How Can You Tell If You Have a Cavity?

 Do you have noticeable sharp pain when you eat or drink? Or when you look at your smile, do you see a hole? You might also be experiencing pain in general when you are doing business. All of these could be a sign that you have a cavity. 

Various daily habits can cause cavities, which can become a problem that impacts your sleep, eating, or daily life. Scheduling a consultation with your dentist can help get you back on your feet. If you have a cavity and let it go for too long, you might end up with a situation that causes more pain and is more costly to fix. 

Cavities are not necessarily caused by one thing in one day. They are often created over time by a habit you have or an act you do often that wears down the enamel on your teeth. While brushing and flossing reduce the risk of cavities, once a cavity has formed, there is no way to get rid of it without visiting the dentist. 

However, visiting your cosmetic dentist can ensure your cavity is fixed, and you are back on the right track with your dental health. 

 

For more information or options for tooth pain, schedule a visit with Dr. Judy Strutz and her dental team. 

5 Steps You Can Take To Improve Your Smile!

You may be wondering what you can do from the comfort of your home to keep your smile healthy. Even if you visit the dentist every six months, you still want to take steps to ensure your smile in-between visits. Here are 5 easy steps you can take to keep your smile healthy because a healthy smile can last a lifetime. 

1. Brush. This sounds like a no-brainer, but brushing 2x a day is the only way to remove plaque and buildup from your teeth. 
2. Floss. Flossing ensures that your gums stay healthier than if you didn't floss. Sounds cheeky, right, but the truth of the matter is that if you don't floss, your gums don't have a way to fight the food buildup that happens. 
3. Drink water. I know, I know. You've heard it a thousand times. But water is not only good for your body, but it's essential to your smile. 
4. Eat Fruits and Vegetables. Yep, you guessed it. The water content in fruits and vegetables keeps food from sticking to your teeth. 
5. Drink water. Right, I already mentioned that, but this one pertains to after meals. Drink water after high carbohydrate meals. This is the best way to remove food from the surface of—your teeth after meals. When food builds up, it attacks the plaque on your teeth, causing problems. 

Your smile is essential, and your health is dependent upon the health of your smile. For more information or to schedule a visit, contact Dr. Judy Strutz and her team. 

Our Opening

We are so hopeful that soon we will be able to see you in our office. Please know this has been a very difficult time for us because we love being with you! Our patients are so important to us, and having you as part of our day means everything. So, what will it be like when you come back?

We will continue to provide the best care we can to you. We are here to here your concerns about your smile. We want to ensure whatever, you need to have the healthiest smile is in the works.

We will continue to clean our office. We know your health and safety is essential. We want to assure you our staff is ensuring we sanitize and clean our office in the manner in which you have become accustomed to.

We will continue to listen to you, our patients. If you are sick and need to re-schedule, that is not a problem. If you are concerned about a problem with your smile that has recently popped up because of not being able to visit our office, we are here for you.

You are always our top priority. Please know that when you come into our office, that we want you to have an amazing experience.

For questions, appointments, or other information about the re-opening of our office please contact us.  Contact Dr. Judy Strutz and her team today.

Tips To Decreasing Your Fear

Cosmetic dental teams sometimes get a bad rap, but they are the quiet heros behind the scene cheering your healthy habits and your smile on. They are the ones that can help you to become the best version of yourself because the health of your body starts with your smile. If you have broken or damaged teeth, or periodontal disease, these problems can drastically decrease not only the health of your smile, but negatively impact your organs as well.  We also understand the fear you may have about visiting the cosmetic dentist is real, so here are 5 tips to decrease your fear at the dentist.

1.. Schedule your appointment in the morning. This gets it out of the way and doesn’t give you much time to dwell on the fear you feel.

2.Before your appointment do something calming, such as listening to music, taking a bath or going for a walk. Anything that is going to refocus your mind on happy thoughts.

3. Tell your dentist. You do not have to carry this burden of fear alone. They can help you through this in order to ensure you have the least amount of anxiety going into the procedure as possible.

4. Take care of your smile in between visits. Brush, floss, and eat healthy foods. This can help decrease the procedures you need to keep your smile looking great.

5.Get to know your dental team and the procedure you are going to have done. This can help put your mind at ease.

Dr. Judy Strutz and her team always enjoy helping patients achieve the look they are going for with their smile. For more questions about how to manage your dental fears contact Dr. Strutz and her team.

It’s Never Too Late

A common misconception among individuals is that if you have decay or other more severe dental problems that it is too late to get it fixed. While it used to be more difficult to help support certain problems such as tooth loss, this is no longer the case. Modern dental technology allows for Dr. Judy Strutz and her team to provide cosmetic dental procedures to improve your smile and prevent tooth loss as well.

Current technology allows for veneers to be placed on the front of teeth in order to improve the look of your smile. If you have uneven or broken teeth this may be the best solution for you.

If you have missing teeth you no longer need to wait for months in order to get a fixed denture. Now, there is amazing dental technology that allows you to receive a denture that stays in place relatively quickly. Dr. Judy Strutz and her team will begin by evaluating your smile to determine if you are a candidate for a fixed denture. Once that is determined, she will work hand in hand with other providers to help create a denture that doesn’t move when eating or speaking. The procedure further allows for teeth to look more natural without needing to be taken out ever.

There is no reason to wait until you no longer can eat the foods you love, or no longer attend certain events with friends because you are embarrassed by your smile. We can help.

For more information on these and other cosmetic procedures to improve your smile contact Dr. Judy Strtuz and her team.

Embrace Your New Smile

As you age you may begin to feel the effects of getting older. Maybe your body aches in places during activities that it didn’t use to. Or when you stay up late playing games with friends, you may find you sleep longer then next day and don’t bounce back as quick. You may also look in the mirror and see your smile begin to move forward causing wrinkles around your mouth due to missing teeth. If this is impacting you, now is the time for you to embrace the idea of a new smile with an All-on-4 type of denture prosthesis.

These dentures are a way for you to have a ‘smile in a day.’ While it takes longer than a day to make them and create them, you can have a brand-new smile that achieves the look, feel and desired result as your natural teeth with your existing teeth removed and the new ones installed all at the same time. Unlike other dentures that may move around or are attached to other teeth, these are fixed to implants that are imbedded in your jawline. This means no more embarrassing moments of smiling and showing missing teeth or no more pulling your lips tight to avoid sharing your smile with the world. No more looking in the mirror and not loving what is facing you, because All-on-4 types of dentures provide you with a smile that is natural, and with all of the benefits of having teeth in place where there once were none.

For more information on All-on-4 dentures or other cosmetic procedures contact Dr. Strutz and her team today.

Drink Up This Summer and Keep Your Smile Healthy

Your smile can be kept healthy by having healthy dental habits. While brushing and flossing is critical to keep your smile as healthy as possible, you also need to drink water regularly to keep your mouth from drying out and visit your dentist on a regular basis. If you fail to drink water, bacteria can grow rampant in your mouth causing more difficult problems. It is recommended you drink at least 1 oz of water for every pound you weigh. If you live in a warmer area or are exercising, it is even more important to drink water.

Without fluids, or consuming fruits and vegetables that have a high water concentration, food it left in the mouth. Fluids are a great way to decrease the amount of time food is left on your tooth enamel.  The less time that food has to stay on your teeth the less likely you are to be impacted by cavities and tooth decay.

Water can also be mixed and infused with fruits and vegetables. This makes sure you are consuming the nutrients you need to keep your healthy smile and also be tasty. For more information on how to keep your smile healthy, contact Dr. Strutz and her team today.

After a Laser Lip Tie Procedure

After a lip or tongue-tie procedure is completed to release your baby’s tie(s), there is more work to be done. “It may seem complicated and stressful in order to help your baby stretch out their tongue or lip, but stretching is the key to success after the laser procedure,” says Dr. Judy Strutz.  The stretches should be done consistently for four weeks, more consistently at first and tapered off by the end of the fourth week. There may be some bleeding and discomfort for your baby after the stretches. That is normal, but if you see excessive bleeding or the bleeding does not stop, contact Dr. Strutz and her team.

When your baby has had a laser surgery procedure to remove a tie on the upper lip, you will begin the stretching routine the evening after the surgery. You’ll want to go no more than six hours between stretching because oral wounds heal very quickly.

Place your finger under the upper lip and move it up until you hit resistance. Then move the lip back and forth gently a few times. This can hurt, and you may need to use baby Tylenol in order to help afterwards. This should only take 1-2 seconds.  In order to be effective in the stretching you want to make sure you get between the gum and the lip to avoid them sticking together. Make the stretching routine a game complete with a song or some humming and the process is less stressful for both parent and child.

For more information, or for information on the stretches for the tongue, contact Dr. Strutz and her team today.

Lip Tie Vs. Tongue Tie

You may take a look at the piece of skin that is between the teeth and gums in your baby's mouth and believe that it is a lip tie that is causing your breast feeding challenges, but in fact, it may be a tongue-tie. Dr. Judy Strutz suggests, "each one impacts breastfeeding differently and can eventually lead to speech or reading problems, and both may require laser surgery in order to release to the tie." Here are two differences between a tongue and a lip tie. 

A lip tie is the piece of skin that attaches to the top of the lip versus a tongue-tie, which is the piece of skin that attaches the tongue to the bottom of the mouth. When a lip tie impacts your baby, the frenulum may come between the two-front teeth and wrap around, while, a tongue-tie may be thick and inhibit the full movement of the tongue.

When nursing, a lip tie can cause the baby to have an improper latch, because they may not be able to open the mouth wide enough for correct suction to occur. A tongue-tie, can position their tongue in the wrong spot. When their tongue is not able to be in the correct position, they may suck on the side of the breast, take a long time to get any milk and become tired. The tongue is what allows proper pressure to be placed on the nipple in order to release milk properly.

Each type of tie requires a different type of laser surgery and will impact your baby’s ability to properly breastfeed. 

For more information on lip and tongue-ties, contact Dr. Strutz today.