Stress and Your Smile

How Does Stress Affect Your Smile and Your Overall Well-being?

If you’ve ever come through a stressful time at work or in your everyday life, you may already know how stress can affect the body. Emotional and physical exhaustion, weight gain, premature aging, and moodiness are all examples of how stress can change you. But did you know there’s also an oral health component to stress?

You may have never guessed it, but if you experience frequent headaches or have chronic pain in your jaw, shoulders, neck, and face, you could be reacting to the stress in your life by clenching your jaw or grinding your teeth.Both are a natural reaction to stress. In fact, clenching actually contributes to the release of stress hormones. But just because these may be natural reactions, that doesn’t mean they’re good for you. Consistent grinding and clenching can eventually lead to TMJ dysfunction and can do serious damage to your teeth and jaw.

At Stonebriar Smile Design, Dr. Jill Wade can help you relieve your painful and exhausting symptoms with a full arch occlusal guard or an NTI-tss device. With each of these custom-made oral devices, Dr. Wade can put a stop to the clenching and grinding that’s destroying your smile.

Have you been experiencing painful symptoms as a result of stress? Call Stonebriar Smile Design today to schedule an appointment with Dr. Wade. Our office is conveniently located in Frisco and serves patients from Plano, McKinney, Allen, Dallas, and The Colony.

Getting the Jump on Oral Cancer with VELscope

Oral Cancer Awareness Month, Part Two: Getting the Jump on Oral Cancer with VELscope

In our last post, we talked about how Dr. Jill Wade is using OralDNA to asses a patient’s risk for HPV-related oral cancer. In this post, we’ll take about a look at another great tool we’re using at Stonebriar Smile Design in Frisco. It’s called VELscope.

With VELscope, it’s possible for Dr. Wade to identify potentially cancerous tissue when it can be hard to make a diagnosis with the naked eye.

How Does An Oral Cancer Screening With VELscope Work?

VELscope is a fluorescence-based system that is painless and takes just minutes to complete. During your screening, Dr. Wade will simply shine the VELscope light in your mouth as she completes a thorough oral exam.  Under this light, healthy tissue glows green while tissue that may require a second look looks dark. That’s all there is to it. When combined with OralDNA, X-rays, and a traditional oral exam, VELscope can be one of the most effective tools used in the fight against oral cancer.

Do you want to learn more about oral cancer and how Dr. Wade can screen patients? Call our Frisco dental office today with your questions, or to schedule your next visit. We serve patients from Plano, McKinney, Allen, Dallas, and The Colony.

Oral Cancer Awareness Month

You might already know that April is Oral Cancer Awareness Month, but do you know why spreading awareness is so important? It’s because oral cancer currently claims the life of one American every hour, taking more lives annually than cervical or skin cancer, among other urgent health conditions.

Part of what makes mortality rates so high is that many patients aren’t diagnosed until the disease is in its later stages, when treatment can be difficult. But at Stonebriar Smile Design, Dr. Jill Wade wants to help patients catch oral cancer early, when treatment can be effective. Which is why she uses two great tools to screen patients.

In this post, we’ll look at one of those tools: OralDNA.

How Does OralDNA Help Dr. Wade Diagnose Oral Cancer?

OralDNA helps Dr. Wade asses her patients’ risk for a very specific kind of oral cancer—oral cancer caused by HPV. Tobacco use and excessive alcohol consumption are still the most common risk factors, but more and more cases are appearing in patients with none of these. In these cases, HPV is often the cause, in both women and men alike.

With OralDNA, Dr. Wade can easily screen you for HPV, and in particular, the HPV strains that have been linked to oral cancer. The test is simple, can be completed in a matter of minutes, and could save your life.

Want to know more about oral cancer screening with OralDNA? Call Dr. Wade’s Frisco dental office for questions and to schedule your appointment. We serve patients from Plano, McKinney, Allen, Dallas, and The Colony.

Spring into Straight Teeth

Introducing Invisalign Express 5

Express 5 is a treatment option for very minor orthodontic movement, such as mild spacing, crowding and orthodontic relapse. The treatment spans the course of 5 aligners changed out every 2 weeks making the total treatment time 10 weeks.

Dr. Wade is offering the Express 5 for a limited time discount for appointments scheduled before April 2. This includes a new custom set of bleaching trays after treatment is completed. For patients who do not qualify for Express 5 you do have the options of Invisalign Express & Comprehensive Invisalign treatment, and Dr. Wade is offering a discount on those as well.

Please, call today and schedule your consultation for treatment options. Up to $500 off for appointments scheduled before April 2, 2012. 972.377.7800

Spring into a Healthy Life

As we "spring forward", it is important to remember your overall health. We now have an extra hour of day light to enjoy an evening walk, run or evening at the park with the kids!

When you think of health, some of the things that might to come to mind are hand-washing, annual Dr. visits, eating a balanced diet and regular exercise. This is a great start! Choices you make daily go a long way toward promoting your overall health.

It's equally important to pay attention to your body and its changes. Know which health warning signs merit medical attention, from unexplained weight loss to shortness of breath and sudden headaches.

And of course, regular physical exams and adult health screening tests are an important part of preventive adult health care. Know which screening tests you need and how often to have them done. Early detection is often the key to successful treatment.

(From www.mayoclinic.com) "Stress is a normal psychological and physical reaction to the ever increasing demands of life. Surveys show that most Americans experience challenges with stress at some point during the year. In looking at the causes of stress, remember that your brain comes hard-wired with an alarm system for your protection. When your brain perceives a threat, it signals your body to release a burst of hormones to fuel your capacity for a response. This has been labeled the "fight-or-flight" response. Once the threat is gone, your body is meant to return to a normal relaxed state. Unfortunately, the nonstop stress of modern life means that your alarm system rarely shuts off.

That's why stress management is so important. Stress management gives you a range of tools to reset your alarm system. Without stress management, all too often your body is always on high alert. Over time, high levels of stress lead to serious health problems. Don't wait until stress has a negative impact on your health, relationships or quality of life. Start practicing a range of stress management techniques today."

So join us in tackling your overall health and wellness, which of course includes your oral health. The Stonebriar Smile Design team is concerned about your entire body, not just your mouth. Enjoy the extra hour of sunshine!

Plaque by any Other Name

The shear definition of plaque and calculus should lead us to believe that medicine has long suspected the link between cardiovascular disease and periodontal disease. Just think, we call the unhealthy beginning of gingivitis and periodontal disease plaque and calculus. This is what we remove when we brush our teeth and get a professional dental cleaning. If you have cardiovascular disease, it is plaque or calcium buildup in your arteries that ultimately have lead to your problem.

Here is some food for thought, think about the similarities:

What is Dental Plaque?

Dental plaque is a soft deposit that accumulates on the teeth. Plaque can be defined as a complex microbial community. In addition to the bacterial cells, plaque contains a small number of epithelial cells, leukocytes, and macrophages. The cells are contained within an extracellular matrix, which is formed from bacterial products and saliva. The extracellular matrix contains protein, polysaccharide and lipids.
The oral cavity contains the only known anatomical aspect of the human body that does not have a regulated system of shedding surfaces: the teeth. This allows a numerous amount of microorganisms to adhere to the surface of teeth for long periods of time. These multiple species of bacteria become dental biofilm. Dental biofilm, more commonly referred to as dental plaque, is composed of about a thousand bacteria that take part in the complex ecosystems of the mouth.

At first, the biofilm is soft enough to come off by using finger nail. However, it starts to harden within 48 hours, and in about 10 days the plaque becomes dental calculus (tartar) hard and difficult to remove. Dental plaque can give rise to problems such as gingivitis and chronic periodontitis.

What Is Coronary Heart Disease?

Coronary heart disease (CHD), also called coronary artery disease, is a condition in which plaque builds up inside the coronary arteries. These arteries supply oxygen-rich blood to your heart muscle. Plaque is made up of fat, cholesterol, calcium, and other substances found in the blood. When plaque builds up in the arteries, the condition is called atherosclerosis (ATH-er-o-skler-O-sis). The buildup of plaque occurs over many years.

Atherosclerosis

Over time, plaque hardens into calculus or calcium deposits and narrows your coronary arteries. This limits the flow of oxygen-rich blood to your heart muscle.

Eventually, an area of plaque can rupture (break open). This causes a blood clot to form on the surface of the plaque. If the clot becomes large enough, it can mostly or completely block blood flow through a coronary artery. If the flow of oxygen-rich blood to your heart muscle is reduced or blocked, angina (an-JI-nuh or AN-juh-nuh) or a heart attack may occur.

A heart attack occurs if the flow of oxygen-rich blood to a section of heart muscle suddenly becomes blocked. If blood flow is not restored quickly, the section of heart muscle begins to die. Without quick treatment, a heart attack can lead to serious problems and even death.

The key message to take home is to prevent plaque accumulation in anyway possible, either in your mouth or in your arteries.

What Does Your Mouth Have to Say About Your Health?

From www.cbsnews.com, other professionals are supporting the same message we tell our patients daily.

-Dr. Wade

"Cardiologists might not check your teeth and gums, but maybe they should start. Mounting evidence suggests a quick peek in the mouth may reveal a whole lot about your general health.

The lips, mouth, teeth and breath can signal medical problems and diseases beyond the plaque, gum disease and gingivitis diagnosed in the dentist's chair. Plaque buildup between teeth due to lax brushing and flossing is very different from plaque that builds up in arteries and causes heart attacks - but the toxins in mouth plaque stimulate a chronic inflammatory response linked to diseases like heart disease.

"The mouth is the gateway to the heart and there's clearly a link between poor dental health and cardiovascular conditions," says Dr. Kevin Marzo, Chief of Cardiology at Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola, New York. For example, he says, cardiac medications you put under your tongue travel quickly through the bloodstream. That means bacteria can too.

"The bacteria that cause dental plaque may promote inflammation in the body beyond the mouth including the lining of the blood vessels, increasing the risk for cardiovascular disease including heart attacks," says Marzo.

Research has shown when people with active gum disease are treated, their arteries actually get healthier. Some experts suggest managing inflammation in the mouth may reduce other inflammatory-related health issues, including arthritis - even wrinkles and aging. Besides heart disease, gum disease has been linked to respiratory diseases, stroke, and osteoporosis.

The mouth can also give doctors clues about a person's sexual health. Warts in the mouth that resemble cauliflower clusters may signal the human papillomavirus, or HPV, one of the most common sexually transmitted infections.

"I see them on the lips, tongue or roof of the mouth," says Dr. Susan Pugliese, Clinical Assistant Professor Division of Oral Medicine and Dentistry Department of Surgery at SUNY Downstate. "And I'm seeing them more frequently in patients over 50 who are dating." Pugliese says this age group may not connect what's going on in their mouth to their sex lives.

HPV is also a driver of oral cancer: the National Cancer Institute, estimates 65 percent of the approximately 8,000 cancers of the tonsils and base of the tongue seen in the U.S. in 2010 were from HPV infections; 80 per cent were in men. Cancers may appear as ulcers on the lips, inside of the cheeks, tongue or back of throat that don't heal, or white patches that don't slough off. A biopsy is typically recommended for suspicious warts or lesions in the mouth and throat.

HIV is often first detected in the mouth, as a bright red outline around the teeth, or as a white coating that can be scraped off the tongue, known as thrush. The coating signals an overgrowth of Candida, the same fungus that causes yeast infections in women and jock itch in men. The white coating can also signal glucose levels are out of whack, poorly managed diabetes or fluctuating hormones. It can also be harmless, signaling a sensitivity to additives in toothpaste, such as tartar control agents. Dentists may recommend an HIV test for young patients presenting with Candida who have other risk factors.

A person's breath also provides health clues. Bad breath may signal serious conditions that require medical attention such as respiratory infections, diabetes, acid reflux and kidney and liver problems. Dry mouth? That's sometimes caused by medications, such as antidepressants, anti-inflammatories, and heart drugs. Drinking water or chewing on fibrous foods such as celery may help.

Good oral hygiene is the best way to prevent gum disease and keep your mouth healthy. Healthy gums hug the teeth and don't pull away, have bounce, and don't bleed from brushing or flossing. But while a clean, well-cared for mouth can promote good health, it can also disguise serious health problems... so don't skip regular visits to the doctor, and dentist."