Ridgepointe Dental Blog

If you’re considering replacing your missing teeth with dental implants, you’re certainly not the only one! These restorations are popular for a reason, and you no doubt find their realistic appearance, superior fit, and enhanced strength to be enticing. But all that is made possible by anchoring the implants to your jawbone, which sounds painful. Will the placement process hurt?

This boils down to a matter of dental implants vs. local anesthesia. Don’t worry – you’ll find that the local anesthesia and your dentist’s expertise will win.

Gingivitis, a form of gum disease, results from harmful bacteria that cause inflammation of the gums. While the bacteria themselves thrive within your mouth, it raises a key question: can these germs spread to others through direct contact, such as sharing saliva? Let’s explore how sharing saliva with someone who has gingivitis may increase the risk of transmission, especially when oral hygiene is neglected.

You wouldn’t be the first person to want to be completely unconscious for a dental treatment. Dentophobia, or simply the fear of going to the dentist’s, is not an uncommon anxiety. Knowing you’re going to be scared and uncomfortable certainly makes it difficult to arrange an appointment, and your dentist doesn’t want you to have a negative experience in their office.

So, many practices do offer sedation options like laughing gas to help patients relax. However, it won’t “put you under”. Here’s what you need to know about laughing gas, and why it might actually be better for you than a stronger anesthetic.

Diabetes is a common disease, so if you don’t have it, you likely know someone who does. It affects approximately 29.1 million people in the USA, or about 9.3% of Americans! A lot of people don’t even know that they have it. Diabetes affects your body’s ability to produce sugar, and it can be linked to a variety of issues throughout the body, including gum disease. Read on to learn how the conditions are related and how you can work towards better gum and systemic health.

Regular dental care is essential for maintaining a healthy smile, but some people might have trouble finding room in their budgets for visits to the dentist. Luckily, dental insurance can be an invaluable tool for making a wide array of dental services more affordable. But do you know exactly what sort of treatments are covered by your plan? Here’s what you need to know about your dental insurance benefits.

Chewing gum is pretty normal, so you might be wondering what the big deal is. Under normal circumstances, you’d be right to be skeptical. A stick of gum can refresh your breath and, if it’s sugar-free, benefit your teeth by increasing your mouth’s production of its natural mouthwash: saliva.  

However, if you experience recurring jaw pain, you could very well have a TMJ disorder – in which case chewing gum is likely to make things worse. Keep reading to learn more about this condition and why you might want to kick the gum habit.

Nobody is ever really excited about the prospect, least of all the dentist who is recommending it. While this is sometimes the best way to handle a severely infected or damaged tooth, dentists typically only offer them to patients when just about every other option has been exhausted.

You might be a little confused then if your dentist says that you need to remove a tooth that doesn’t hurt. Here’s why that could be.

Invisalign has earned a reputation as a clear alternative to tried-and-true braces because of the unique advantages it provides. Traditional orthodontics involves permanently bonding metal brackets to your teeth for the duration of your treatment. These are threaded with an archwire that’s adjusted to apply the right pressure to shift your pearly whites into their ideal places.

Meanwhile, Invisalign consists of transparent plastic aligner trays that are customized to fit over your teeth to gently reposition them. Many patients choose this option specifically because it’s a more visually discrete way to straighten their smiles, but that’s not the only benefit it offers. Continue reading to learn about 3 additional freedoms that come with choosing clear aligners!

At first, having between two and four hours each day aligner-free sounds like more than enough. Once you start calculating the time you need for three meals, some snacks, and your oral hygiene regimen, however, you’ll quickly realize that’s not much time at all! The good news is that there are a few simple steps you can take to meet your 22-hour wear time with Invisalign with ease. Read on to learn what they are!

While people become more likely to lose teeth as they age, younger adults can also lose them due to injuries or infections. Dentures are an incredibly lifelike and comfortable way to address tooth loss, and while they are most often associated with older people, younger adults can also use them. Here’s a brief guide to how dentures can help adults of any age enjoy having a full and beautiful smile!