Strengths and Weaknesses in Dentistry

Last week I completely lost my voice. No, I wasn’t sick – it was from too much cheering! The sports programs at my kids’ school play in a small school league. All of the charter, private and other small schools around play each other. It’s become quite competitive and the sports programs have really improved.
Cross Country has been my sons’ sport of choice in the fall the last three years, but they both voted for something that involved less pain this year! One son joined the Pleasant Grove High School Rock climbing team, and the other decided to try his hand at the latest sport our school has added – boys volleyball.

Volleyball = Basketball

It is a funny team – it’s basically all of the basketball players. They are tall, they are athletic..what else do you need? I think one of the players had actually played volleyball before. The first game we asked how they thought they would do, and they had no clue! They had never played anyone but each other.
Well, they did pretty darn well. That first game they played the state champions from the previous year, and barely lost. They continued winning and made it all the way to the state tournament. After two very hard fought games (why I lost my voice!), they were playing in the state championship game – against the team they started out playing at the beginning of the year.
It was interesting, I think this team had come to expect that they would win, and it was their downfall. They quickly got behind in the first set, and weren’t quite sure how to handle it. Our boys won the first set, and in a very anti-climatic ending won the second set and the championship. My voice was gone, but they took home a pretty cool trophy!

Strengths and Weaknesses

This got me thinking about strengths and weaknesses – things that help us win or cause us to lose. Our team’s strength was our athleticism and lack of expectations! Their team’s weakness was big expectations and lack of preparation for someone that may be able to take the title from them. Sometimes knowing your weakness is the biggest part of the battle.
My voice is definitely my current weakness. I can’t make it through church without a hoarse voice some days. I’m doing vigorous research and am trying everything I can think of to make it stronger. I’ll keep working on it and hopefully by the basketball tournament this year I’ll be in good cheering shape.

Dentistry’s weakness

That’s what we are doing in the office as well. There is a big weakness in the modern practice of dentistry. Most of what we battle has to do with bugs. Tooth decay is from bacteria. Abscess teeth are infected with bacteria. Gum disease is bacterial and sometimes fungal. Cold sores are viral. Bugs are our mouth’s enemies. So why have we never been able to figure out how to kill these bugs?
You might be thinking antibiotics are the answer, but that is a band aid at best. If you kill all the bacteria, the other bugs flourish without the competition. Sigh.

Ozone to the rescue

Well, last month I introduced a new soldier in the battle against dental bugs. It’s called Dental Ozone and I’m so excited about it!! I’m going to give you the shortcut version of what Ozone is, then tell you why I’m so excited to have it available for you.
The oxygen we breathe every day is O2 – two molecules of oxygen. Ozone is O3 – three molecules of oxygen. For oxygen, three’s a crowd. Ozone is a very active, unstable gas. It is called an “oxidizer” and is looking for something to give it’s extra molecule to. All of our healthy cells have anti-oxidants in the membrane surrounding them. So ozone can’t do anything to our healthy cells – they can not be oxidized.
Unhealthy cells like bacteria, viruses and fungi don’t have antioxidants in the membrane. The ozone essentially punches a hole in the membrane and destroys the cell. Poof! Bad bugs are dead!

So how is this useful for you? In so many ways!

1. Stops Cavities – Ozone used on a tooth can kill the bacteria in a cavity. So if found early enough, we can use the ozone to stop the cavity, then your saliva carries minerals to the tooth to help it rebuild. This is PERFECT for kids.
2. Used under a filling to help it last a long time – A deeper cavity will require a filling if the cavity has destroyed some of the tooth (you can’t walk around with a large hole in your tooth). But to ensure the filling will last a long time, we use ozone on the tooth under the filling to make sure there are not any bacteria left. Then we will place the filling over top and you have a long-lasting filling with no sensitivity.
3. Desensitize teeth – if you have sensitive teeth, we now have an answer for you. There are microscopic tubes that extend from the outside of the tooth to the nerve. This is why your tooth feels the cold. Ozone kills the bugs in those tubes and plugs them up. So in one or two treatments, your sensitivity is gone.
4. Sterilizes a tooth before a root canal – Root canals are controversial these days. We are finding some of them fail, years later. This failure is because of bugs that are left in those same tiny tubes when a root canal is filled in. Ozone can kill all those bug before the root canal is filled.
5. Cleans a tooth before a sealant – Dental sealants on molars in kids are to prevent cavities on those molars. The problem comes when that sealant is placed over bacteria. If this happens, those bugs are getting sealed in and they will cause a cavity. We use ozone before a sealant to make sure the tooth is completely clean before the sealant is placed.
6. To help cold sores and canker sores heal more quickly – Remember what ozone does to bugs? It’s blows them up! So ozone treatment on cold and canker sores kills the bugs and helps your body heal quicker.
7. Kills bacteria under the gums in gum disease – One of the trickiest place to keep clean is under gums. And if bacteria set up shop, they will destroy your bone and gums surrounding your teeth. Ozone used under the gums can kill bacteria and will help both your and our efforts in your gum health.

So much more! Next time you are in for a visit, please ask us about ozone and how it can help you. We are so excited to be able to tackle one of our weaknesses! Have a great week!
Love,
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen

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