Teeth, healing, minimum invasive treatments

24/09/2023

Long used in other countries, silver diamine fluoride is now cleared for use in the U.S. While there is an assumption of use for pediatric caries control, here we explore indications for adults.

24/09/2023

Let’s get the latest science out there and start doing better for our patients! Pls Bookmark and share ❤️

A systematic review and meta-analysis of the current evidence regarding the effectiveness of adding Hydroxyapatite (HAP) to oral care products to reduce dentin hypersensitivity (sensitive teeth) found HAP significantly reduced dentin hypersensitivity compared to placebo (39.5%; CI 95% [48.93; 30.06]), compared to fluoride (23%; CI 95% [34.18; 11.82]), and with a non-significant tendency compared to other desensitizing agents (10.2%; CI 95% [21.76; −19.26]). In conclusion, the meta-analysis showed that HAP added to oral care products is a more effective agent than fluoride in controlling dentin hypersensitivity and may be superior to other desensitizers.

Hydroxyapatite is:
More effective than fluoride
Cures the root cause of sensitive teeth rather than simply dulling the pain like the main ingredient in Sensodyne does.

Limeback, H.; Enax, J.; Meyer, F. Clinical Evidence of Biomimetic Hydroxyapatite in Oral Care Products for Reducing Dentin Hypersensitivity: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Biomimetics 2023, 8, 23. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics8010023

24/09/2023

09/08/2023

I made a commitment to watch the sunrise every morning for six months and it changed my life.

​When we talk about benefits of sunlight, we think vitamin D, but the nuances and role the sun plays in the human body goes far further.⠀
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Your solar panels are you your skin and eyes. When you expose skin to middle day sun, we convert vitamin D. It’s also the sunlight that can burn if you expose too much.⠀
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SUNRISE is a different type of light.⠀
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All sunlight is 42% infrared light. Infrared light stimulates collagen, increases bone healing and heals wounds. So, sunrise is great for your gums and teeth.⠀
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Sunrise contains little to no UV, so expose as much skin to the morning sun as you can.⠀
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This type of infrared light is also anti-ageing; it reduces wrinkles and scars. That’s not what you usually hear about sunlight is it!⠀
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​Infrared light, along with cellular water, is crucial when it comes to charging your body and creating energy.⠀
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The benefits of morning sun play a critical role as to how we utilize sunrays found in light over the day. Infrared light around sunrise preconditions our skin to protect us from the UVA and UVB that comes out a bit later.⠀
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Catch enough infrared light early in the morning and you’re less likely to burn later in the day.⠀
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Then around 10am, UVA raises its head a little bit later in the morning. It is critical in making Nitric Oxide (the substance we release from the nasal sinuse and exercise). Nitric oxide drastically increases mitochondrial energy, your memory, and it’s anti-aging.⠀
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UVA light also triggers the production of serotonin and dopamine and releases endorphins along with a small op**te effect. The end result? You feel good.⠀
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So if there’s one health recommendation I can make. Get up with the sunrise, watch it and expose your eyes, skin, and brain to the benefits of sunlight.⠀
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​Did you know the benefits of morning sun?

Anyone catch the sunrise today?

09/08/2023

Did you know one night of poor sleep drives inflammation of the brain?

Brain fog may not just be a coincidence.

Your brain has a dishwashing like system, that depends on breath, to clear its daily metabolites.

Bad breathing harms your brain.

Oxygen deprivation shifts the way you move through stages of sleep.

Incomplete stages of sleep increases the risk of both heart disease and autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis.

The inbuilt dishwasher system clears the brain of toxins at night. It’s important because neural signals tell the rest of the body how to operate, so if toxins build up in the brain it affects every aspect of your health.

During deep sleep your brain relaxes and allows the release of CSF via tight junctions and communication with the ‘glymphatic’ system.

The glymphatic system is a fluid-transport system that accesses all regions of the brain. It facilitates the exchange of cerebrospinal fluid and interstitial fluid and clears waste from the metabolically active brain.

It exports fluid and solutes from metabolically active neural tissue. The organization of brain and ocular (eye) fluid flow can be divided into four distinct segments.

The first segment of the brain glymphatic system includes CSF production (purple arrows) and circulation in the subarachnoid space (SAS, light purple arrow).

This is why it’s very important to make sure you limit blue light exposure to your eyes after dusk.

Light from TVs, bulbs will be detected through the eye and send signals to the brain that it’s day time. The glymphatic system will not relax without darkness, found in the complete stages of sleep.

Other interruptions are breathing. If you breathe through the mouth at night, the brain has to monitor the airway, make sure to breathe through the nose, to help this system clear properly and pump CSF up the spine.

If you snore, your brain is starving of oxygen.

Blue light blocking glasses are one tool. Mouth taping is another tool. Watching the morning sunlight, with deep nasal breathing, helps to tell your nervous system to relax 12 hours later!

Do you or a family member suffer with snoring?

09/08/2023

While we hear of the benefits of fish-oil, the real health superstar is cod-liver oil.

Cod-liver oil was a tradition for a reason. It fortifies our bones and teeth.

The fish oils you consume off the supermarket shelf is devoid of the potent nutrients that cod-liver oil contains.

The liver is rich in fat-soluble vitamins like vitamins A and D, which give it an impressive nutrient profile.

One teaspoon (5 ml) of cod liver oil provides the following:

Vitamin A: 90% of the RDI
Vitamin D: 113% of the RDI

There are many stories of mothers forcing their children to take cod liver oil.

I slip it in my kids milk, which has varying degrees of success, lately it's been going OK with 2/3 children who give that strange expression at the smell and fishy aftertaste to their morning milk. Ha ha.

Text below: PMC2258476

Centuries ago, northern Europeans used cod liver oil to protect them from the cold. It was made from the livers of Gadus morhua and other species of cod.

At the beginning of the 20th century, scientists established that cod liver oil was antirachitic, and it became commonplace for mothers to give it to their children.

Cod liver oil contains large amounts of vitamins A, D, and omega-3 fatty acids, and the health benefits may go beyond rheumatism and rickets.

Vitamin A is essential for the immune system, bone growth, night vision, cellular growth, testicular and ovarian function. Pharmaceutical preparations are used to treat cystic acne and other skin conditions.

In one study in 3,502 people aged 55 and over, researchers found that people who consumed the most vitamin A had a much lower risk of glaucoma than those who ate the least vitamin A.

Vitamin D not only prevents rickets but is also important for muscle function and may prevent type 1 diabetes, hypertension, and many common cancers

Getting enough vitamin D from foods and supplements like cod liver oil is especially important for people who live far from the equator, a their skin doesn’t get enough sunlight to synthesize vitamin D for up to six months of the year.

Would you take cod-liver oil today?

09/08/2023

Is any mouth breathing ok?

It’s a survival reflex so it’s there to stop you from dying in emergency, but when it sneaks into your day to day life, it’s going to make you sick.

If you breathe through the mouth at night, you will likely snore, and have a higher chance of developing sleep apnea.

Sleep apnea causes blood pressure issues, heart disease, and is a known link to Alzheimers disease.

If you’re anxious a lot, breathing through the nose, slowly, is your fastest ticket to a calmer more resilient nervous system.

Mouth breathing reduces your tolerance to carbon dioxide. Sounds good? No carbon dioxide has many physiologic roles including the release of oxygen from the blood into cells.

Your brain has CO2 detectors all of the body monitoring CO2. If it’s not use to the rise during slow nasal breathing, it will panic and revert you to mouth breathing.

Reprogramming your unconscious ‘autonomic’ body to nasal breathing requires many things to fall in place.

Struggling? These could explain why:

Nasal / throat issues – if you have chronic blocked sinuses, deviated septum or adenoid issues, it’s going to be harder for you to breathe through the nose. See an ENT specialist, breathing is paramount!

Tongue Posture – When your tongue seals to the roof of the mouth it blocks mouth breathing. Problem is no one does it. Train the tongue to seal to the roof of the mouth.

Head and neck posture – if you have forward head posture, it’s likely you mouth breathe regularly. By closing the lips, supporting the spine straight and sealing the tongue to the roof of the mouth.

Sleep – if you wake up with a dry mouth, snore, toss and turn, go to the bathroom frequently you aren't breathing well. Simplest way to get started is to try mouth tape to seal the lips through the night.

If you feel like you can’t breathe through the nose, you need to start building tolerance in the nasal passage to air.

Here’s a quick exercise:
1) Take a deep slow breath into the diaphragm
2) Hold the breath when your lungs are full
3) Clip the nostrils with your finger-tips
4) Hold and time your result

Do you or a family member struggle with mouth breathing?

09/08/2023

Your teeth, gums, and jawbones are a living, breeding site of human stem cells. That’s the ability to self-renew. Does that mean you can just grow teeth back? No, but it represents a leap we need to take in our perception of dental health.⠀
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It’s a testament to the fact that bone and teeth formation is very similar to immune system formation.⠀
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In the year 2000, adult human dental stem cells were first identified in the dental pulp. Teeth contain these so that they can self-renew.⠀
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Teeth can self-renew.⠀
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Stem cells are immature cells that have the potential to develop into many different cell lineages via differentiation. These cells can renew themselves indefinitely through “self-renewal”. A fluid equilibrium, and constant flux.⠀
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The question is whether they do ‘self renew’ or not. That relies on receiving the right ‘resources’ from the body.⠀
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Bone cells, act much like immune cells. They listen and adapt to the environment, and use resources to do so. When the immune system is depleted of resources, it cannot fight infections.⠀
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When the bone and teeth system is depleted, it can cannot form new repair bone and teeth cells to replenish mineral contents.⠀
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The jaw, teeth, and gums have the ability to self-renew itself. Whether they do or not depends on whether we provide the right resources.⠀
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In the above image, are all the scientifically isolated sites of different stem cells in the mouth.⠀
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The human jawbone for example has been shown to have specific stem cells that experimental studies have shown to be more effective than grafted bone from the hip region.⠀
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In animal studies, as well as tissue repair and regeneration, stem cells have immunomodulatory properties that can have therapeutic effects such as anti-inflammation.⠀
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Inside the pulp of each tooth is a soup of dental tissues, these are the cells known to repair dentin, if decay breaches the tooth enamel.⠀
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Similarly, stem cells can regenerate bone loss around the teeth.⠀
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The mouth is a living, breathing, immune system that can repair itself if given the right resources.

What do you think could be achieved with dental stem cells?

09/08/2023

(From Dr. Steven Lin's post)
Mouth breathing is a habit you need to overcome.

Problem is, it's not easy to change.

Mouth breathing stunts the shape of your jaw, and can contribute to the development of crooked teeth.

This occurs both in children who mouth breathe, as their jaws are developing, their adult teeth then don't have enough space to fit into their dental arch.

The result is at the age of 12 or 13, they have crooked teeth, and are require orthodontic braces to correct them.

In adults, teeth can drift with or without orthodontic treatment, if you breathe through the mouth.

So, how do we stop a mouth breathing habit?

Breathing is a subconscious process run by your autonomic nervous system. Mouth reathers will feel uncomfortable when breathing through the nose.

The reason is that nasal breathing slower, carbon dioxide gas makes a slow rise in the body that allows the transfer of oxygen in cells.

Mouth breathing is short inefficient exchange of gases.

Changing this perception of breathing in your body is important, but it's not easy.

One strategy to remind yourself to breathe through the nose is to strengthen the tongue to seal to the roof of the mouth.

Oral posture involves sealing the tongue to the roof of the mouth.

If you learn this posture as a child, your palate widens due to the pressure of the tongue, which better develops a jaw that fits adult teeth.

The really important thing about tongue posture is that it makes it impossible to breathe through the mouth

Try it.

Seal your tongue upwards like a table to the your palate.

Now try breathe through the mouth.

See?

This is how you build a postural reminder to breathe through the nose.

The added advantage is that when you strengthen the tongue, it strengthens the muscles that support the throat that hold your airway open.

It's especially important at night when you sleep. Teaching your tongue to seal to the roof of the mouth during sleep can both, change the shape of the dental arch, and prevent breathing associated issues like snoring.

In children if you correct this habit, teeth will straighten to an extent themselves, its remarkable to watch!

Do you struggle with mouth breathing?

09/08/2023

- Dr. Steven Lin's post -
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Breathing through the nose for better brain function

The olfactory bulp likely acts as a coolant for the brain.

Your brain is 2% of your body mass, yet turns over a huge 25% of the energy.

This heat must be dissipated and breathing is one way that the brain is able to get rid of excess heat.

It’s the cooling system and may make your brain work better.

Studies have showed that men and women were consistently much better at recognizing smells if they breathed through their noses during the quiet hour. Mouth breathing resulted in fuzzier recall and more incorrect answers.

Nasal breathing enhanced memory consolidation.

A study in The Journal of Neuroscience considered the relationship between memory and how we breathe.

Two dozen healthy young male and female volunteers inhaled 12 different scents from small vials held to their noses. Some of the smells were familiar, like the essence of orange, while others were obscure. The subjects were told to memorize each scent. They went through this process on two occasions.

For one, they sat quietly for an hour immediately after the sniffing, with their noses clipped shut to prevent nasal breathing; on the other, they sat for an hour with tape over their mouths to prevent oral breathing.

During each hour, their brains should have been consolidating memories of the smells in the hippocampus, according to the researchers’ hypothesis. After each hour, the volunteers were exposed to repeated scents and new ones, then asked to determine whether an odor had been sniffed earlier.

Presumably, the oral respiration was less effective because it bypassed the olfactory bulb.

For memory consolidation making sure you breathe through the nose during sleep is probably your best tactic for better brain health.

One way to access nasal breathing for eight hours, is mouth taping at night. A thin strip across the lips, put on about 30 minutes before bed and with a slow breathing exercise could have you recalling memories better.

Do you find yourself mouthbreathing?