Dr. Michael Kiyoshi Dote, D.D.S.

Nothing may happen. However, smoking reduces the chance of implant success. It also slows healing. It’s better to avoid smoking or to cut it down to a bare minimum (especially at the beginning while things are healing).

You can clean them by brushing them daily. You can use a regular toothbrush or you can get a denture brush, which is bigger (if you can find one/ you may need to shop online for it). Also, you should buy tablets that dissolve in water to soak and clean your dentures overnight. Efferent and Polident are two common brands. You don’t need to do this every night, but a couple times a week is good.

We recommend flossing once a day. Make sure to floss between all your teeth and you can gently floss behind all of your back teeth. Once the floss passes underneath the contact area, slide the floss gently between your gums and teeth to thoroughly remove all the plaque. If your gentle and careful, there isn’t any harm to flossing more than once a day. Good luck!

A bridge is a good tooth replacement, but it does have some disadvantages. The neighboring teeth have to be shaped down to allow space for the bridge to rest on top of them. This is only a disadvantage if these teeth never had any dental work done to them before. Another possible disadvantage is that it is more challenging to clean around a bridge, so a patient may develop cavities or gum disease around the bridge at a higher rate. Also, it’s possible that one of the anchor teeth can break or crack in the future. I’ve seen patients with a successful bridge for many decades, so they can work very well.

Simply clean your dentures every day with a denture brush or regular toothbrush, and then soak them in water with a dissolved denture cleaning tablet (like Polident or Efferdent). That will give them a clean, fresh appearance. You can’t really floss a denture so don’t worry about that.

Yes, it’s more than ok for kids to use an electric toothbrush. In fact, they make ones specifically for kids. Kids tend to get excited to brush their teeth when you make it fun!

Hi! Well, the cavity will grow bigger and eventually you’ll get pain and an infection. Also, if the cavity gets too big, you will need to have it extracted. Replacing a missing tooth is expensive and time consuming. It may also compromise your neighboring teeth. There’s nothing simpler, cheaper, and better than fixing your problem tooth now.

You can get more than one in a day, but it will be very tiring for you. Your jaw will be sore from being open so long. If you’re talking about more than one root canal in a day, we’re usually dealing with several hours of treatment. Talk it over with your dentist. It may make sense to do one at a time.

Yes, bad breath or halitosis can be caused by dental problems. Typically, it is a result of gum disease. However, there are other dental problems that can cause bad breath. Some of those problems include infected teeth, big cavities, trapped food debris, etc. There are also medical conditions of the stomach that can cause bad breath. I recommend you see a dentist and a physician for an evaluation.

Yes, you should see a periodontist or general dentist to have your gums evaluated. Usually, the gums bleed after brushing because of inflammation. Plaque, tartar, and food debris all cause inflammation. You may need some periodontal treatment to improve your gingival health. Meanwhile, you can still brush and floss your teeth. Good luck!

It’s a good idea to go to your dentist to have it checked out. There’s a good chance you have a cavity or another problem, such as a crack in your tooth. Temperature sensitivity and sensitivity to sweets is generally a sign of a cavity, crack, or leakage of some kind (i.e. broken filling, crown with an opening, etc.). It’s easier and less expensive to fix the problem when it’s diagnosed early. Thanks for your question.