September is National Gum Care Month. Year-round, we promote preventive dentistry for our Greenbelt dental patients to avoid the majority of oral health concerns, including gum disease, but this month dedicated to increasing awareness is a great time to review some of the basics of achieving and maintaining optimal oral health. In this blog, we discuss the importance of healthy gums and some simple ways to avoid gum disease through preventive dental care at-home and in our Greenbelt dental office.
(more…)
Sleep apnea is a condition that causes you to stop breathing for ten or more seconds during sleep. This cessation of breathing leads the patient to repeatedly wake from sleep, which often causes daytime exhaustion, difficulty concentrating, and the other commonly known side effects of sleep apnea. What many people don’t know is how the body wakes you from sleep to restart breathing. The body is awoken through a panic response that elevates blood pressure and places strain on the heart. Keep reading to learn a little more about sleep apnea and how it impacts your cardiovascular health.
When it comes to your oral health, prevention is key. Keeping your smile healthy is much easier and safer not to mention more comfortable and affordable than intervening after a problem occurs. The easiest step you can take to protect your oral health is to schedule 
At McCarl Dental Group, we’re dedicated to staying at the forefront of the dental field, which is why we are always updating our dentistry technologies. We recently invested in the state-of-the-art Glidewell Fastmill.io milling unit to offer same-day dental restoration system. This unique digital dentistry tool allows us to design, craft, and place a custom, ceramic dental crown in just one visit to our Greenbelt or Millersville dental offices.
The short answer – yes. Most people don’t ever think about their breathing. It is an intrinsic, biologic process that just happens for most of us. If you’re one of the unlucky few who has had to struggle with breathing issues due to sinus conditions, asthma, airway obstruction, or other concerns, you know that a deep breath is nothing to take for granted. As you’ve been reading this introductory paragraph, have you noticed your breathing? Are you taking in and expelling air through the nose, the mouth, or a combination of both? The majority of people breathe in and out through the nose, but there are some people whose bodies have compensated for airway issues through mouth breathing. While this may seem harmless, mouth breathing can be a warning sign of underlying concerns, and research indicates it may even put you at great risk for poor oral health. Keep reading to learn more about the potential risks of mouth breathing and the importance of 
When you think about sleep apnea, you probably don’t immediately think about visiting the dentist, but for many patients, a dentist is the first person to notice concerns that indicate a need for sleep apnea testing. There are numerous ways that our bodies work to accommodate a restricted airway, which is the most common cause of sleep apnea. In this post, we’re going to review what we as dentists are seeing that lets us know you may need to consider moving forward with diagnosis and treatment for obstructive sleep apnea.