Category: My ideas

My opinions and ideas about different matters.

8 Reasons Why Your Mouth Is Dry

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Dry mouth can make your mouth feel like Sahara desert

Dry mouth is something everyone experiences at some point of life. Normally it passes by it self but sometimes it persists and might become a condition that affects the standard of living and oral health. At that point we realise how important the saliva actually is.

Here are the most common reasons for dry mouth.

Dehydration

I start from the most common reason for the dry mouth, the dehydration. There are many reasons for the dehydration and some of them are not so well known amongst common people. Here are the most typical reasons:

  • exercise
  • drinking diuretic drinks (e.g. coffee, tea, coke, alcohol)
  • hot weather
  • air conditioning

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The dehydration caused by these reasons is easily cured by drinking enough water. For example if you drink a cup of coffee, drink same amount of water as well.

Dehydration can be caused by other reasons as well like

  • medication
  • illnesses (e.g. fever, diabetes)
  • vomiting, diarrhoea

Mouthwashes

Mouthwashes that contain alcohol can dry the mouth. If you experience dry mouth, it may cause bad breath because saliva is not around to kill bacteria.

It is bacteria that is causing the bad breath and without saliva it will build up quicker. If dry mouth is accompanied with an inadequate oral hygiene regime it will result in thick layer of bacteria (plaque). And the longer the plaque stays in one place, the more sinister bacteria there will be. Even amoebas! Eew!

People who experience bad breath will often turn to mouthwashes but it can actually go from bad to worse. The best thing to do when you get bad breath is to visit your hygienist, follow a good oral hygiene regime and keep yourself hydrated.

Even the alcohol-free mouthwashes can dry the mouth. There are so many chemicals in the mouthwashes that it is not possible to predict how your mouth reacts to one. If you are interested to read more about mouthwashes and if you should use them, read this.

Stress

Stress can cause the saliva flow to decrease leaving your mouth feeling sticky. Also all the stress related illnesses like depression and anxiety can cause dry mouth.

Medications

There are many side effects with medicines, one being the dry mouth. The most common medicines to cause dry mouth are

  • antihistamines
  • beta-blockers
  • antidepressants
  • anti-psychotics
  • muscle relaxants
  • diuretics

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Sometimes it is worth consulting your doctor if there would be an alternate medicine for the same condition – maybe this alternate medicine is not causing that many side effects. Also pills from different trade marks can have different composition even though they have the same active ingredient. So trying different trade mark might help with the side-effects.

Remember not to stop taking medicine before you consult your doctor.

Illnesses and Syndromes

There are illnesses that may cause dry mouth. The Sjögren’s Syndrome is one of them. Also Alzheimer’s disease and stroke may cause dry mouth.

Cancer that requires radiation therapy close to salivary glands can damage the salivary glands and this will cause dry mouth. Also chemotherapy will cause dry mouth as it will make the saliva thicker.

Type 1 and type 2 diabetes can cause dry mouth with some individuals. It is not well known why this happens but it has been suspected that the high blood sugar levels are the culprit.

Smoking and Recreational Drug Use

Smoking and chewing tobacco can cause dry mouth symptoms, so does the use of marijuana.

Methamphetamine aka Crystal meth also causes dry mouth and damaged “meth teeth”. But the dry mouth side effect is the least of the worries with this drug. Stay away from it unless you are in a hurry to the grave. It is also good to remember that marijuana can be a gateway to stronger drugs. So it is best to avoid it as well.

Mouth Breathing

Breathing through mouth because of blocked nose or because of anatomy of the facial structures (lips, jaw) causes dry mouth. Also some of the mouth breathing is habitual and some of it happens at night when you sleep. This reminds me that I’ve always wondered if the mouth breathing is a nice way to say you snore at night?

Toothpaste Ingredients

Toothpastes have many ingredients and they vary from toothpaste to toothpaste. But 2 ingredients to avoid when you experience dry mouth are sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) and zinc. SLS is found in many foam forming products like shampoos and it is better known by the name soap.

Also it is best to choose a toothpaste that does not cause your mouth burn or make it dry. The combo of chemicals reacts differently with each individual (like with mouthwashes) so you can find a suitable toothpaste for you by testing different toothpastes. Remember to always choose a toothpaste that contains fluoride (1450ppm).

How to Relieve the Dry Mouth

  • drink plenty of water
  • chew sugar-free chewing gum (preferably sweetened with xylitol or erythritol)
  • suck 100% xylitol pastilles (100% means that xylitol is the only sweetener used in the pastilles) – xylitol has an ability increase saliva flow. You can suck these as often you stomach can take.
  • suck on ice cubes
  • use dry mouth gels, sprays or lozenges that you can get from the pharmacist. Ask the pharmacist to check that they are tooth-friendly.
  • make sure your nose is not blocked, use decongestant before hitting the hay if it is
  • use small amount of olive oil before going to bed – spread it all around your mouth with your tongue. This will hopefully prevent you waking up because of the dry mouth at night.
  • set a room vaporiser to add moisture to the bedroom air if it is very dry – drying laundry indoors will do the same trick
  • seek help for the snoring from your doctor
  • think about changing your lifestyle habits especially if you can tick many boxes in the list of the reasons for dry mouth. Some things you cannot change, but those you can, might make a difference to your overall well being. If you are depressed and have medication for the depression – seek help for the root cause of the depression. Maybe a therapy?

The Reason Dentist Tilts You Upside Down

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Don’t like when the dentist chair goes down? Well, you are not alone. When sitting on a dental chair and your dentist begins to tilt the chair down, you feel comfortable to the certain point. But when the seat keeps on going down after you think that surely it cannot go any further and you feel like you are going to slide off the chair, you clutch the chair handles (if there is any – mine doesn’t). You might state that you feel like you are upside down. You might ask the dentist to lift the chair more upward position, or to adjust the head rest so that you feel more comfortable.

Guess what we think at that point? Well, normally we might feel slightly annoyed because you might be the dentist’s fifteenth patient that day and her back and shoulders are aching from the difficult working positions. Nevertheless the dentist might lift the chair more upright. Some might not even tilt patients low enough in the first place to avoid complaint that we have heard gazillion times before.

Neither of these ways is good practice because these dentists and hygienists who are trying to fulfil patient’s every wish, risk their future as dental professionals. Keeping the patient chair in too upright position means that it is practically impossible to work ergonomically. Working ergonomically as often as possible guarantees that we will be working on our dream job (?) until we retire.

Of course there are patients that we need to leave upright position by default. These patient are e.g. heavily pregnant ladies, obese people, people with heart condition and elderly people. But the normal patients can be tilted to the position that is best for dental professionals posture. By normal I mean patients that are healthy or do not have severe medical conditions.

Request for the Patients

Next time you visit your dentist, make her happy by not saying anything about the position of the chair. They will not let you fall. Also you will get better quality of treatment when the dentist can see better to the difficult areas of you mouth. And you don’t need to swallow so much of water when the nurse is able to see the back of you mouth.

Advice for the Dental Professional

But what to do when a patient complains about the chair position? Well, the key to keeping patient happy is to be one step ahead of the game.

First thing you can do is to take the chair down gradually. Taking it all the way down in one go will most probably make your patient complain.

If I hear a complaint even though I’be been tilting the chair down slowly, I reassure the patient by saying

I know you feel like you are going to slide off the chair but so far no-one has. You will get used to the position soon. This position helps me to keep my posture and to see your upper teeth properly.

Patient is often fine during the treatment. When the session is over and I lift the chair up again, some patients state that they feel dizzy when getting up. Tell them to sit still and that there’s no hurry to leave the patient chair (well, you need to make the notes anyway, so it does not require extra time). It is best to sit still, well supported and wait for the things to settle.

If you face a difficult patient that insists to lift the chair more upright even though there is no medical reason for it, tell them that you will do so if the patients feels it is necessary but that you cannot guarantee the best possible result of e.g. scaling because you won’t be able to reach the upper back teeth in a right angle. And if you do still need to lift the chair too upright, it is best to stand up to be able to have as good posture as possible.

If It Really Is Your Dream Job – Important Tip for You

I’ve noticed that it is often the dentists and hygienists that have just graduated that too easily work in non-ergonomic way. It probably is because they still feel invincible. I know, because I did so too! Now having been on this profession for over 20 years and having had both of my shoulders operated (successfully!) due to work related conditions in both of them, I really need to focus on better posture with each patient. And still I get back ache almost every day. But I’m no longer in despair because I have found a cure for the back ache. So keep on reading because I’m going to share the best tip for keeping you going day after day, week after week, year after year in this profession.

I’ve known for a long time that there are these foam rollers that you can buy to exercise at home. Even my gym has had them for ages. But I never really knew how or why to use it until one day I tried one for my back. I placed it between the floor and my back, placed my hands on my shoulders (left hand to right shoulder and right hand to left shoulder) and by using my legs rolled the foam roller slowly up and down my spine like in the picture here. You can also find a good video of using the roller here.

This really keeps me going and I wonder why no-one has told me about it before!? That is why I’m telling you.

Before you start using the foam roller, there is one thing you need to keep in mind. My physiatrist emphasised that if you are going to use a roller, it needs to be a foam roller. Too hard roller will not be good for your spine.

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Climate Change and Dentistry

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Dental Revelations Blog-18

The Climate Report in 2018 wasn’t much fun to read. In fact it was rather depressing and raised many worries over the future of our children and their children. We might even face a situation where many adults living today will face the consequences of polluting our Planet Earth. We’ve all seen the warning signs – natural disasters, unusual weather like long heatwaves in countries where it is normally mild weather, extreme dryness causing crops to die just to name few.

Despite the fact that the report was worrying and depressing, I hope that all of you have read it. Hiding your head in the sand will not make it go away or change the fact that it is going to affect you as well.

We should all participate in saving the Planet Earth. Participating in saving ourselves and our children. That can be done by thinking what changes you can do in your everyday life to help in this cause. There are plenty of choices we make every day that can make a difference to the world’s future.

You can choose a product in the food store that use minimum amount of packing. For example choose muesli which has simple paper bag packaging and which is locally produced (or in your home country). Choose fruits and vegetables that have simple packaging or no packaging at all (there are re-usable fruit bags available).

Choose local fruits and vegetables or the ones that are not shipped from the other side of the world.

Reduce the amount of red meat in your diet or become a vegetarian (I’m not vegetarian but I have almost stopped eating red meat) ‘cos plant-based diet it is far more environmentally friendly than meat-based diet. Think about how large area of fields are needed to herd livestock and to grow food for them when these areas could be used for growing plant based food for humans or for growing trees that help the Planet to get rid of the carbon dioxide – it is a gas that is the largest contributor to the climate change.

Also, once you’ve done your environmentally friendly food shopping, do not use plastic bags to pack your stuff. Instead take a re-usable bags with you when you go food shopping. And why not use them the with all your shopping? Do we really need to tell everyone that we’ve been shopping at Harrods or Louis Vuitton? When the climate change reaches the point that our lives are at risk, these status symbols have very little meaning. So have one re-usable bag always tucked inside your LV hand bag, car, rucksack or pocket.

There are plenty of things we can do differently as long as we think we can make a difference. If everyone would think that it makes no difference if you buy these passion fruits that are shipped from the other side of the world or that it makes no difference if you recycle or not, we are doomed.

Together we can make a difference and you can change the way you do things in every aspects of your life, including your professional life. Personally speaking, I have noticed that I feel more and more guilty over the fact that dentistry is so very environmentally unfriendly.

Single-use materials

We produce massive amounts of waste every day. We have many disposable materials that we throw away after each patient. Many of the disposable materials are made of plastic. There’s no way going around it as disposable, single-use materials are the best option when it comes to cross infection control.

Water

Also, have you ever thought about how much water we use everyday? We wash our hands many times a day. Our rotary instruments require water, our instrument maintenance cycle requires water, our aspiration system loooves water (this is how one maintenance guy for the dental units expressed it) so we suck water into it in the morning, between every patient and in the evening. Well, at least this is how it should be done to prevent the backflow.

Backflow means bacteria and viruses travel towards the patient inside the suction tube. When patients close their mouth and form a seal around the tip of the saliva ejector, a partial vacuum occurs. Blood, viruses, saliva, bacteria, debris might travel as far as into the patient’s mouth. If you don’t believe me, read this. This of course means the patients should not close their mouths around the suction.

I have tried to change my way of using water by closing the tap (with my elbow) while I rub my hands together with soap – you know this should last 15 seconds for the soap to kill e.g. norovirus that is causing Winter Vomiting Disease. In that 15 seconds lots of water is wasted if you keep the tap on. The surgery should have taps that are easily operated without using fingers – the tap should be long enough (medical tap) for you to be able also open it with you elbow. There are also sensor-operated taps that will stop the water flow when hands are moved away from the tap.

Chemicals

We use many different chemicals that are bad for the environment. There’s no way going around this one either. Unless the manufacturers are trying to develop chemicals for disinfection that are more environmentally friendly.

Oral Hygiene Recommendations

On top of everything else we recommend products to our patients that are made of plastic. That’s why the wooden triangle-shaped tooth pick has become a product I recommend more and more (I have written about it in one of my previous posts). Of course it’s not suitable for all the patients, but for those that it is, it will make a difference in the amount of plastic waste.

Conclusion

There are not many things we can change in practising dentistry. But even the smallest changes matter. So please everyone, think about what change you can make and challenge your colleagues and friends to participate in saving the Planet.

Lets make it a norm rather than an exception to re-cycle and to live sustainable life.

Lets do it for our children.

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