Baby Bottle Tooth Decay

People who depend on others for their oral hygiene need their caretakers to be informed about their particular needs. Young children are in the highest risk group for developing cavities, and for the protection of her most vulnerable patients, Dr. Suzanne Haeri wants the families she treats to understand the phenomena of Baby Bottle Tooth Decay.

Incisors, the front teeth, are usually the first to erupt, and the fronts of the incisors are frequently exposed to sugar through a baby bottle. Though parents may rightly try to avoid giving their babies drinks such as juice and soda which have high sugar contents, it is actually the amount of time teeth are exposed to sugar, more than the amount of sugar, which puts them at risk for decay. Drinking water is an important way in which we wash our teeth, but babies usually don’t have access to water bottles. They are often given bottles filled with milk or formula to slake their hunger and thirst all day.

To prevent decay, babies should only be given bottles for a limited amount of time or get their teeth brushed more frequently. They should also be taught to drink from cups at the age of one. Parents should start brushing their babies’ teeth as soon as the first one begins to emerge, keep them supplied with water.

Suzanne Haeri, DDS, of Cosmetic & General Dentistry, is located at 1100 S. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, California, 90035. To set up an appointment, call 310-647-2200 or visit SuzanneHaeriDDS.com and fill out a request.

 

Proper Flossing

Dr. Suzanne Haeri provides the best oral care for patients and wants you and your family to continue healthy oral care routines at home. Regular flossing is essential to maintaining oral health and you should floss once a day, either before or after brushing. Remember these tips to floss effectively:

• A strand of dental floss about 18 inches long allows you to wrap the ends of the floss around a finger on each hand. This gives you excellent control over the portion of floss you are using. 


• The proper technique to flossing is sliding the floss between the teeth and rubbing the floss back and forth up until you reach your gums.


• Pushing at your gums too hard with floss can damage your gum line and isn’t necessary to floss properly. Think of a small swooping motion as you rub the floss up to one gum, then down and back up towards the other.


• As you move on to the next tooth, adjust the floss to expose an unused portion. Repeat this rubbing motion between each tooth and dispose of the floss once you are finished.

Suzanne Haeri, DDS, of Cosmetic & General Dentistry, is located at 1100 S. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, California, 90035. To set up an appointment, call 310-647-2200 or visit SuzanneHaeriDDS.com and fill out a request.

DentalVibe Injection Comfort System

Dr. Suzanne Haeri knows some patients find local anesthetic shots painful and can even cause them anxiety. Fear of the pain or discomfort shouldn’t keep anyone from leaving a dental issue untreated. The exciting new technology of the DentalVibe Injection Comfort system has eliminated the discomfort associated with anesthetic injections.  The DentalVibe is a device that uses vibration on your gums to block the sensation of pain.  This means you won’t feel a pinch or pain at the injection site.  

Depending on the procedure, some appointments can require several shots of anesthetic. Using DentalVibe eliminates pain at the time of injection and soreness at the injection sites afterward. An added benefit to using the DentalVibe device is vibration on your gums helps the anesthetic dissipate quickly and evenly throughout the mouth.  Even if you never found local anesthetic shots very painful, the DentalVibe technology can help any procedure go quicker and easier.  

Suzanne Haeri, DDS, of Cosmetic & General Dentistry, is located at 1100 S. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, California, 90035. To set up an appointment, call 310-647-2200 or visit SuzanneHaeriDDS.com and fill out a request.

Consequences of Thumb Sucking

At Dr. Suzanne Haeri’s western Los Angeles office, we strive to help everyone’s smile look great, including those of our youngest patients. Many new parents have questions about their children’s oral health, and we want to help them determine whether a child’s thumb sucking is becoming a problem.

Provided that they’re not sucking too hard, toddlers have little to worry about from thumb or pacifier sucking. However, as their baby teeth start falling out around the age of five and adult teeth come in, the pressure could become a problem. Overbites and other malocclusions, misaligned jaws, and warped upper palettes are all known to result from persistent thumb sucking.

Thumb sucking could be the result of anxiety which requires help from a child psychologist, and in severe cases, doctors may provide orthotic devices to discourage it. However, by the time a child is old enough for thumb sucking to be a problem it may be possible to include them in discussions about why it is harmful and how to stop. This is generally preferable to start with. It is also necessary that the child not push their tongue against their teeth as a substitute, as this will cause all the same problems.

Suzanne Haeri, DDS, of Cosmetic & General Dentistry, is located at 1100 S. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, California, 90035. To set up an appointment, call 310-647-2200 or visit SuzanneHaeriDDS.com and fill out a request.

 

Oral Cancer Awareness Month

Oral cancer screenings are one of the most important services we provide at Dr. Suzanne Haeri’s office for Cosmetic and General Dentistry in west Los Angeles. As part of Oral Cancer Awareness month, we want to ensure that our patients recognize warning signs of throat cancer so they can help us help them.

Anti-smoking campaigns have been critical to reducing oral cancer fatalities, but in recent years, cancers associated with the human papilloma virus (HPV) have increased. Out of nearly two hundred known strains of HPV, only one has been proven to cause oral cancer. However, it is so far unproven that HPV vaccines are effective against it, and there is no test for it. HPV-associated oral cancer usually occurs in the back of the mouth and top of the throat, which is known as the oropharynx, making it difficult to screen for visually or through biopsies.

Pain, numbness, and swelling are warning signs of developing throat cancer, but these sensations may occur in the jaw or ear as well as the throat. If patients notice these problems, they should not assume they know the cause or that abstaining from smoking or alcohol eliminates oral cancer as a possibility. Tactile testing is still useful for detecting cancer in the oropharynx, and if caught early, HPV-associated cancers are more responsive to treatments than those caused by drugs.

Suzanne Haeri, DDS, of Cosmetic & General Dentistry, is located at 1100 S. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, California, 90035. To set up an appointment, call 310-647-2200 or visit SuzanneHaeriDDS.com and fill out a request.