McCarl Dental Group Blog

If you brush your teeth twice a day, floss daily, and visit your dentist for preventive dentistry appointments every six months, you’re already doing a lot to keep your smile healthy, but if you’re not using the right oral hygiene products, you still may not be doing enough to keep your smile, and whole body, healthy. The American Dental Association recommends changing toothbrushes at least once every three months to ensure the toothbrush works well and you avoid unnecessary damage to your smile. In this blog, we discuss the top five reasons it’s important to get a new toothbrush regularly.

New Year’s resolutions may actually go all the way back to the time of Julius Caesar. It makes sense that, at the beginning of a new year, we would want to start fresh with a clean slate, and while many people in the US focus resolutions on improving their health, few consider making changes to keep their smiles healthy. If you’re looking for a new year’s resolution you can keep, consider one of the following oral health related resolutions that you can start on right away.

If you’re working with a physician to get your diabetes under control, you have probably already heard about the whole body health issues that can occur due to uncontrolled blood sugar levels, including organ failure and severe infection. What many doctors neglect to tell their patients is that diabetes can also lead to numerous oral health concerns that dramatically increase risk for tooth loss. In this blog, we walk through some of the basics, but if you’ve been diagnosed with diabetes, you should talk to your dentist about how best to care for your smile.

When you visit the dentist and receive an oral exam, your dental hygienist and dentist will evaluate the health of your gums and teeth. If there are signs of gum disease, most commonly gingivitis or periodontitis, you will need a complete periodontal exam which includes evaluation of plaque, marginal bleeding, gum attachment loss or dental pockets and number of teeth present. Periodontitis is an infection caused by bacteria in the dental biofilm which leads to chronic inflammation and causes destruction of both connective tissues surrounding your teeth and resulting bone loss.

Periodontitis and other common chronic inflammatory diseases, including arthritis, share many modifiable risk factors. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease, also characterized by chronic inflammation, that is also associated with deterioration of joint connective tissue and bone.

In this blog, we explore the connection between periodontal (gum) disease or periodontitis and arthritis. Many of the lifestyle changes that improve oral health and hygiene can also improve your rheumatoid arthritis (RA).  

For decades, the link between poor oral health and heart disease has been a subject of extensive research. While even the most recent research is still inconclusive, there are some indications that maintaining your oral health could decrease risk of heart disease. In this blog, we take a closer look at how poor oral health may indicate risk for heart disease and discuss some of the warning signs your dentist may see when they look at your smile.

When we decide to incorporate a new dentistry technique or technology into our dental office, we look for tools that make dentistry easier, faster, more comfortable, and more affordable for our dental patients. The Glidewell Fastmill.io same-day dental crown system offers all of these benefits and more. Keep reading to learn about the many advantages of one-visit dental restorations in our blog.

Dentists field questions regularly about pacifier use, thumb sucking, and other self-soothing toddler habits that can negatively impact a child’s oral health. It’s important for parents to remember that most thumb sucking and other self-soothing behaviors are not damaging, and they may be helping your child to feel safe and secure. The individual development of the child needs to be the determining factor when it comes to decisions about intervening with self-soothing habits, so when it comes to your child’s pacifier use or thumb sucking, there’s no such thing as “normal” or an exact age when it’s time to stop. Your child’s best interest is always our top priority when you visit us for children’s dentistry services. You can watch our video about toddler habits to hear directly from Dr. Jay McCarl about how pacifier usage and thumb sucking can impact kids. Keep reading our blog below for a little more detail.

There’s no better way to celebrate Dental Hygiene Month each October than to share a healthy, happy smile! If you’re struggling to maintain the optimal level of oral hygiene, your dentist can recommend steps you to improve your daily at-home routine for effective dental hygiene in Greenbelt. Don’t forget to schedule your biannual dental checkups and professional teeth cleanings to ensure your smile stays healthy for life.