Jeffrey Hermen, DDS Blog

The new year is coming up fast, and that means that many people who wish to better themselves will resolve to quit smoking, cut back on their drinking, exercise more, or spend more time with the kids. While these are all admirable resolutions on their own, it’s also a great idea to start the new year with better oral hygiene. Here’s how committing to improving your oral care routine can improve your quality of life and overall happiness.

Brightly colored things are often a sign that you’re approaching something dangerous – or juicy and delicious. So this old saying about nature’s “warning label” might not stand up so well under scrutiny, but if you’ve just whitened your teeth professionally, a bright berry will probably still get your heart racing! Strong colors can discolor your teeth on a normal day, and for the first couple of days after whitening, they’re actually even more vulnerable to food-born pigments.

If you’d rather avoid having to visit your dentist for a second treatment so soon after the first, keep reading so you know what to avoid.

October is just around the corner, meaning it’s the perfect time of year to set up spooky scares for family and friends. Unfortunately, one fear shared by an estimated 36% of people in the United States is visiting the dentist. You’re not alone if you’re nervous about undergoing an upcoming procedure or attending a standard checkup. However, if you’re too scared, you might avoid your appointment, which can harm your oral health.

Understanding why you’re worried might help ease your frayed nerves. Continue reading to learn more about this phobia and why it might happen so you can leave your concerns behind you!

Even if sedation dentistry sounds good, you may worry about its potential price. That’s a fair concern – a treatment that “breaks the bank” won’t help you in the long run. Still, the cost of dental sedative work varies; it depends on factors related to your case. You can also trust that this treatment add-on is worth its final price. To learn more, here’s a primer on how much sedation dentistry costs from your Oklahoma dentist.

As part of your treatment, you may want to add sedation dentistry. The field has many sedatives that could keep you calm during a procedure. Still, you likely want to know how dental sedation feels first; that would help you choose. The good news is that your local sedation dentist can provide the answers you need. To that end, here’s a primer on sedation dentistry, how its sedatives feel, and how to know if you qualify for it.

Nitrous oxide, commonly known as “laughing gas,” is one of the most popular forms of sedation used in dentistry. Known for its calming effects, it helps patients, especially those with dental anxiety, relax during appointments. But how safe is nitrous oxide? Continue reading to learn more about sedation dentistry with nitrous oxide and its record of safety.

Coffee is life, as they say, but sometimes when you’re not feeling your best, life as usual must be put on hold. This is especially true when it comes to having a tooth extracted. Tooth extractions may not seem like a big deal, but they do require a bit of downtime and a few key changes to your routine to successfully heal. Unfortunately, that means you must lay off the coffee for at least a few days following your procedure. Here’s why when you get a tooth removed, it’s important to (temporarily!) forgo the joe.

While most people won’t experience any complications after having their wisdom teeth or any other tooth removed, about 3% of tooth extractions lead to dry socket. This severely painful condition results when a blood clot fails to form over or is dislodged from the removed tooth’s empty socket, resulting in the nerves, bone structure, and soft tissues therein being exposed to the stresses of the oral environment. Here’s what you should know about dry socket and how you can avoid it.

When people first get their dentures, there’s an adjustment phase that every patient will go through. While this prosthetic will make it much easier to do everything in your life, from eating to talking, but relearning how to do these things effortlessly will take a little bit of time.

Of course, being able to eat with your prosthetic isn’t necessarily something you can wait on; you’ll need have some food eventually, so it’s important that you learn how to do that. Here are a few tips that could potentially help you adjust a bit faster.

Traditional dentures have allowed many people to enjoy complete smiles after extensive tooth loss. While chewing food with dentures is much easier than chewing food without teeth, these appliances can have a lot of trouble with tougher or harder foods like steak, nuts, or crunchy veggies. Here’s how wearing dentures can affect your nutritional intake as well as how dental implants can help.