Park City local hangout

Our dental office was featured as one of the local businesses on hangout local, and Dr. Calderwood was interviewed.  Check it out and go support the local businesses that are featured on that site.

Park City Dentistry video

Check out the video we added on our website.  PC TV put together this ad for us last fall.  I think they did an awesome job. 
Way to go RanDee!  Looking like a star.

Bruxism

We have seen many patients that suffer from bruxism (Teeth Grinding).  We have successfully been able to treat them, and we wanted to provide some information to help explain what it is and how to treat it.  Enjoy this article from our friends at Colgate.

What Is It?

Bruxism is clenching or grinding your teeth, often without being aware that your are doing it. In the United States, bruxism affects an estimated 30 to 40 million children and adults.
Some people grind their teeth only during sleep; this condition is called "nocturnal bruxism" or "sleep-related bruxism." Others grind their teeth during the daytime as well, most often during situations that make them feel tense or anxious. People with severe bruxism can fracture dental fillings or cause other types of tooth damage. Severe bruxism has also been blamed for some cases of temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMD), mysterious morning headaches and unexplained facial pain.
Bruxism can have a variety of psychological and physical causes. In many cases, it has been linked to stress, but it can also simply be the body's reaction to the teeth being aligned wrong or a poor bite (the way the teeth come together). Bruxism can sometimes occur as a complication of severe brain injury, or a symptom of certain rare neuromuscular diseases involving the face. Bruxism also can be an uncommon side effect of some psychiatric medications, including antidepressant medications, including fluoxetine (Prozac), sertraline (Zoloft) and paroxetine (Paxil).

Symptoms

Symptoms of bruxism include:

• Rhythmic contractions of the jaw muscles
• A grinding sound at night, which may disturb the sleep of someone who shares a bedroom with a "bruxer"
• A dull morning headache
• Jaw muscles that are tight or painful, especially in the morning
• Chronic facial pain
• Damaged teeth, fractured dental fillings and injured gums

Diagnosis

We will ask about your current life stresses, your general dental health and your daily medications. We also will want to know whether you routinely drink beverages containing alcohol or caffeine, because both of these chemicals seem to increase the tendency to grind your teeth.
If you share your bedroom, we also may want to ask that person about your sleep habits, especially about any unusual grinding sounds heard during the night.
We will examine you, paying special attention to your mouth and jaw. During this exam, we will check for tenderness in your jaw muscles, as well as for any obvious dental abnormalities, such as broken teeth, missing teeth or poor tooth alignment. If we suspect that you have bruxism that is related to dental problems, we may conduct a more detailed assessment. In addition to checking your "bite," we will examine your teeth and gums for damage caused by bruxism. We will also take a series of mouth X-rays.
If your child grinds or clenches his or her teeth, discuss the problem with us. Although many children eventually outgrow bruxism, even short-term tooth grinding can cause damage to your child's permanent teeth.

Expected Duration

Of all children who brux between the ages of 3 and 10, more than half will stop spontaneously by age 13.
In teenagers and adults, how long bruxism lasts depends on its cause. For example, bruxism can last for many years if it is related to a stressful life situation that doesn't go away. However, if bruxism is being caused by a dental problem, it should stop when the teeth are repaired and realigned — often within a few dental visits.

Prevention

If your bruxism is related to stress, you may be able to prevent the problem by seeking professional counseling or by using strategies to help you learn to relax. Also, try cutting down on stimulants such as tobacco and caffeine.
In both children and adults, tooth damage related to bruxism can be prevented by wearing a night bite plate or a bite splint (a dental appliance worn at night to stop teeth grinding).

Treatment

The treatment of bruxism varies depending on its cause:

• Stress — If you have bruxism that is stress-related, our office or your physician may recommend professional counseling, psychotherapy, biofeedback exercises or other strategies to help you relax. We also may prescribe muscle relaxant medications to temporarily ease the spasm in your clenched and overworked jaw. If conventional therapy does not help, we may refer you to an oral surgeon who may inject botulinum toxin directly into your jaw muscles (to temporarily interfere with muscle contractions).
• Dental problems — If your bruxism is related to tooth problems, we can likely treat it with occlusal therapy (to correct tooth alignment). In severe cases, we may need to use onlays or crowns to entirely reshape the biting surfaces of your teeth.
• Brain injury or neuromuscular illness — Your bruxism may be especially hard to treat if you have these medical problems. Your oral surgeon may give you injections of botulinum toxin if more conservative treatments fail.
• Medication — If you develop bruxism as a side effect of antidepressant medications, your doctor either can switch you to a different drug or give you another medication to counteract your bruxism.

When To Call A Professional

Call our office if you have symptoms of bruxism, or if you are told that you grind your teeth while you sleep.
Also, make a dental appointment immediately if you fracture a tooth, lose a filling, or notice that your teeth are becoming abnormally loose in their sockets.

Prognosis

Even without special treatment, more than half of young children with bruxism stop grinding their teeth by age 13. Until your child stops bruxing on his or her own, we can fit your child with a night bite plate to prevent excessive tooth wear. This device is effective in almost all children who use it as directed.
In teenagers and adults, the outlook is excellent if bruxism is treated properly. Even if all other therapies fail, injections of botulinum toxin can temporarily stop bruxism in most patients.

Rogue Tulsa Dentist

As you are probably aware, there is widespread news coverage involving the investigation of an Oklahoma oral surgeon for allegedly poor infection control practices and delegation of dental procedures. The ADA is monitoring this developing story closely.
As a result of this story, the ADA fielded numerous media inquiries about infection control and health practices in US dental offices.  It is a tragedy that one bad doctor could cause so much harm.
In the middle of all this terrible news we wanted to reiterate a few points to help your confidence in the infection control standards at Park City Dentistry:

• In our dental practice, we follow stringent infection control procedures.

• Also, as your doctor, I would only delegate procedures to my staff that they are licensed or qualified to perform per state regulations. I care about my patients and your health and safety are my foremost priorities.

• Studies show that following proper infection control procedures greatly reduces risk to patients to the point of an extremely remote possibility.

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has developed special recommendations for use in dental offices.

• Let me describe just a few of the things that we do in our practice in terms of infection control:

  • All dental staff involved in patient care scrub their hands before each and every patient and use appropriate protective garb such as gloves, masks, gowns and eyewear
  
  • A new set of gloves and masks are used for each patient.

• Before you enter the examining room, all surfaces, such as the dental chair, instrument tray, dental light, drawer handles and countertops, have been cleaned and decontaminated.
• Non-disposable dental instruments are cleaned and sterilized between patients. In my office we sterilize instruments using both a cold, ultrasonic sterilizer and an autoclaver that uses heat and pressure to further sterilize our instruments.
• Disposable items like needles or gauze are placed in special bags or containers for special, monitored disposal.
• Your well-being is important to me and my staff, which is why we follow stringent infection control procedures and comply with all state regulations for the protection of patients.
• You can visit the American Dental Association’s website at www.mouthhealthy.org and use the search term “infection control” to see a video on this topic. The website has a lot of information to help you take care of your oral health, too.

Also, as an office we need to comply with standards set by the Utah Dental Association and OSHA and we are subject to inspections to ensure that we are up to standard.  If you have any questions, or if you just want to see our procedures and process, feel free to come by and we will give you a tour.  We love the confidence and trust we have earned with our patients and we take great pride in how we run our practice.

Photo courtesy of University of Wollongong