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When you’re busy at work or school, when you’re on vacation, when you’re on the road to adventure—preparation helps everything go smoothly. Especially when the unexpected happens! So, how can you be prepared for any dental situations which might arise? By creating these useful—and portable—travel kits.

Everyday Basics Kit

Dr. David Shipper and Dr. Howard Vogel and our team recommend brushing twice a day and flossing at least once each day for clean and healthy teeth. But after a long day at work with no time to head home before your date, or a garlic-heavy lunch, or a morning filled with coffee and pastries to help you meet a deadline, you might feel like there’s no time like the present to give your smile a bit of a boost.

Be prepared with a small travel bag filled with these easy-to-carry basics to get you through your busy day with clean teeth, fresh breath, and a confident smile:

• Toothbrush and case—and do make sure your case is ventilated so your brush can air dry. Bacteria love a closed, damp environment!
• Toothpaste
• Mini-bottle of mouthwash
• Small mirror—to check for any lunch leftovers
• Dental floss—to remove any lunch leftovers
• Dental picks
• Sugarless gum—to freshen your breath and encourage saliva production, which helps clean away bacteria and food particles

Flight Gear

Getting set to travel by air again after this long lay-over? Your basic kit will do the job with just a few minor additions and alterations.

• A travel version of your manual or electric toothbrush and travel case
• Plug adapter or voltage converter as needed for your electric brush if you’re visiting another country
• Quart size, resealable plastic bag to hold your carry-on supplies. Toothpaste and mouthwash are included in the list of items which need to fit carry-on guidelines.
• Travel-size toothpaste—3.4 oz (100 ml) or smaller tube size. (And an almost-empty regular size tube doesn’t count!)
• Travel-size mouthwash—also in a 3.4 oz (100 ml) or smaller container
• Our New York, NY office’s phone number. In case of emergency, Dr. David Shipper and Dr. Howard Vogel can give you advice on how to handle any problem which might arise when you’re far from home.

Looking for Adventure?

If you’re camping in the forest, leaving for the lake, going for a road trip, or heading out on any travel adventure, you’ll be bringing the dental care basics, of course. We’d also like to recommend some items to take along in the event of a dental emergency while you’re away from home:

• Dental mirror
• Cotton rolls
• Over-the-counter pain relief—including a tube of oral pain relief gel
• Ice pack
• Dental wax—to cover the sharp edges of a broken tooth
• Temporary fillings—to protect your sensitive tooth if a filling or crown is lost
• Tooth preservation kit—to protect a dislodged tooth in case it can be reimplanted. (This means seeing a dentist very quickly, usually within 30 minutes of the accident.)

And, if you’ll be mountain biking, water skiing, or enjoying any activity where there’s potential for impact, don’t forget to pack your mouthguard!

Preparation is key to eliminating a lot of stress in our daily lives, and who couldn’t use a bit of stress-relief these days? Make room in your bag, locker, desk, luggage, or backpack for some portable, lightweight dental necessities. Be prepared to share your confident, healthy smile no matter what life has in store!

Keeping your smile its brightest can be a challenge! The foods you eat, healthy habits, unhealthy habits, and time itself can affect the color of your enamel. Luckily, there are some everyday actions you can take to minimize staining and discoloration.

• Limit “Food Coloring”

Some of our favorite foods and beverages cause some of the most noticeable staining. Even though enamel is the strongest substance in our bodies, it’s still porous. This means that enamel can absorb elements from our foods, including tannins and natural food colors, which darken teeth over time.

That’s why a daily cup of coffee or tea, or a glass of red wine with dinner, or frequent helpings of dark berries, can lead to a less than brilliant smile in a matter of months. What’s more, acidic foods like citrus fruits, pickled foods, and sodas erode the enamel surface, which makes it easier for food stains to penetrate.

When you eat those smile-dimming foods, it’s a good idea to rinse with water right away. (When tasty treats are acidic, it’s best to wait to brush for about half an hour to avoid enamel damage.)  And here’s a simple work-around—use a straw when you enjoy discoloring drinks.

You can also reduce staining by adding food allies to your diet. Besides bringing you the nutritional benefits of a healthy, well-balanced diet, crunchy foods such as apples, carrots, and celery can have a mild scrubbing effect on the tooth surface, and dairy foods strengthen enamel and might help prevent staining when added to coffee or tea.

If you’re mindful of your eating habits, you’ll help your smile stay its brightest. And speaking of habits . . .

• Keep Up with Healthy Habits

Plaque is a sticky biofilm which contains oral bacteria, food particles, saliva, and fluids. This film starts forming within hours after brushing, and a buildup of plaque leaves teeth looking yellowish. If plaque is left undisturbed, it hardens into tartar within days. And the yellow and brown colors of tartar aren’t a flattering look for any of us.

Regular brushing and flossing is the best way to keep your teeth plaque-free. For a brighter smile, a whitening toothpaste can help remove superficial surface stains. But what a whitening toothpaste can’t do is to remove deep staining or tartar.

A professional cleaning every time you have a checkup at our New York, NY office is the best way to keep your teeth their cleanest, especially because tartar must be removed by a dental professional. And please feel free to ask for brushing and flossing tips to help maintain your sparkling smile.

• Give Up Unhealthy Habits

Cigarettes, cigars, and other forms of tobacco are terrible for your health and terrible for your smile. While cosmetic concerns are the least of our worries when it comes to tobacco, it’s well known that smoking and chewing tobacco cause unattractive yellow and brown staining.

Quitting tobacco in any form benefits not just your appearance, but your oral health—and your overall health. When you’re ready, talk to Dr. David Shipper and Dr. Howard Vogel about some of the methods you can use to give up the habit permanently.

• Beat the Clock

Over the years, erosion and wear cause the enamel layer on the outside of the tooth to thin or crack. This allows the dentin underneath to show through. Because dentin is darker than enamel to begin with, and gets darker over time, teeth can take on a yellow or grey hue as we age.

Keep your smile looking its best through the years with regular checkups and cleanings. Avoid excessive erosion and abrasion by being mindful of the acidic foods in your diet, using a soft-bristled brush for cleaning your teeth, and getting treatment for harmful conditions like bruxism (tooth grinding). If you notice any changes in your smile, it’s a good idea to talk to Dr. David Shipper and Dr. Howard Vogel.

While preventing staining naturally with diet and healthy habits is great, sometimes nature needs a nudge. If you have an important event coming up, or if you would simply like to feel more confident about your smile, talk to us about professional whitening. A professional treatment uses a stronger whitening formula, and often works more quickly, is more effective at removing yellowing and stains, and lasts longer than home treatments.

Finally, while you can do a lot to keep your teeth their brightest by preventing and treating external staining, other types of discoloration can also affect your teeth. For staining caused by medication, root canal work, or trauma, ask us about all the options available to you.

Yes, keeping your teeth their brightest can be a challenge, but doing your part—and working with your dental team at Central Park West Dental—will make sure you greet the world with a sparkling, confident smile.

Unfortunately, dental emergencies can sometimes be unavoidable among young children. The good news is Dr. David Shipper and Dr. Howard Vogel can help you prepare in case you and your child find yourselves in any of the following situations.

Teething

Starting at about four months and lasting up to three years, your son or daughter may experience teething pain. It’s common for teething children to grow irritable and become prone to drooling due to tender gums. Give your child a cold teething ring or rub his or her gums with your finger to help relieve the discomfort.

Loss of Teeth

If a baby tooth is knocked out in an accident, bring your child to our New York, NY office to make sure damage hasn’t occurred in the mouth. Permanent teeth can sometimes grow in before baby teeth have fallen out. In this situation, Dr. David Shipper and Dr. Howard Vogel should examine your child to make sure teeth are growing in properly. This can prevent serious issues from arising later in adulthood.

Gum Issues

Bleeding gums could mean several things. They may be an early sign of periodontal disease, which results from poor oral hygiene. Gums may also bleed if a youngster is brushing too hard or has suffered an injury to the gum tissue.

Rinse your child’s mouth with warm salt water and apply pressure to the area if bleeding continues. Don’t hesitate to contact our New York, NY office if you are concerned so we can schedule an appointment.

As a parent, you can provide the best education for your children on proper oral hygiene habits. If you some coaching, ask Dr. David Shipper and Dr. Howard Vogel for tips during your next appointment.

Chewing gum can be a sticky problem. We’re not talking about etiquette, or nutrition, or how to get rid of the darned stuff when you don’t have a trash container handy. No, we’re talking about gum and its effects on dental health. So, let’s take a moment to chew over the benefits and drawbacks of chewing gum.

• First, the Good News about Gum

One of the important benefits of chewing gum is increased saliva production. This might not sound especially appealing, but here’s an important fact: saliva is one of oral health’s unsung heroes.

Saliva helps wash away food particles which feed the bacteria in plaque. It helps neutralize acids in the mouth which can damage tooth enamel. The minerals in saliva actually help rebuild weak spots in our enamel.

And, since sugar-free gum has revolutionized the gum-chewing world, we don’t bathe our teeth in sugar while we chew. This is a major advantage, and it’s why sugar-free gums are the only products which are ADA approved. A possible downside? Some people who chew certain sugar-free gums (especially people who chew a lot of them) can experience digestive problems.

• What about Dental Work?

Yes, gum can be tricky for dentures, crowns, braces, and other dental work, especially with very sticky and chewy products. There are gums out there that claim to be safe for dental work, but finding the right gum can involve some trial and error that you might prefer to avoid. This is a good subject to discuss with Dr. David Shipper and Dr. Howard Vogel.

If you have a temporary crown protecting a tooth until your permanent crown is ready, avoid gum entirely until your restoration is complete. The pulling effect of sticky, chewy gum can make your temporary crown even more temporary than you were expecting! After your crown’s finished, talk to your dentist about chewing gum again.

• “Chews” Wisely

Chewing means jaw movement and pressure. Hours of chewing means hours of jaw movement and pressure. If your jaws ache after a gum marathon, maybe it’s time to cut back! But, if your jaws ache whenever you chew, that’s a sign that a visit to our New York, NY office is in order.

The temporomandibular joint (TMJ) is a kind of hinge which allows your mouth to open and close and move from side to side—in other words, to talk, eat, drink, yawn, make faces—all those things we do all day long. Recurring jaw pain can be a sign of TMJ (temporomandibular joint) disorder.

Bruxism, or tooth grinding, is another reason to leave gum off your shopping list. When you grind your teeth, you’re putting stress on your teeth and jaws which can lead to cracked and chipped teeth, headaches, and tooth and jaw pain. If you’re working on getting your bruxism under control, you’ll want to avoid chewing gum and other habits which cause jaw clenching.

You and your dentist are the people who know your oral health best. If you suffer from dry mouth and think chewing gum might help with saliva flow, or if you’re worried about your dental work being damaged by gum, or if you have jaw pain when you chew, or if you have any concerns about your oral health, visit Central Park West Dental for all the answers to your sticky questions.