We are so excited to introduce our newest team member – Maggie! Maggie will be the first smiling face you will see when you walk in our office. 😊 She will also be one of the pleasant voices you will hear answering our phones! Maggie has been a gem to get to know and work with. We know you will feel the same way!
Keep Smiling,
Dr. Todd Britten & Team
Any medical or dental surgical procedure carries an element of risk for complication and/or failure. Risk factors can greatly vary from patient to patient. Smoking and nicotine use of ANY KIND, including cigarettes, cigars, vaping, marijuana, dipping (smokeless and chewing tobacco) has been documented in scientific literature to delay wound healing and therefore increases the risks of complications and failure.
Complications can include post-operative complications such as pain, swelling and infection. Literature also shows increased risk of implant and bone graft failure and long-term failure of periodontal surgery. We don’t recommend any smoking or vaping two months prior to treatment and recommend not to continue to smoke after treatment because it will hamper healing, may cause failure of the procedure and necessitate retreatment if even possible.
Smoking after extraction can cause a dry socket. Dry socket is a painful dental condition that sometimes happens after you have a tooth removed. When you smoke, the sucking sensation that comes from inhaling cigarettes can pull the blood clot from the socket. This leaves the nerves exposed and vulnerable to infection. If an infection develops, that leads to a dry socket and severe pain that can last as long as a week.
From Crest.com
If you have an allergic reaction to your toothpaste, swap it for another brand or flavor. The symptoms should go away on their own soon after. However, if symptoms persist or become too severe, see your healthcare professional right away, as it may be a sign of something more serious.
Fortunately, once you recognize which ingredient is causing your allergy, there’s plenty of varieties of toothpaste to choose from. In some cases, a reaction can be the result of sensitivity. Switching to a sensitivity toothpaste can help.
A toothpaste allergy can easily be averted with the right switch, so it never has to hinder your oral hygiene. After you’ve identified the specific cause of your allergy, you’ll be better prepared to pick the right toothpaste for you and avoid the varieties that may trigger an allergic reaction in the future.
The labial frenum, or muscle attachment connecting of the upper lip to the gums can be located too “low” which may prevent the front two teeth to touch together, causing a space. An upper lip tie can also affect craniofacial development in severe cases. Typically, the frenum is removed in conjunction with braces to close the gap. If not removed, the frenum may cause the gap to reopen. The procedure to remove a frenum is known as a frenectomy.
A frenectomy is a procedure we performed in our Clearwater, FL office.
Dental tori are bony growths in the mouth that can cause irritation or discomfort. Sometimes it’s necessary to have tori removed.
If you feel a bump in your mouth around your teeth, you may have a mandibular torus—a growth of excess bone around your jaw. Tori can be caused by:
Often, tori are harmless, but they can cause irritation and make some dental procedures difficult. For example, you may need to have a mandibular torus removed to get fitted for dentures, or if the tori are preventing you from being able to properly clean the inside of your teeth and causing periodontal disease.
Tori dental removal is a process that we perform in our Clearwater, FL office.
Oral Lichen Planus (or OLP) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease which most commonly affects the skin and the mucous membrane lining or “skin” inside of the mouth, including cheeks and lips. OLP often looks like white lines crossing in a web-like patter on a red background, but can have a few different appearances, and some patients even develop a painful condition where ulcers are present (Ulcerative Lichen Planus).
OLP is caused by an inappropriate production of antibodies against a person’s own oral tissues. OLP affects 0.5-4% of the population globally, affecting women 2:1, often appearing in 50 and 60 year old post-menopausal women. It can affect quality of life, sleep, cause stress to those who have it, and usually persists for life. The lesions of Lichen Planus also have the potential to become malignant.
Oral Lichen Planus can be diagnosed in our practice with examination, and often requires a soft tissue biopsy. Other soft tissue conditions in the mouth can present with similar symptoms, so proper diagnosis is key, If confirmed to be Oral Lichen Planus, his patients are then treated accordingly, often with prescription gels or creams to be used in the mouth.
Pemphigoid is another soft tissue condition we see in our patients. Mucous membrane pemphigoid (MMP) is a rare chronic autoimmune disorders that can be characterized by blistering lesions that primarily affect the various mucous membranes of the body. The mucous membranes of the mouth and eyes are most often affected.
We often recommend specialty oral rinses, toothpaste and dietary changes to successfully treat soft tissue conditions.
Dr. Todd Britten offers his patients at Britten Periodontics & Implant Dentistry in Clearwater, Florida, the PerioLase and LANAP® protocol for treatment of periodontal disease. LANAP, or the Laser Assisted New Attachment Procedure, is an alternative to traditional periodontal surgery for the treatment of gum disease. Dr. Britten also offers LAPIP®, the Laser Assisted Peri-Implantitis Procedure, to treat infected and/or save failing dental implants.
Dr. Todd Britten cites that the benefits of laser periodontal dentistry include:
The precise dental laser used in our practice can accurately target and remove harmful bacteria without causing damage to healthy gum tissue.
Laser surgery involves no incisions and little to no post-operative inflammation. Therefore, patients experience a much faster healing period and often do not need pain medication.
In traditional gum surgery, gum recession is commonly unavoidable. Laser gum surgery never harms healthy gum tissue, which means there is little to no gum recession.
Laser gum surgery is scientifically proven to generate new bone growth in the jaw, leading to added support for existing teeth.
Using the PerioLase MVP-7 dental laser in both the LANAP and LAPIP protocols, we can effectively target and kills harmful bacteria that causes inflammation around natural teeth or dental implants. Killing the bacteria helps to treat the cause of the disease, not just the symptoms.
From ADA: “It’s not just soda that’s contributing to an increase in tooth decay. Nationwide, students are drinking more sports drinks and fruit juices, which also contain high concentrations of sugar. The problem is with the frequency that a child’s teeth are exposed to sugar throughout the day. Nursing soft drinks significantly contributes to the development of tooth decay.
For example, if a student takes one small sip of soda, and then a minute later, takes another small sip, and then another sip—and this goes on during the course of one day—teeth are exposed over and over again to high concentrations of sugar and acid without any kind of break.
Even sugar-free soda is harmful to teeth because it contains high amounts of acid, leading to a breakdown in dental enamel. Because students typically do not brush their teeth during school hours, their risk of getting cavities increases dramatically.”
“There are many benefits to drinking water:
In the above picutre, we have both photos and x-ray images of a healthy mouth vs. a mouth that has had major decay caused by a soda drinking habit. Soda: It’s not hip to sip!
For a broken crown, your dentist will assess the issue and correct it right away. If the crown is still repairable, the dentist will use techniques like dental bonding to revitalize it. Yet, if the broken crown is beyond repair, replacing it will be the only option. Seeing your dentist for an evaluation will help determine which suits your case.
You can see in this picture the tooth in the middle was repaired with a beautiful new crown by one of our talented referring dentists! Materials in dentistry continue to improve function, esthetics and strength of crowns!
