“Hopeless” tooth condemned by gum disease specialist saved.

We had a very nice lady come back to us after seeing a dental gum specialist and staying away from our office for too long. She didn’t come back to our office for 3 and 1/2 years. Her front tooth had bleeding gum around it and it was quite loose. She was very upset about being told she needed to lose this upper front tooth because it was, “hopeless”. She wanted a second opinion.

The gum specialist in Evanston works with someone who does restorative dentistry also. The fees they were charging were very much higher than our fees.

Becky was motivated and I have a laser for treating gum disease. Her bite was adjusted and the diseased area was treated with an Nd:YAG laser. It worked! The gum health is now within normal limits and the tooth is firm. [For dental professionals: 8mm pockets are now 3+mm. Excellent!]

Becky is very happy! We saved her a lot of trauma and money.

If you would like a second opinion about some proposed dental treatment which you find questionable, please come to us for a no cost, 5 minute, QL [Quick Look] appointment with all the information you can bring [x-rays, treatment plan, ....] and I will be happy to give you a quick assessment. We may very well need to do a more complete exam but I will do my best to enlighten you with some suggestions in regard to your problem with our QL appointment.

If you have a simple question in regard to one problem of any kind we will be happy to see you for a very short appointment and at least give you some idea as to how serious your situation is. This, again, would be a no cost, QL or Quick Look appointment.

We are in practice to help people with their oral health!

We would be happy to help you!

Skokie Health Department survey request.

If you visit or live in Skokie, please completed this survey:

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Hello Dr. Dave,

I am writing to request that you complete the Community Health Survey in the link below, and consider sharing with others who would be willing to assist the Skokie Health Department (Rotary Members?). We are conducting the survey to establish the top health priorities for Skokie for the next 5 years, and are seeking wide community input. A blurb describing the survey is below, along with a link to the electronic version. We will publish the results of the survey later this year.

Thank you for your help, and please call me if you have questions!

Catherine


Please take a moment to answer a short "Community Health Survey" for the Skokie Health Department. The survey is being conducted to assess community health needs, as part of the state re-certification requirements. This process will identify the top health priorities for Skokie for the next five years.

The Health Department is seeking input from persons who live, work, attend school or enjoy events in Skokie. If you prefer, paper copies are available at Village Hall, or by calling ... 847-933-8252 . Here is the link:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/C3LSS5G

Thank you for your assistance!


Catherine A. Counard, MD, MPH
Director of Health
Village of Skokie
5127 Oakton Street
Skokie, Illinois 60077
....

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Thanks!

Tooth surface abrasion, gum recession and toothpaste.

Toothpaste abrasion and brushing too hard and long have been known to cause gum recession and wear of teeth and exposed roots for years. This is now getting more attention in the media and has been researched more carefully.

Please refer to these links:

http://www.epinions.com/content_3128664196

http://www.saveyoursmile.com/toothpaste/toothpaste-d.html

http://jada.ada.org/content/135/11/1516.2.full

I definitely recommend using the lowest rated abrasivity toothpaste with fluoride and a tartar control formulation.

Please also remember to only brush your natural teeth with a soft or extra soft toothbrush. All of us should only brush 5 to 10 circular strokes along the cheek and lip sides of the teeth and the tongue sides of the teeth. The chewing surfaces can be brushed more vigorously. This will help avoid gum recession and root surface wear. Brushing harder does NOT replace flossing. All of us need to floss every 36 hours also to prevent plaque from hardening into tartar.

Remember you don't need to brush AND floss all of your teeth every day, only the teeth you want to keep!

Thanksgiving, a great holiday!

It is truly one of my favorite holidays. It is nice to get together with friends and family with a focus only on enjoying one another and being reflective on the wonderful world we have to live in.

Hopefully you will be able to spend some time over this holiday weekend appreciating the world we live in, including your significant others of many different degrees of separation. According to some of the latest research for the social media, we are closer to anyone else in the world than 6 degrees of separation.

The world seems huge but it really isn't that large. Hopefully we will be mindful of that in every aspect of our lives and behave accordingly. It is truly best to think globally and act locally. All of us have a direct impact on our part of the world and our part of the world is a significant part of the entire planet.

My best to you and yours during this holiday weekend and always!

Watch for our new, totally redesigned website.

We are in the process of remaking our professional office website. Fortunately we are employing some very competent help in the form of Mike Yublosky of www.diywebjem.com who is quite proficient in setting up this type of technology. He has done some wonderful work for us already.

The new website will be on a WordPress platform. We will have space for all of our Dental Family to post comments directly on the website on its blog pages. This is a very convenient way to participate and share your questions with me and the rest of our dental family at Smiles of Skokie.

I am personally very excited about this. The new design will make it very easy to communicate with everyone and update the information the website contains in a very simple fashion also. It will be a wonderful resource for all of us.

Technology provides all of us with GREAT tools!

We had a patient in the other day who had a tooth fracturing under an old bridge and porcelain fracturing away on the same bridge. The tooth supporting the bridge on the other side was still bonded to the bridge. Without the proper instrumentation it can be virtually impossible to remove the bonded bridge from the still solid tooth it is bonded to. Fortunately I have in my office the ideal instrument for this and it wasn't too much of an issue. We removed the bridge cleanly and without any visible damage to the underlying tooth.

For more information on the wonderful technology we have at Smiles of Skokie, please visit our website at http://www.smilesofskokie.com/ or http://www.caredental.com/equipment.html at your leisure.

I love my iPhone too! It makes staying in touch with my 'Dental Family' much easier.

Hope all of you are having a great day!

Dental Implants are GREAT!

We just had a patient in a few minutes ago who has a front tooth replaced with an implant. [He is also getting one for a missing molar now.] It looks GREAT! We had to have him go to our local lab for some custom shade matching but the results are well worth it. It has been in place for a few years.

We are in the process of restoring 5 more implants now. The materials needed to start on 3 of them are ready to go and just arrived today. We will be placing 2 more on Thursday.

This is not an inexpensive process but it is the best way to do this. The surgeon's cost is in the neighborhood of $2200. The restorative process done with me is about $1600. This results in a total cost of about $3800 if only one tooth is being replaced. This tooth could very well last the rest of your life though. It is well worth it in my opinion and that of many of our patients.

Another patient was inquiring about getting dental implants earlier this afternoon also.

PerioShield is available at my office.

We have it for $10 per bottle.

We will be in the office from 9am until 2pm on Saturday, tomorrow.

Patients BEWARE: Dental implant only offices with fast treatment.

Unfortunately there are many examples of poorly done dental treatment from large corporate organizations. There are examples in one hour whitening, there are retailers who attempt to setup dental clinics, there are orthodontic treatment advertisers, there are porcelain veneer specialty brands and there are now large entities providing dental implants through mass advertising. There have been problems with all of these over time.

I very recently had a new patient come to me for a complete evaluation of his oral health. One of his primary complaints was in regard to a recently placed and restored molar implant. This was done at a greater fee than he would have paid through my office and our surgeon, and it was a problem. His complaint was that food was constantly accumulating in this area every time he ate. Unfortunately the only solution is to replace the slightly cheaper stock implant crown adapter [abutment] with a new one and this would mean replacing the crown also at a cost of about $1600. He is going to think about this.

He was told to return to the health care provider of this restoration to get this problem addressed. He is considering this option.

Please contact me if you have any dental questions. It is my pleasure to be of service and help to you. This is one of my major reasons for practicing dentistry.

I wish you and yours the best of health always!

Perioshield at Smiles of Skokie. Revolutionary rinse!

This appears to be a very significant breakthrough for those of us with gum disease. Perioshield is a new product which is classified by the FDA as a 'dental device' and it is a rinse. It is basically a mouth wash. It is to be used twice a day after flossing and brushing.

Perioshield has been shown to reduce dental plaque and bleeding by more than one third in clinical studies. This is not a systemic drug with systemic side effects but a locally acting 'device'. In my mind this is the best way to handle health problems. Too many 'drugs' have far too many side effects and we don't need to add to the number of drugs in use today.

Here is an online link to the manufacturer's information:

http://us-professional.gumbrand.com/departments/operatory-products/gum-perioshield-oral-health-rinse/products/new-perioshield/

All of us [with our own teeth] still need to floss and brush, carefully, at least once a day but those of us with tendencies to develop gum disease may greatly benefit from this product. Those of us with gum disease susceptibility should also be very careful with our diets and perhaps take nutritional supplements to help build up our own resistance and health to be at its best to fight off this tendency.

Please tell your friends and neighbors about this if they have ever mentionend having gum problems to you or if you have ever noticed significant mouth odor from them. Bad breath is a pretty reliable indicator of gum disease.

Unfortunately Perioshield is not available through local retailers yet. We are ordering some for sale in the office for $10 per bottle because we feel this is a great product which you should be able to get as soon as possible which is why my team and I are making this available to you in our office.