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Many people take statin drugs to lower their cholesterol and new research has shown that the drugs also reduce the inflammation associated with gum disease. Gum disease affects about half of the US adult population and causes chronic inflammation.
The study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, adds to the links previously found between heart health and gum disease. The study suggests that actions taken to treat gum disease may also reduce inflammation in the arteries and vice versa.
Dr. Ahmed Tawkol, co-author of the study, said “Periodontitis (gum disease) and atherosclerosis are both primarily driven by inflammation. These inflammatory conditions tend to co-exist within individuals and their biologies may be intertwined.”
The study was a randomized trial that had patients with heart disease or a high risk of heart disease take either an 80 mg statin or a 10 mg statin daily for 12 weeks. Patients showed a significant reduction in gum inflammation after as few as four weeks on the higher dose statin. “Statins have beneficial effect beyond their lipid lowering properties,” said Dr. Tawakol. “Physicians should take this into consideration when discussing treatment options with their patients.”
Statin drugs are useful but, like any drug, come with side effects. Talk to your physician about all of your health conditions, including gum disease and take appropriate steps to treat your gum disease. Healthy gums are linked to better overall health.
Please contact Rothfus Family Dental in Medford, OR today at 541-858-7994 today to find out more about your options for preventing or treating gum disease.
Can brushing and flossing regularly help you with the battle for weight loss? Surprisingly, a clean mouth may help shed a few pounds and here’s why:
Any weight loss plan involves watching your diet and increasing your activity levels. Brushing and flossing alone won’t win the battle of the bulge but they can be one more tool in your weight loss toolbox.
Contact Rothfus Family Dental in Medford, OR today at 541-858-7994 to schedule your next dental hygiene visit.
Most people don’t think of tooth decay as a “disease” but a recent study called the Global Burden of Disease 2010 founded that untreated tooth decay – also known as dental caries – was the most common of 291 major diseases and injuries. They estimate that cavities affect close to 4 billion people and the resulting toothache and pain prevent them from eating and sleeping properly. Professor Wagner Marcenes said “This total does not even include small cavities or mild gum diseases, so we are facing serious problems in the population’s oral health.”
Here in America we have been seeing an increase in tooth decay, especially among children. The reasons most likely include: constant snacking on high carbohydrate foods, drinking soda, energy and other sugary/acidic drinks, and drinking less fluoridated water.
The good news is we can prevent many cavities from forming by forming good dental hygiene habits and visiting the dentist regularly will let us catch small problems before they become big ones.
If you do need to have a cavity filled we are long past the days of mercury-filled amalgam fillings which left ugly black shadows on your smile. Today dentist use tooth colored composite material that are free of metal and mercury. These dental fillings match the color of your teeth so your smile looks just as beautiful after your filling as before!
When a cavity is extremely large or if an old, large filling has failed and decay has formed below it you may need to have a dental crown. Very large fillings leave a tooth vulnerable to cracking and breaking — even using modern dental materials. The solution is the dental crown. This enables us to save the tooth and ensure that a long lasting, strong restoration is in place that will last for years.
Find out more about preventing cavities and your options for treatment if you do have cavities by contacting Medford, OR cosmetic dentists Rothfus Family Dental at 541-858-7994 today.
Which is worse – meth mouth or soda mouth? Drinking large quantities of diet soda can harm teeth and be just as damaging as abusing the illegal drugs, meth or crack cocaine according to a new study. The case study was published in the journal General Dentistry and found that the use of illegal drugs and the intake or large amounts of soda cause very similar types of damage to the mouth because of tooth erosion.
Tooth erosion is the wearing away of tooth enamel which leads to tooth sensitivity, decay and eventual tooth loss.
This case study compared the damage that had been done to the teeth of three people. One was an admitted user of methamphetamine, one was a long-time user of cocaine and the third drank excessive amounts of diet soda. The soda drinker averaged 2 liters of diet soda per day for three years! All of the three had poor oral hygiene and had not visited the dentist on a regular basis. Researchers found the same type of severe damage from tooth erosion in each persons mouth.
“Each person experienced severe tooth erosion caused by the high acid levels in their ‘drug’ of choice — meth, crack or soda,” explained Dr. Mohamed Bassiouny. He continued, “The citric acid present in both regular and diet soda is known to have a high potential for causing tooth erosion.”
If you drink lots of soda (diet or regular), fruit juices, energy drinks or sports drinks you could be destroying your enamel. All of these beverages contain high levels of acid which are harmful to dental enamel. The first sign is usually sensitivity to hot or cold.
Find out about your options for treating sensitive teeth and prevent future cavities by contacting the preventive dentists at Rothfus Family Dental in Medford, OR today at 541-858-7994.
Smoking has long been associated with losing teeth but women who are past the age of menopause tend to experience more tooth loss than men of the same age. A new study published in the Journal of the American Dental Association looked for reasons why this occurs.
Postmenopausal women who have smoked are at higher risk of tooth loss due to periodontal disease than women who have never smoked. Researchers at the University of Buffalo performed the first comprehensive look at smoking histories and tooth loss.”Regardless of having better oral health practices, such as brushing and flossing, and visiting the dentist more frequently, postmenopausal women in general tend to experience more tooth loss than men of the same age,” said Xiaodan Mai, a doctoral student at the University. He continued “We were interested in smoking as a variable that might be important.”
In this study the heavy smokers were nearly twice as likely to report tooth loss from all reasons and six times more likely to report tooth loss from periodontal disease than those women who had never smoked. Tooth loss is associated with poor long term health outcomes including increased risk of cancer, stroke, diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis.
While tooth loss due to gum disease increased in smokers, tooth loss due to dental decay did not. This is important because gum disease is a condition that causes inflammation throughout the body and may be related to the development of other diseases.
If you have experienced tooth loss you should know that there are options for replacing missing teeth. Depending upon your overall oral health your dentist may suggest either a dental bridge or dental implants. Dental implants offer several advantages including feeling more like a “real” tooth. Dental implants also help to preserve bone surrounding the missing tooth. Implants can be used to replace just one tooth, several teeth or even to anchor full sets of dentures.
Find out more about your options for replacing missing teeth by contacting Rothfus Family Dental in Medford, OR today at 547-858-7994.
There are lots of reasons that people have routinely been given antibiotics before having dental work. Over the years the guidelines for antibiotic use have changed and recently The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and the American Dental Association came out with new guidelines for patients who have had joint replacement.
Joint replacement is pretty common. In 2010 there were more than 302,000 hip replacements and 658,000 knee replacements. Dr. David Jevsevar chaired the committee that reviewed the data about joint replacement patients and antibiotic use, “It has been long debated that patients with orthopaedic implants, primarily hip and knee replacements, are prone to implant infections from routine dental procedures.” He continued “What we found in this analysis is that there is no conclusive evidence that demonstrates a need to routinely administer antibiotics to patients with an orthopaedic implant, who undergo dental procedures.”
Does this mean that if you have always gotten prophylactic antibiotics before dental work that you won’t in the future – it depends. This decision needs to be discussed with your dentist and your physician so please don’t make this decision on your own!
When you contact Rothfus Family Dental in Medford, OR at 541-858-7994 to schedule your appointment please let us know about any changes to your health status or current medications.
Teeth that are sensitive to hot, cold, sweet or sour foods and drinks make life miserable for a lot of people. Researchers have reported in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Applied Materials a novel advance toward dealing with sensitive teeth using ideas from Mother Nature.
Our teeth become sensitive, especially as we get age, because the enamel and the underlying layer of dentin is worn away. Why does this occur? Enamel is lost over time because of acids we consume in substances like soft drinks, energy drinks and sugary snacks. There are special toothpastes and sugar free gums that can help with tooth sensitivity but the researchers wanted to find a substance that would help rebuild both enamel and dentin at the same time.
The research team got their inspiration from a sticky substance that allows mussels to attach to rocks. This is a very strong, sticky substance that stands up to water and the washing action of waves. They believed that the sticky substance could help keep minerals in contact with dentin long enough for the rebuilding process to occur. Otherwise the minerals would wash away in saliva. The scientists performed tests that involved bathing human teeth with worn enamel and dentin in a liquid containing the sticky substance and minerals. The teeth reformed both dentin and enamel. However when the teeth were bathed in minerals only, they reformed only the enamel layer.
This research might also help prevent tooth decay. When our tooth enamel is weakened, the bacteria that cause tooth decay can do their damage! This research might help both tooth sensitivity problems and tooth decay.
Please contact Medford, OR general dentists at Rothfus Family Dental today at 541-858-7994 to schedule your appointment if you are experiencing sensitive teeth or tooth decay.
Find out more about protecting your teeth by contacting
A British study reported that almost 90% of dental patients would like to be checked for oral cancer during their visits. Despite that number less than 20% of those surveyed said that their dentist had talked to them about the risks and symptoms of oral cancer. Hopefully dentists in the US are doing better at talking to patients about the importance of oral cancer screening than our colleagues across the Atlantic.
Oral cancer screening is a part of every comprehensive oral examination conducted here at Rothfus Family Dental. The rates of oral cancer have been increasing and it is vital for everyone to be screened regularly.
Oral cancers used to be seen primarily in older individuals who smoked and drank alcohol regularly. Unfortunately today we are seeing an entirely different group of patients being diagnosed with mouth and throat cancers — young adults. The primary cause for cancers in this age group appears to be HPV infection.
If you have not scheduled your appointment yet please contact Rothfus Family Dental in Medford, OR today at 541-858-7994. Your smile and your overall health are important, please don’t delay.
Rothfus Family Dental in Medford, Oregon is very warm and welcoming. From the moment you walk in the entrance, you immediately get the feeling that this is not your typical dental office.
The doctors have designed the office to feel more like a warm inviting home, than a stereotypical Medford dental clinic. This homey feeling invites your entire family in to experience dentistry in a relaxed calming environment.
Kid friendly and adult approved the team at Rothfus Family Dental are experts at family dentistry allowing your children to feel safe and at ease. Rothfus Family Dental in Medford, OR is the place to go for general family dentistry in the Rogue Valley.
Your entire family is in good hands at Rothfus Family Dental. We love to start seeing kids at the age of 2. Learning to have a good experience in the dental office is crucial to the dental health of your child. Many adults had “bad” experiences at the dentist as a child, and we want to make sure that doesn’t happen to your children. Your child will learn good oral hygiene and will develop good habits that can last a lifetime. Happy kids make happy teeth.
Dr.’s Karla and Randall Rothfus share the common goal of making sure everyone that comes to Rothfus Family Dental is treated with dignity and respect. They won’t judge your dental condition and make you feel bad. They are glad that you have made the decision to come to the dentist, and they want to make you a lifetime patient, so no matter what shape your teeth are in, they work with you to come up with a treatment plan to meet your needs. Remember, you’re in the drivers seat, we just help you get to where you want to go.
The doctors at Rothfus Family Dental in Medford, Oregon put a special emphasis on preventive dentistry. The use of dental sealants to prevent cavities in the grooves of teeth, and fluoride treatments to strengthen and harden your teeth are both designed to protect and preserve your own natural tooth structure. They want to see you and your children learn good oral hygiene techniques and nothing makes them happier than seeing your child make the “no cavity club”. This is very rewarding for the child and makes parents proud of their child’s achievement. There’s nothing like positive reinforcement to reward good behavior.
Offering a variety of dental services and seeing patients of all ages at one location is the goal of a true general dental practice. We want to earn your business. If you are looking for a new Medford, Oregon dentist, we are here for you. We offer the following services:
At Rothfus Family Dental, it’s our goal to provide you with the highest level of dental services and care in a safe and caring environment. We want to be there for your entire family, whether you’re 3 or 103.
Providing most aspects of dentistry in one location makes us a true Medford, Oregon general dental practice. We also utilize the most advanced dental techniques, equipment and materials, so that the dentistry you receive will last for many years to come.
Earning your trust and treating you how we would want to be treated is the basis we want to build our dental relationship on. We want to be your dental care provider for a lifetime, and we want to make you a raving fan of our office. We provide Medford, Oregon family dentistry and Rogue Valley dental services.
Call us today to schedule a dental appointment. You’ll be happy you did, because at Rothfus Family Dental, we are… “Making Smiles Happen, Daily.” Medford, Oregon Family Dentistry – (541) 858-7994
Our office is conveniently located and accessible all major roads.
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