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October’s here! A month when we celebrate the beauty of fall, the taste of pumpkin spice, the fun of Halloween in Appleton, WI, and the healthy smiles which orthodontic treatment makes possible!

Because October is Orthodontic Health Month, and it’s a great time to talk about how your orthodontist helps you create not just a more beautiful smile, but a healthier one. 

Straight, evenly spaced teeth are the visible benefit of treatment, but there are many health benefits which might not be quite as noticeable. Orthodontic treatment can:

• Help You Prevent Cavities and Gum Disease 

When teeth are crowded or crooked, it’s hard for your toothbrush and floss to reach all of the plaque which builds up on and between your teeth. The bacteria in plaque create acids which start to dissolve tooth enamel. And a very small hole in the enamel surface can grow until it becomes a cavity. 

Plaque and bacteria also irritate the gums. When you can’t remove plaque completely, your gums are at risk for gingivitis. This early stage of gum disease causes redness, tenderness, swelling, and bleeding. Left untreated, gingivitis can develop into more serious gum disease. 

And, over time, plaque hardens and becomes tartar, which needs to be removed professionally at Elite Smiles Dental.

When your teeth are straight and evenly spaced, brushing and flossing are both easier and more effective, helping you keep your teeth and gums healthy and plaque-free.

• Create a Better Bite

For a healthy bite, your teeth and jaws need to align correctly. The top teeth should slightly overlap the lower teeth, and the ridges of your upper molars should fit smoothly with the grooves of your lower molars. 

Malocclusions, or bad bites, can come in many forms, including overbites, underbites, open bites, cross bites, and overjets. A bad bite is bad for your dental health. Malocclusions can cause tooth grinding, worn enamel, and even cracked teeth. 

And bad bites don’t just affect your teeth. When your bite doesn’t align properly, you might suffer from problems such as headaches, jaw pain, indigestion, and sleep apnea. 

Orthodontic treatment creates a healthy, symmetrical, and pain-free bite.

• Improve Your Self-Confidence

We can’t forget the invisible health benefits of orthodontic treatment! Your smile is a gift which you share with the world. But if you’re hesitating to smile because of self-consciousness about your teeth or bite, orthodontic treatment can make a world of difference.

Your orthodontist can help you achieve straighter teeth, a bite which fits together properly, and, when malocclusions affect jaw symmetry, a more balanced facial profile. If you’re concerned about the appearance of your smile, talk to Dr. Dale Scharine and Dr. Mark Pflum about an orthodontic consultation. Today’s technology can even let you see what your future smile will look like!

Modern orthodontic treatment is more effective and takes less time to complete than ever before. And orthodontics offers patients of all ages more benefits than ever before: 

• New types of braces are less noticeable and more comfortable than older styles. Smaller brackets, brackets which blend with tooth enamel, clear aligners, and lingual braces give you a variety of options to customize your treatment.
• Early orthodontic treatment can guide jaw growth in younger children. 
• Appliances can help with jaw alignment in older children, or, for more serious malocclusions, an orthodontist can coordinate treatment with an oral surgeon.
• Treatment isn’t limited to the teen years. Adults make up a large and growing number of orthodontic patients. 

If you’ve been considering orthodontic treatment, October—or any month!—is a great time to schedule a visit with an orthodontist. An orthodontic evaluation will let you know just what your orthodontist can do to help you create a beautiful and healthy smile.

"The doctors at Elite Smiles Little Chute are gentle and want to make sure you are comfortable during your visit for a filling. They made sure I was numb and checked on me multiple times while they were working."

- A Patient of Elite Smiles

Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are just around the corner, and now is the time to remind patients of the importance of taking care of their oral health when indulging in all of the yummy treats during the holiday season.

Anytime we introduce more sugar to our diet, it heightens the chance of cavity formation. Halloween, St. Nick, Christmas stockings, among other holidays this time of year provide ample opportunity for increases in sweets consumption. Limiting the amount of sugar eaten per day, regular brushing and flossing, and at the least, rinsing with water after eating sugar, will help to stop the formation of cavities while going through this sweet time of year.

Our biggest tip for everyone is: Don't eat candy all day long! Choose the pieces you want for the day, eat them, and then brush and floss after. This is especially true for patients who are high-cavity prone.

Cavities aren’t always seen, but your body can send you signs that they are there. Look out for sensitivity to sweets or cold or dark spots on teeth. However, many cavities in their early stages may not show any symptoms at all. This is why regular dental check-ups are crucial. We suggest coming in every six months; however, patients who are highly cavity prone may need to see their dentist more often. If you suspect you have a cavity, it's important to call your dentist for an exam.

If you are a high-cavity prone patient, we sell prescription strength fluoride toothpaste at our office. We also sell a fluoride free anti-cavity toothpaste for those patients who prefer no additional fluoride in their diet. We use Pearl AI in our office to assist our providers in identifying decay early on x-rays so cavities can be fixed while small, which results in preserving more tooth structure and placing smaller restorations.

If you are facing any pain, please give our office a call and we will be happy to help!

You might have noticed that the dental aisle of your drugstore is larger than ever, with more options than ever for getting the spaces between your teeth their cleanest. Flosses made with different shapes, materials, and coatings. Wooden dental sticks. Flexible plastic picks. Tiny interproximal brushes. Water flossers. With all these choices, what’s a conscientious person to do?

• Find What Works Best for You!

We’ve come a long way from the one-size-fits-all floss of our grandparents. Today’s plaque-removing tools are designed to make interdental cleaning easier and more efficient for users with a variety of different needs.

• Floss Choices

Flossing properly is a very effective way to get rid of the plaque that builds up between your teeth and along your gum line—not to mention the food particles which your brush may have missed. And now there are options to suit both your needs and your preferences.

Modern flosses come waxed or unwaxed, flat or rounded, made of natural or synthetic material, flavored or unflavored. There are flosses designed for specifically for braces and eco-friendly, biodegradable flosses. If you’re not happy with your regular floss, a different size, material, or texture might make all the difference.

Even with all these choices, though, flosses don’t always suit everyone. Luckily, if you’ve had trouble with floss, you have many other options available for interdental cleaning:

• Floss Picks

These tiny, handled tools hold a piece of dental floss in their curved end. You can direct the floss to the perfect spot, which is especially useful if you’re having trouble reaching your back teeth or have mobility issues. Floss picks can be disposable or refillable, and come in different sizes to accommodate adults and children.

• Dental Picks

Back in the day, toothpicks were the go-to for dislodging food particles. But they weren’t designed for gum health and safety. Today, we have gentler, more efficient options for those of us who like the ease of using a pick and the convenience of being able to clean our teeth at work, at school, or on the go.

Triangular wooden picks are tapered to fit between the teeth and massage the gum line as they scour plaque from tooth enamel. Soft plastic picks are popular because their flexible tips fit easily in between the teeth, while their texture provides gentle scrubbing for your tooth enamel.

• Interproximal Brushes

Big name; tiny brush. These little cone-shaped brushes come in various sizes so they can fit snugly and comfortably between teeth whether widely or narrowly spaced. They’re especially handy for getting around wires if you wear braces.

• Water Flossers

These high-tech tools provide a pulsing stream of water to clean between the teeth. They’re particularly helpful for those with mobility issues and those with traditional or lingual braces. To make sure you’re getting the job done, choose a model with a dental seal of approval, which means it has been tested for safety and effectiveness.                                                                                                                                                                   

With so many options, you can sample different flossing alternatives until you find the one that works best for you.

• Technique Is Key

No matter which product you choose, the key to effective plaque removal is your technique. You need to be thorough. You need to be gentle enough to protect your delicate gums, but not so gentle that you don’t remove any plaque.

Whichever method you choose, carefully follow directions to get optimal cleaning benefits while protecting tooth enamel and gum tissue. And remember, you have an expert ally in your corner—Dr. Dale Scharine and Dr. Mark Pflum and your team at Elite Smiles Dental! If your hygienist is seeing a lot of plaque buildup at your next exam, ask for tips to improve your interdental cleaning technique and suggestions for the best products to accommodate your specific needs.

• Choose It—Then Use It!

Even after deciding on the best tool and technique, your teeth and gums won’t benefit from your research if your floss or pick or brush or water flosser is languishing in the medicine cabinet. While dentists recommend flossing at least once each day, if you have braces or a tendency toward cavities or gum disease, your dentist might recommend flossing more often.

Why is flossing so important? Even with the best brushing technique, it can be hard to reach plaque and food particles caught between the teeth and near the gum line. Removing plaque from between teeth can help prevent cavities, and it’s especially important for gum health.

Plaque and tartar are extremely irritating to gum tissue. This irritation causes inflammation, and you’ll soon start to see the first signs of gingivitis (early gum disease)—swelling, redness, bleeding, bad breath—when flossing is hit or miss. Over time, left untreated, gingivitis can lead to periodontitis, a serious form of gum disease that can cause tooth and bone loss.

When caught early, you can often reverse the irritation, inflammation, and unpleasant symptoms of gingivitis with a week or two of careful brushing and flossing. If your gums are bothering you despite your careful cleaning, it’s time to visit our Appleton, WI dental office. There are lots of options available for getting your teeth their cleanest—but you have only one smile!

More than one patient has come into our office and asked, “What can I do to help my teeth when wearing Invisalign?”

While everyone’s teeth and dental needs are different, there are certain things everyone can do to make wearing their Invisalign aligners a more rewarding experience. Always follow the list of instructions and tips from Dr. Dale Scharine and Dr. Mark Pflum, and add the following advice to your daily routine.

Always ask us about teeth whitening. Our team at Elite Smiles Dental knows how important it is for you to keep your teeth white and stain-free from the foods and drinks you consume daily. If you have attachments to your teeth, they will not whiten properly. Ask our office about teeth whitening when wearing your aligners; it might be best to wait until your treatment is complete.

Continue flossing every day. You should be flossing in any case. But it can be easy to assume that Invisalign will protect your teeth from bacteria. This is not true. Bacteria can get behind the aligners and affect the health of your teeth and gums, so keep up with your flossing schedule.

Follow the 48-hour rule when wearing your aligners. When you insert every new set of aligners, you should leave them in as much as possible during the first 48 hours. Your teeth will move more during this timeframe, and the aligners do the most good during this time.

You may experience slight discomfort while wearing your Invisalign aligners. You can take a pain reliever to help with the discomfort, but if you experience too much pain, please give us a call at our convenient Appleton, WI office to schedule an appointment!