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Diabetes is a disease that affects the health of the entire body, including, of course, your mouth, gums, and teeth. We are trained to look for issues that might arise in our patients with diabetes, and are eager to help you maintain your dental health. What do we consider in order to give you the best treatment?

Your Teeth

Dry mouth can be a problem for diabetic patients, whether caused by blood sugar levels or medication, and this condition can lead to tooth decay. When we produce saliva, it not only helps wash away sugar in our mouths, it also helps remove the acids sugars produce which attack our enamel and lead to cavities.

Your Gums

People with diabetes are at higher risk for gum disease. With diabetes, the body is more susceptible to infection and finds it harder to fight bacteria. Early gum disease, called gingivitis, is inflammation caused by the body’s reaction to bacteria. Periodontitis, serious gum disease, leads to infections that can cause bone and tooth loss.

Other Oral Concerns

Dry mouth can lead to mouth ulcers, oral thrush, sores, and infections. And oral infections of any kind can be slower to heal when you have diabetes. We will give careful attention to any concerns you might have for your oral health, and will work with you to prevent any future problems.

Preventive dental care is important for all our patients, and we have special suggestions for you to help maintain your dental health and reduce the possibility of dental complications. Diabetes can lead to oral problems, and oral infections can in turn cause problems with controlling blood sugar, so a healthy mouth can lead to better health in general.

• Home Care

If dry mouth is a problem, talk to us about possible causes and treatments. Hydrate throughout the day, and avoid foods or beverages that lead to dehydration. Talk to us about the best products for use at home to prevent dry mouth.

Brush and floss after meals to reduce the presence of harmful bacteria and prevent the plaque buildup that leads to gum disease.

Above all, monitor your blood sugar carefully to ensure your body is at its best when combatting infection or when healing.

• Professional Dental Care

Be sure to visit our Milford, NE office at least twice a year for a full examination and a professional cleaning. We can reduce the plaque that leads to gingivitis and more serious periodontal infection. We can monitor your oral health and recommend solutions for problems such as dry mouth. We will make your appointments based on what is best for your schedule. If any type of oral surgery is needed, we will schedule it with an understanding of the importance of healthy blood sugar levels for healing and recovery.

It’s important to make Dr. Janna Spahr and Dr. Jeff Spahr part of your health support system. If you have diabetes, let us know. We will work with you to monitor the well-being of your teeth and gums and to suggest ways to promote your overall oral health. Let’s work together for healthy, happy smiles!

If you or your children suffer from dental anxiety, you aren’t alone. According to the Cleveland Clinic, between nine and 15 percent of Americans admit to feeling sufficiently afraid of going to the dentist to avoid making an appointment. The potential consequences of dental anxiety extend beyond poor oral health. Lack of dental care can cause serious but easily preventable medical conditions.

Dental Anxiety versus Dental Phobia

Dental anxiety provokes a sense of fear in people, typically before they arrive at Milford Dental Clinic. Those fears or worries are often exaggerated. Dental phobia shares many of the symptoms that characterize dental anxiety. It is a much more serious manifestation of that anxiety, and may provoke a sense of panic or terror in people. While people who suffer from dental phobias know that their feelings are irrational, they are unable to control, stop, or change those thoughts.

People who have dental phobias often avoid going to the dentist, and they come up with every possible excuse to justify not going. The only time a person who suffers from a dental phobia will go to the dentist is when he or she is forced to do so, or because of intense tooth pain. People who have dental anxiety don’t go to such extremes to avoid going to the dentist; anxiety usually begins in anticipation of the appointment.

What We Do to Ease Patient Anxiety

Dr. Janna Spahr and Dr. Jeff Spahr and our staff have many techniques we can use to help patients feel more comfortable at their appointments. Dental Fear Central gives some simple suggestions to help children and adults who are apprehensive about going to the dentist, even if they suffer from the more severe form of anxiety: full-blown dental phobia.

• The Tell-Show-Do Approach: We help our patients relax by making sure they understand what is involved in the exam and any procedure they may undergo. We tell patients about the procedure, show them the tools and equipment we intend to use, and answer questions before actually performing the procedure. This is helpful for patients who don’t know what to expect.

• Distraction: We offer personal music players and a collection of CDs that patients can listen to. The relaxing qualities of music may help distract a patient enough to make the process less stressful. In-office televisions allow you to watch TV while waiting for your appointment.

Dr. Janna Spahr and Dr. Jeff Spahr and our staff know that some patients are anxious about dental treatment, and we go to great lengths to make you feel more comfortable. Good oral health is very important, and when your mouth isn’t healthy, you can suffer from many other easily preventable medical problems.

Somewhere in a bathroom drawer or medicine cabinet, we all have one—that little plastic dental floss dispenser. And whether you use your floss every day (yay!), or have completely forgotten it was in there (not so good), just how much do you know about that sturdy string? Let’s find out!

• Flossing has been around for hundreds of years.

FACT: It’s been just over two hundred years since Dr. Levi Spear Parmly, a dentist in New Orleans, suggested his patients use waxed silk thread to clean between their teeth. This is considered the first “official” invention of dental floss, although using some form of tool to get rid of food particles between the teeth has been around since prehistoric times.

• Brushing well is the same as flossing.

FICTION: It’s really not. While brushing does a great job of cleaning food particles, plaque, and bacteria from your enamel, there are some places those bristles can’t… quite… reach. Floss was designed to clean plaque and food from between the teeth and close to the gum line where your brush doesn’t fit.

• There’s more than one way to clean between your teeth.

FACT: Indeed there is! Not only are there many varieties of dental floss (waxed, flavored, round, flat, thick, thin, in a dispenser, attached to miniature floss wands), but you have alternatives if using any kind of floss is difficult for you. Water-flossers direct a pulsing stream of water between and around the teeth and gum line to remove food particles and plaque. Another useful alternative is the interproximal brush, a tiny little cone-shaped brush designed to remove food and plaque from those hard-to-reach spots.

• Flossing helps prevent gum disease.

FACT: Scientific studies haven’t provided definitive answers. But Dr. Janna Spahr and Dr. Jeff Spahr and our team strongly recommend daily flossing as one of the most important things you can do to prevent gum disease. Gingivitis, or mild gum disease, is caused by irritated, inflamed gum tissue. Gum tissue becomes irritated and inflamed as a response to the bacteria, plaque, and tartar, which stick to your teeth. Anything you can do to help remove these irritants will reduce your risk of gum disease.

• Flossing helps prevent cavities.

FACT: We strongly recommend daily flossing to remove the food particles and plaque, which lead to cavities. Brushing removes cavity-causing plaque from the outer surfaces of your teeth. But there’s a lot of enamel between your teeth as well. Flossing removes plaque from these hidden spots, helping to prevent interproximal (“between the teeth”) cavities from forming.

• Bleeding when you floss is normal.

FICTION: Bleeding isn’t a typical reaction to flossing. Bleeding gums could be an early sign of gum disease caused by plaque and tartar buildup. On the other hand, if you floss too hard, or go too deeply below the gum line, you can make delicate gum tissue bleed. Ask Dr. Janna Spahr and Dr. Jeff Spahr for tips on perfect flossing technique.

• You need to floss after every meal.

FICTION: Dental professionals generally recommend brushing twice a day and flossing at least once each day. But this suggestion comes with some exceptions. If you have braces, your orthodontist might recommend flossing after eating. And certainly, for removing pesky food particles, flossing or interdental picks are a sensible choice after any meal.

• Your dentist will never know that you haven’t been flossing.

FICTION: Nope. Sure, you can miss flossing a few times and catch up before your appointment at our Milford, NE office. But built-up plaque between the teeth, red, swollen, or bleeding gums, and gingivitis and interproximal cavities let both you and Dr. Janna Spahr and Dr. Jeff Spahr know that you’ve been neglecting good dental habits.

• It’s never too late to start flossing!

FACT: Flossing is a simple, quick, and inexpensive way to maintain tooth and gum health. If you haven’t had much luck flossing in the past, ask Dr. Janna Spahr and Dr. Jeff Spahr for flossing tools and techniques that will work for your specific needs. Start now, and see what a difference it will make at your next checkup!

If you had all these flossing facts at your fingertips, congratulations! But if you didn’t, no need to worry, because the real test of your knowledge is in its application. Flossing properly at least once each day will give you something far more rewarding than blog-quiz kudos—you’ll see that regular flossing rewarded with healthier teeth and gums!

We’re all trying to find a healthy balance in our lives. Balancing work and home life. Eating a well-balanced diet. Balancing our budgets. Maintaining the right pH balance in our mouths for better dental health. Wait, what was that last one?

You probably don’t spend a lot of time thinking about your pH levels, but if your oral pH is out of balance it can affect the health of your teeth.

What do we mean by pH levels? In biology and chemistry, the pH scale is a tool used to measure the concentration of hydrogen (H⁺) ions and hydroxide (OH⁻) ions in a solution.  

The higher the concentration of hydrogen atoms, the more acidic a solution. The higher the concentration of hydroxide ions, the more alkaline. The pH scale goes from 0 to 14, with the most acidic reading possible rating a 0, and the most alkaline, a 14.

You don’t have to be a biochemist to use the information provided by pH samples. We use pH readings to discover the ideal acid/alkaline conditions in many everyday applications. Azaleas grow best in very acidic soil. Swimming pools should be just a bit alkaline. Brewers test pH throughout the beer-making process for optimal fermentation—and taste.

When it comes to saliva, a neutral pH range of around 6.2 to 7.6 is generally considered normal. High alkalinity in saliva is rare. High acidity levels? Unfortunately, much more common. And an acidic environment has real-world consequences for teeth.

Plaque contains bacteria, which produce acids. Calcium and phosphate, the minerals that help make enamel the strongest substance in the body, are leached out by these acids. The weak spots left behind make enamel vulnerable to further erosion and, eventually, decay. When saliva has a normal, neutral pH, it helps neutralize plaque acids to reduce the risk of cavities.

But it’s not just bacteria that expose our teeth to acidic conditions—we do it ourselves with our choice of food and drink.

Acidic foods can directly lower the pH level in saliva. Lemon juice, for example, has a pH between 2 and 3. Red wine has a pH between 3 and 4. Blueberries? Around a 3.2. When the pH level in saliva becomes 5.5 or lower, the minerals in our teeth start to “demineralize,” or lose the minerals which keep enamel strong and intact—just the way enamel is demineralized by acids from plaque. This process is known as acid erosion.

Many of our favorite foods are acidic to some degree. Citrus and other fruits, pickled foods, vinegar, wine, coffee, tea—all of them can lower the optimal pH level of saliva. And sports drinks, energy drinks, and sodas? Check the labels and you’ll often find citric acid, phosphoric acid, and/or carbonation, all of which combine to create extremely erosive conditions.

So, no more soda? Or fruit? No. You don’t have to give up acidic foods altogether for healthy teeth. True, you won’t give up much eliminating soda from your diet. But fruits, vegetables, dairy foods, and meats are the source of essential vitamins, minerals, and proteins, and many of these healthy food choices have an acidic pH. How to eat nutritiously while protecting your enamel? Again, it’s a balancing act.

• Enjoy acidic foods sparingly, or as part of a meal. Saliva can neutralize acids more effectively when they aren’t washing over your teeth all through the day.
• Use a straw when you drink something with a low pH to reduce your enamel’s exposure to acids.
• Balance high-acid foods with low-acid choices to help neutralize the acids in your diet. Add a banana to your blueberry smoothie. Pair your wine with some cheese.
• Rinse with water after eating or drinking. When it comes to balanced pH, pure water is a 7.0 on the scale, a perfect neutral.
• Chew sugarless gum to increase saliva production.
• Use fluoride toothpaste—it not only helps prevent cavities, it helps remineralize teeth.

Even with your best efforts, acid erosion can be a problem. You might be experiencing enamel damage if you notice any of these symptoms:

• Tooth pain or sensitivity.
• Teeth that appear discolored. This happens as the whiter enamel thins, revealing the yellowish dentin underneath.
• Changes in the shape of your enamel—your teeth become rounded or have little dents or pits, known as cupping.
• White spots on your teeth, which could be a sign of demineralization.

If you think you could be suffering from enamel erosion, it’s a good idea to talk to Dr. Janna Spahr and Dr. Jeff Spahr when you visit our Milford, NE office. We can diagnose conditions causing acid erosion, treat you if enamel damage has occurred, and offer suggestions for diet and eating habits to make sure your oral pH—and your dental health—is always in balance.