Our Blog

Sometimes people feel a tiny bit nervous when they sit in the dental chair. And sometimes it’s more than a tiny bit. If your anxiety over visiting the office leads you to skip regular checkups and cleanings, or, worse, if you would rather suffer tooth or gum pain than give us a call—give our East Lyme, CT office a call! Sedation dentistry might be just the procedure you need to make dental anxiety a thing of the past.

Dr. James Robson and our team are trained to administer sedation and to monitor your responses throughout. And we want you to have all the information you need to decide on any dental treatment, including sedation. We will tell you of any risks, and describe the procedure in detail. If you have any health conditions or take any medications that might interfere with sedation, we can discuss your options with you and your doctor to make sure you are a good candidate. We will explain any preparations you should take, and let you know if there is a window of recovery time needed in our office while the sedation wears off.

Don’t let yourself suffer dental pain because you suffer from dental anxiety! Please call us to discuss sedation. We are trained to administer the treatment you choose gently and safely. Above all, we want to help you keep your smile the heathiest it can be, and that only happens when you have regular dental care. Let us work with you to make that care as comfortable and stress-free as possible.

What a milestone! The transition from bottle to sippy cup is one of baby’s first steps toward toddler independence. And like all first journeys, some helpful guideposts come in handy. That’s why Dr. James Robson and our team have several recommendations to help you navigate this transition, making sure your baby’s dental health is protected along the way.

Choosing a Sippy Cup

Sippy cups are often a parent’s first choice for this big step in baby’s development. While sippy cups offer a variety of child-safe materials, lively colors, and comfortable handle options, the feature of interest from a dental perspective is lid design.

Sippy cups curb spills because their lids don’t allow liquids to flow out freely, ensuring that drinks make it into baby’s mouth instead of onto furniture or floor. Cup lids might incorporate:

• Built-in straws
• A drinking edge around the rim of the cup which seals when your child isn’t drinking
• Soft spouts
• Hard spouts
• Spouts with valves to prevent liquids from leaking out. (Spouts with valves work like a nipple, which means baby is sucking instead of sipping.)

Which design is best? For short periods, any of these designs can work for you. Over long periods, spouted cups could have the same effects as prolonged thumb-sucking and pacifier use, potentially affecting a child’s tongue positioning, tooth alignment, bite, and speech development. Your dentist will be able to suggest which cups are best for your child’s dental health both short and long term.

What to Put in a Sippy Cup

Once your baby has begun drinking from a cup, it should only hold tooth-friendly drinks.

• Pediatricians generally recommend breast milk and/or formula until your child is 12 months old. You can switch to regular milk (or a healthy milk alternative) once your child is a year old with your doctor’s okay.
• Water can be introduced when your pediatrician thinks your child is ready, usually around the age of six months.
• Because even natural fruit juices have lots of sugar, dentists and pediatricians suggest giving your baby small amounts only—or feed your child fruit instead!
• Skip the sugared drinks, sports drinks, caffeinated drinks, and sodas. They aren’t healthy for little bodies or little teeth.

Help Prevent Tooth Decay

Just like adults, babies can suffer tooth decay, too—and for the same reasons. The bacteria in plaque use the sugars found in our diets to create acids, and acids erode tooth enamel.

When a toddler totes a sippy cup around all day, even filled with healthy drinks, those baby teeth are constantly exposed to the natural sugars found in breast milk, formula, and, for older children, milk. Drinks with more or added sugars, such as juices or sweetened drinks, cause more damage to tooth enamel. Use a sippy cup wisely:

• Offer the cup with meals and snacks, when increased saliva production can help wash away sugars and neutralize the acids which cause cavities.
• Offer water between meals.
• Don’t let your baby take a sippy cup to bed. Some spill-proof cups are designed to be sucked like bottles, and, like bottles, sugary liquids can pool in babies’ mouths as they sleep.
• Get into a tooth-cleaning routine as soon as your child’s teeth start to arrive.

And, while we’re talking about healthy teeth, please don’t let your child toddle around with a sippy cup. A fall while drinking can injure a baby’s mouth and teeth.

Partner with Your Child’s Dentist

The journey from baby to toddler can seem overwhelming sometimes for both you and your child, but you have expert help available! It's a good idea to make a first dental appointment at our East Lyme, CT office sometime between the appearance of the first baby tooth and your child’s first birthday. This initial visit is an opportunity for Dr. James Robson to:

• Check your child’s overall dental health and development.
• Look for signs of early decay.
• Talk about proactive dental care, including how and when to clean your child’s teeth.
• Answer questions about how you can support your child’s dental health, including the advantages and disadvantages of sippy cups.

Used properly, sippy cups can be a helpful transition on your child’s journey from bottle to cup, and from baby-who-relies-on-you-for-everything to take-charge-toddler. Dr. James Robson and our team are an ideal guide as you and your child chart this path together.

You’re an old pro at brushing and flossing by now—after all, you’ve devoted years to looking after your dental health, carefully brushing for two minutes twice each day and flossing daily.

But now, you’ve entered unfamiliar territory—orthodontic treatment. It’s time to level up your brushing game to protect your teeth and gums while you create a more attractive, healthier smile.

Why make changes in your dental routine? Because of plaque. Brackets and wires can make brushing more difficult, allowing plaque to build up around your braces. And plaque which sticks around leads to:

• Demineralization—The bacteria in plaque produce acids, which strip away minerals from tooth enamel. This creates a weak spot in the enamel and can leave a noticeable white stain on your tooth when your braces come off—especially around the places your brackets used to be, because that’s often where plaque accumulates.
• Cavities—Over time, as bacteria continue to attack enamel, a weak spot in the tooth’s surface becomes larger and deeper until it forms a cavity.
• Gingivitis—It only takes a few days for plaque to build up enough to irritate gum tissue and cause tender, inflamed, puffy, or bleeding gums.

Some new skills and new tools will help you keep teeth and gums healthy while you’re wearing braces.

Adapt Your Brushing Strategy

Wearing braces means adapting your brushing and flossing habits. You might need to spend a bit more time cleaning your teeth, but the results will be worth it!

• Brush More Often

Brushing after you eat is generally recommended to remove any food particles and plaque sticking around your brackets and wires. This might mean brushing in the morning, after meals and snacks, and before you go to bed. If you’re unable to brush after eating, be sure to rinse and swish with water to help remove food particles.

• Brush and Floss More Carefully

Brush each tooth surface, outside, inside, and the tops of molars. Angle your brush to clean around brackets and under wires. And while flossing might be more challenging, it’s still essential. Dr. James Robson can show you how to floss when wires get in your way.

Upgrade Your Tools

The right tools make any task easier:

• Toothbrushes— Your teeth and gums might be more sensitive now that you have braces. This is a good time to remember that you never need to scrub your teeth, gums, or braces, and that a soft-bristled brush is the only kind of brush to buy.

There are brushes designed especially for braces which have angled bristles to clean around brackets or smaller heads to fit more comfortably in your mouth. Some people find electric toothbrushes are more effective.

• Interproximal brushes and dental picks—Small cone-shaped brushes and soft picks can clean between your teeth and around your brackets and wires when a brush head is too bulky.
• Floss threaders and braces-friendly floss—Floss threaders are flexible hoops which allow you to maneuver floss under the arch wire and between your teeth. Or try pre-cut floss, which comes with one stiff end to thread easily through your braces and between your teeth.
• Water flossers—A water flosser is a gentle and effective way to help wash away food particles.
• Over the counter or prescription rinses—Dr. James Robson can recommend special rinses which can help prevent cavities.
• Cleaning kit—Put together a kit with toothbrush, travel-size toothpaste, floss or picks, and a small mirror for cleanup on the go.

Because there are so many options, experiment with different tools until you find the best, most efficient way to keep your teeth and braces their cleanest.

Learn from the Experts

Finally, optimize your brushing strategies with help from the experts. The dental team at Robson Dentistry in East Lyme, CT can teach you new brushing and flossing techniques and suggest the best tools to get the best results. And keep up with your regular dental appointments and cleanings! Regular exams will catch any signs of demineralization before they can lead to stains or cavities, and your hygienist can work around your braces to remove plaque you might have missed.

Take some time each day to level up your brushing game, and, when those braces come off, you’ll celebrate with a winning smile!

No, we don’t mean the latest foamy offering from your favorite microbrewery. When you’re thirsty, one of the best options available is literally at your fingertips—tap water, straight from your faucet. It might not be the most adventurous choice, but drinking a tall glass of fresh tap water is refreshing in so many healthy ways.

Physical Health

Water conveniently available at home is much more than a convenience. We need to keep hydrated, because our bodies are made to run on water. To name just a few of its benefits, water provides nutrients to organs and cells, eliminates waste, regulates our temperature, and protects our joints and delicate tissues. Dr. James Robson and our East Lyme, CT team will tell you all about the importance of proper hydration when it comes to your mouth, gums, and teeth, but here are a few highlights:

• We need to be hydrated to produce enough saliva. Saliva, which is more than 90% water, helps prevent cavities and protect enamel by both washing away bacteria and balancing acids in the mouth which can cause decay.
• Tooth enamel is so strong because it’s made of calcium and phosphate. These minerals are leached from our enamel by both bacteria-produced acids and dietary acids. Saliva also contains calcium and phosphate, and, with fluoride, restores these minerals in our enamel, leaving teeth stronger and less likely to develop cavities.
• As a bonus, a quick rinse with water when you can’t brush after eating is a great way to remove food particles left behand—especially healthy when you’ve had sugary or acidic foods.

Ecological Health

If you want to reduce waste, one of the easiest ways to do so is to use tap water instead of bottled water.

• Bottled water has a carbon footprint. It takes energy (and additional water) to create plastic and glass bottles, to label them, and to transport them. Water piped into your home from local sources? No bottles, labels, or long road trips necessary.
• Water bottles should be recycled. Unfortunately, many cities don’t offer, or have stopped offering, recycling. Plastic and glass empties end up in landfills, littering our neighborhoods, or in our waters.

Budget Health

Getting your daily hydration from bottles can add up quickly.

• Bottled water can cost hundreds of times as much as tap water. While local water prices vary, the average gallon of tap water costs less than a penny. No matter what kind of sale your local store is offering, bottled water will never be the bargain tap water is.
• When you buy many small bottles instead of a few larger ones, or choose more expensive “designer” water, your costs can mount up even more.
• When you need to bring water with you for work, sports, or other activities, consider filling a reusable bottle with water from home.

Dental Health

Getting the recommended amount of fluoride in your diet is one of the single best things you can do for your dental health. Fortunately, many communities make this easy for us by providing fluoridated drinking water.

• Fluoride works with the calcium and phosphate in your saliva to create stronger enamel, so cavities can’t form as easily when your teeth are exposed to plaque and food particles.
• Fluoride helps strengthen your child’s permanent teeth as they develop, and helps prevent cavities in both baby teeth and permanent teeth as children grow.
• If your community doesn’t offer fluoridated water, ask Dr. James Robson for the best way to get the fluoride you need to protect your teeth.

For the good of your body, your planet, your wallet, and last, but most certainly not least, the health of your teeth and gums, consider a glass of water. So many benefits—and you have them all on tap!