Dental Hygiene

Article co-written by Kayla Wells, RDH, BS, and Lauren Owen, BSDH, RDH. You arrive home from a long day at the office, and all you want to do is lie down for a moment and relax those muscles you have exerted all day. Your sweet pup comes up and licks your hand or licks your cheek because he or she...

Dental hygiene is a highly rewarding profession that allows us to serve our communities. We help patients maintain an important part of their overall health, sometimes contributing to transformations that allow people to smile again. We grow with our patients and their families over time, and those we work with on a daily basis become like family. However, as...

Barodontalgia, also known as “tooth squeeze,” is pain in the tooth region after a pressure change. The name reflects the condition – “baro” means pressure, and “odontalgia” means tooth pain. It is an acute toothache with high sensitivity when a sudden change in environmental pressure occurs.1 Another condition is dental barotrauma that happens when changes in barometric pressure generate damage...

Learn more about Ingrid's eco-friendly, dental products company, PANGA, at https://www.wearepanga.com/ Has the amount of garbage, especially plastics, used in dentistry ever crossed your mind? Though one-time use items such as plastic barriers, air/water syringe tips, prophy angles, sterilization pouches, and everything in between are imperative for infection control and keeping our patients as safe as possible, dentistry certainly creates...

Heartburn, acid reflux, and GERD are often used reciprocally as they are stages of each other.  The initial signs of any digestive issue may be heartburn. As conditions progress in the digestive process, acid reflux will start to appear more frequently. If that doesn't resolve or settle down, a chronic condition known as GERD becomes a lifetime event. Dentally, it's...

The idea of “naturally” curing tooth decay is a fast-growing fad. It has become such a craze there are Facebook pages and groups encouraging and supporting the idea. One such group called, “Cure Tooth Decay – Heal Tooth Cavities, Dental Caries, Tooth Abscess,” is a closed group, in which you must be accepted to join, which I’ve recently learned...

Dental professionals are most likely aware of TikTok, the social network for video sharing. The TikTok application (app) allows users to post videos of themselves, often doing silly things. The app also allows you to interact with other users' videos and make comments. With some silly videos, the danger is evident as people have been hurt. Another distressing issue is...

Galvanized shock, which is also referred to as oral galvanism, oral electricity, electrogalvanism, or galvanic currents (and even called "battery mouth") is a distinct, sharp, electrical zap of a sensation when two different metals touch a tooth. Anyone who has experienced this knows exactly what that feeling is. Galvanism is defined as electricity produced by chemical action. Shock is the...

Sunstar Americas Inc. has agreed to voluntarily recall an oral rinse over concerns about potential bacterial contamination. Paroex, a chlorhexidine gluconate oral rinse that is prescribed by dental professionals for self-care treatments of gingivitis, is the recalled Sunstar product. The Food and Drug Administration announced October 28 that the bottles being recalled have expiration dates from June 30, 2022 through...

More than two decades ago, the U.S. Surgeon General's report titled Oral Health in America was a call to action for all health professions to play a role in reducing the burden of oral disease in America. A decade after that, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released both Advancing Oral Health in America and Improving Access to Oral Health...