I have been thinking how lucky I am to be practicing dentistry these days with the toys available to dentists today and here are some golden oldies and cool newbies that we are happy to have in our arsenals in our dental office.

#1
When I was a kid we had the toothbrushes that had the little rubber point on the end of them. They wouldn’t fit in the cool little toothbrush holders in the bathroom, so we just broke them off and threw them away.
Ironically those little rubber tips are the most common dental hygiene adjunct I recommend and give out to my patients.
Yup, after toothbrush and even before floss is the rubber tip for me.
It is a gum squasher that pushes out the bad fluids and lets fresh blood into the gums to help fight infection. You wouldn’t believe the great results we’ve gotten from people using them.

#2
I actually have a relative that had REALLY bad breath for years. It was impossibly hard for me to approach them and tell them about their halitosis.
A few years ago many dentists started trying to open “Fresh Breath Centers”.
They had fancy-pants machines called halimeters that would measure the volatile sulfur compounds, the things that causes malodor.
We all have those things. They’re called noses!
They’d have people come in and they’d give them a full work-up and 98% they’d give them a chlorine-dioxide rinse and a tongue scraper and cure just about all of them.

#3
For the first 10 years that I practiced the most unpredictable (and subsequently frustrating) procedure we’d do was teeth whitening.
Dentistry’s gift for the millennium was Brite Smile in-office whitening system.
We were the second dentist office in Bryn Mawr and the Main Line to have one of these units in our office. Finally, teeth whitening services were a lot more predictable. Our patients loved it so much that we got Zoom’s light in here as well.
Of course studies came out a couple years later proving that the lights did nothing but temporarily dehydrate the teeth and make the chalky white and very sensitive. It was actually just the strong gels that gave us the great results.

#4
We love doing veneers for our patients and giving them the beautiful smile they always wanted. We love giving people back solid teeth supported by dental implants. Some of our most appreciative patients are the ones we take care of when they are in pain. It’s a wonderful privilege and honor to have the skills to do this for others. But, there is another group of patients that might top the list of our favorite success stories.

Last, but not least are the sleep apnea and snoring appliances that you can get from your dentist.
Sleep apnea and snoring aren’t just annoying; they can make you tired, miserable, keep you from being able to sleep in the same room as your spouse, but they can actually KILL YOU!
Dentists are frequently the health care providers of choice for many who suffer from sleep apnea and snoring.
No surgery!
No noisy machine pumping air into a mask that covers the face (that you also have to lug around with you everywhere you want a good night’s sleep).

The devices now are much more sophisticated and customizable allowing us to use them successfully on more and more patients.

That’s my top 4 for now.
Maybe I’ll continue the list on one of my next posts.

If you would like any info on these or other dental wonders be sure to check our family dental services & call us at 610-525-5497.

Peace,
David