Smiley Family Dentistry Blog

When you have a tooth extracted, following the aftercare instructions is essential to a timely healing process. Your dentist provides these guidelines because they are tried and true ways to ensure that your extraction site closes properly and begins feeling better as soon as possible. Not following these rules can put your healing gums at risk for a condition called alveolar osteitis, or as it is more commonly known, dry socket. This can not only slow your healing time, but it can also cause a great deal of pain of its own. Here’s what you need to know about this painful condition, and how you can reduce your risk of developing it.

It’s summer vacation season, which means it’s time to relax! But before you put your phone on “do not disturb” and close that laptop to jet off on a much-needed break, make sure your mouth is in good shape. After all, the last thing you want to do in your down time is deal with a dental emergency. Here are 5 helpful tips for making your mouth travel ready before you soak up those rays!

While people have used many methods to achieve prettier smiles throughout history, medically sound cosmetic dental treatments are a relatively new phenomenon. In previous millennia, people often tried to make their smiles whiter or into more pleasing shapes in ways that were simply gross or that led to long-term dental damage. Here’s a brief overview of how people tried to make their smiles more beautiful in previous eras so that you can appreciate how sanitary, painless, and effective modern cosmetic dentistry really is.

Dentures are a versatile solution to rebuild your smile whether you’ve lost several or all your teeth. This tried-and-true method improves the quality of your daily life by allowing you to eat and speak more like you used to while simultaneously enhancing your appearance.

In an ideal world, your dentures would last forever but the truth is that they usually need to be replaced at some point. If you’re not sure whether it’s time for a new set, continue reading for 3 indicators that yours may need to be replaced!

Natural products and remedies from skin creams and shampoos to hokey “detox” formulas are all the rage today. Turmeric, a spice known for its vivid yellow color has gained popularity for its supposed teeth whitening abilities. But where does this remedy fall on the scale of natural cures versus snake-oil solutions?  Read on to learn more about turmeric and its purported teeth whitening properties.

It’s unfortunately common to lose one or more teeth over the years, but you don’t have to live with gaps in your smile forever. Your dentist has multiple methods to fill in the spaces left behind by multiple missing teeth, like dental bridges and partial dentures. How do you know, though, which restoration is right for you?

The answer, of course, depends on your unique circumstances so you’ll need a consultation with your dentist first. Then, you’ll want to be well-informed about the options to make an informed decision. Keep reading to learn more about both treatments to make the right choice when the time comes!

Though the teeth often take all the credit for a lovely smile, the gums are truly the unsung heroes behind a beautiful grin. Your gums provide your teeth with both a stable foundation and their supply of nutrients, and keeping them in good shape is crucial to your oral health. Unfortunately, many a patient deals with a receding gumline, which exposes the roots of their teeth and makes them more vulnerable to injury and decay. A receding gumline is often a sign of gum disease and requires professional attention for treatment. Here’s some information on what can cause a receding gumline.

Even if you’re in the middle of a dental emergency, you are still probably pretty busy. Time doesn’t stop for anyone, which means that even your oral healthcare must follow a certain schedule. Say you’re getting a root canal—you probably want to deal with your infected tooth as quickly as possible, but you also may want to know how long the treatment will take you overall.

If you’re curious, here’s what you should know about the length of the treatment and what getting a root canal overall entail.

Many people are now considering dentures as a long-term solution to their future oral health for the first time, and they have lots of questions.

Depending on the process you went through to receive your dentures, you might have been without teeth for a few months before your prosthetics arrived.

All that is behind you now and with this new journey comes excitement and a period of adjustment. The first month is a pivotal phase when the most adaptation occurs after your transformation. Continue reading to understand the challenges ahead and find some tips that are vital to your success.

Taking care of any child is stressful; parents have to take into account a lot of conflicting information about what’s best for children and turn it into something that their child will actually do.

For example, many parents have anxiety about pacifier use; they may have heard that pacifiers are important, but that they can also lead to serious problems with children’s tooth alignment. If you want to know about how pacifiers can affect oral health, for better and for worse, here’s a guide that can help you.