Our Blog

As the school year gets under way in Crescent Springs, you’ve got a lot going on. New classes. New teachers. New activities. New books and supplies and . . . well, it’s a lot! Luckily, you have some familiar skills you can rely on to help you enjoy all these new experiences with a healthy, confident smile.

You may not have realized it, but the skill sets you’ve developed for school are useful beyond the classroom. Let’s put those skills to use with our dental study guide:

Do Your Homework

Dental care begins at home! Brush for two minutes twice each day and floss once a day to remove cavity-causing plaque.

If you’re in orthodontic treatment, you might need to brush and floss more often, whether several times a day or after each meal or snack. Follow your orthodontist’s recommendations and use orthodontic friendly tools like interproximal brushes and floss designed for braces.

If you have trouble with getting your teeth their cleanest, electric toothbrushes and water flossers can be a game changer when it comes to removing plaque and food particles from tricky spaces. Talk to Dr. Pohl to see if these tools are right for you.

Essential Supplies

Put together a kit for your backpack or locker so you’ll always have the smile-approved supplies you need on hand. These tools will help you manage any expected—and unexpected—dental challenges while you’re away from home. Your bag might include:

• Travel toothbrush in a ventilated case (bacteria aren’t fans of fresh air!)
• Travel size toothpaste
• Small mirror to make sure your smile is food-free
• If you wear braces, add orthodontic floss and interproximal brushes, dental wax to prevent irritation from loose wires or brackets, and extra rubber bands as needed
• If you have a retainer or aligners, bring your appliance case to prevent damaging or losing them
• Your dentist’s and orthodontist’s phone numbers for emergencies

Add any other items you think will be helpful, and you’ll be prepared to handle any dental-related issues throughout the day.

Follow Directions

Your dental team at Buttermilk Dentistry has the best recommendations for a healthy smile—but these recommendations only work if you follow them!

• See Dr. Pohl for regular checkups. These appointments are the time to learn about better brushing techniques, a dental-healthy diet, and other ways to help prevent cavities. Bonus: Regular cleanings will keep your smile sparkling!
• If you’re an orthodontic patient, wear your aligners, appliances, or elastics for the recommended number of hours each day. If you don’t, your treatment could take longer.
• If you wear aligners, it’s important to change your trays on schedule. Changing to a new set of aligners too soon can cause stressful pressure on your teeth and jaws. Changing trays later than recommended can delay your progress.

Any Questions? Ask!

Asking questions is one of the best ways to learn. Your dental team at Buttermilk Dentistry has years of education and experience to help you answer some of the questions you have about navigating your school day.

How can you keep your smile clean and fresh throughout a long day of school? Which cafeteria foods are orthodontic-friendly? Why are mouthguards so important when you play sports?

Your dental team has the answers—or knows how to help you find them. Work with your team to make sure that you’re able to enjoy all the possibilities of the school year, from classroom to lunchroom to extracurriculars, with a healthy confident smile!

Molars are made up of canyons, caves, pits, and seemingly endless caverns that are a breeding ground for decay. The protective solution is a sealant. When done correctly, a sealant from Dr. Pohl of Buttermilk Dentistry can be most effective in preventing cavities.

A sealant is made up of composite (a plastic-like) material that contains bonding agents to seal to the edge of the tooth. Sealants placed on the chewing surfaces of back teeth block food from being trapped. The process in which a sealant is placed is quite precise and painless.

First the tooth is cleaned with a sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) spray. Then an acid etch is applied to “roughen up” the surface. No saliva is to touch the tooth. This will re-mineralize the area, then a repeat etching is needed. An alcohol-based liquid then dries out the area and it must remain completely dry. The sealant is placed and guided through all the caverns, pits, fissures, and grooves. It is then cured with a special light, which makes it a hard, plastic-like material.

Sealants can last for several years. It is wise to have them examined on a semi-annual basis. If there is a break in the sealant, a high risk for decay is common. If a sealant is damaged, repair is simple, painless, and quick to complete.

Who can benefit from sealants? Anyone! Children often receive sealants as routine preventive care. Adults with deep canyons with stained grooves on their teeth can also benefit from a sealant. The process is quick, painless, and does not require any anesthesia. It is an effective way to lower dental restorative costs.

An investment in dental sealants can reap great benefits as properly cared for teeth will remain cavity free. Our Crescent Springs location is available to answer your questions so give us a call today!

We often have patients who ask, “Can drinking alcohol affect my oral health?” There are, in fact, a few reasons why that martini may not be good for your pearly whites.

In addition to creating an overly acidic environment in your mouth, alcohol severely dehydrates oral tissues because of its desiccant and diuretic properties. Because alcohol saps oral tissues of their moisture so readily, saliva glands can't keep enough saliva in the mouth to prevent dry mouth. In addition, saliva contains antibacterial properties that inhibits growth of anaerobic bacteria, a destructive type of oral bacterial responsible for tooth decay, gingivitis, chronic bad breath, and periodontitis.

What are anaerobic bacteria?

When there is a lack of saliva flow in the mouth and the mouth cannot naturally cleanse itself of oral debris (food particles, dead skin cell, mucous), conditions develop that promote activity of anaerobic bacteria, or bacteria that thrive in dry, airless places. These anaerobes also flourish when an unending supply of proteins (food debris) are available to consume, creating rapidly multiplying layers of plaque that stick to teeth and demineralizes tooth enamel unless removed by brushing and professional dental cleanings.

Oral Cancer and Alcohol

Acetaldehyde is a chemical compound leftover after the liver has metabolized alcohol. Capable of causing genetic mutations, acetaldehyde is also a known carcinogen that contributes to the ill feelings of hangovers. Although most metabolism of alcohol is done in the liver, evidence shows that metabolism also occurs outside the liver and that enzymes in the mouth could encourage accumulation of acetaldehyde in oral tissues.

When combined with poor oral health, smoking, and other detrimental lifestyle factors, alcohol may be considered a primary contributory factor in the development of oral cancer.

Even if you don't drink or drink only occasionally, remaining aware of symptoms that may indicate oral cancer will improve your chances of recovering successfully when you start treatment in the early stages of oral cancer. Signs include red or while speckled patches in the mouth, unexplained bleeding, lumps/swellings, chronic ear or throat pain, and areas of numbness in the mouth or on the face.

If you have any questions about alcohol and its connection to oral health, don’t hesitate to ask Dr. Pohl at your next visit to our Crescent Springs office.

X-rays are a vital diagnostic tool for any dental professional. X-rays help your endodontist perform a root canal, your orthodontist check the position of a tooth’s root, your oral surgeon discover a fracture. X-rays reveal what we can’t see with the naked eye—and that’s why they are an especially important tool for Dr. Pohl as well.

Why Are X-rays Necessary?

There’s a lot going on below the surface. An X-ray can reveal such conditions as cavities between teeth or underneath fillings, abscesses and other infections in the bone, impacted wisdom teeth, and cysts and tumors. They can also show the size, shape, and density of the bone beneath the teeth, which is essential information for dental implant procedures or dentures.

How Do X-rays Work?

Traditional X-rays, or radiographs, make use of film just like traditional cameras. When you have an intraoral X-ray, for example, the film is sealed in a moisture- and light-proof packet, and placed inside the mouth to capture images of specific teeth and the bone around them.

The X-ray machine is aligned precisely with the film and an exposure is taken. The image at this point is latent, and won’t show on the film, because, just like photo film, traditional radiographs need to be chemically processed before they produce a visible image.

Digital technology, on the other hand, uses an electronic sensor instead of film. For an intraoral digital X-ray, a small sensor is positioned in the mouth just like a film. When the X-ray is taken, a digital image capture device produces an image which is formed by a matrix of pixels instead of a photo-like film exposure. This format allows the image to be sent directly to a computer for immediate display without requiring processing.

Even though these methods seem very similar, digital X-rays offer some significant advantages over traditional films. Let’s look at how they compare, more or less.

• More Diagnostic Advantages

A traditional X-ray is a fixed image. It cannot be modified or enhanced. Here the digital X-ray offers a clear advantage in diagnosis.

Just as you can enlarge certain types of images on your computer without blurring or losing detail, a digital X-ray uses computer software to magnify images while keeping their details sharp. They can also be enhanced through brightness and contrast applications to make details stand out even more. Both of these benefits are extremely helpful for diagnosis, especially when looking for small cavities, problems in the roots and surrounding bone, or developing wisdom teeth.

There is even digital subtraction radiography software available that can be used to compare recent images to older ones, removing (“subtracting”) all the similarities in the two images to display only the changes in the two—even small changes—that have taken place over time.

• Less Exposure to Radiation

Dental X-rays expose patients to very low levels of radiation, and modern technology means traditional X-rays expose patients to less radiation than ever before. Even so, digital X-rays have significant advantages. Radiation exposure can be reduced by an additional 10%, 20%, or more with a digital radiograph.

• More Convenient for Sharing and Transmitting

If you need to share your X-rays with another dental specialist or physician, digital technology allows you to simply have them e-mailed to another office or multiple offices. You no longer need to worry about preserving physical copies, either.

• Less Waste

Unlike traditional X-rays, digital X-rays don’t need to be processed, so you save time in the office. And while the processing time is not significant (usually several minutes), if you need to repeat some X-rays for a clearer picture, or require different images for several teeth, this time can add up.

Digital X-rays are also more eco-friendly.  The fact that they don’t need to be developed means that the chemicals used to process traditional films are no longer necessary—which also means that there is no need to dispose of chemical waste products afterward.

Our goal is to provide you with the safest, most efficient, and most effective dental treatment possible, and digital X-rays help us do that. If you have any questions about digital X-ray technology, contact our Crescent Springs office. We’re happy to explain the science—and the benefits—of high-tech radiography.