Danger At The Mall- Why The Dental Office Is The Only Place To Whiten Teeth

Recently there has been a great deal of controversy revolving around the delivery of whitening services in shopping plazas; malls and in suntan shops (to name just a few). Adding to the confusion is the availability of Internet and television ads for whitening products many of which, just don’t work.

There are a plethora of options for people seeking to whiten their teeth trying to avoid the higher cost of doing it in a dental office. What people often fail to realize is that there are dangers to letting laypeople perform these procedures outside the controlled environment of a professional office.

There are four major areas of concern when it comes to “Shopping Mall Whitening”:

1. Infection Control:  This is the biggest  concern. The operations that I have witnessed  were in the middle of shopping malls with no sanitation whatsoever. Not even to wash ones hands. The patients were salivating over the chairs and on the floor. The risk for infection from other people is very high. Poor hygiene has the potential to transmit many diseases including Hepatitis, Herpes, H1N1, and even the possibility of HIV (should the last whitening customer have bleeding gums).

           

2.Burns and Pain From Bleaching. There are times when people  can have an adverse reaction to the   bleaching process. There can be significant burns with swelling of the lips and tongue.  Only a dental office has the knowledge and ability to prescribe  treatment /medications  to alleviate pain and manage the soft tissue damage. Diabetics can have serious complications from trauma in their mouths are well as people with compromised immune systems “Shopping Mall Whitening” technicians never take a health history- so the potential problems are overlooked. The consequences can be severe.

3.Poor Color Results: Since the majority of Mall Whitening Kiosks are run by non –dental staff they are usually unable to discern if teeth have fillings/veneers/crowns .and as a result  the natural teeth will whiten leaving while the other teeth remain dark- this could be a very expensive problem to fix since the bleaching is irreversible. There are several dental-medical conditions that limit the success of the whitening process- a layperson will not be able to give this information to the typical whitening client.

4.More Expensive Than A Dental Office:  A survey of dental whitening kiosks reveal that the cost is sometimes MORE than you would be charged at a dental  office. While it seems like a

good deal  lets say at $125 to bleach your teeth. They don’t mention that it takes four sessions to get the color you are seeking (actual cost $500 or more).  In my office we offer our patients a significant discount on whitening which is normally significantly less than these businesses offer.

In summary, your best option is always the professional dental office when it comes to whitening your teeth.  There are many safeguards to your health which are standard at a dental office that the whitening kiosks overlook. Don’t take unnecessary risks with your health thinking you will save money.   And as always, ask your dentist which whitening system is right for you…

Dr. Steve Pleickhardt

SPORT DRINKS DESTROY TEETH

Posted by Dr. Todd Welch on Mar 11, 2011 in Featured, Oral Hygiene

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Gatorade

The finding that the effects of Gatorade on teeth are worse than Coke and Red Bull doesn’t mean that Gatorade and other sports drinks are necessarily harder on your teeth than are Coke and other soft drinks. But it may be a surprise that they aren’t any better.
I don’t think everybody realizes how erosive these things are, especially Gatorade and Red Bull.  People need to be aware that all sorts of beverages can be causing dental erosion.  More and more dentists now think sugary drinks are the major culprit in tooth decay, says Brian Burt, PhD, professor emeritus of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.
“There is pretty good evidence now that this is not just sports drinks, but soft drinks and juices in general,” said Burt.  “They have become the main source of sugars in the diet. It comes down to the more sugar in the drink, the more risk of [cavities] to the person drinking it.”

Effects Of Gatorade On Teeth

The University of Iowa researchers covered extracted teeth with nail polish. They left bare two patches on each tooth, one on the enamel and one on the root. Then they dunked the teeth in test tubes filled with regular Coke, Diet Coke, Gatorade, Red Bull, or 100 percent apple juice.
Every five hours, the researchers refreshed the beverages. After 25 hours, they examined the teeth with a microscope. All of the beverages eroded the bare spots on the teeth. But different beverages had significantly different effects.  On the enamel, Gatorade was significantly more corrosive than Red Bull and Coke. Red Bull and Coke, in turn, were significantly more corrosive than Diet Coke and apple juice.
On the roots of the teeth, Gatorade was more corrosive than Red Bull. Coke, apple juice, and Diet Coke followed in that order.  The difference in the effect isn’t simply due to their sugar content. Gatorade is 6 percent carbohydrates, mostly sugars. Coke is about 10% sugar. Both are acidic beverages.
University of Michigan pediatric dental researcher Michael Ignelzi, DDS, PhD, has recently reviewed new research on the effects of beverages on children’s teeth. But he says there’s no evidence showing that sports drinks are any worse than other soft drinks .  “I know of no data that sports drinks are more harmful than other drinks,” said Ignelzi.

Tooth Erosion

Sports Drinks and Cavities

Because of their acidity and sugar content, researchers have studied the role of sports drinks in the development of cavities. Most of the studies, however, exonerate the sports drinks.
Craig Horswill, PhD, senior research fellow at the Gatorade Sports Science Institute, in 2005 reported a study of saliva flow in endurance athletes who drank Gatorade, diluted orange juice, a homemade sports drink, or water. The study showed that if the sports drinks had any effect, it was to decrease dehydration and increase saliva flow, which reduces cavity formation.
More to the point, a 2002 Ohio State University study of 304 athletes found no link between sports-drink use and dental erosion. The study was sponsored by Quaker Oats, which makes Gatorade.  “Dental erosion among users of sports drinks in the Ohio State study was the same as it was in nonusers,” said Hoswill. “And they averaged 10 years of sports drink use.”  Ignelzi says that what matters most isn’t which beverage people drink. It’s how and when they drink it.
“A lot of things can cause cavities, including sugared drinks. It is the way they are taken that is most important,” he says. “The frequency of exposure is key. If you sip a Pepsi all day, that is very harmful. But if you are taking any sweet or carb — cheese puffs, bread, raisins — if you take it during meals, it is a good thing. Because the saliva stimulated by your chewing buffers the acid. But if you are constantly snacking on sweets or sipping a sweet beverage, your teeth are exposed to acid all day long.”

Dental Visits Decrease Chance of Cavities in Baby Teeth

Dental Care for Kids Needs to Begin With Baby Teeth, Study Shows
by Tom Henderson (Subscribe to Tom Henderson's posts)
Mar 2nd 2011 4:30PM0COMMENTS

Filed under: Research Reveals: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Health
Open wide, little one! Credit: Getty It may seem painfully obvious, but a new study shows preventative dental care for kids and regular brushing can reduce the risk of cavities.

What makes this study out of the University of North Carolina "new" is that it looks at dental hygiene among poor kids. Turns out, brushing, flossing and seeing the dentist could really help them reduce cavities.

Reuters news service reports that 11 percent of American 2-year-olds and 44 percent of 5-year-olds have cavities. The majority of these kids come from low-income families who can't afford regular dental care.

And regular dental care helps prevent cavities.

The findings, published in the journal Pediatrics, cite a program called "Into the Mouths of Babes." For the past 11 years, pediatricians and family doctors in North Carolina have given fluoride and dental exams to babies and toddlers covered by Medicaid.

Looking at results from between 2000 and 2006, Reuters reports, researchers estimate children covered by Medicaid who had at least four dental exams were 17 percent less likely to have cavities than kids who had no care at all.

"This speaks to the fact that prevention does work," Dr. Mary J. Hayes, a pediatric dentist in Chicago and spokeswoman for the American Dental Association, tells the news service.

Apparently, this has been the source of some controversy. Hayes tells Reuters some people think kids don't need to see a dentist until they are 3. But tooth decay can begin as soon as there are teeth, she says.

And the sins of the baby teeth are visited upon the permanent ones, she adds.

"Now we know that prevention needs to begin when the first teeth come in," Hayes tells Reuters.

Reuters reports it's a good idea to take children to see a dentist before their first birthdays. Good luck with that. The news service also reports that pediatric dentists are scarce, and few general dentists are trained to treat very young children.

And trying to find any dentist that accepts Medicaid is a toothache. In North Carolina, according to Reuters, only a fourth of dentists accept Medicaid.

Hayes tells Reuters that's why pediatricians and family doctors are important.

"We should involve the medical community," she tells the news service. "It makes sense that pediatricians be trained to look at the teeth.