How Your Smile Can Sabotage You!

-Your “pop that thang” smile will GET ALL TOASTED UP under HSR’S influence!-

“Noooo!...I’m having a bad smile day!”

“It looks and feels horrible!”

You name it: missing or crooked teeth, darkly-stained, loose, or carious teeth, anything less than acceptable just won’t fly in today’s judge-appearances-first, ask-questions-later society.

You may have seen some people who are so embarrassed and ashamed of their mouths that they hide it with their hands when they talk or laugh.

There are immense benefits to having a big beautiful smile: it brightens the face and the mood and it does so, effectively.

But if it’s less than perfect, people will notice…and stare sometimes at an imperfection of your smile.

Since the mouth is a very accessible part of our bodies, we can practice daily oral hygiene to maximize its cleanliness. The mouth exists in its present state because we take care of it… or don’t take care of it. We control the activities that it does, and the care that it receives. Procrastination of effective daily care is what ultimately damages our smiles, and is what makes dentists rich.

For this article, a better question to address might be: How are we sabotaging our own smiles? Which of our behaviors contribute to the physical decline of the smile?

Using your teeth to open things like bottle tops, packages of food, super-glue bottles, or even breaking sewing thread, is taking too much of a chance. You may damage your all-important pearly whites!

  

Biting and chewing on hard candies, hard nuts, and large chunks of ice put concentrated paranormal stresses on teeth, and possibly place them at risk of fracturing. If the teeth are weakened structurally because of large fillings, one should take great care not to overly stress the teeth and fillings. If a person chews crushed ice a lot, he or she can repeatedly make the metal in the fillings contract, then later expand as the mouth heats back up to normal. The continuous contraction and expansion cycles with habitual ice consumption can accelerate the wear and tear on the interfaces between the fillings and the tooth’s enamel areas.

Drinking soda or fruit juices with significant amounts of cane sugar is unhealthful for the teeth, because the bacteria in the mouth consume and metabolize those nutrient sugars and release acidic products that decalcify the surfaces of the teeth. The newly softened enamel is now more susceptible to hard-to-repair, surface-matrix damage, and is at risk for further mineral loss. Try drinking sweet beverages through a straw so as to not bathe the teeth in the potentially-cavity-causing liquid. And try to rinse with water afterward to help buffer any acidic oral pH change.

Being stressed-out can have negative effects on us. We may put off or forget to practice healthy behaviors, and may take up unhealthy behaviors to cope.

Experiencing prolonged psychological distress results in us producing too-high levels of stress hormones, like cortisol, which will result in internal organ damage. Our bodies will get weaker, and our immunological defenses will become less potent in fending off microbiological invaders.

New and unresolved anxieties in a person’s life may cause them to start grinding and clenching their teeth, many times without knowing it. Bruxing the teeth at night may get so bad that a night guard must be used to treat the fatigue and the excessive musculoskeletal stresses experienced, and to lessen the frictional wearing of the masticatory enamel.

To counteract some of the negativity around, find time in your day to “de-stress”: relax, exercise, and meditate. Learn to read the biofeedback responses that your body gives off, such as unnecessarily tight muscles, improper breathing cycles, bad positional posture, etc.

Other things that can bomb out a great smile include:

--An ineffective toothbrush.

--A toothbrush which has bristles that are unnecessarily stiff.

--Pressing the toothbrush against the teeth and gums with too much force when teethbrushing.

--The consistent use of a toothpaste that is too abrasive.

--Smoking.

--Drinking darkly-pigmented beverages.

--Brushing for a lot less than 2 minutes every time you brush.

-- Not flossing, brushing, and rinsing enough. 

--Some drugs, medicines, and “natural,” biological health supplements.

Catch problems before they get a chance to seriously hatch, by strategically huddling with your Dental Team about every 180 to 200 days. They can digitally and manually check the health of each of your dental bones, and can ultrasonically blast away, or meticulously hand-scrape-off, any hardened plaque, calculus, and bacterial buildup that may try to stab your smile in the back.

Psychological experts for decades have revealed this: what we expect to happen…really may end up happening: it’s called a self-fulfilling prophecy! Hey, you all, let’s expect, and work for, fun and thoroughly immaculate smiles for years to come! We can make it happen!

When it comes to the sabotage and espionage of your smile…you don't need to call James Bond…you just need a fist full of floss, a no-BS brush and paste, and a reliable rinse. Oh yes, and a world-class "out of my way" anti-plaque attitude! 

May you have many…hey, wait a minute, my teeth work for me, and not the other way around!...she looks like a movie star, but her smile is sneaky!…my hot lover knows that I love them, but they still keep breaking my heart!…smiles!

Turn Your High Beam Teeth On!…You Want Them To Stare At Your Smile!

-HSR weekly OVERARCHES your “you ain’t gonna take my lover away from me” smile!-

A big, white, and attractive smile is worth more than its weight in gold and in good looks! It’s alive, interactive, and can grab and keep the attention of the people. It’s a trait that everyone wants, even covets!

It is one of the many markers of beauty or handsomeness in our appearance-is-everything society. If your smile and facial appearance are not up to par, which can be judged by others in almost a nanosecond to form a bias, many people won’t take the time to get to know you.

A picture-perfect grin is a sign of good health, and may convince some people that you are interesting and good to be around. All of the rich, famous, and powerful people brandish a great smile! Attractive people are also thought to be more successful, earn more money, are more outgoing, intelligent, trustworthy, youthful-looking, and more challenge-ready. Attractive people are also said to receive more leniency if they make mistakes. The smile…yes…that powerful social magnet.

Choosing to be happy and showing your smile actually provides healthy physical benefits to you: your blood pressure and heart rate can moderate toward better health. Endogenous endorphins have painkiller effects where we might hurt. They also serve as neurotransmitters stimulators, important in producing feelings of euphoria. Abel & Kruger, in 1952, did a study and found that baseball players that smiled more actually lived longer than their teammates that didn’t smile much, by approximately 6.6 years.

It has been proven that attractive people get better jobs, get into better schools, are more popular, and generally have more opportunities in life and love.

Straight, orthodontically-harmonious teeth that work well together, display better  food flow patterns when chewing,  are easier to clean with regular brushing and flossing techniques, are easier to restore if needed, and add balance to the muscles, bones and tempero-mandibular joints of the oral complex.

So if you don’t have a great smile, guess what…you can buy one! And the return on investment (ROI) is almost incalculably cool!

The process of getting your “ivories” all lined up, white, and working in synch may take a while, in some cases a year or so. But it’s time, money, and perseverance well spent! Be realistic in your expectations, though. You won’t end up looking like your favorite movie star, but you can smile like one! Once it gets fixed up, like all smiles, yours will need to be maintained for a life time of good looks.

Your dentist at your dental home can help you optimize the look and action of your smile. He or she can make your dreams of owning a dazzling smile come true!

Then people can stare at your smile, which is okay! Just make sure that they’re not really checking out the lettuce on your front tooth from the salad you just ate!

Also, don’t smile wide all of the time. Show a little here and there, to keep your admirers coming back for more!

May you have many…I can spot your smile through the fog!…an unbelievably great wonder of the world?...people keep bumping into each other while looking at your…smiles!

Dental Plaque’s Revenge: Their Creed To Destroy Every Human Mouth In The World!

-It’s HSR’s turn to make your “going commando“ smile BREAK WIDE!-

What if we as scientists uncover the following dangerous biological manifesto written within the genetic code of Staphylococcus mutans, Porphyromonas gingivalis, and all of the other bacteria and microbes in the mouth. Should we be frightened?

What if the following is true? It may read:

“Soon after the Lord pronounced the eternal phrase, “Let there be Light!,” Lo and beholdeth, my quadrillion bacterial brethren, numbering to the quadrillionth power, WE BECAME, and…

…I reach out to you, as one of many, AND COMMANDETH:

BE IT RESOLVED…

…That we shall thriveth, liveth, and prospereth off of the jungle and battlefield of the flesh and mouth of Mankind, and voraciously consumeth all of the far-and-widely flung and scattered masticated food which passeth through that unique singular oral portal,

…That we shall harken and communicate with each other with our waving flagellas and other surface projections, many of which possesseth astounding length or abbreviated brevity, and all measurements in betweeneth,

AND WE SHALL…

…With, and to the last, of our chemically-exuding pores, squeeze out many of our reactant enzymes to help us exothermically create dizzying, cascading, tsunami-like walls of our caustic ooze upon Man’s mouth, which will attack, inflame, acidify, and otherwise discombobulate our multicellular host/enemy’s cellular substances, susceptible surfaces, and intelligent ribosomal and T-cell defenses,

AND WE SHALL…

…Continue our glorious genetic mission which internally involves producing, in victorious quantities, biochemical compounds that will propagate warning signals to ourselves when we are under attack, by our host attempting to clean the mouth, or otherwise mitigate our infinite numbers, and this will prompt us to self-fortifyeth, by sharing genetic and other resources, which will also help us in finding efficient ways to circumvent any means that Man might use to controleth our mighty numbers and effects,

WE PROMISE TO…

…Never cease to incessantly reproduceth our armies, frequently and exponentially in scope, especially during the times when Man sleepeths, and the salivary flow ebbeths enough to reveal its weakened defensive flow against our take-no-prisoners, devouring forces,

BE IT RECOGNIZED, in our genetical substrate, THAT FROM THIS TIME FORWARD...

…That having sought refuse in the mouths Man for many uncountable centuries, and having totally occupied the oral cavities of his anthropological precursors, including Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Australopithecus, and all of the other species, many of which have yet to be unearthed and lab-verified by their nosy archeologists,

WE SHALL CONTINUE…

…To invadeth, prospereth, and wineth, even after our current warrior bacterial soldiers pass, and our lifeless bodies and long-chained DNA are fossilized to Medusa-calcified hardness, only to regaineth the advantage of robust multiple lives again, if any one mere small speck of our surviving cellular structure reaches out and ends up in another human oral cavity, even if that day happens many hundreds of thousand of years from now!,”

“In summary, WE OF THE MICROBIOLOGICAL BROTHERHOOD, DO REAFFIRMETH…

…All of us, as extracellular microbes, TO ETERNALLY COMMIT to taking degrading advantage of Man’s mouth for the rest of time!”…THIS SHALL BE!”

Wow!

If the foregoing possible, rambling message has any truth to it…we may be in for it! But our dental plaque germs have coevolved with Homo sapiens sapiens and all of our previous incarnations over the eons, so we’re not exactly new to each other. Oral biofilm and Man, sort of like, biologically happened together.

Does our DNA have “genetic attitude,” too?

Which leads to the next question: does DNA have psychological feelings and drives, and militaristic urges to defeat other species types of DNA aggregates? Can strands of DNA duke it out MMA Style?
(Long-chained worm wrestling?)

I eagerly look forward to the results of research in that area!

May you have many… gollee, I’m shaking in my proverbial boots!…did that bacteria just order me to put down my toothbrush and step away from the mouthwash?… can’t we all just get along?…smiles!

To Keep A Nice Smile, Just Do These 5 Things!

-‘Sup! The weekly HSR is guaranteed to HYPERIZE your  “NSFW” smile!-

1) Floss at least once a day to remove left-behind food and growing biofilm from between and under the gums. Effective flossing can prevent and heal gingivitis, can help prevent and slow the progression of periodontitis (tooth-pain- and tooth-loss-causing gum problems), and can efficaciously remove hidden food remnants, which are delicious and bountiful edible resources for hungry bacteria. All of this oral-debris-and-fluid mixture exposes itself as significant sources of bad breath vapors with every exhalation.

2) Agitate and debride the dentition at least twice a day with a new-looking toothbrush, lubricated and potentiated with water and a safe, reliable, and beneficial active-ingredient-containing dentifrice (fluoride, non-fluoride, natural, curative, etc.). The Internet is replete with market versions. Perform for at least two minutes, taking care to remove any plaque and food from all accessible enamel surfaces, and strive to penetrate under the gums and between teeth with the brush’s bristle tips as far as possible.

Instead of using the default Horizontal brush-stroke technique, which can cause gum abrasion and notches in teeth along the gum line over time, try the Bass technique, which purposefully directs the bristle tips of the toothbrush under the gums, while using small circular or small back-and-forth jiggle motions. 

But the Bass method doesn't address all of the other acessible surfaces of the teeth…

To mechanically displace plaque on the other surfaces...

Try the nimble Winge Bounce toothbrushing method,  or the versatile Winge Swing, or the  powerful Winge Slide method, the three of which are the newest styles of toothbrushing, all developed at the turn of this new century. All of the other known techniques (Bass, Charters, Stillman, Fones, Smith Bell, and Leonard) were established on or before 1953. All of the techniques propose to aggressively remove dental plaque from teeth areas using light to moderate forces.

3) Rinse for at least 20-30 seconds, or as long as you can stand, with a safe, commercially-available fluoride rinse, to resaturate the top layers of enamel with protective minerals and adjuncts that might have been lost as a result of previous eating and drinking. Antiseptic mouthwashes, which may contain strong ingredients like alcohol, probably don’t include fluoride in the same formulation, are great at temporarily reducing and masking “fetor oris,” or bad breath.

4) Visit your dental home at least every six months, to vigilantly maintain your elevated oral health.

5) And most of all…MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!

Don’t confront others in a mean-spirited manner, bullying included.

Come on, you know how to make other people upset: by butting in front of them in a line, mouthing four-letter words, obnoxiously staring at people on public transportation, in a bar, or on the street, and by spreading malicious lies and falsehoods about your neighbors, family members, and coworkers…the list goes on!

Road rage is especially to be avoided. You never know what the other person may carry in his or her car. Drive defensively and try to anticipate what other drivers in front, in back, and on both sides of you may do. Let other drivers who may be in a hurry pass in front of you. Turn on a good radio station and consciously smooth out your trip. Be courteous. Good karma goes a long way, and you’ll cut down any chances of emerging dents ruining your transportation…and your show-room-like, new-car smile!

We want to daily maintain our smiles as “light, bright, and (…) near white!”

May you have many…gossip-free-and-clear…all of the necessary ingredients are gleefully included herein…like an 80-inch big screen…smiles!

You Can Always Come Back Home…To Your Dental Home!

-Inject your weekly dose of HSR to SUPERSATURATE your “it’s what’s on the surface that really matters” smile!-

You are wanted! You are needed! We don’t want to lose you!

You are cared for and cherished at your dental home!

The professionals there are just like family who are in the gentle business of taking care of your most intimate dental needs on a continuing basis. They want to keep you at the top of your smile game!

The American Dental Association recommends that patients visit their dentists at least every six months or whenever any noticeable, unexplained, or painful changes present themselves in the mouth.

Be informed about your health. In these matters, it is much better to be safe than sorry. There’s a wise saying that goes “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

And if you are suffering from a significant dental ailment, or even a non-dental ailment, the joyful and carefree life with no worries is immediately put on hold, with your thoughts and actions concerning how you will deal with your health needs, or rather, demands, put quickly on center stage.

Body pain and tooth pain have ways of deprioritizing and making you not care about everything else in life.

Getting relief from pain is all that matters. And, the sooner, the better!

So, if a tooth is broken, or if anything else is wrong (you’ll know!), then engage your first line of health defense by seeing your health professionals.

Your social life demands that your smile stay in shape.

Your job requires that your teeth be presentable.

Your family wants you to be, look, and act in a healthy manner, and be in good spirits, not doubled over in tearful pain.

And the integral and concerned members of your dental home team would be excited to see you, and would love to remaximize your dental status…without delay!

Give them a call today, and ask them if they miss you, and if they value you!

May you have many…come on in and let’s have a party!....I’m where I can rest and reconstitute my weary bones…I’m home, so I can put my feet up and turn on the humungous flat-panel…smiles!

Fun Floss Facts, Part 5.

NUCLEARIZE your “easy on the eyes” smile with the help of the weekly "The Hollywood Smiles Report: Where Dentistry Meets the Red Carpet!”  

Floss helps to remove plaque between the teeth and under the gums before it gets a chance to harden over time into calculus.

The silk floss tree, found in South America's tropical forests, yields seeds that are covered with fine fibers that resemble dental floss.

Radius Cranberry Floss uses cranberry essence from Ocean Spray to coat its floss, because a substance in cranberries has been found to help break up interdental plaque.

Synthetic floss is made from one of three polymers: nylon, polyethylene, or Teflon.

Butler-Weave, a dental tape floss is produced by the John O. Butler Company.

Synthetic or plastic floss is a byproduct derived from crude oil.

OralB makes UltraFloss and SuperFloss. Both have an alternating spongy then firm make up along the string. The spongy part of the floss expands when no tension is placed on it. In its expanded or stretched state, it can, when passed through the teeth, engage and extract more interdental plaque, when pulled out from the side.

The American Dental Association recommends flossing at least once a day.

Yucca-leaf fibers were used as floss by some Native Americans.

Some prehistoric human teeth, found during archeological digs, had grooves notched in them. Those markings may have come from attempts by the early humans from whom it came, to remove stubborn meat or other items from between the teeth. Maybe sharp stones were used interdentally back then.

The average person in the U.S. uses 18 yards of dental floss annually.

Dental floss was used by a character in the novel, "Ulysses," written by James Joyce in 1918.

The Teflon in dental floss is made from the polymer polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE).

Nylon floss first starts out as a nylon salt that is polymerized, then melted, and poured out as a ribbon. It is then cut up, melted again, and then pumped through a spinning machine into filaments. The cooled nylon filaments are then combined to make a floss strand, which is then twisted to give it strength.

May you have many…red (gums)-and-white (teeth)...flossing is more important than brushing...I was out of thread so I used floss to emergency fix my low-cut-short-skirt dress… smiles!

Are Your Teeth “Sexy” Or “T-Rexy?”

Step right up and smell the coffee at "The Hollywood Smiles Report: Where Dentistry Meets the Red Carpet," your best venue every week to learn how to INFLATE your “burst it wide open” smile!  

Does your smile possess smooth and harmonic gum-line curves, along with golden-proportioned, properly-positioned, functionally-tight, and almost-light-bulb-white teeth?

Or do your specialized oral bones (teeth) present themselves as jagged, crooked, or otherwise broken, in some, or all parts, from living a rough life, or eating way-too-hard food, with front teeth that stick out so far that they seem to “want to reach out and touch me?” Are the gum tissues red-alert swollen, pus-filled, and in need of an immediate penicillin shot right there on the spot? Or do we hot-line call the CDC for “immaculate disinfection?”

In the wild, predator animals hunt and catch prey without regards to “dentally-cosmetic good looks.” They have to eat, to get energy to live another day. So what if a tooth breaks off in the vigorous pursuit of live meat. The fun is in the hunt…and in the munching and belly-rubbing sleep afterward!

In the animal kingdom, functionality rules, bottom line. But with our civilized human race, socially-acceptable physical looks are a must-have, especially if you want to be connected to main-stream society. One doesn’t want to stick out like a sore thumb…or a Godzilla!

When humans argue or play competitive sports they bare and growl with their teeth to some extent to emphasize that they are battle-ready and want “chew you up and spit you out!” Have you ever been…never mind!

Fact of the matter is that many athletes in “gladiator” types of sports have had rehabilitation of their front teeth because of the brute force pounding that they must dish out…and receive. Many otherwise beautiful front teeth have been laid to rest through such activities.

So if the architecture of your smile needs corrective construction services and heavy lifting to boot, move over to your dentist. Not brontosaurus-slow, but fleet-footed-raptor quick.

That is, if you don’t mind looking like Ex-Heavyweight Boxing Champ Leon Spinks with his world-famous open grill. He was one of the few to ever beat Muhammed Ali. I would instantly beg for forgiveness over any perceived slight, and quickly slip out the back door! Because I don’t want to get pounded and end up looking the same way!

May you have many…wow--Halloween mouth all year ‘round...are those teeth live or are they Memorex...excuse me—can I just stare at your beautiful teeth for a bit—but don’t bite me!…smiles!