Fast Braces - New from the USA

Have you always dreamed of having straighter teeth? Has the thought of having to wear braces for years put you off? Has the cost of having clear braces put you off? Well now there is an answer - Fastbraces!

Straight teeth in just 3 to 12 months with this amazing system, just here from the USA. Usually any form of orthodontic treatment (braces) requires either a fixed retainer or a removable one to be worn each night. With Fastbraces, you only need to wear your aligner for 15 minutes per day, pop them in when you go in the shower and by the time you are dry you are done for the day!

As a very special introductory offer we are offering a free Fastbraces consultation and £250 off for treatment started by 28th February 2014 (terms and conditions apply)

Check out the superb results possible here:

There is a great video below:

Call Julie now on 01282 415104 to book your free consultation and quote FB250 to get your discount   

This week, on Monday,  I took a call from a lady enquiring about Sedation for Dental Treatment, she explained she was petrified of the dentist and couldn't sleep for weeks before she went.  I explained she was one of many patients who are terrified of the dentist and it was OK, we really understand.

She had been aware of a broken tooth for a year or so and her own dentist had said to leave it if it wasn't causing pain. She made her mind up to have it taken out when she saw him next, she was notified last week she was due an appointment and when  she rang was horrified to find that they had stopped providing Sedation for Dental Treatment. She hadn't slept properly since and found our number in the Yellow Pages at 2.30am that morning when she was unable to sleep.

Mike and I did the SAAD course 17 years ago to provide intravenous sedation in our practice but have never needed to use it. We have The Wand, a painless injection system and occasionally use oral sedation taken the night before and one hour before an appointment.

Mrs K, as I shall call her was very distressed on the phone. I explained the systems we used for our nervous patients and offered to ice her up as she didn't drive to come and meet the staff and see the impressive painless injection system but she said she'd call me back. I thought I had failed her. To my surprise she came into the practice at 11.30 about an hour after I had spoken to her, she said she had to come under her own steam. Mike was in the middle of a long treatment so I suggested she go for a walk and come back at 12.20.

Mrs K came back calmer than when she had first come in and was adamant she was only coming for a chat outside the surgery in the consultation area, we agreed that was fine. The chat went really well so we suggested she let Mike take a look at the tooth in the treatment room, she agreed - only a look. Yes we promised. Mrs K was obviously nervous but let Mike take a look with Dawn and I there for support and to hold her hand. The tooth was broken near the gum, Mike asked if he could take an X Ray, Mrs K agreed and did really well.

Mike then explained that in the 30 years since he qualified he had seen many such teeth and thought this would be one of the more straight forward if it was not left to decay any further below the gum. I had hoped Mrs K would agree to let Mike prescribe her some oral sedation and come back later this week for the extraction.

She wanted to see The Wand, the painless injection system and know exactly how it worked so we showed her (some nervous patients don't want to see or know hardly anything) - I suggested she let Mike try it so she would at least know it worked if she were to come back for treatment. She thought for a while and got a little upset and kept apologising and then said yes ok. Mike used the wand and let the anaesthetic trickle down the side of the tooth, it does take a long time; afterwards he asked her how that was - she hadn't felt a thing! We let her sit up and think for a moment what she had just achieved. She now had a numb tooth, yes just the one, not the whole side of her mouth. That is the magic of The Wand

Now what should we do, we had Mrs K, an extremely nervous patient in the treatment room and numb. There was only one thing, to ask her if she would consider letting Mike take the tooth out, she started shaking. Mike said he would give her some time to think and that she would need to sign a consent form. After a few minutes talking it over with Dawn and I she agreed and signed the consent. Mike promised to stop at any time. She asked would there be any pain, Mike checked the area was really numb and assured her no pain only pushing. Literally a few seconds later the tooth was out. Mrs K could not believe it, she kept apologising. Mike, Dawn and I all had tears in our eyes - it felt amazing that a complete stranger had trusted us so much when she was so afraid. She gave us all such huge hugs, we enjoy what we do every day but sometimes we really love our jobs!

10 minutes later Mrs K was back at reception, smiling broadly and asked if she could book an appointment with Mike to have her other teeth checked and one with Bridget, our hygienist as Mike had noticed some scale. Mrs K was so grateful, what she couldn't seem to understand was why she had felt no pain and yet worried herself sick for months. 

Hope you enjoyed our Thank You Thursday

Helen

Team Christmas Meal

Christmas Meal

From top left: John, Mike, Dawn and Julie then bottom left: Danny, Helen, Hannah and Bridget.

We had a really lovely meal at the Fence Gate Inn, thanks guys for all your hard work, here's to another very successful year in 2014!

Sometimes you find yourself in a situation when you can do something for someone you don't know, for no reward, apart from a very grateful thank you. I want to share this with you today because I hope you can get the same pleasure I got yesterday for a little of my time.

I got a call at 12.30 from a very anxious lady called Rita, she was calling us as a dentist in Burnley to help her. Her denture was broken and she had an important family meal last evening. She could have come to see Mike, my husband here at Briercliffe Road Dental Practice and he would have said, yep that's broken, we'll send it to our technician and you can pick it up Monday. However, no denture meant no going to the family meal. I thought about a dental laboratory over the road, but he's on holiday so I called our Dental Technician Michael Fogg. He knows just what I am like :) I ended up meeting Rita at 2.30 outside TK Maxx and Michael met us there. Rita had no transport and Michael's lab is in Colne (what I thought should be 15 minutes away). Michael whizzed off to mend Rita's denture and said she could pick it up around 5pm. I couldn't leave Rita wandering round having to try to find a bus so I took her back to our dental practice which closes early on a Friday for a thorough strip down cleaning. She had a couple of cups of tea and read the newspaper whilst I made a call about my faulty printer. By 3.45 my printer was fixed and I was ready to take Rita to Colne for 4pm.

I had been bought a Spa voucher for my birthday and was meeting some friends at 4.15 at The Woodland Spa at Crow Wood which is about 15 minutes away from Colne. Rita was happy to hang around in Colne (as no one would know her there :) and her son could pick her up at 5pm when she had collected her denture. What I didn't anticipate was the traffic, we got into Colne around 4.25pm.

Rita is a lovely lady who I never would have met. Her son rang her and she told him what I was doing, he said she'd met a saint - I don't think so but I do love to help people when I can. She was so looking forward to her meal with the family, made possible by me. How good did that make me feel ? Incredibly so. Yes I was 10 minutes late to meet my friends but I can highly recommend the Spa, it was lovely.

What am I posting this? Not so you'll think what a nice person I am, but because we can all do things like this for not much effort that make such a difference to someone else. Michael, our dental technician also put himself out yesterday which he has done for me on more than one occasion. He was charging Rita just £20 for the repair despite putting himself out, obviously there was no charge to Rita from us. 

Rita said,how can I ever repay you, I said Pay it Forward. Next time you can do something for someone else, you can get the same pleasure I have got from helping you, now go and enjoy your family meal.

Here at Briercliffe Road Dental Practice, we do go the extra mile to help even for someone we don't know or who isn't paying us. If you think we can help you (preferably with dentistry!) , call us on 01282 415104

Helen Powell

Mike's wife and Practice Manager

5 Start service

5 Star Service

Once again, we have been awarded 5 stars by What Clinic for the testimonials given to them by our delighted customers, if you would like to receive 5 start treatment, call Julie on 01282 415104 for a free consultation

Did you know?

A snail can have upto 25000 teeth!

Snails can have hundreds to thousands of teeth!

There can be hundreds of rows of teeth and several different tooth types in one snail or very few rows with a single tooth in each. As the teeth get worn they are continuously replaced by developing teeth, much in the same way that a shark's teeth are. These teeth can be used for scraping food such as algae, however, there are snails that have evolved teeth that serve as harpoons which are hollow and used to inject venom when catching prey such as fish. The characteristics of the teeth help scientist distinguish between different species and how they are related to other snail groups.

Sadly humans only get two sets of teeth, baby and adult teeth, a good reason to look after them!

Call Julie on 01282 415104 if you would like us to help you look after your teeth.

Risks of Diet Drinks

DIET DRINKS

Yes they have less calories but don't be fooled into thinking they don't do any harm. We have been warning patients and parents for many years of the damage caused to teeth by the acid in diet (and non diet) drinks.

There are things you can do to limit the damage:

• Don't introduce toddlers to fizzy drinks, what they don't know they can't miss.
• 
  
• NEVER brush your teeth within 1 hour of consuming fizzy drinks as the acid softens the enamel and the abrasion of the toothbrush will wear the enamel away.
• 
  
• NEVER take a fizzy drink to bed in case you get thirsty. Saliva is alkaline and can help combat the acidic effects during the day but it reduces at night.
• 
  
• Drink the whole can/glass in a short space of time, the contact with the teeth is much less than sipping a can over several hours.
• 
  
• Sugar free chewing gum increases the saliva production and can help combat the acid.

This article was in the American press recently:

Diet soda as bad for teeth as meth, dentists prove

Published time: May 29, 2013 18:35

AFP Photo / Scott Olson

Tags

Biology, Drugs, Health, Medicine, Science, USA

Diet soda addicts, beware: heavy consumption of the highly acidic drinks can cause tooth damage that resembles the effects of methamphetamine or crack cocaine.

Those who drink large amounts of diet soda for long periods of time often experience tooth erosion, rotting, decay and other types of oral damage – in many cases just as bad or worse as the effects experienced by long-term drug users, according to a new study published in the journal General Dentistry.  

“You look at it side-to-side with ‘meth mouth’ or ‘coke mouth,’ it is startling to see the intensity and extent of damage more or less the same,” Dr. Mohammed Boussiouny, a professor of restorative dentistry at the Temple University School of Dentistry, told Health Day News.

The study references a woman in her 30’s who drank about two liters of diet soda every day for 3-5 years and suffered from eroded teeth that resembled those of a 29-year-old meth addict who had been taking drugs for three years and a 51-year-old crack cocaine user who had an 18-year-history drug abuse.

The woman’s teeth were soft, discolored and eroded, and dentists were unable to save any of the affected teeth. The woman had no choice but to have every last tooth removed and replaced with dentures.

 “None of the teeth affected by erosion were salvageable,” Boussiouny said.

The woman had been drinking diet soda for years because she was worried that regular soda would cause her to gain weight. She was aware of the risks associated with consuming artificially sweetened beverages, but admitted that she hadn’t seen a dentist in years.

The American Beverage Association responded to the results of the study, defending the consumption of diet soda and telling Health Day News that the woman’s lack of dentist visits was the primary cause of her tooth decay.

 “The woman referenced in this article did not receive dental health services for more than 20 years – two-thirds of her life,” the group said in a statement. “To single out diet soda consumption as the unique factor in her tooth decay and erosion – and to compare it to that from illicit drug use – is irresponsible…. The body of available science does not support that beverages are a unique factor in causing tooth decay or erosion.”

But Dr. Eugene Antenucci, a spokesman for the Academy of General Dentistry, said he has seen the effects of diet soda in many addicts, and explained that some of them experienced “very deep brown stains, where it’s actually eroded into the tooth, and the teeth are soft and leathery.”

Most diet soda consumers will never see such effects, but to ensure clean and healthy teeth, Antenucci advises that they wash away the acidity of the substance with water after drinking soda, brushing their teeth at least twice daily and drinking in moderation.

Diet soda – like crack cocaine and meth – is highly acidic, which wears away enamel and causes teeth to become susceptible to cavities. Colas, for example, have erosive potential 10 times that of fruit juice, according to a previous 2007 study published in General Dentistry.  This study found that teeth immersed in Coke, Pepsi, RC Cola, Squirt, Surge, 7 Up and Diet 7 Up lost more than five percent of their weight, due to enamel erosion. The most acidic soft drink studied at the time was RC Cola, which had a pH of 2.387. Cherry Coke had a pH level of 2.522 and Coke had a pH level of 2.525. Battery acid, in comparison, has a pH level of 1.0, and pure water has a pH level of 7.0.

Thomas P. Connelly, a New York-based cosmetic dentist, says that diet soda consumers tend to drink more of the substance than those who consume regular sodas, which is often a factor in their tooth erosion. With many Americans convinced that the sugar-free drinks will prevent them from gaining weight, they can quickly become addicted and self-inflict tooth damage, like drug users.

“I don’t know how many times I’ve heard, ‘I’m addicted to diet coke’ from a patient,” he wrote in a Huffington Post blog. “Even though it has sugar, I’d almost rather see people drink regular pop, because I’m convinced that one or two regular pops are less damaging than seven of the diet version (again, people who drink diet soda tend to drink a lot of it). But truthfully, I’d rather see people drink neither.”