Does your child breathe through his or her mouth? This isn’t terribly unusual. Nearly half of all children under the age of eight do some mouth-breathing from time to time. If the habit doesn’t disappear by his or her eighth year, however, it might be a job for our Bellevue dentist.

One of the problems with chronic mouth-breathing is that it dries out your oral cavity. Your mouth needs saliva to help it battle against bacteria and fungal infections, so extended periods of dryness can lead to dental problems. People with dry mouths are more prone to tooth decay, gingivitis, and other diseases.

Chronic mouth-breathing often comes with malocclusion, or an improper alignment of the teeth. Many mouth-breathing children can therefore benefit from orthodontic work. If you think this might be your child’s problem, don’t wait; Overlake Family Dental can help!

Good dental care is important for everyone, but in particular people who struggle against diabetes. Our Bellevue dental clinic cautions such people to be especially careful with their teeth, for their condition puts them at greater risk of periodontal problems.

Diabetes causes poor blood circulation, which hinders your ability to resist infections. It also means that your saliva frequently becomes saturated with glucose, which cultivates the growth of harmful bacteria in your mouth. Therefore, compared to a person with a controlled blood sugar level, diabetics are highly susceptible to tooth decay and gum disease.

To make things worse, gum disease can further aggravate your blood sugar level. Diabetic patients with gum disease need more medication to regulate their condition, and their blood sugar becomes more manageable only after their gum disease is brought under control.

It’s a vicious cycle, and the best way to defend yourself from it is to maintain strict oral hygiene. If you are a diabetic, contact your dentist to learn more about its implications on your oral health.

Some people come to our Bellevue dentist with concerns about their canker sores. What are they? How do you get rid of them? The answers are never easy, because nobody is entirely sure what causes these sores. However, if the pain is bothering you, there are measures you can take to combat these oral nuisances.

Canker sores can generally be linked to irritation of the tissues in the mouth. You will therefore want to prevent further aggravation towards these tissues by keeping away from anything that might poke, burn, or irritate the area. This can mean avoiding certain foods, particularly acidic ones like citrus fruits. It also means cutting back on activities like gum chewing, which increases your risk of biting down on the sore.

The pain from a canker sore shouldn’t generally last longer than a few days, and the sore should heal completely within two weeks. If it persists longer than this, or if it is a particularly large or painful sore, then greater action may be called for. Contact your dentist about such sores.