Dr. Judith Y. Ko

Dr. Judith Y. Ko
Hemet Valley Dental Care

Monday, December 5, 2011

Dental Health

"The term "dental health" may seem very vague and colossal in nature, something not easily understood. Yet, the fact is that ensuring positive dental hygiene and health should be part of your day to day routine."

Common dental health practices include:
  • tooth brushing
  • flossing
  • mouth washing
  • gurgling
  • oil pulling
  • massaging the gums
  • tongue cleaning

Common dental health practices include:
  • tooth brushing
  • flossing
  • mouth washing
  • gurgling
  • oil pulling
  • massaging the gums
  • tongue cleaning
These practices put together form a good checklist for you to adhere to. The more effort you put in to follow these positive habits, the easier it will be to maintain great dental hygiene and health.
Dental care and treatment is paramount to maintaining your general health
Your health needs to be fostered by taking utmost care that includes proper oral hygiene. In order to prevent oral disease, you need to take appropriate measures to keep your denture clean, prevent plaque formation, resist bad breath and also prevent infections resulting from unhealthy habits.

The Importance of Dental and Oral Health

Dental hygiene and health care are quite inter-related to each other. As a matter of fact, a number of diseases including bacterial, viral and fungal infections can be transmitted when proper oral hygiene habits are not followed.
The food substances we consume, the fluids and water that we ingest are all potential sources of infection. The mouth in itself is home to a number of microbes and bacteria to begin with. Proper hygiene ensures that the oral cavity is kept clean and prevents harmful infestation of microbes.
 

Oral Health & Dental Care Measures

Dental health care measures include brushing twice a day. This ensures that harm
causing bacteria and microbes that are present in the mouth are killed and removed
 from time to time. Brushing before going to bed is vital as it reduces the effect of acid
and action of microbes on teeth. Using natural ingredients such as salt, to clean the
 teeth and tongue helps in maintaining better dental and oral health.
The oral cavity has a number of spaces that are small and narrow where even the
bristles of the brush cannot reach. Hence, flossing is an effective mechanism to
 ensure dental hygiene and health. Flossing helps to remove food particles and
 debris from between the teeth. This in turn helps to ensure better oral health.
Practices such as gurgling, flossing, avoiding sweets and snacks between
 meals and avoiding excessive bleaching that removes natural teeth enamel are all
 important.

The more you take care in your eating habits and keeping healthy by maintaining clean
 teeth, the more it is beneficial on the long run. It is important to note that a healthy
denture is not permanent and is bound to deteriorate with time if certified health
services are not made use of. Once the tooth begins to decay and consequential
 problems like adherent tartar, discoloring, infections, gingivitis, cavities and tooth
 root diseases occur, they will wreak havoc in quick succession.

"Even the most efficient health services dental will not be able to remedy the situation beyond a certain point. Relying on artificial teeth, bridges and cosmetic dentistry surgery should be the last resort; only neccessary if you forget to take thorough daily dental care."

Tips for Better Dental Health

There are a few quick dental health tips to make a difference right away. Avoid chewing tobacco and drinking excessive tea as it can cause discoloration of the teeth. While brushing your teeth, remember to clean your tongue. The flakes that remain on the tongue carry remnants of food particles and more often than otherwise can lead to bacterial infestations in the mouth. Regular cleaning helps ensure a healthy denture.
 
Cleaning the tongue needs to be carried out using an appropriate instrument, such as a tongue cleaner. This helps to clean the tongue systematically and in a neat manner. You must strictly avoid touching the mouth after touching other materials such as keyboards, tops of shelves, shoes and clothes. This is because, over a million microbes are usually present in the keyboard and other places such as in shelves and on clothes. When the saliva from the mouth is transferred from one person to an object it becomes a direct source of infection and disease. Hence, this is an important rule for dental hygiene and health. Remember to wash your hands with soap or antiseptic after cleaning the mouth and tongue.
You should use a soft ended tooth pick to remove the debris and food particles that might be stuck between the teeth. Never use a pin that can pierce the gums and cause bleeding and inflammation. Oral health dental can be ensured by refraining from a number of habits such as this.Using mouth wash can prevent extended bacterial action and using high- fluoride mouth wash reduces helps overcome excessive sensitivity of teeth. Mouth wash also helps to clear all germs and food borne microbes that are present in the oral cavity.
information taken from.....

Monday, October 31, 2011

It's Halloween.....Candy is a Halloween tradition

The History of Candy and Halloween!

Halloween Candy
The origins of Halloween go back to pre-Christian times, to when Celtic groups in areas now known as Ireland, Scotland and Wales celebrated their New Year's Day on November 1. This day was called "All Saints' Day", and October 31 was called "All Hallows' Eve". A great fire festival called "Samhein"on All Hallows Eve signaled the close of the harvest and the initiation of the cold and dark season of winter. All hearth fires in homes were extinguished, then relit from communal bonfires.

On All Hallows' Eve, it was believed that the doors opened between the world of the dead and the world of the living. All the spirits of the people who died during the previous year were thought to be traveling from their resting place to their place in the next world. The Celts placed food and drink out to sustain the spirits, and people concealed their identity with disguises to supposedly escape harm while they walked from house to house to enjoy food and drink. Many people also carved turnips to represent faces, marking the origination of today's jack-o-lanterns.

When Christianity took root in northern Europe, these folk customs were incorporated into a Christian framework. Samhein became All Saints Day, a day to commemorate all dead saints and martyrs. All Saints Day was sometimes known as All Hallows' Day, and the night before, All Hallow's Eve, or Hallow e'en, which we today call Halloween.

The Celts brought their folk customs to America with them, where they took root and evolved over the years. Halloween was originally celebrated in America as a harvest festival. Carved turnips became carved pumpkins, which grew in abundance in America. Colorful costumes replaced disguises, and trick-or-treat evolved from presenting food and drink to the wandering spirits.


(article found on Squidoo)

Remember, Everything is ok in moderation. Candy is a special treat this time of year.....Just remember to BRUSH AND FLOSS!!

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

What happens to your body after you drink a soda every day, for a long time

(We found this article on Shine from Yahoo)

Sugar rushes and caffeine highs followed by a depressing energy crash are what happens to your body if you drink a soda right now, but plenty of Blisstree readers actually seem to be okay with that. Some of you think it’s alarmist to compare a caffeine and sugar rush to doing drugs, and some just don’t really care about the slump they’ll find themselves in after drinking 39 grams of sugar, but what makes us really worried about a soda-slurping habit is what happens over the long term.
Here’s a quick snapshot of you, in a few years, after drinking soda on a regular basis:

You’ll Be Fatter: According to research in the Nurse’s Health Study, which monitored the health of 90,000 women for eight years, drinking a single soda every day of the week added 10 pounds over a four-year period.


You’ll Probably Have Diabetes: In the Nurses’ Health Study, women who said they drank one or more servings a day of a sugar-sweetened soft drink or fruit punch were twice as likely to have developed type 2 diabetes during the study than those who rarely consumed these beverages.

You’re Much More Likely to Develop Heart Disease: According to a study published in 2007 in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association, subjects who drank a soda every day over a four-year period had a 25% chance of developing high blood sugar levels and a 32% greater chance of developing lower “good” cholesterol levels. The Nurses’ Health Study found that women who drank more than two sugary beverages per day had a 40% higher risk of heart attacks or death from heart disease than women who rarely drank sugary beverages.

You’re Probably Also Less Healthy In Other Ways: Several studies, including the 2007 study published in Circulation, suggest that diet sodas have some of the same effects on health as regular sodas, despite having none or very little of the sugar. Why? Drinking soda is typically part of an overall lifestyle that’s not very healthy: We know you don’t like us to compare drinking caffeine and sugar to substance abuse, but when it comes to your lifestyle, some think that soda is just like a gateway drug.

You can reach this post's author, Briana Rognlin, via e-mail at briana@blisstree.com