What’s in Your Water? Should You Be Concerned?

Episode 14 of Dangers in Dentistry, originally aired on KPRZ in San Diego.

Fluoride. It’s a medication, and you may be forced to take it without even being aware of it.

For years cities have been adding fluoride into public water supplies in an effort to improve dental health. Sounds good right? But there’s a problem: while topical fluoride can indeed help prevent cavities when applied directly to your teeth, ingesting fluoride has never been proven to be beneficial. In fact, many studies suggest connections between fluoride and bone cancer, among other things.

Find out why you may be forced to ingest a medication against your will, what you can do about it, and if you should be concerned at all in this week’s episode of Dangers in Dentistry, with America’s Holistic Dentist, Dr. Marvin.

Enjoy!
Dr. Marvin
San Diego, Encinitas Holistic and Natural Dentist

Product Review: The Best Toothbrush for Children

What’s the best toothbrush for children? If you have kids, what toothbrush should they be using? And what’s the best time to start brushing a child’s teeth?

The video below will give you all the answers you need about the best toothbrush for kids (Radius Kidz Toothbrush), when to start brushing and flossing, and why kids need to start early… enjoy!

Dr. Marvin
America’s Holistic Dentist

PS: The Radius Kidz Toothbrush is available in some stores, but I haven’t seen them in a ton of places. If you’re having trouble finding one, we sell them in our web store in a variety of colors: Purchase a Radius Kidz Toothbrush

Dental Implants

When searching for a method for tooth replacement, dental implants may be an option.

However, as a practice that emphasizes what’s best for the body, we typically do not recommend dental implants at this time, unless you are interested in ceramic dental implants.

Because of its metal nature and the fact that the body sees implants as a foreign body (as it should because it naturally does not occur in nature nor in our bodies),  it may be in the best interest to have a denture or bridge rather than a traditional titanium dental implant.

Even though tearing down neighboring teeth is not a good option when considering a bridge, it may be better to do that than forcing your body to accept a metal post that you may become sensitive to later on in life.

Ceramic or porcelain or zirconium implants are here to stay now.  They are still relatively new in the United States, with only two companies achieving FDA approval.  We actively place Z-Systems Ceramic Dental Implants and have seen some great results with gum regeneration, biocompatibility, and aesthetics. If you’re interested in learning more, please check out these other articles on Zirconium implants:

• Z-Systems Dental Implants
• Ceramic Dental Implants

Former Presidential Candidate Gets New Chompers

Even “regular guy” politicians want nicer teeth.

As evidence in this article on former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.

This goes to show that even in Arkansas, people want to look their best.

And remember if “good ‘ol boy” Mike Huckabee can do it, so can you.

Cosmetic Dentistry is natural good-looking dentistry… not the bling bling everyone thinks it is.

Sedation Dentistry: What is it?

When going to the dentist, a lot of times you just sit in a chair and stare at the ceiling. That is of course if you are comfortable with the dentist or dental hygienist and know what is going on. For most people, dentistry is just something that has to be done. But as a patient, do we really need to remember the whole ordeal? Can we just sleep through the procedure and wake up with a mouth without cavities and filled with durable, pearly teeth?

You’re in luck because many dentists are getting trained to do oral conscious sedation dentistry.

What is Sedation Dentistry?

To be thorough, there are many forms of sedation dentistry but the one that comes to my mind is the dentistry where you sleep (or almost completely be knocked out) and wake up not only revived but also relieved that the visit is over.

The most common method of “sleep dentistry” is oral conscious sedation where the dentist gives you a script or the pills themselves. They’re mainly sleeping pills that make your really drowsy. While sleeping, the dentist will complete the necessary work. That’s it.

Sometimes, the drug has some amnesia effects that literally causes you to forget a lot of what went on. For me, that’s a bonus but don’t count on it working for everyone.

That brings me to another point. Because every person’s body is different, you may experience something very different than someone else. That is one of the challenges every dentist has when administering this type of dentistry. They must think, Do I give one or two or even three pills?

As a rule of thumb, the bigger the person the higher the dosage. But just like any drug or substance (take alcohol for instance) everyone reacts differently with sedation dentistry.

So if you are looking for a way to avoid the whining of the drill, or if you just want to “get it over with,” then consider sedation dentistry as your new option to google.

If you need to find a dentist that does this type of dentistry, just google “sedation dentist [your city]” and you’ll surely find one that will suit your needs.