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While there is no definite evidence that if your prevent gum diseases, like periodontitis, that you may be able to prevent a heart condition or heart disease. The only thing experts, like Dr. Dale Scharine and Dr. Mark Pflum, know for sure is that if you take care of your gums it can lessen atherosclerosis, (build-up of artery clogging plaque) that may result in a heart attack or stroke.

Could periodontal disease cause heart attacks?

Regardless of your oral health, if you're at a high risk for heart disease, you need to take action.

• Maintain a healthy weight or lose weight.
• Consume healthy foods and beverages.
• Exercise several days the week. Walking is a powerful and lightweight exercise and will clear your head while helping your body get or stay healthy.
• Control any medical conditions you may have such as high cholesterol, diabetes, or high blood pressure.
• Reduce your stress. Have lunch with a friend, go for a walk in the park, take a bubble bath, mediate, or do whatever you find relaxing.
• Get a social life. Laughing reduces stress and “feel good” hormones. Everyone needs to feel like they are a part of something: join a book club or any activity where you can interact with other people at least once or twice a week
• Be sure to get enough sleep. The recommended amount is eight to nine hours a night. It has been proven that a lack of sleep increases your risk for angina, strokes, and heart attacks.
• Practice good oral hygiene to keep bacteria in check and your mouth healthy.

Contact our Appleton, WI office if you have questions about your heart and oral health. If you take practice good oral hygiene, both your mouth and your heart will thank you.

It might seem like you’ve gotten a great night’s sleep—but why aren’t you well rested? Worse, why are you waking up with:

• A headache
• Ringing in your ears or an earache
• Pain in your jaw
• Worn or sensitive teeth
• Dry mouth or mouth and cheek injuries
• An unhappy partner who’s been kept awake all night?

If you suffer from any or all of these symptoms, you might be one of the millions of people who have a sleep-related disorder called bruxism, better known as teeth grinding.

There are any number of causes that have been linked to bruxism. Stress and other negative emotions seem to trigger episodes, as can lifestyle habits such as smoking and drinking alcohol or caffeine. Sleep apnea can lead to grinding your teeth, or you could have bite or tooth alignment problems. Certain medications might set off this disorder, and some studies have shown a hereditary tendency in families. Whatever the reason you grind your teeth, there are many important reasons to stop as soon as you can.

As bad as the nagging headaches and earaches that can accompany bruxism can be, long-term damage to your teeth can develop over time. With continuing grinding pressure on the teeth, enamel is worn away prematurely. Teeth can crack or chip. They may loosen or develop sensitivity to heat, cold, and pressure. Gum tissue can recede or become inflamed. Dental restorations can be cracked or broken.

If you—or someone in your house—suspects that you are grinding your teeth at night, give our Appleton, WI office a call! We can recommend relaxation techniques, diet changes, or tips to help you relax your jaw. Dr. Dale Scharine and Dr. Mark Pflum might suggest a nightguard, a custom-fitted appliance worn while you sleep, to reduce the impact of grinding. There are options available. Let’s work together to make every night’s sleep a restful, healthy one.

2026 is right around the corner and now is the time to familiarize yourself with any changes to your dental insurance benefits to prepare for next year. Take time to read and understand your insurance benefits. Insurance plans can be sneaky and word things in ways that lead the patient to believe their coverage is better than it truly is. We have team members who specialize in helping patients understand their insurance plans so they can maximize their plan for their specific needs.

To ensure you receive the full value of your plan, it's important to stay on track with the recommended care. At Elite Smiles Dental, we suggest visiting every 6 months for your routine cleaning and exam. This will help us to find issues early and fix them when they are minor and less expensive. Remember, dental issues never get better with time; they only get worse.

Planning ahead is also key. Taking care of necessary treatment early in the year allows you to better plan for the rest of the year, or even next year. It also gives you the opportunity to save patient portions on future treatment. We like to give patients treatment plans that have phases when there is more than one appointment needed. We phase the treatment to address the most urgent items first, and the less important or slower progressing issues later. This allows the patient to take the treatment as they can afford without sacrificing the urgency of some issues. This also allows us to show the patient how their dental insurance will help, and to plan for their out-of-pocket costs.

For any costs, we always provide our patients with a step-by-step breakdown of total cost of treatment, what we expect the insurance to help with, and what their portion will be. We also discuss the different options for payment such as cash, check, credit card, or Care Credit if they need to spread their payments out.

Keep in mind that you will likely have out-of-pocket expenses. We’ve noticed insurance companies have gotten sneaky in how they word their policies. Their goal is to cover as little as possible. So, they might tell you that you get two cleanings and exams per year, but they often require that this stays within your yearly maximum as well. An example would be if you get $1,000 coverage per year and you use the full $1,000 toward fillings in January, the insurance will NOT cover anything further in most policies. We will always try to help that patient maximize how their insurance will help them pay for this treatment.

And if you’re not sure what you may need, don’t worry! We always send reminders when patients have outstanding treatment, regardless of insurance status. We do not allow insurance to dictate what we diagnose, as we have the patient's best interest in the forefront.

Make it a goal in 2026 to get the care you need! See your dentist, have them give you an idea of what is on the horizon for the year, and make a plan on how you will tackle this plan using your benefits.

We hope you have a wonderful start to the year and we’ll see you in 2026!

It's a habit many people have and not only can it be annoying to the people around you, it can be detrimental to your dental health. Chewing ice is so common that it even has its own name, pagophagia. We're not talking about a slushy or shaved ice (although those artificially sugary treats should be avoided too!) but more like the hunks of ice rattling around in the bottom of your glass.

Ice chewing can be a sign of emotional problems like stress or obsessive-compulsive disorder, but it can also be a marker for iron deficiency anemia and other physical problems. Then again, some people just like to have something to chew on. For whatever reason you find yourself chewing on it, it's a habit you need to break.

Chewing on ice can cause:

• Chipped and cracked teeth
• Damaged enamel
• Sore jaw muscles
• Damage to dental work such as crowns, fillings, or other appliances

If chewing on ice is becoming a problem in your life, don’t hesitate to speak with Dr. Dale Scharine and Dr. Mark Pflum about it. But if you find yourself still wanting to chew on something, here are a few alternatives to ice:

• Baby carrots
• Celery sticks
• Sugar-free (xylitol) gum

We know you need to chill sometimes, but chomping down your entire glass of ice is not the way to do it. If you have any other questions on the topic, feel free to talk with a member of our Appleton, WI team. It may be beneficial in solving the issue and helping to remediate any damage to your teeth.