A Clean Tongue Is A Happy Tongue!

The tongue is one of the most multifunctional parts of the body. It helps us to speak our languages, to lubricate and break up our food before swallowing, to taste our food, to block food, liquid, or other things from accidentally going down our throats, and to warm the air when we mouth breathe, among other things.

So it is a great idea to keep your lingua clean and in working order. Since ancient times, people have used different items to clean the tongue. Today, there are products ergonomically engineered to effectively clean the tongue, including a tongue brush, and a plastic or metal tongue scraper. Alternatively, a spoon, dental floss, finger nails (not recommended), and even the old standby, the toothbrush, can be used. KForce Tongue Gel is an anti-bacterial paste specifically designed to be used dry with a brush to refresh and clean the tongue. It can be used on the teeth, too. Probably the most popular method of cleaning the tongue effectively employs the use of regular toothpaste, a toothbrush, and water.

Clean the tongue until it is thoroughly pink, with no residual white areas. If there are patches of different colors on the tongue, or unusual bumps, or most anything out of the ordinary, see a dentist pronto to see what’s going on.

Gagging is a common reaction when cleaning the tongue especially the back parts, but it still needs to be accomplished.  To suppress the gagging reflex, try relaxing more (easier said than done). Slowly exhaling while brushing the tongue may help. The back area of the tongue shelters a lot of bacteria and other microbes, food, older salivary mucous and exfoliated tongue cells. Volatile sulfur compounds are produced by the bacteria there. These compounds account for up to 95 percent of all cases involving bad breath (halitosis).

Other causes of bad breath may include unbrushed teeth, decaying food between teeth, tooth decay, gum disease, problem tonsils, or strong food smells coming from the stomach.

It has been said that we are what we think, speak, eat, and more. And if we want the best results for ourselves, we must act, for those best results to come to fruition. Maintaining a healthy tongue and oral cavity helps to keep you on your best track.

May you have many…tongue stuck out, pretty in pink, great tasting… smiles!

Fun Floss Facts, Part 1.

Floss first, then brush, then rinse!

Dental floss, the most popular interdental cleaning aide, is an engineered thin filament made from plastic (nylon, polyethylene, or Teflon) or silk.

Many dentists feel that as a patient approaches the age of thirty, regular, effective flossing becomes more important than brushing in preventing tooth loss from gum disease, or periodontitis.

Young teenagers who have lost all of their primary teeth and have grown in their permanent dentitions need to start conscientiously flossing and using a fluoride mouth rinse so they won't develop interproximal dental caries between teeth and end up needing a "mouthful of fillings."

Flavored, unflavored, spongy, silk, waxed, unwaxed, dental tape, and mixed-construction varieties of floss are available.

Most floss is used manually, but there are electric flossers on the market.

The ancient Chinese were the first to learn how to make silk thread from the silkworm’s cocoon. The government threatened to kill any worker who gave the secrets of the process to outsiders.

Dental floss is frequently co-packed with toothpaste and a toothbrush by sellers to build their brands and give the consumer purchasing convenience. This also saves on packaging materials.

One manufacturer packages a single strand of floss in a pack with the floss measuring 18-inches in length.

Teflon floss is made from one filament of floss.

The Leaping Bunny Logo and the Certified Vegan Logo are awarded to companies whose products are demonstrated to be made from animal-free ingredients, and do not use animal testing to validate the effectiveness of their products.

Phillip’s Sonicare AirFloss uses pressurized bursts air and water mist to go between teeth and clean there.

Almost everyone in the U.S. brushes their teeth, but just an average of 25% of people floss on a daily basis.

Beeswax is used as a natural coating on some flosses. It comes from beehives.

A decitex, measured in grams, is the weight produced by 10,000 meters of unwaxed floss or other thread. A tex is the weight, in grams, of 1,000 meters of thread. A denier, also expressed in grams, is the weight of 9,000 meters of thread or floss. Simple math is used to convert between decitexes and deniers.

Floss toothpicks are a popular interdental cleaning aide that can disturb plaque residing between the teeth and gums.

Daily flossing prevents food from stagnating between the teeth and under the gums to prevent and control "fetor oris," popularly known as bad breath, or "The Dragon!"

May you have many…miles-long, thread power, pop that whip!… smiles!

Saliva Is More Than Just Spit! It’s…

...a great diagnostic tool to screen for many things that have a presence in the body. It is a known fact that people see their dentists more frequently than they see their physicians. So, in the future, dentists, who may see people more often than a physician, can test a patient’s saliva and screen it for toxins and drugs in the body, some cancer biomarkers, diabetic problems, and many other disease conditions, including the presence of certain bacteria that can cause gum disease and MRSA. 

This burgeoning field is called salivaomics. A person’s approximate age can be ascertained by studying the amount of molecular methylation (which increases with age) in a saliva sample. Smokers, alcoholics, and other substance abusers can see evidence of how their lifestyle choices actually make negative changes in their genetic health with the help of information gleaned from this testing.

AIDS antibody and nutritional deficiency testings can be done using salivary secretions.

Saliva is one of the most important fluids of the body. It helps to maintain the oral cavity by lubricating our total mouth, from the teeth and gums to the cheeks and tongue, with a protective, moistening film. It starts the physical digestive process by helping to break up the food with the action of chewing, and starts the chemical digestive processes by coating the food with enzymes.

Saliva also wets the bolus of food being masticated so it can be swallowed easier, thereby preventing choking. Its presence in adequate amounts helps us to speak clearly with the proper enunciation. Saliva is made up of about 99% water, but what a difference that one percent makes!

There are five major salivary glands in the mouth, one in both of the cheeks (the parotids), one on both sides of the back of the tongue (the submandibulars), and one under the front portion of the tongue (the sublingual).

Minor salivary glands are seen in many areas of the mouth. People, on average make about one liter of saliva a day, more or less.

There are hand-held devices in the market today that can reliably and quickly analyze saliva samples for various bacteria and drugs, and some of their metabolites. One such smart-phone-sized screening device, which goes by the name Vantix, gives off a signal when certain substances are detected by an antibody-coated electrode. It can even test for multiple things at once.

There may be some shortcomings, however, with some of these emerging technologies. If there is too much blood or other contaminants in the saliva samples, false negative and false positive results can become problematic.

There are definite advantages to collecting and testing saliva. It takes less time to analyze a sample. Obtaining a saliva sample is easier and less painful than giving blood, and it’s more difficult to contaminate the person handling it.

A Salivaomics Knowledge Base (SKB) is being constructed to manage data and help coordinate saliva research progression.

May you have many …moist, glossy, teeth-licking…smiles!

Do I Really Need My Wisdom Teeth Out?

The 3 billion dollar third molar extraction market in the U.S. is supported by about 5 million surgeries on young adults each year to extract 10 million wisdom teeth, performed mostly by oral surgeons.

There are a number of legitimate reasons to have wisdom teeth removed, including, if there is pulpal infection, cellulitis, abscesses, difficult-to-treat dental caries, recurring pericoronitis, and damage to the surrounding bone. The American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons recommends removal of them from high-school and college-aged kids, even if they are asymptomatic, before their wisdom teeth root tips finish growing and approximate themselves too close to the mandibular nerve (neurovascular bundle) in question. Young people can predictably recover quickly post-surgically. Preventing future “reasonably potential problems" is the objective.

Our modern jaws are smaller than those of our evolutionary ancestors, but we have the same number of teeth. So many third molars in people just don’t grow in easily for the lack of space.  The American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons supportively states that "if there is insufficient anatomical space to accommodate normal eruption. . . removal of such teeth at an early age is a valid and scientifically sound treatment rationale based on medical necessity.” In support, this author needs to tesgreat tify that all of the people who have had their asymptomatic wisdom teeth removed…don’t have wisdom teeth problems (chuckle)!

But not all dentists agree that wisdom teeth should be prophylactically removed to prevent problems. There are real risks inherent to their surgical removal. Paresthesia of the lips, tongue, and cheek, along with altered speech enunciation and sense of taste, post-operative discomfort, TMJ problems, and deaths have been reported (google Jenny Olenick and Marek Lapinski). Also, much depends on the skill and control exhibited by the surgeon. 

Scientists and oral surgeons at the American Public Health Association (APHA) critically say that the routine practice of removing trouble-free wisdom teeth "subjects individuals and society to unnecessary costs, avoidable morbidity and the risks of permanent injury." And the National Institutes of Health only supports the removal of third molars when there is unrestorable caries, infection, cavities, tumors, cysts, or adjacent teeth and bone damage.

According to the APHA, two-thirds of all asymptomatic wisdom teeth are unnecessarily removed. Instead of scurrying to take the back-most teeth out on sight, the third molars in question may, as an option, be monitored with periodic x-rays, and if they remain problem-free, in the name of maintained anatomical integrity, serious consideration should be given to the idea of leaving them in the mouth as is (in situ).

If your wisdom teeth, or the gums over them, hurt some, bu are in otherwise good health, see a dentist and find out if better oral hygiene care and a course of antibiotics might make things better, before jumping to have them taken out. If you are an adult and your wisdom teeth are not causing any problems, and are in good health, my initial advice to you is to think twice about removing them, then possibly get a second opinion from another doctor, and then think again! That old adage--"let a sleeping dog lie"--wasn't made up for nothing!

May you have many…teeth waaaay back… smiles!