Kantor Dental Group
Acid Attacks Your Teeth When Eating Sugary Foods
Hello, I’m Dr. Grey Kantor with Kantor Dental Group here in San Rafael, California. Today, I want to talk about acid attack on your teeth. For example, when do your teeth get attacked to where they could get a cavity? Let’s just look it up on the internet, shall we? Acid attack on teeth. Acid attacks your teeth whenever you have acid, but really it actually attacks your teeth whenever you have sugar as well. Here’s an example here. You have your tooth, nice and shiny, but then when you have the bacteria on the teeth, they eat the sugar in the food. That creates acid and along with time will create tooth decay. So it’s really the acid that’s killing your teeth, not the bacteria. Bacteria plus sugar equals more acid. So, the more acid, the worse it is for your teeth.
We can also see this in graph form. So, here is a graph of your day. You have your breakfast. Boom! The acid drops. That’s this dip right here in the graph. And then you have a little coffee, a little dip. Coffee’s not so bad. Oh, there’s your lunch. Boom! It drops. A little tea maybe, for tea time. And then dinner. Boom! Acid drops again. So you see, there’s three main meals a day where your teeth go to a low enough PH to where there’s an attack on your teeth causing decay.
How do we stop that? Well, for one, we only have three meals a day. If you don’t have three meals a day, say you have multiple days a day, breakfast, sweet, coffee, sweet, lunch, sweet, tea, biscuit, dinner, coffee, sweet, coffee, you get all of these attacks on your teeth keeping you below that critical PH, below that level of health, to where you’re constantly caught having an attack on your teeth.
That’s where the time comes in. The amount of time you spend eating is going to have more attacks on your teeth from bacteria and the acid they produce. So the way to avoid this is to just have your three meals a day, three squares. And then try to just drink water and not have any sugary beverages or anything like that the rest of the day.
Again, I’m Dr. Grey Kantor here at Kantor Dental Group, Aesthetic Dentistry and Implantology. Thank you very much. And please subscribe.
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Oct 3rd, 2016
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What Is Periodontal Disease?
Hello, I’m Dr. Grey Kantor here at Kantor Dental Group, Aesthetic Dentistry and Implantology.
Today, I want to talk about periodontal disease. Periodontal disease is something that happens when you don’t get your teeth clean for a while or you’ve eaten a lot of sugars or something and you get a lot of tartar on your teeth, otherwise known as calculus. This tartar builds up and it causes your gums to get inflamed.
Let’s look at the picture and see how that happens. In this picture here, we can see that this tooth is healthy. This dental probe, you might say, it checks the pocket depths and tells us that it’s 3 mm or less. As those pocket depths increase, you can see the tooth starts to get tartar on it, that’s that dark stuff, and then it begins to… You get deeper and deeper pockets, and if you look right in this area here, the bone begins to decrease as well and change shape. That enables more plaque, more tartar, and then it’s a cyclical process and it gets more and more inflamed. But if you also notice, the tooth is getting less and less strong. This is really bad for your teeth and it is one of the two main ways people lose teeth.
How do we stop this from happening? Well, you get your teeth cleaned often to get that tartar removed. Tartar is too difficult to remove with your toothbrush, so you need a dentist to remove that. And another way to do it is with a deep cleaning, otherwise known as periodontal therapy. What we do with periodontal therapy is we have those deep pockets and we clean them out really well with a curette. And clean it all up. And then, a lot of the times with the deep pockets, we’ll put in an antibiotic known as ARESTIN. That antibiotic is yellow in color, and we put it in there to… It kind of slow release microspheres of antibiotic and they’ll keep it healthy so it can heal and you can get more bone and gum attachment. This will make your teeth a lot stronger and much more healthy. So that way you can keep your teeth the rest of your life, which is our goal here at Kantor Dental Group, Aesthetic Dentistry and Implantology.
Thanks for watching and please subscribe.
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Sep 21st, 2016
11:02 am
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Tags: Deep Cleaning, Periodontal Disease, Tarter
Implant Retained Lower Dentures
Hello. I’m Doctor Grey Kantor here at Kantor Dental Group in San Rafael, California. Today, I want to talk about implant retained dentures. This is when you lose all your teeth and you have a denture on top and on bottom. But the bottom ones just don’t seem to fit very well which by the way is very common. You’re not alone. Bottom dentures, they never fit as well. They have much less surface area to rest on. On the top, you have your whole pallet to get a nice suction cupping affect. But on the bottom, our tongue’s in the way, so you really… Bottom dentures can just be a bother and make it very hard to chew. One way to fix that is with implants, as you see behind me. There are two different types of dentures; ones that you take in and out at night and the other that stays in and is fixed into place. Today, I want to talk about the ones that you take in and out at night. There are two types of that as well. Those are ones that don’t have a bar and ones that do have a bar. Let me show you some examples.
As you can see, there are two different locator attachments that connect to the bottom of the denture and this snaps into place and is very sturdy and a great way to do it. However, you can get even stronger, another way which is a bar. A bar wraps around, connects all the implants together giving you a rigid support, allowing you to chew those harder materials and gives you a lot more of your chewing back. Almost 60%. One thing to note is that, you notice me, it was pretty hard for me to pull these off. With all of these types of dentures, we’re able to choose the rubber grommets inside, allowing us to choose the amount of force required to put them off and on. Depending on your dexterity with your fingers, we’ll choose the correct rubber grommet to make it easy to come in and out, but also strong enough to allow you to chew on whatever you like.
Another question I get all the time is, “How long do these treatments take?” Well, depending on if you’re a candidate, these treatments can be done in as little as one day. However, not everyone is a candidate for that. But there’s always the possibility, you’d have to come in to find out if you’re a candidate for single day treatment. If you aren’t a candidate for single day treatment, it’ll take about three months for the treatment to move along. Once we put the implants in, you’ll need three months healing time before we can attach it to the denture. If you’re looking to get your lower denture to hold into place a lot better, definitely come to us here at Kantor Dental Group and we’ll help you chew to a better future.
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Sep 14th, 2016
10:28 am
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Tags: Bottom Dentures, Dentures, Implants, Lower Retained Dentures
7 Preventive Steps To Avoid Gum Disease
Gum disease not only impacts your teeth, but your overall health. Recent studies have found that gingivitis can not only negatively affect oral health, but whole body health. Gum disease can even have consequences on pregnancies and contribute to preterm delivery!
Here are 7 preventative steps to avoid gum disease:
(1.) Brush your teeth
While this may seem like a no brainer, when people are extremely busy or tired, tooth cleanliness may take a back side to things such as sleep. Brushing your teeth, however, is one of the first lines of defense against gum disease. Also, you should talk to your dentist about your brushing technique to ensure that you aren’t actually damaging your gums while brushing.
(2.) Floss regularly
Flossing is one of those things that everyone has the best intention of doing, but can sometimes rarely get done. Flossing strengthens your gums and removes food particles from between your teeth. Getting in the routine of flossing can help your gums stay healthy. If regular floss isn’t for you, try floss picks or a water pick. Try and find the tools that will help you floss the most often.
(3.) See the dentist regularly
Your dental checkups are excellent times to check in on your gum health. As with many things, preventative measures are the best course of treatment because oftentimes once the disease progresses it is too late for many treatments. Even if you’re not a fan of the dentist, force yourself to go to schedule and go to your appointments. Your dentist can alert you if your gums are in trouble and suggest a course of action to get you back on track.
(4.) Eat healthy
It is now being shown that the heathier your diet, the less risk you have of getting gum disease. This makes sense because the better your diet, the less sugars and acids you are probably consuming. Cutting out sodas and other soft drinks are one of the best lines of defense against gum disease. Also, ensuring you get the right vitamins and minerals can support oral health. The better your diet, the less risk factors you will have for gum disease.
(5.) Use mouthwash
Swishing with mouthwash can reduce plaque and food particles within your mouth as well as kill a lot of harmful bacteria. Think of mouthwash as the insurance plan to flossing and brushing, as mouthwash can get some of those particles and bacteria they missed. Mouthwash is a great addition to any oral care regimen and will give you great breath as well!
(6.) Stop smoking
In addition to being bad for your lungs and overall health, smoking also takes a toll on your teeth and oral health. One of the reasons smoking is bad for your gums is that it decreases circulation all over your body, including your gums. Smoking is also one of the number one contributors for gum disease. For your oral health as well as for your entire body, stop smoking today. There are numerous state sponsored plans and programs to help you quit.
(7.) Chew sugar free gum
After meals, sugar free gum can increase the amount of saliva in your mouth, helping to clear away food particles left behind after a meal. Be sure your gum is sugar free so you are not making the problem worse!
These are 7 preventative measures you can take against gum disease. Gum health is an overlooked but essential component to overall body health. Your gums matter! Be sure to take care of them because gingivitis and gum disease are not fun.
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Sep 3rd, 2016
12:33 pm
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What Are Dental Crowns?
Dental crowns are a means of protection for a tooth that is weakened by decay. Most often, dental crowns are applied to molars that have had extensive work done. This is because left the way it is, dental fillings can weaken a tooth to the point where it will crack and break. Dental crowns cap the tooth and make them stronger so that they are able to be used for chewing. Dental crowns can also be applied to teeth that are severely ground down due to teeth grinding, a common malady that impacts many people.
As with other dental appliances, there are a variety of materials that can be used for the crown, including porcelain, metal, ceramic, resin, and stainless steel. Each material comes with its own pros and cons, which need to be discussed with your dentist prior to creating the crown.
What is the process for getting a crown?
One of the first things your dentist is going to do if a crown is the best course of treatment is to check on the overall health of the tooth. If you have had extensive decay or work done on the tooth, a root canal may be necessary. Your dentist may suggest doing the root canal himself or sending you to an endodontist, a specialist that works primarily with root canals. If the tooth is a back molar, he will most likely send you to an endodontist due to the many canals in those teeth.
Once any root canal work is done, if it is needed, you will then return to your dentist’s office to create the crown. This normally takes two appointments to complete. The first appointment involves shaping the tooth to prepare it for the crown. The tooth usually needs to be ground down until it is a specific thickness and shape.
When the tooth is prepared, the dentist will then take impressions of the tooth. The impression is important because it is sent to the lab in order for the crown to be made. You want the crown to fit in your mouth perfectly, so a good impression is critical to success. While your crown is being made in the laboratory, which normally takes two weeks, you dentist will likely place a temporary crown. This temporary crown will help protect your tooth until the permanent crown is placed. Treat the temporary with caution and do not bite down on hard things.
At the second appointment, the dentist will remove your temporary crown. He/She will then place the permanent crown on your tooth to check the fit, bite, and appearance of the tooth. If the crown is in a location where it is visible when you smile, the dentist will likely have you check the appearance for yourself. This is not the time to be shy! Once the permanent crown is affixed to your teeth changes cannot be made, so be sure the color and appearance is what you want, even if it means having to replace the temporary crown until your new one can be fixed. If everything is good, the dentist will cement the crown to your tooth.
Lastly, your dentist will give you instructions on how to care for your crown and any restrictions for the next couple of days while it cures. Your crown should last you 5-15 years depending on wear.
Dental crowns can be costly, especially when paired with root canal work beforehand, but, overall, the main goal is to retain as much original tooth as possible for as long as possible. Even having to be replaced every 5-15 years, dental crowns are still the preferred treatment to save the tooth instead of pulling it or replacing it with an implant.
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Sep 3rd, 2016
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Invisalign: The Clear Braces Solution For San Rafael, CA
Hello. I’m Dr. Grey Kantor, here at Kantor Dental Group in San Rafael, California. Today, I want to talk about Invisalign. Invisalign is a great way to straighten your teeth. We mostly do adult patients here for Invisalign. The way it works is they’re clear retainers that no one can see while you straighten your teeth. It’s a way to get around braces, they’re perfectly clear. Let’s take a look.
What happens is we take an impression of your teeth, we send it to a lab. The lab comes back and makes us many of these trays. These trays are clear. We can’t see them. See, when I put them on the teeth, they’re basically invisible. You take these in and out every time you eat, three times a day. You have to leave them in for 22 hours a day, leaving two hours for meals to take them in and out. You got to a restaurant, maybe go to the bathroom real quick, take them out and come back and no one will know that you just took out your Invisalign. Sometimes for rotated teeth or teeth that need a little more movement, we have what’s called attachments. These attachments are these little bumps you see on the teeth. They’re clear or tooth colored, so no one will see them unless they see it from a side view. Other than that, it’s an invisible way to straighten your teeth.
The way it works is we get many little packages like this, anywhere from 5 to 40 or more actually, and we get each of these packages and we give you 3 at a time. Each tray is used for two weeks. Inside tis package is two trays for top and bottom. You use these trays for two weeks at a time. If you imagine, if you have 5 trays, you can do 5 times 2 weeks is a little over a month, while if you have 40 trays, you’re looking at a couple of years. It depends on the situation about how many trays you’ll need. If it’s under 10 trays or under, we offer an express treatment which is cheaper. But if you need the comprehensive treatment and would like to straighten your teeth, then it’ll be generally around a year at least to get the comprehensive treatment. You do have to take the Invisalign out every time you want to eat or even drink something other than water. The reason why is anything else will get caught up underneath there and just be all over your teeth and isn’t healthy.
If you’d like to straighten your teeth without anyone knowing that you’re straightening your teeth, give us a call here at Kantor Dental Group in San Rafael, California. Thank you.
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Aug 29th, 2016
10:16 am
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Tags: Braces, Clear Braces, Invisalign, Straighten Teeth
Visual Explanation Of Replacing A Missing Tooth
Hello. Hi. I’m Dr. Grey Kantor. I here, work here with my father, Ezra Kantor at Kantor & Kantor DDS, Dentistry for Healthy Living. Today I want to talk about missing a tooth.
What can you do if you’re missing a tooth?
You have a tooth that you lost due to, say, an accident. You bumped it out, or you had a big cavity and you lost the tooth, or maybe a gum disease and lost the tooth that way. Either way, you’re left into the situation where there’s a missing tooth and you’d like it back. So there’s three, maybe four options to replacing a missing tooth.
The first option, our favorite option here at Kantor & Kantor Dentistry, is to use an implant. Implants replace a tooth almost perfectly. They floss normally, they have the same color as teeth, and they really, really look great and feel like a normal tooth.
Another way to replace a tooth is a bridge. A bridge, you have to reduce the neighboring teeth in order to replace that tooth. So, if we look at this picture here, we have two teeth on either side of a missing tooth area. So when we reduced the the two neighboring tooth… Sorry reduced the two neighboring teeth, you have the ability to put a bridge over the top of it. One thing you’ll notice, it being one piece, there is no way to floss down between those teeth. How are you gonna floss right through here when it’s attached? So the only way to floss is using a floss threader which you thread underneath the tooth and then floss normally. We can get it to really match the color of the teeth just like in all of these examples. But the main problem with bridges is the flossing, it takes a little bit longer and having to reduce the two neighboring teeth down which maybe healthy otherwise.
The final method is a removable appliance. This is something that you take in and out at night and keep it clean. It also works really well, but again, the main problem with it is having to take it in and out at night time. But you can chew on it just like all the other cases. The fourth sort of option is a cantilever named after us, Dr. Kantor. And it’s basically the same as this bridge that we talked about, the only difference is, is you’re not using one of the abutments. It’s only used in certain situations, so that’s why say it’s kind of an option. It depends on the situation but it’s an option where you only have to reduce one side and not both sides. Again, it can’t be used in all situations, only for your smallest teeth is it a viable option.
Those are the three, possibly four ways to replace a teeth. You have an implant, a bridge, or a removable denture. All of these work excellently, and we can help you with each one here at Kantor & Kantor DDS, Dentistry for Healthy Living. Again, I’m Dr. Grey Kantor here in Santa Fe, California, and I look forward seeing you at our office.
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Aug 22nd, 2016
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Tags: Bridge, implant, Missing Tooth
Dental Veneers – How Can They Improve Your Smile?
Hello. I’m Dr. Grey Kantor here at Kantor Dental Group in San Rafael, California.
Today, I would like to talk about veneers. Veneers are a very thin preparation, 0.8 mm thick to be exact, and they cover the fronts of your teeth, and this allows your teeth to look even and very… We can make them look gorgeous. The nice part about veneers is they can skip the process of braces. If you have crooked teeth and don’t want to wait six, 12, two to 12 months or even two years to do your braces, you can do veneers. This will get your teeth straight in two weeks. That’s the length of the process it takes us to make the veneers.
Appointments will come in, and we’ll talk to you and go over what you would like to see in your teeth and all the things that you don’t like and what you would like to improve upon. And we’ll take a look at your teeth, and we’ll make a wax up and actually try it in, so you’ll get to see the veneers before we make them. Once we’ve agreed on, that we like the look of the veneers and the way we want them to look, we’ll choose a color, get you the perfect color, and then we send… And then we prepare the teeth, and it takes two weeks for you to get the veneers in the end. One really good thing about veneers is the speed of the process.
You can imagine orthodontics can take six years, 10 years, and it’s also not gonna change the color of your teeth, whether you have staining or fractures in your teeth or things like that. Veneers, it happens all in two weeks, and you just get to have those perfect teeth almost instantly, which is a really great thing. If you’d like to hear more about veneers, give us a call. You can come in, and we can just talk about it and go over the things that you wanna improve upon in your teeth, and it’ll make your teeth look a lot better, and we can really design your teeth how you would like them to look.
Again, I’m Dr. Grey Kantor here at Kantor Dental Group in San Rafael, California. Looking forward to make you have your brightest smile.
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Aug 18th, 2016
11:58 am
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Tags: Braces, Crooked Teeth, Orthodontics, Smile, Veneers
Four Options For Replacing A Missing Tooth
Hello. Hi, I’m Doctor Grey Kantor. Together I work here with my father at Kantor & Kantor DDS, Dentistry for Healthy Living.
I wanted to talk today about options for replacing a missing tooth.
Say you lost your tooth due to cavities, gum disease, or you just got hit in the face with a ski. Any of these things will make you lose a tooth. And there’s about three, maybe four options to replace it.
The first option is my favorite, which is dental implants. Dental implants replace the tooth almost perfectly to what was previously there. It flosses normally, it can be the same color and match the same color as your other teeth, and it’s a really nice replacement. You can also see our video on dental implants.
The other way to replace a missing tooth is, a bridge. A bridge has two teeth on either side. The only thing I don’t like about bridges is that you do have to damage the neighboring teeth in order to prepare them to put the bridge on top of it. Another thing I don’t like about bridges is the fact that when you floss, you can’t just pull the floss through, right? ‘Cause it’s now connected to it’s neighbor teeth. So you have to actually use a floss threader to get through.
Another way to replace a missing tooth is a removable appliance. So this is a prosthetic that comes in and out, you take it in and out at night. It really needs to be cleaned separately and you can chew on it, but it’s not quite as good as the other two aforementioned, mainly because you have to take it in and out.
The sort of fourth option I mentioned earlier to replace a missing tooth is called a cantilever. It’s similar to a bridge, this can only be used in very specific cases. The nice part about it is, it’s easier to floss. We only have to prepare one neighboring tooth, and it’s named after us, Kantor. So, that’s always a plus. These are the four options, so let’s go over them again. There’s a bridge or a cantilever, a implant or something removable that you take in and out at night.
These are the four options to replace a missing tooth. Once again, I’m Doctor Grey Kantor. We’re here in San Rafael, California. Kantor & Kantor DDS, Dentistry for Healthy Living.
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Aug 10th, 2016
2:48 pm
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Tags: Bridge, Cavities, Dental Implants, gum Disease, Missing Tooth
Teeth Whitening Options For At Home Or In The Office
Hello. I’m Doctor Grey Kantor, here at Kantor Dental Group in San Rafael, California. You may be wondering what these orange glasses I’m wearing are. They are so we can do an in-office whitening. That’s my subject today, talk about whitening. Whoa, I guess it got really bright in here.
Whitening is a really nice way to give you confidence and really make you feel better about your smile. I whiten my teeth once a year. With whitening, a lot of people are worried about the safety of whitening, possibility of sensitivity. Whitening is very safe. There is a transient sensitivity, meaning it goes away, but it’s really worth while to just build that confidence in your smile. Here at Kantor Dental Group we offer a free whitening for all new patients. This whitening here, Opalescence Go, allows you to wear the whitening trays whether you’re in the car, at home, anywhere you want actually.
Another option to get your teeth whitened is these syringes here, where we make custom trays and you fill the syringes up yourself every night or whenever you’d like, and you can really get a little bit faster whitening with this.
The final type of whitening is our in-office whitening and that’s what I need these glasses for. This type of whitening uses a laser and it spreads it out with this crystal head and it allows your teeth to get whiter even faster. We use a 40% solution of carbamide peroxide that allows your teeth to get super white. And we can guarantee two shades in one visit.
If you would like to get your teeth much whiter and a brighter smile, come see me, Doctor Grey Kantor at Kantor Dental Group in San Rafael, California. Thank you.
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Aug 2nd, 2016
2:26 pm
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