What is the best way to restore the tooth shown in the picture on the right? When your dentist is looking at this picture, there are several factors to consider before coming to a decision: size & location of the defect, strength & stress requirement, and aesthetics. There is a spectrum of materials and techniques to restore teeth depending on the size and location of the particular defect. Composite resin and crowns represent well known restorative solutions to small and large defects, respectively.

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. Because of this sharing of common pathways, the true etiology is often masked. These symptoms may be reduced to a tolerable state, but they would always return without treating the true cause of the problem.

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. Our elderly parents face unique challenges in maintaining proper oral hygiene due to physical and/or mental disabilities that often come with old age.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) can be found in every segment of population, even in children. One distinction to be made is that OSA in adults can only be managed, not cured. However, OSA in children can be cured. Consequence of airway obstruction is reduced oxygen available for the body. Oxygen deprivation is especially critical for the rapidly growing body and brain.

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.