DesertSmiles

34,000 people a year are diagnosed with oral cancer, and 7,500 die from it. Just half of those diagnosed survive five years, according to the American Cancer Society. A typical oral cancer is life-threatening “largely because it is detected too late,” says Richard Price, consumer adviser for the American Dental Association (www.ada.org).

Symptoms of oral cancer can include:

*Patches inside the mouth that are white, red or a mixture of red and white.

*A sore on the lip or in the mouth that will not heal.

*Bleeding in the mouth or loose teeth.

*Difficulty or pain when swallowing or difficulty in wearing dentures.

*A lump in the neck or an earache.

The cornerstone of oral-cancer detection is an exam performed by your dentist or hygienist during a regular checkup. It should include the following:

*Look and feel inside the lips and the front of the gums and the roof of the mouth.

*Pull the cheeks out to see inside surfaces and back of the gums.

*Pull out the tongue and examine its surfaces and bordering areas.

*Feel for lumps or enlarged lymph nodes in the neck, including under the lower jaw.

In addition to the above oral cancer exam at DesertSmiles Cosmetic and Restorative Dentistry, we offer the Vizilite Plus for cancer screening. Vizilite Plus is a simple, painless exam that gives the best chance to find any oral abnormalities at the earliet possible stage, and save your life.

It is recommended patients age 18+ be screened annually using the Vizilite Plus exam.

For more information about the Vizilite product, or cosmetic and restorative dentistry in the Phoenix and Glendale areas visit our website at www.DesertSmiles.com.

At DesertSmiles we are very pleased to show a recent smile makeover using the Durathin veneers. Durathin veneers are a non-prep technique which has been popularized by advertising of Lumineers you may have seen on TV or in print advertisements. We feel these are a much higher quality product made by a master ceramist here in the United States. The Lumineer product is outsourced to China currently.

This is an ideal case for non-prep veneers. The patient is young, the teeth are not dark, and the position of the teeth allows addition without looking bulky. The smallish size of the teeth and the lip contours accept the addition to the teeth quite well. With no preparation of the underlying tooth structure there is minimal trauma or discomfort. Bonding to the enamel layer of the tooth gives maximum strength. Since the teeth are not prepared, the procedure is practically reversible but with these results why would you want to reverse it!

Only 25% of patients have a situation that can be treated entirely with a no-prep technique without seriously comprimising results. But we are doing more hybrid cases where as many teeth as possible are left unpreped and those requiring preparation are treated as conservatively as possible as we always have with our MacVeneer cases.

For more information regarding restorative and cosmetic dentistry in the Phoenix and Glendale, Arizona areas explore our website www.DesertSmiles.com.

www.DesertSmiles.com

This case was completed with only a slight amount of preparation on the back of the two teeth adjacent to the missing tooth. Believe it or not none of the other teeth or the front of the teeth adjacent to the space were touched, thus the title “Conservative to the Max.” We were able to accomplish this gorgeous result with the use of the Durathin veneers and a bonded porcelain bridge. No prepping teeth down to a peg to place a bridge. No metal to show any gray lines later. The latest in conservative, esthetic dentistry.

For more information on the finest in restorative and cosmetic dentistry in the Phoenix and Glendale, Arizona areas please contact Dr. Donald Wilcox DDS at DesertSmiles - 602-978-1790.

An increasing number of U.S. children are overweight, but a new study suggests it’s not because they are pigging out on cookies and candy.

Being overweight is linked to a slew of health problems in kids, ranging from type 2 diabietes to sleep apnea to behavioral problems.  But apparently, tooth decay is not one of them.  Overweight children and teens ages 6 through 18 actually had less tooth decay than normal weight kids, according to a study in the April 2008 issue of Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology.  University of Rochester researchers analyzed data from nearly 18,000 kids who participated in a nationwide health and nutrition survey.

The American Dental Association (www.ada.org) has more information about kids’ and teens’ dental health.

For more information about restorative and cosmetic dentistry in the Phoenix and Glendale, Arizona area go to www.DesertSmiles.com.

A case was reported recently by the American Dental Association (www.ada.org) in Ohio where eight crowns were tested by an analytic company that had been outsourced to a lab in China. One crown tested positive for lead at 210 parts per million (ppm). The story also included news of a woman whose bridge tested positive for lead at 160 ppm.

What is the safe limit of lead? The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a level of 40 ppm as the maximum that should be allowed in children’s products. And apparently, a level of 600 ppm would trigger a federal recall of lead paint. Yes, that is lead paint that has too much lead.

The American Dental Association has asked the Food and Drug Administration and Center for Disease Control to investigate. The ADA reported it is estimated up to 15 to 20 percent of prostheses used in the USA originate in foreign labs, although the percent from China is presumably lower.

The ADA has encouraged patients to ask the following questions of their dentists:

1. Do you fashion your own crowns, bridges and other dental materials in the office or purchase them from a dental laboratory?

2. Where is the dental lab located?

3. Does the lab outsource crowns or bridges to a foreign country?

We use the cerec system to mill all porcelain crowns within the office. These are purchased from the Ivoclar company and contain no lead. We also use Microdental Laboratory in Dublin, CA., to make our traditional porcelain veneers (Macveneers). Our Durathin veneers (no prep alternative to Lumineers) are fabricated by Experience Dental Lab in Provo, Utah. Neither lab outsources any work to a foreign country.

One of the reason we do not use the Lumineer product is their restorations are fabricated in China.

For more information about restorative and cosmetic dentistry in the Phoenix and Glendale, Arizona areas go to www.desertsmiles.com.