Often time people are unaware they they may be grinding their teeth since it is very common to grind teeth during sleep. However there are tell tale signs of teeth grinding such as a dull constant headache or waking up to a sore jaw. Sometime people will learn that they are grinding their teeth by a love one who hear them grinding their teeth during sleep.

Although there are people who grind their teeth due to stress and or anxiety, more often teeth grinding is due to an abnormal bite or missing or crooked teeth. If you grind your teeth during sleep you can be fitted for a night guard by your dentist. Talk to your dentist if teeth grinding is an issue for you in order to maintain your dental health care.

There are many people who will occasional grind their teeth form time to time. Occasional teeth grinding normally will not cause your teeth any harm. However when teeth grinding occurs on a regular basis teeth can be damaged and effect your oral health.

I am in my first year of college and I have seen a few people in their 20’s with really bad looking teeth. Which I am guessing they have dental decay and they do not seem to be doing anything about it. They are only in the early 20’s so I can not understand how their teeth can be so bad.

Answer:  There are many reason for someone to have bad teeth. It is easy to assume that one main reason would be that they may not be practicing proper dental care habits.  Although this is often times the first thing one thinks when seeing someone with bad teeth it may not always be the case.  Other factors can include:

1) Cost:  Often times lower income people feel they can not afford proper dental care and do not see a dentist regularly or as often as needed.  Although one can make a point in saying toothpaste and floss is not costly your dental care requirements doesn’t stop there and seeing a dentist in order to maintain healthy teeth and gums is very larger factor.
2) Medicines and Health Issues: There are many medicines people may need to take for their health care that can have adverse side effects on their teeth. In addition medical conditions such as diabetes can also have an adverse effect on their teeth and gums. People with these issues may need to see a dentist more often in order to maintain their dental health.
3) Other Risk Factors:  Higher risk factor that can effect dental health can include, such things as poor diet, smoking and drug use.

Without knowing the person you really do not know why they may have poor dental health and you should be careful about making snap decisions about them.

Many seniors do not receive needed dental care services do many factors. One such factor is cost. Seniors that live on a very fixed income may put of their dental care needs thinking it is not that important.    Another reasons can be do to the ability to get to a dental office.

Many seniors do not drive and they may not have any family members or friends that can take them to a dentist as often as needed. One way to address the cost issue is by having a low cost dental insurance plan such as an Dental HMO. HMO dental insurance plans are the more affordable dental insurance plan type and they will greatly reduce the cost for dental care services. For many seniors often times there are services available that will take them to and from their doctor appointment either free of charge or at very little cost.

Therefore try finding a dentist that is located in or near the same building as your doctors and book your appointments back to back. By doing this you are able to not only get a ride to your doctors but to your dentist as well.

There is an ongoing debate about the role of psychological disorder symptoms as risk factors for temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pain. Previous studies have associated depression and TMJ pain but large scale studies have not been performed. German researchers writing in The Journal of Pain evaluated community subjects and found that those with depression and anxiety had increased risk for temporomandibular pain upon palpation.

Two new studies published this week suggest that a type of gut bacteria found in the mouth may trigger colorectal cancer by influencing the immune response and switching on cancer genes. The researchers believe their findings may lead to more timely and improved ways of diagnosing, preventing, and treating colorectal cancer.

During the last 25 years Kim McFarland, D.D.S., associate professor in the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Dentistry in Lincoln, has seen an increase in the number of dental patients with erosion of the tooth enamel. According to the new research root beer could be the safest soft drink for your teeth, however, may other popular diet and sugared sodas are nearly as corrosive to dental enamel as battery acid.

Prolonged exposure to soft drinks can lead to significant enamel loss, even though many people consider soft drinks to be harmless or just worry about their sugar content and the potential for putting on pounds, the study says.

A study has found that people with poor oral hygiene or gum disease could be at higher risk of developing  Alzheimer’s compared with those who have healthy teeth.   Lancashire (UCLan) in the UK, discovered the presence of a bacterium called Porphyromonas gingivalis in the brains of patients who had dementia when they were alive. The bug is usually associated with chronic periodontal (gum) disease.

Tooth decay forms because certain types of bacteria in a person’s mouth consume sugar from human food and produces a small amount of acid, which can break down the protective enamel layer of the teeth. By constantly drinking acidic drinks, such as juice, soda and sport drinks, it has the same affect, making the deeper layers of the tooth vulnerable to bacterial infiltration and infection.  However, research out of the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry and published in the Journal of the American Dental Association shows that by using “food sequencing,” or eating foods in a certain order, people can prevent the onset of cavities by changing the pH, or acidity, of their mouths.