Bernstein Dental Care: Blog

Were you aware that if you experience pain in your jaw, neck, or head, you may be at increased risk for a car crash? The common factor is obstructive sleep apnea (OAS), and at Bernstein Dental Care in Bay Ridge, we want our patients to understand what we can do to help. In people with OAS, the airways become blocked at night. In an attempt to keep them open, the jaw moves forward, resulting in night-time teeth grinding. Unfortunately, this is damaging to the teeth, causes pain in muscles connected to the jaw, and isn’t even a reliable way of getting enough oxygen to the body during sleep. New research on drivers with sleep apnea indicates that they are 13% likelier to crash their cars if their sleep apnea is mild and 123% likelier to crash if their sleep apnea is severe. Dentists can help patients get better rest by designing custom-fitted night guards. These oral appliances prevent the teeth from rubbing together, sparing the patient from jaw pain and helping to keep their airways op...

At Bernstein Dental Care in Bay Ridge, we’ve saved many peoples’ teeth over the years. However, there are times when extractions are the more practical approach, and to help patients to understand their options, we wanted to explain why that might be. The most common reason for extractions is overcrowding. The wisdom teeth, the molars furthest in back, are large and do not usually erupt until the patient is in their late teens. This is a problem because major orthodontic correction works best in children and young teenagers but wisdom teeth threaten to undo orthodontic work while getting stuck and creating a trap for bacteria. The upper canine teeth and incisors next to them can also get stuck, and while orthodontic work is used to guide them into position in teenagers, this may not be possible for adults or doable within a particular timeframe. Teeth may also need to be extracted in cases of infection. While root canals remove infected pulp, an infection may return if the tooth had hi...