The Benefits of Chewing Sugarless Gum

Depending on the type of gum you’re chewing, it can have a positive or negative effect on your oral health. Chewing sugarless gum after meals has been proven to help rinse acids that attract bacteria, which destroy tooth enamel. Food particles can easily get stuck or lodged against your teeth. Chewing gum increases saliva, neutralizing acids and helping to wash away remaining food particles and debris. Miami Dental recommends patients chew gum, but only if they make sure it is sugar-free.

Gum filled with sugar may taste better but it is really harmful to your teeth. Sugars attract bacteria and cause tooth decay, which ultimately leads to cavities. This is why it’s extremely harmful to allow sugar to rest on the teeth. Sugary gum is inside your mouth and against your teeth for longer because of its function as a chewable apparatus. Instead of relieving breath odor, producing saliva, and dislodging food particles, sugary chewing gum is causing more harm than good by lacing your teeth with even more bacteria-attracting sugar. 

Chewing sugarless gum also should not be a substitute for proper oral hygiene as patients should still brush and floss daily. They should also visit us twice a year for professional cleanings.

Dr. Allen Ressler, Dr. Andrew Hirshl, and Dr. Ira Lelchuk operate 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^rd St, Suite 310, North Miami, Florida, 33160, call 305-949-2630. Visit our website at www.miami-dental.net or stop in and fill out a contact form.

Asthma and Oral Health

The dentists of Drs. Ressler, Hirschl, and Lelchuk’s Miami practice are a vital part of each patient’s medical care team. People with asthma face some particular oral health challenges, and to help them practice preventive care, we want them to understand why they may be especially at risk for developing cavities.

Dry mouth, also known as xerostomia, is a major contributor to enamel imperfections. We depend on saliva to wash away food debris and to keep our mouths at a pH level that allows enamel to remineralize. But people with asthma easily develop dry mouth because they are likelier to breathe through their mouths and it is also a common side-effect of some asthma medications. Patients should consult with their asthma specialist before changing medications, but they can counter dry mouth by drinking more water, using throat moisturizers, chewing sugar-free gum, and by using humidifiers.

Other factors specifically impacting asthma patients are acid reflux and the sugar content of medications. Because asthma causes restrictions in the throat, some patients are prescribed muscles relaxants. These relaxants risk opening the sphincter that separates the stomach from the esophagus, allowing stomach acid into the mouth, where it erodes enamel. Some oral medications may also contain lactose. Patients who are conscious of this may use fluoridated mouth rinse after taking medications and avoid foods that exacerbate acid reflux, such as onions, red meat, and caffeine. Chewing sugar-free gum to increase saliva flow can also help neutralize acid.

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.

Treatments for Cracked Teeth

Nobody expects to crack a tooth, but if they do, we at the Miami Beach and North Miami Beach dental offices of Drs. Ressler, Hirschl, and Lelchuk hope our patients will have some idea of what to expect. We can repair most tooth damage, but patients are often calmer and provide better assistance with their own care when they understand what they’re up against.

Two basic elements of dental safety are to always wear a mouthguard when playing sports and to only use the back teeth for chewing. The molars have wide surfaces for distributing bite force and are held in place by multiple roots and thick ligaments. Other teeth are much likelier to break or tilt if they are subjected to bite force, but the molars can still chip, and they may crack if used to chew ice. If a tooth does break, a patient should rinse their mouth with warm water to make sure it is clean.

If a tooth is only chipped, we may be able to fix it quickly by using bonding. A minor crack, called a craze line, may be possible to cover with a veneer. However, if a tooth is deeply cracked, there is a possibility that the inner pulp will become infected. We may feel the need to perform root canal therapy to prevent this, after which we may reshape the natural dental crown as preparation for covering it with an artificial one. Teeth with cracks that go to the root may not be salvageable, but they can be replaced with partial dentures or crowns supported by implants.

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.