Why Do My Gums Bleed?

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Do your gums bleed when brushing your teeth, flossing, or even chewing your food? If so, this can be a sign of a dental problem. Knowing what causes your gums to bleed and what you should do about that problem can help you take care of your teeth.

At Mounts Dental Care, we can help patients diagnose and treat issues relating to their oral health. As yourdentist in North Little Rock, AR, we can help. Here’s what you need to know.

What Causes Gums to Bleed?

Gums can bleed when injured, like if you hit your mouth or were in an accident. Bleeding gums can occur for various other reasons, including medical conditions like pregnancy and leukemia, vitamin deficiency, and brushing or flossing too hard. Certain medications can cause your gums to bleed as well.

However, if your mouth has not recently been injured and if you have no conditions or medications that could cause bleeding gums, this could be a sign of periodontal disease. Patients who have periodontal disease have a lot of inflammation that can cause bleeding when they’re doing activities like flossing, brushing, or eating.

What Are the Signs of Periodontal Disease?

If you have periodontal disease, you’ll notice problems like red, puffy gums, bleeding gums, bad breath that persists even after brushing your teeth, loose teeth, tooth and gum discomfort, and gum recession.

If you have this condition, getting treatment from your dentist as soon as possible is important. Your dentist may recommend a special cleaning or even medication for this problem. Start with adental examination in North Little Rock to determine if you have periodontal disease.

3 Things You Can Do to Avoid Cavities in 2023

/0 Comments/in /by

Cavities can be painful as well as inconvenient. Fortunately, there are many things you can do to avoid cavities in the coming year. Below, we’ve outlined several ways you can avoid cavities and protect your oral health.

1. Maintain Good Oral Hygiene at Home

Maintaining good oral hygiene at home goes a long way toward avoiding tooth decay and cavities. Here’s what you should be doing at home to help keep your teeth clean and reduce the bacteria in your mouth.

  • Brush twice daily. Brush in the morning and at night before bed. To be sure you’re brushing properly, have your dentist give you tooth brushing tips at your next dental appointment.
  • Floss. Flossing helps keep food particles out of your gums and the spaces between your teeth. Floss once per day.
  • Change your toothbrush every 3 months. Toothbrushes wear out. Changing your toothbrush every 3 months helps ensure that your toothbrush is capable of doing the job.

2. See the Dentist Every Six Months

See your dentist in North Little Rock, AR every six months, or more often if directed by your dentist. Seeing your dentist twice annually helps keep your teeth clean and catches problems like cavities in their early stages.

3. Know the Signs, Get Help When Needed

Know the signs that you’re in need of dental care. Make an appointment to see the dentist if you’re experiencing pain, extra sensitivity in your teeth, unexplained bad breath, or if you’ve noticed a spot on your tooth that won’t go away.

At Mounts Dental Care, we offer digital cavity detection to those who need it. Do you think you have a cavity? Get help. Call today to make an appointment.

Why Whiten Your Teeth

/0 Comments/in /by

 

Hi, I’m Dr. Mounts. I’m a dentist here in North Little Rock, and today I wanted to talk to you a little bit about whitening. So I’ve noticed that as masks are starting to come off, that I’m getting a lot more inquiries about how to whiten teeth, because we’ve kind of hid behind those masks for over a year now and people, when they’re coming off, people are noticing that their teeth are not as bright as they thought they were beforehand.

There’s a lot of reasons why our teeth don’t stay white, like we want them to. Just a lot of different things that go in our mouths that tend to stain them. One thing is just actually the aging process, just wear and tear on our teeth will actually darken them up. But the other things are different things that we eat like tomato-based products like in the spaghetti sauce that you eat. There are also different things in curry that’ll cause them to turn a little bit yellow. Mustard will, and even different berries and things like that will cause them to darken up too.

And then lots of things that we drink. Coffee and tea and sodas, and even like sports drinks with kids, that have artificial coloring in them those will change the color of your teeth too. So, lots of different reasons why they darken up over time but if you look at them and you’re like, well, I’d really like for my teeth to be whiter, There’s lots of different benefits to that.

There was actually a national survey that was done back a while ago with the Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, and they said that 96% of folks believe that having a brighter smile increases a person’s attractiveness. having a brighter smile increases our self-confidence, which is really important if you’re dating or if you’re just taking pictures of yourself and putting them online, or if you’re doing a job interview or something, having a brighter smile is really important.

Another thing is, is that a whiter smile actually decreases the appearance of wrinkles. Now you may be wondering exactly how that happens. Well, it doesn’t really get rid of the wrinkles in any way. It just draws a person’s attention to your smile more so than it does the rest of your face. So if you’ve got a lot of wrinkles going on here, if you’ve got a brighter smile, then it tends to draw folks’ attention away from that.

And then the last thing about doing a whiter smile is that it doesn’t break the bank. It’s not by any means the most expensive cosmetic procedure that you’re going to do. It’s cheaper than Botox, cheaper than plastic surgery. It’s a really quick, efficient way to be able to change your appearance for the better. So if you’ve been thinking about brightening your smile, if you’re pulling the mask down and you’re noticing that things aren’t as white as they used to be, then maybe you want to do that.

We’ve actually got a special going on this summer for a really nice discount on our whitening. It’s a professional in-office whitening system that works great, usually within about an hour or so you’re in and out of the office and you get immediate results. So it’s a great way to do it.

If you’re interested in doing that, we are located in North Little Rock.` Our phone number is 753-0166. Just give us a call, we’ll be glad to talk to you about it. Maybe set you up an appointment to come in, get that smile a lot brighter.

Covid, Headaches & Teeth – Are They Related?

/0 Comments/in /by

 

Hi, there. I’m Dr. Mounts. I wanted to visit with you a little bit about something that I’ve been seeing a lot of lately, and that is people coming in with headaches and earaches.

Now you may wonder why people are coming to the dental office with headaches or earaches? Surprisingly enough a lot of these folks have either been to their physicians or to an ear, nose, and throat doctor, trying to figure out where their problems are coming from, and those folks aren’t finding any issues at all that go to the ear, nose and throat, and their ears are clean, but they’re having pain coming up from around their ears.

And it turns out that the problem that they’re having is TMJ issues. And I know it’s something that we’ve talked about a little bit before, but I just want to let you know, because I think the reason we’re seeing so many cases come in now is that people are just stressed, and I’m sure you’d have a really hard time trying to figure out why people are stressed these days. But certainly as we’ve come through this full year of COVID now, we have seen a really big increase in the number of folks who are dealing with TMJ problems.

Our bodies handle stress in different ways, but one of the ways that we deal with stress is by clenching and grinding our teeth. Now, I’m not really sure why we do that, but there are so many people that do it. And I’m one of those folks. But as the stress levels go up, and the clenching and grinding increases, it really causes problems with the whole system. It can cause problems with the muscles that do all the clenching for us. It can cause problems with the joint. You can get a lot of inflammation in there, which is what gives you the pain up around your ears as well, and as well as the headaches too.

So if these are things that you’ve been noticing, especially here in the last year, you feel like you could possibly be clenching or grinding your teeth, give us a call. Come in and see us and maybe we could check things out, see if that might be part of your problem. There are a few fairly easy solutions for that to kind of help slow things down, get those muscles feeling better, get the joints feeling better. So if you think that might be your case, give us a call. Our number is a (501) 753-0166.

Toothache or Stress?

/0 Comments/in /by

Hi there, I’m Dr. Mounts. I wanted to share a little bit of information with you today because lately I’ve been having a lot of patients come in with a specific type of issue going on.

I know we’ve all been stressed a lot here lately, with different things going on between COVID and elections and things like that and stress can really have a impact on our bodies in lots of different ways.

Well, I’ve had a lot of a lot of patients lately that have come in and they have thought that they’ve been having a toothache and we test all the teeth in the area that they think it’s coming from and it turns out the teeth are just fine, but they’re definitely having pain in that area.

So, we start feeling around, poking around a little bit, and we start figuring out that the pain’s actually coming from muscles and that’s because folks are getting stressed and lots of times, our body deals with stress by clenching your teeth and when you clench your teeth enough, those muscles tend to get aggravated and they let you know about it and it can really feel like a toothache.

So, if you feel like you’ve been stressed lately and things just aren’t feeling right, you’ve been having a lot of headaches, or if you feel like you’re kind of having a toothache, potentially, it could be even coming just from the clenching and there are some things that we can do to help alleviate that.

So, you’ve been having problems like that, you’re looking for a dentist to go to, it’s something that we definitely can take care of for you and it’s something that we’re kind of focused on these days. So, you can give us a call, our number’s 501-753-0166. We’d be glad to get you in and take a look.

What You Need to Know About Dental Insurance

/0 Comments/in /by

Hi there, I’m Dr. Mounts, and I want to talk to you for just a few minutes about dental insurance. So probably not the most exciting topic for some of you, but for others, dental insurance is something that you have questions about. Maybe you have it, you get it through your company, and you’re not really sure how those benefits help you. You’re not really sure what they’re going to cover. Then, the big thing is, is how much are you going to be out of pocket even with the dental insurance? This time of the year is really important with dental insurance.

So it’s kind of a good thing to get into your dental office, have your teeth checked out, and see if there’s anything that’s kind of come up here toward the end of the year that could be fixed on this year’s benefits. That’s one thing that most people don’t really understand with their dental insurance, but the other one really is how much is it going to cost me? That’s sometimes a tricky thing, but I really feel like here at Mounts Dental Care, we go out of our way to help you get a really, really good estimate so that you’ll know, with a pretty close certainty, on how much your bill is going to be whenever we get done. So we’re actually, we can be in contact with your insurance company for you. We can send in predetermination’s if we need to to make sure that we know exactly how much they’re going to do. Really, the best thing is, is I have a lady here named Sarah that she’s been doing this for over 20 years, just dealing really with the insurance companies.

That’s really her sole job is to make sure that she understands what your insurance policy does, how it works, and how it benefits you, and we’re here to help you with that. I’m not sure that a lot of other dental offices do that kind of stuff for their patients, but we really try to go out of our way to help our folks know how their plan works for them. If you’ve got some dental insurance leftover for this year, kind of getting down to the end of the year, and you haven’t been in, in a while, give us a call, come in and see us. Maybe we can get some things taken care of before those benefits go away. Our number is 501-753-0166.

How Safe Is It To Visit the Dentist?

/0 Comments/in /by

Hi there, I’m Dr. Mounts. You all, probably all know we’ve, we’re shut down for a little while. We had to take about a two-month break there for a little bit, but we are back up and running now as a lot of businesses are, which is great.

But a lot of folks are probably wondering, you know, is it safe to be out? You know, is it okay? Maybe there’s fear involved in getting out and doing things.

So I just wanted to talk to you a little bit about some of the precautions that we’re taking here to make sure that your visit is really safe with us. One thing that I’ll mention is, I feel really bad for the businesses out there, that have never really had to do infection control before. You know, this is all brand new stuff for them.

So they’re trying to figure out, what that looks like in their business and the way that they operate. But for us, you know, infection control is something that we’ve been doing forever. I mean, I’ve been doing dentistry now for over 15 years, and it’s something that we really focused on. So, you know, the nice thing is that even though we’re having to add some extra layers of protection for ourselves and for our patients, it’s very similar procedures for us, as far as what goes on here in our office.

I will say that the main thing that we’re really focusing on here in my clinic, is the way that patients don’t see anyone else when they’re here. So we’re really focusing hard on our scheduling, and how folks come in and out of the office, and how we don’t have any crossovers. People aren’t running into each other at the checkout desk, they’re not crossing by other patients in the hallways and things like that. We’ve really made a very focused effort on being able to keep folks away from other people.

So when you come here, you’re gonna get to be greeted by Alex. She’s gonna take your temperature, and then she’s going to escort you straight to your own room. You won’t run across any other patients or really any other staff either. It’ll be myself and either the hygienist or the assistant, that you’ll be seeing. And then we’ve even started checking most people out in the treatment room. So you’re not even having to go to the desk to do that. So, just some extra layers of precautions.

Of course, we’re doing all the things that we’re supposed to be doing as far as cleaning things, but again, we’ve been doing that for years and years. So that’s not really different for us. But I hope that, if you have some fears about getting out, I hope that you’ll know that, going to the dentist is probably from a virus standpoint, is one of the safest places you can be, because of all the levels of protection that we have here.
So it’s been a while since you’ve been in, maybe you hadn’t been to the dentist for a while anyway, or maybe you just kinda got thrown off because of the virus and the shutdown. And it’s just time to get back in and get your teeth cleaned. Whatever it is, we’re here to help you. If you’ve got any questions for us, or you’re ready to set up an appointment, just give us a call. Our number is 501-753-0166 and we are located in North Little Rock, Arkansas.

We’re Back

/0 Comments/in /by

We are back now and just want to take a second to say hey and let everybody know that we’re back to work. There are going to be some changes obviously. Things are going to have to be a little bit different. So I just wanted to share a few things with you so that you know kind of what things look like when you’re coming back to see us.

Whether you’re getting your teeth cleaned or getting some fillings done or whatever. So the first thing is going to be that you’re going to get a couple of phone calls before you ever come in ’cause we’ve got to do some screening questions. Typically that’s Regina, she loves doing that. So please make sure you prolong that conversation as long as possible. She’s going to ask you lots of questions like have you been around anybody who’s had the virus? Do you have the virus? Do you know anybody’s grandchildren who have been friends with someone who had the virus? You know things like that. Have you ever sneezed, ever? Just things like that. We’ve just gotta know, but in all seriousness we’ve got to make sure that everybody’s healthy that’s coming in so that’s really important.

Another thing is, is that we’ve shut down our waiting room so we don’t have a waiting room any longer. So that’s going to be your car for just a little bit. So when you get here you have to call us, let us know you’re here. And then we’ll come to get you whenever we’re ready. We’ve had to adjust our scheduling a little bit so that we don’t have people standing around waiting. But that’s just something that we kind of have to do for now anyway. Let’s see, other things.

Oh well yes, Alex she gets to take your temperature whenever you come in. So we’ve got that going on. But the main thing that I wanted everybody to know is is that once you get through all that stuff, and once you get to the back, we’re still the same folks, and we’re still treating you the same way we’ve been doing for like 15 years now. We want to make sure that we’re taking care of our patients, we’re having to add some extra layers on top of that. But trust me when I tell you, all joking aside, your safety and our safety, it’s really important these days. So we’re taking it very seriously and we just want to make sure that we’re doing everything right. That we’re taking care of your teeth, but we’re taking care of you as well.

So anyway, if you’ve not been able to come in for quite awhile now because we’ve been shut down or whatever, it’s time to get back in. Give us a call. We’re trying to go back through all the folks that we missed during those couple of months and give people calls. But if we haven’t got a hold of you yet and you know you’re needing to get in, give us a call, let us know. We’ll get you in soon. And try to get back to some type of normalcy. Thanks a lot, and it’s good to see everybody again. We’re looking forward to kind of getting the show on the road.

A New Plan for your Teeth in this New Year

/0 Comments/in /by

Hi there, I’m Dr. Mounts and I just wanted to take a minute to wish you a happy new year. I can’t believe it’s already 2020, it seemed like the holidays went really fast and here we are in a new year. If you’re like most folks and you’re looking back over the previous year, you’re thinking about things that went really well for you and then you’re also looking at things that maybe you didn’t get accomplished that you knew needed to.

Sometimes, one of those things is getting your teeth fixed. I know that there are lots of folks out there that need to get their teeth fixed, but that put it off for one reason or another, so I’d say maybe we let 2020 be the year that you get your teeth fixed. If you’ve had problems in the past and you just never have gotten around to doing it, maybe you’ve got lots of different reasons to do that.

Maybe one’s cost, maybe just the fear, or maybe you’ve just had some bad experiences with previous dental offices. Well let us be your solution. Let us be the place where you come and get your teeth taken care of. I think if you’ll give us a try, you’ll find that a lot of the things that have gone on in the past just won’t be happening here, and I think you’ll really like us. Maybe you can even spend a few minutes looking at some of the reviews we’ve got online, I think you’ll see that our patients really like us and we’d love to have you here with us. So if you’ve been putting things off for awhile, let 2020 be the year and let us be your people.

We’re Thankful

/0 Comments/in /by

This past Sunday, our preacher had a great definition of thankfulness. And it’s being aware and appreciative of a benefit. And so, there are so many different things that we can be thankful for. But obviously, for me, the first thing that came to mind was teeth, right?

So, lots of times when people are coming in, I don’t want them to be aware of their teeth, ’cause I want ’em to just be working right and normal, and not be causing a problem. But, I hope that here at this Thanksgiving season, if you teeth are working properly and they’re not causing any problems, I hope that you’re aware of it.

I hope that you appreciate the benefit that your teeth give you, and I hope that you’re doin’ all the things necessary to take really good care of them and that you’re thankful for your teeth here, at our Thanksgiving season. In fact, there are lots of things here, at Mounts Dental Care that we’re thankful for.

At Mounts Dental Care we’re very thankful for all of our patients, and that you allow us to take care of your teeth all year long.

Happy Thanksgiving!