Bernstein Dental Care: Blog

Dental pulp is highly sensitive and it’s no fun when it gets inflamed. An infection inside the tooth will not only be painful, it will also cause bad breath and can develop into a facial abscess. We provide root canal therapy at Bernstein Dental Care in Bay Ridge to combat pulp infections, but new research indicates that patients who smoke may be at risk for worse, recurring inflammation. Pulpitis (the medical term for pulp inflammation) occurs when a tooth gets injured or infected. It is a way for the immune system to restrict the flow of blood-borne pathogens, concentrate white blood cells, and make cellular walls more permeable to antimicrobial peptides. These molecules are among the immune system’s more important weapons. Antimicrobial peptides grab onto invading bacteria and kill them. But scientists say that in smokers’ dental pulp, antimicrobial peptides seem to be absent . During a root canal procedure, infected dental pulp is removed and replaced with a sealer. But if any bact...

Gum disease is a serious issue in its own right and it has implications for other parts of the body, as well. But there is good news. At Bernstein Dental Care in Bay Ridge, we’re happy to share with our patients recent research showing that treatment for gum infections can improve symptoms of cirrhosis. When a person has cirrhosis, their liver has scarred over as a result of chronic inflammation. This inhibits the liver’s ability to filter blood, causing inflammation throughout the body and a decline in cognitive function. It is widely known that cirrhosis and gum disease can both result from smoking and excessive alcohol, but there is also a version of cirrhosis called non-alcoholic fatty liver disease . People with this ailment also have unusually high rates of gingivitis, which prompted scientists to examine whether there was a causative link. In the study conducted at Virginia Commonwealth University, people with both cirrhosis and periodontal disease were divided into one group t...

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...

Oral cancer screenings are one of the services we offer our adult patients at Bernstein Dental Care in Bay Ridge as an important part of biannual check-ups. As scientists learn more about oral cancer, we’re getting better at identifying risk factors. The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) recently announced that one oral cancer risk factor is alcohol . We’ve long known that alcohol combined with tobacco presented a major risk. But tobacco is the biggest oral cancer risk factor, and separating its effect from that of alcohol alone proved difficult. Scientists have now concluded that alcohol alone, even in moderation, does increase a person’s risk of developing oral cancer by 5%. Why is unclear, but it is thought that alcohol damages the lining of the mouth and that the more times the soft tissue has to rebuild, the likelier it is that the DNA will be miscopied. Heavy drinking still presents a greater risk, but the type of alcohol consumed appears to be irrelevant. The ASCO did...