McCarl Dental Group Blog

The McCarl Dental Group team is serious about the safety measures our dental offices are implementing during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. We appreciate and value our loyal patients and want to share some updates about new procedures. This is especially important now that non-emergency patients are returning to the dental office. Although we are seeing fewer patients than pre-COVID, we’re having more patients return for dental care than during the last few months. We’re taking even more precautions to keep our dental patients, our employees, and the Greenbelt community safe. You can learn more about the updates to our protocols by watching our video from Dr. Richard Duarte and reading this blog.

We are all hearing a lot of conflicting information about what does and doesn’t help to keep us safe while we’re navigating the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. When it comes to visiting the dental office, pre-rinses have come under some scrutiny. You can find almost as many seemingly reputable sources supporting and opposing the use of pre-rinses. At McCarl Dental Group in Greenbelt, we’ve always included a pre-rinse as part of our preventive dental exam routine, and we haven’t stopped doing this in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, we changed to a pre-rinse product that exceeds the recommendations of the American Dental Association (ADA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In this blog, you can learn more about the oral rinse we’re using, but don’t hesitate to call to chat with one of our team members if you have questions.

To better protect our patients and staff against Covid-19, we have implemented several additional safety upgrades at McCarl Dental Group of Greenbelt. We understand that many of our clients are feeling some concern about venturing back out into the world, and we want to reassure you that we are going above and beyond to make your visit safe. In this blog, you can read all about the steps we’re taking to safeguard our patients. You can feel confident that your health and safety remain our top priorities.

As dental offices are allowed to see non-emergency patients once more, dentists are so happy to be able to see all of their smiling patients. Our dentists have always taken patient health and sanitation very seriously, but in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are taking additional steps to ensure our patients, staff members, and families remain safe. You can learn more about some of the additional safety steps we’re taking in this blog.

During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, many of us find ourselves with a little extra time on our hands. If you’re looking to fill the hours, this may be the perfect time to improve your oral hygiene routine. According to some experts, it takes 40 days to create a new habit, and while we’re all hoping we don’t have to stay at home for another 40 days, there’s no time like the present to start changing the way we care for our smiles. In this blog, we will discuss the best ways to brush and floss and other great oral hygiene habits that can benefit you now and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

If you’ve always visited your dentist every six months like clockwork, you may be feeling a little nervous with your dental office closed for non-emergency care during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We want our patients to be able to maintain their optimal level of oral health at this difficult time, and we also want to protect the health and safety of every member of our community. We are hopeful that your Greenbelt dentist will be ready to see your smile for regular dental checkups soon because, as always, we believe in the essential benefits of preventive dentistry to keep smiles healthy. Until we can safely offer preventive dental appointments again, read our blog to learn some of the ways you can protect your smile with good oral hygiene at-home.

Tooth enamel erosion and wear weakens the overall structure of your smile, exposing you to an increased risk for tooth decay (cavities), dental chips and cracks, and infection in or around the tooth. In this blog, we discuss the most common causes of tooth enamel erosion and how we can help you protect and repair damaged smiles.

Conventional bridges offer a tooth replacement solution for one or a few consecutive missing teeth. However, there are several reasons that these restorations may not be ideal for every patient, including the potential for the supporting teeth to be damaged, decayed, or infected. In this blog, we’ll walk through some of the possible ways that traditional bridges can fail, how our team can repair these restorations, and what alternative restorative dentistry options are available.

Bleeding when you floss can occur for a number of reasons. You may be moving the floss a little too aggressively, which can injure the soft tissue. You may have a soft tissue sore or cut that is irritated by flossing, or you may have an infected (abscessed) tooth that is impacting your gum tissue. However, periodontal (gum) disease is, by far, the most common reason for gums to bleed while flossing. Actually, gum disease is one of the most common oral health conditions in the world, and it is the leading cause of tooth loss in U.S. adults. February is Gum Disease Awareness Month, and in this blog, we’ll take a closer look at what gum disease is, who’s at risk, and how to keep your smile whole and healthy with periodontal therapy from your trusted family dentist in Greenbelt, MD.