If you’ve just gotten your first set of partial or full dentures, you’re likely experiencing a strange mix of emotions. You’re happy to be able to share a smile again. You’re worried about shifting teeth while eating meals in public with friends and family members, and you’re concerned you aren’t speaking clearly any longer. Most patients get used to their dentures fairly quickly, but if you’re struggling to adjust, we’re here to help. In this post, we’ll discuss some tips to help you achieve ideal denture function, so you can speak, chew, or smile with complete confidence and comfort.
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McCarl Dental Group Blog
Tips for New Denture Wearers
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Protecting Your Smile with Dental Sealants
When it comes to protecting smiles from tooth decay, we encourage all of our dental patients to do their best to brush thoroughly, floss carefully, and of course, keep up with regular preventive dental checkups. When it comes to our kids’ smiles, it can be more of a struggle to keep them healthy. Dental professionals and parents work hard to teach children to remove plaque buildup and clean their smiles thoroughly every day, but even the most diligent parents may not always have time to double check their children’s teeth every time they brush. What can you do to improve your child’s oral health (or your own) quickly and comfortably? Ask your dental hygienist or dentist about dental sealants.
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Celebrity Smile Makeovers
This academy award season, you’re going to see a lot of flawless smiles on your television screen, and many people assume their favorite celebs are just born with beautiful smiles. The odds are you’re looking at the beautiful end result of skilled dental care. If you want to get your smile red carpet ready, cosmetic dentistry isn’t just for celebrities. Your Millersville and Greenbelt dentists and dentistry team at McCarl Dental Group offer a wide range of treatments to deliver flawless smiles to rival your favorite celeb.
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The Importance of a Proper Airway
Food – you can live without it up to 40 days.
Water – you can live without it just a few days.
Air – you can only live without it a few minutes.
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Help Your Greenbelt Dentists Recycle Toothbrushes
Help Us Keep Greenbelt Green! Recycle toothbrushes and oral care packages!
Please recycle toothbrushes along with their packaging and empty toothpaste tubes. You may take used toothbrushes, plastic packaging, toothpaste tubes and their caps and empty dental floss containers to the City of Greenbelt, Public Works Department. Did you know that you should replace your toothbrush every 3 months? According to the American Dental Association, after 3-4 months, toothbrushes become worn out and frayed and may lose their effectiveness. Their dental research shows that new toothbrushes remove more plaque than old ones.
Recycle toothbrushes. empty toothpaste tubes and floss containers.
How to Recycle Toothbrushes and Other Oral Care Products
At McCarl Dental Group we have participated in the Greenbelt recycling program since it started and are excited to embrace this new recycling program for oral care products. We encourage our dental patients to recycle empty toothpaste tubes and caps, toothbrushes, toothpaste cartons and toothbrush outer packaging and dental floss containers. There are new inside bins at the City of Greenbelt, Public Works Department, who participates with TerraCycle, a recycling company that specializes in recycling hard-to-recycle waste.
We encourage all of our dental patients and Greenbelt residents to recycle all of the oral hygiene supplies listed above. Please note: Electric toothbrushes, battery toothbrushes, and/or their parts are not recyclable through this program.
Our City of Greenbelt is a certified Sustainable Maryland Community and does a great job helping residents minimize their environmental impact through recycling. The community has been in partnership with the Green Team since 2014 and has been surveyed by Green ACES (Advisory Committee on the Environment and Sustainability) for decades.
Please help us actively promote and model environmental sustainability and contribute to a green lifestyle.
With best wishes for a greener Greenbelt and a Happy New Year,
The Dentists and Staff at McCarl Dental Group
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Are Tooth Whitening Gums or Toothpastes Effective?
Today’s culture seems to be obsessed with getting whiter teeth. Take a walk down the oral hygiene aisle at your local pharmacy. You’ll see whitening toothpastes, mouthwashes, strips, and gels. Watching television, you are likely to see at least one commercial for an oral hygiene product. The latest teeth whitening product to join the trend is tooth whitening gum. All of these products promise patients they’ll achieve dramatically brighter smiles, but unless patients have only minimal surface-level staining, they will not likely see any changes in the shade of their teeth. Instead, professional teeth whitening may be a safer, more predictable solution.
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4 Tips for Keeping Your Smile Healthy
If you’re trying to improve your oral health or at-home hygiene routine, the best place to start is with a trip to your trusted general dentist. To get a head start, you can watch this informative video and read this blog for basic tips to improve your oral hygiene. In our educational video, Dr. Jay McCarl talks to a patient about effective strategies to maintain healthy teeth and gums for life. If you haven’t already, now is the time to talk to your dentist or dental hygienist about your at-home hygiene routine, and ask them for help maximizing the efficacy of your daily preventive dentistry routine.
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The Science of Cavities
Ancient humans used crude tools to clean their teeth, ate a coarse diet, and ended up fully or partially without teeth within a few decades of life. Through the ages, people have gotten better at caring for their smiles, and today, the rate of tooth loss has significantly decreased. However, the consumption of diets higher in sugary and acidic foods have caused a noted increase in cavities. In order to properly care for your teeth and keep your smile cavity free, you’ll need to know more about how cavities form.
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McCarl Dental Group Named Best of West County & Annapolis
McCarl Dental Group is dedicated to offering the highest quality dental care for everyone we treat. While our patients’ smiles are typically enough to let us know we’ve done a great job, it’s still nice to hear from our communities that they think we’re “the best.” McCarl Dental Group recently received three 2017 “Best Of” awards from What’s Up? West County and What’s Up? Annapolis. Thank you to all of our patients to who voted, and we hope to always exceed your high expectations by providing the very “best” dental care.
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Cancer, Chemotherapy, Radiation, & Your Dental Health
When you or a loved one receives a cancer diagnosis, oral health is likely the furthest thing from your mind. However, this systemic disease does significantly impact both your oral and whole body health. Treatments for cancer like chemotherapy and radiation can also increase risk for oral health complications. Caring for your teeth and gums in our dental office and at home can ensure your smile remains whole and healthy, but it will also help prevent an oral infection from delaying your cancer treatment. Keep reading to learn more about the impact cancer and its treatments can have on your oral health.
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