Diabetes and Oral Hygiene

Do you or someone you know live with diabetes? It’s a rather common disease that affects the body’s ability to process sugar normally. Food is converted to sugar which is then converted to energy to be used by the body. The disruption in this process causes problems for other areas in the body, such as blood circulation, eyes, and even oral hygiene. We at Ressler, Hirschl & Lelchuk, DDS, PA realize that our diabetic patients are at a higher risk for gum disease if blood sugar isn’t properly controlled. Your Florida dentist recommends regular checkups to make sure that your dental hygiene remains at its best!

In Type 1 diabetes, the body doesn’t make enough insulin to convert sugar to energy, while in Type 2 diabetes, the body stops responding to insulin altogether. Practicing good oral hygiene and maintaining safe blood sugar levels will help decrease the risk of gum disease and other oral issues. 

In summary, you should:

- Control your blood sugar levels as best you can, which includes a healthy diet and taking the medicine prescribed by your doctor.

- Avoid smoking, since this also increases the risk of gum disease.

- Clean your dentures (if you wear them) every day.

- Brush and floss your teeth twice a day.

- See your dentist for regular appointments. 

Ressler, Hirschl & Lelchuk, DDS, PA is located at two Florida locations for your convenience. You can find our North Miami Beach office in the Intracostal Mall at 3909 NE 163rd St., Suite 310. Our Mount Sinai Medical Center is located at 4300 Alton Road, Suite 1190, in Miami Beach. For more information or to schedule an appointment, please visit miami-dental.net or call our North Miami Beach office at 305-949-2630 or Mount Sinai Medical Center at 305-532-1444.

 

Gum Line Corrections

Do you feel like you have a “gummy” smile? In other words, are your teeth covered by excess gum tissue? We at Ressler, Hirschl & Lelchuk, DDS, PA are committed to helping our patients feel confident and happy with their smiles. We are excited to offer crown lengthening to bring out the fullness of your teeth!

The crown lengthening procedure involves reshaping your gum line as well as the bone around the affected tooth or teeth, creating a more balanced gum to tooth ratio. The great thing about crown lengthening is that it can be performed on as many or as little affected teeth there are in the patient’s mouth. One tooth with excess gum tissue can be reshaped or a whole gum line can be reshaped, depending on the patient.

In addition to your smile becoming more aesthetically pleasing, crown lengthening also improves the overall health of your gums. The edge of the restoration is sturdy enough to withstand brushing and flossing to prevent tooth decay and gum disease. 

Ressler, Hirschl & Lelchuk, DDS, PA is located at two Florida locations for your convenience. You can find our North Miami Beach office in the Intracostal Mall at 3909 NE 163rd St., Suite 310. Our Mount Sinai Medical Center is located at 4300 Alton Road, Suite 1190, in Miami Beach. For more information or to schedule an appointment, please visit miami-dental.net or call our North Miami Beach office at 305-949-2630 or Mount Sinai Medical Center at 305-532-1444.

 

Myofascial Pain Syndrome

If you’ve ever had an issue inside your mouth, you’re probably aware of the varying degrees of pain that comes with it. Sometimes it can feel like your whole head is exploding just from a toothache and tenderness. Ressler, Hirschl & Lelchuk, DDS, PA is committed to helping you correct your problem and manage any pain associated as well. Your Florida dentist also takes pride in educating patients about how to prevent future oral problems. 

Myofascial Pain Syndrome (MPS) commonly occurs in the temporomandibular joint (TMJ). The pain is caused by tension, fatigue, or spasms in the jaw muscles. MPS is usually triggered by bruxism, a condition where a person clenches or grinds their teeth during sleep. Nightguards are a great way to prevent bruxism and ultimately the jaw soreness that is felt in the morning. MPS is not limited to just the jaw muscles, it can occur anywhere in the body including the back and neck muscles. 

Other treatments/preventions of MPS include:

- Splint guard, mouthguard, or nightguard

- Mild analgesics

- Physical therapy modalities

- Anxiolytic before bed

Ressler, Hirschl & Lelchuk, DDS, PA is located at two Florida locations for your convenience. You can find our North Miami Beach office in the Intracostal Mall at 3909 NE 163rd St., Suite 310. Our Mount Sinai Medical Center is located at 4300 Alton Road, Suite 1190, in Miami Beach. For more information or to schedule an appointment, please visit miami-dental.net or call our North Miami Beach office at 305-949-2630 or Mount Sinai Medical Center at 305-532-1444.

 

Incipient Lesions

One of the reasons it’s so important to get regular dental check-ups is so you can be assessed for developing caries. These infections on the surfaces of teeth will result in cavities if they are not stopped in time. Fortunately, there is an easy way for us at Miami Beach and North Miami Beach offices of Doctors Ressler, Hirschl, and Lelchuk to identify incipient caries: by the white spots they create on enamel.

Plaque traps the acid that oral bacteria excrete as part of their metabolization process. As the amount of plaque on a tooth increases, the tooth is exposed to more acid. Eventually, it will begin losing some of the minerals that make up its enamel. When this happens, the tooth takes on a chalky appearance, which is why incipient lesions are often called “white spot lesions.” The white spot can transform into a cavity in as few as thirty days.

While a lesion is still in the white spot stage, it is easy to reverse. The patient can deprive oral bacteria of sustenance by reducing their intake of simple carbohydrates and get rid of them through better brushing. Once the lesion is free of bacteria, the teeth can be remineralized with fluoride treatments. But if a cavity developed, it will have to be filled in with a prosthetic material. Sealants can help to prevent further decay, but people with fixed orthodontic brackets will simply have to get more comfortable using "Christmas tree" toothbrushes. If the white spot has left a scar, we may consider covering it with a veneer.

Dr. Allen Ressler, Dr. Andrew Hirschl, and Dr. Ira Lelchuk operate from two locations. To schedule an appointment at the location at Mount Sinai Medical Center, 4300 Alton Road, Suite 1190, Miami Beach, Florida, 33140, call 305-532-1444. To schedule an appointment at Intracoastal Mall, 3909 NE 163^rdSt, Suite 310, North Miami Beach, Florida, 33160, call 305-949-2630. They can also be reached on their website, Miami Dental through a contact form.

 

Options for Complex Restorations

Our experienced dentists at the Miami Beach and North Miami Beach offices of Doctors Ressler, Hirschl, and Lelchuk have provided replacement teeth to a lot of people over the years. In that time, we’ve seen new options for complex restorations develop, allowing us to better serve each patient’s specific needs. To help our patients understand which kind of restoration will benefit them, we wanted to talk a bit about bridges.

Traditional bridges are linked series of artificial crowns, with a middle crown suspended between two crowns that are affixed to natural teeth. The natural teeth would have to be reshaped to accommodate their new caps, which made this kind of bridge an attractive option for people who needed multiple crown replacements. It also allowed people to retain their natural tooth roots, keeping the jaw bones healthy and decreasing the risk of tooth migration. But dentists may also have felt it necessary to reshape or extract teeth that were healthy in order to make room for the bridge, which is no longer a common practice.

Modern partial dentures can be manufactured to fit a patient’s mouth much more closely than in the past. They can be made with gaps for natural teeth, eliminating the need to extract them. The adjoining natural teeth have to be reshaped slightly, but not to the same extent as with fixed bridges. This makes partial dentures a good option for people whose decayed or broken teeth are not all in a row. If the patient has sufficient jaw tissue, it may also be possible to support the partial denture with implants. The denture would still be removable, making it easy to clean.

Dr. Allen Ressler, Dr. Andrew Hirschl, and Dr. Ira Lelchuk operate from two locations. To schedule an appointment at the location at Mount Sinai Medical Center, 4300 Alton Road, Suite 1190, Miami Beach, Florida, 33140, call 305-532-1444. To schedule an appointment at Intracoastal Mall, 3909 NE 163^rdSt, Suite 310, North Miami Beach, Florida, 33160, call 305-949-2630. They can also be reached on their website, Miami Dental through a contact form.

 

Dental Avulsions

With the fall sports season in full swing, we at the Miami Beach and North Miami Beach dental offices of Doctors Ressler, Hirschl, and Lelchuk wanted to remind our patients of fundamental dental safety protocols. A dental avulsion, the loss of an entire tooth, is an emergency, but when a patient acts quickly enough, they may be able to save the tooth.

A tooth should only be held by its crown, never its root. Ideally, it should be rinsed with a saline solution and then reinserted into the empty socket (while facing the right way). If this is too difficult, it may be held in the cheek. The American Dental Association approves of tooth saving containers which can hopefully be found in a nearby first aid kit, but if not, the tooth may also be transported in a cup filled with milk or saltwater.

Teeth that are cracked at the root may not be salvageable, and a successfully reinserted tooth will need a root canal. We also won’t reinsert baby teeth that have been lost prematurely, as this may damage the permanent tooth that is forming inside the jaw. A patient should prioritize facial lacerations over a dental avulsion. But when a tooth is saved, a patient will be spared the risk of jawbone deterioration and from either having to get an implant or wear a partial denture, so it’s worth trying.

Dr. Allen Ressler, Dr. Andrew Hirschl, and Dr. Ira Lelchuk operate from two locations. To schedule an appointment at the location at Mount Sinai Medical Center, 4300 Alton Road, Suite 1190, Miami Beach, Florida, 33140, call 305-532-1444. To schedule an appointment at Intracoastal Mall, 3909 NE 163^rdSt, Suite 310, North Miami Beach, Florida, 33160, call 305-949-2630. They can also be reached on their website, Miami Dental through a contact form.

 

Denture Stomatitis

Patients who get dentures at the Miami Beach and North Miami Beach offices of Doctors Ressler, Hirschl, and Lelchuk may expect that their new teeth will be beautiful and long-lasting. The science of prosthodontics is constantly improving, and people with dentures today have a much higher quality of life than just a few years ago. But getting dentures also requires people to make some changes in their oral hygiene, which is why today’s blog post is dedicated to the dangers of denture stomatitis.

Normally, our immune systems regulate the growth of the Candida species of fungus, which are a kind of yeast. Saliva contains antimicrobial enzymes and cleanses the mouth of particles fungus could feed on. But when a person’s dentures are poorly fitted or not cleaned often enough, Candida can easily grow on them or the area they cover. People are especially prone to developing fungus growths on the roof of their mouth where the upper denture’s prosthetic palate adheres to, or at the corners of their mouth if their lips are chapping.

Stomatitis manifests as redness and swelling, but it may have to develop for a while before patients will feel pain. Some medications, including the use of inhalers, put people at greater risk of developing it. However, it can usually be mitigated by regular brushing of both the denture and the mouth. Patients should brush their gums each morning before putting their denture in and should brush their entire denture, not just the part that looks like teeth.

Dr. Allen Ressler, Dr. Andrew Hirschl, and Dr. Ira Lelchuk operate from two locations. To schedule an appointment at the location at Mount Sinai Medical Center, 4300 Alton Road, Suite 1190, Miami Beach, Florida, 33140, call 305-532-1444. To schedule an appointment at Intracoastal Mall, 3909 NE 163^rdSt, Suite 310, North Miami Beach, Florida, 33160, call 305-949-2630. They can also be reached on their website, Miami Dental through a contact form.