serve as a solution and can possibly create more problems.

If you have a heart condition, taking a precautionary antibiotic before visiting your dentist, even for a cleaning, used to be a common recommendation. However, according to the American Heart Association, this is no longer necessary for most people and could even harm a healthy patient. After numerous studies were made public, the guidelines for using antibiotics to reduce the risk of infection have been revised.

However, there are still conditions where the use of preventive antibiotics is appropriate. These conditions include:

• Artificial heart valves
• A history of Infective Endocarditis
• Bicuspid valve disease
• Calcified aortic stenosis
• Certain congenital heart conditions

Patients with these conditions are at the greatest risk of seriously bad outcomes if a heart infection develops. Despite the diagnosis of your condition, we encourage all of our heart patients to talk to their cardiologist prior to their dental appointments to see if taking antibiotics is right for you.

While taking an antibiotic before visits to your Buckhead dentist may no longer be necessary, it’s still important to keep the number of bacteria in your mouth low. We do this by working together to instill a healthy at-home hygiene routine in addition to regular visits to my dental office in Buckhead. The best way to reduce your chance of greater infection throughout your body is start with a healthy mouth. Together, we can help keep bacteria and infection away.

Serving patients in Buckhead, Atlanta, and Sandy Springs.

Throughout the course of a woman’s life, she undergoes several changes in which her hormonal levels fluctuate dramatically. During these times, the body, and the mouth, is affected in a variety of ways. At my Buckhead dental office, we’d like to let all of our patients know the oral health complications that can occur during phases of a woman’s life.

There are five major occasions when female hormones fluctuate and can cause oral health concerns like gum disease and other serious problems. This makes visits to your Buckhead dentist and a proper at-home hygiene routine even more important for women than men, especially during these key moments in a woman’s life.

Puberty

In the adolescent years, girls start the process of puberty where a lot of bodily changes occur because of hormonal differences. But these fluctuations in hormone levels not only affect the body, they affect the mouth as well. During puberty, the levels of estrogen and progesterone soar. This can cause an increase in blood flow to the gums and even a change in how the tissues react to bacteria and plaque, resulting in red, swollen gums, and often, bleeding during brushing and flossing.

Monthly Cycles

After puberty, women begin to experience a monthly menstrual cycle. During these few days each month, the mouth is actually at increased risk for irritable gums and even periodic gingivitis. The increase in progesterone that occurs at these times can result in red, swollen, bleeding gums, swollen salivary glands, and canker sores. It’s also not uncommon for women to experience menstruation gingivitis, which develops a day or two before the cycle starts, and typically clears up within a few days.

Birth Control Pills

As women grow, they may decide to use, or medically need, birth control pills. In fact, certain types of oral contraceptives can contain progesterone, which, again, can cause gum inflammation and irritation. This is a result of the body’s over-response to bacteria and plaque.

Pregnancy

Even later in a woman’s life, she may decide to start a family. During pregnancy, dental care is extremely important since progesterone is again increased. This surge in the hormone can result in gum disease, typically any time between the second and eighth month. When this occurs, it’s called pregnancy gingivitis, and you may require more frequent cleanings and visits to help keep this condition away.

Menopause

During menopause, hormones change yet again and can cause altered taste, increased sensitivity, and dry mouth. Dry mouth is of particular concern since saliva is not being produced, which means it’s not helping to remove bacteria or neutralize acids. This can lead to both gum disease and tooth decay. Additionally, during menopause, women tend to experience a drop in estrogen which is directly related to loss of bone density. This is worrisome especially if bone loss is in the jaw, as it can lead to tooth loss.

Throughout a woman’s life, and especially during these important stages, it’s important to keep regularly scheduled appointments at my dental office in Buckhead. If you’re overdue for your hygiene appointment or exam, or if you’re at one of those peak stages of your life, we’ll make sure your mouth is healthy and work with you to keep it that way.

Welcoming patients in Buckhead, Atlanta, and Sandy Springs.

Despite the improvements made in dental care and dental technology, there are still millions of people who suffer from tooth loss. Whether it’s caused by gum disease, decay, or injury/accident, the fact is, tooth loss is not an uncommon dental problem. At my dental office in Buckhead, we always like to let our patients know about the options available for them. While there are a few choices available to replace teeth, like a bridge or a denture, dental implants are the solution that is closest to having your natural teeth.

Missing teeth can not only affect your smile, but also your overall health as well as the health and strength of your other teeth. When a tooth is lost, you lose chewing ability, which can affect your nutrition. Your remaining teeth may begin to shift, tip, or become crowded, creating additional problems. Dental implants solve all these issues.

Not only does a dental implant replace the tooth itself, it also replaces the tooth root. This means that dental implants have benefits that other options don’t have. Some benefits include:

• The freedom to eat what you want with no worry of slipping dentures.

• The ability to brush and floss as normal. No soaking necessary.

• A permanent, strong solution.

• Maintaining bone and gum support for the teeth next to the space

• A natural-looking smile.

The process for placing a dental implant begins by meeting with your Buckhead dentist. An individual plan will be developed, and you’ll be able to start treatment. First, the implant post, which is made of titanium, is placed into the bone of your jaw. As it heals, your bone actually fuses to the post, making it a super strong anchor. Once healing is complete, an abutment is attached to the post. The abutment provides a place for your restoration to attach. Now it’s time to add the crown, which acts as your new tooth. After impressions of your mouth are made, your dental team will custom create a tooth that matches the shape, size, and color of your natural teeth.

If you’re missing teeth and are ready to start smiling with confidence again, call my Buckhead dental office to learn more about how dental implants can keep your mouth, and your body, healthy. We’ll work with you to make sure you understand the benefits of the treatment, discuss your goals, and evaluate the best treatment for you. Get back to smiling. Call us today.

Serving patients in Buckhead, Atlanta, Sandy Springs, and surrounding areas.

Whether you’re new to the area or just looking for a new dentist, choosing the right practice for yourself and your family can be an intimidating process. It’s important to know that not all dentists will be a good fit. At my dental office in Buckhead, we’d like to fill you in on some key questions to ask to make sure you make the right choice for your particular dental needs.

The first step to finding the best dentist in Buckhead for your family is to do a bit of research. Ask friends and family who they see and create a list of preliminary practices you’ll want to contact. Then, pick up the phone, make some calls, and start asking questions.

What Should I Expect During My First Visit?

This should be one of the first questions you ask your potential dental office. The answer you receive should always include a conversation with the dentist so he or she can get to know about not just your health and dental histories, but also who you are and what your goals are for your oral health and your smile. One of the most important services you deserve is a true understanding of the present condition of your oral health so you can make decisions that are best for you.  Your first visit should include a thorough examination of your whole system – everything that is involved in allowing you to eat, speak, and smile.  This includes your muscles and jaw joints as well as your teeth, gums, and bone support.  For this to happen effectively you should expect to spend a lot of time with the doctor.  It cannot happened in a 5-10 minute “cavity count exam” after you get your teeth cleaned.

How Does the Dentist Keep Up With New Technology or Training?

Dentists, as well as their staff, typically attend several continuing education courses, seminars, and trade shows to learn new things about dentistry and keep up with the latest technology. Your new dentist should be involved in some ongoing continuing education.

What Type of Experience Does the Dentist Have in Treating Comprehensively?

You should be able to see from the dentist’s website examples of before and after treatment.  If there are no photos of their work or it says this section “coming in the future”, it is probably not a good sign.  Also if there are cases to see, make sure the results are individualized and natural and do not look fake or all the same.  Testimonials from their patients should also attest to different types of services needed from cosmetic to TMJ to general needs.

Once you think you’re ready to make a commitment to one of the dentists you called, it’s a good idea to make an initial appointment and use that visit as a ‘test’ to make sure you’re comfortable, you’re treated well, and that the office is the environment that fits you.

Of course, if you’d like to visit my Buckhead dental office, we always welcome you to call. We’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Serving patients in Buckhead, Atlanta, and Sandy Springs.

There are many of us who are unhappy with the smile we were born with. But luckily, there’s the wonderful world of cosmetic dentistry to help transform smiles. At my Buckhead dental office, you’ll have plenty of cosmetic options to choose from, but today, we’d like to talk about one of the most popular choices: dental porcelain veneers.

Porcelain veneers are super-thin porcelain coverings adhered to your existing teeth. They are designed to enhance your smile and can even result in an instant smile makeover. In fact, dental veneers are so versatile, they are used to:

• Brighten dull or stained teeth
• Fix gaps
• Help repair crowded or crooked teeth
• Restore chipped or broken teeth
• Enhance teeth that appear too small, too big, or misshapen

The goal of dental veneers is to create the smile of your dreams and the process is a perfect mix of science and art. We will match the veneers to the shade you desire, shape them to compliment you, and apply them artfully for a natural-looking transformation. No one will know we were there.  Everyone has seen someone that has had less than natural looking cosmetic dentistry done to them. Dr. Davis will partner with you and the dental ceramist to ensure you get a beautiful, natural looking and feeling smile that lasts.

There are multiple types of porcelain and designs of veneers that can be used to make your smile beautiful. Dr. Davis will use the design and system that is right for your individualized wants and needs. He works with world-class master ceramists to give you the results you desire.

If you think veneers are right for you, or if you’d like to talk about the best way to get the smile you’ve always wanted, give my dental office in Buckhead a call today. We’ll schedule you a consultation and work together to discuss the best treatment for you.

Serving patients in Buckhead, Atlanta, and Sandy Springs.