We make sure that our children and ourselves brush our teeth everyday and get dental checkups twice a year, but what about our geriatric parents living in nursing homes? Senior citizens living in a nursing home setting have traditionally been an underserved segment of our population in terms of oral health care. We would like to use this opportunity to highlight some of the challenges that our seniors are facing and some possible solutions.

By: Dr. Lewis Yu, DMD- All About Smiles, P.A.
North Wilmington and Pike Creek, DE
Do you suffer from headaches, neck or back discomfort, jaw pain when chewing or numbness and tingling sensation in your arms and fingers? You probably have tolerated these symptoms for years, by taking over-the-counter medications or seeing various health care professionals in search of relief of your symptoms.
The key word is COMPENSATION. The analogy I like to use is this: when a person is walking, it requires a balance act of nervous, muscle, and skeletal systems. Everything …

Sleep Apnea is no laughing matter. It is the root cause of many medical conditions which potentially could lead to serious disabilities and death. This disease strikes adults and children alike. Approximately 90 million people in North America suffer from sleep disorders including insomnia, snoring, and sleep apnea.

Picture yourself going to your dentist or doctor! You are not feeling well and a rather unsmiling person slides open a glass partition just a crack and asks you to sign in on a clipboard or worse yet, says “Just take a seat and we’ll be with you.” Then she calls out – NEXT.

We make sure that our children and ourselves brush teeth everyday and get dental check ups twice a year. What about our geriatric parents living in nursing homes? Senior citizens in the nursing home setting have traditionally been an underserved segment of our population in terms of oral health care. We would like to use this opportunity to highlight some of the challenges that our seniors are facing and some possible solutions.

Pregnant women with gum disease are seven times more likely to have a baby that is born too early and too small. This is due to a labor-inducing chemical that is found in oral bacteria called prostaglandin.

By: Dr. Grace (I-Yin) Liu, DMD- All About Smiles, P.A., North Wilmington and Pike Creek, DE

From our previous article in the Women’s Journal, we had discussed the three components of the chewing system (Teeth, Muscle, Joints).We now know how important it is to keep all three components working in harmony. No longer should we, the dentist, prescribe treatment plans for teeth without considering the consequence and effect on the other two components.

By: Dr. Grace (I-Yin) Liu, DMD

You read the articles in the health section of the paper or in the popular women’ s magazines, or maybe catch a clip on the “Health Watch” edition of the evening news on the effects of gum disease. Most people disregard the information, because they brush regularly and see their dentist and may have nice looking teeth. But the fact is that 3 out of 4 people have some form of gum disease ranging from mild to severe.

Jaw pain is the most common symptom people associate with TMD. However, it is not the only one. Due to the joint’s close proximity to the brain and pathological mechanism, it induces a wide range of symptoms throughout the entire body. When these symptoms surface at locations other than the jaw joints, they tend to mimic other medical conditions that may share some common pathways.

By: Dr. Lewis Yu and Dr. Grace Liu

When you go to a dentist or doctor, do you feel that you are being treated like a person or simply rushed in and out without your needs being met, or your concerns heard?