“Bleachorexia” may sound like a made-up word, but it is a legitimate and serious problem that some people struggle with. It is the name that is given to an unhealthy fixation that some people develop on whitening their teeth. These “bleachorexics” become so obsessed with maintaining a pristine smile that they put their oral health in serious jeopardy.

When done right, whitening can be perfectly healthy and an effective way to foster a beautiful smile. However, the chemicals used in tooth whiteners, particularly at-home products that are not used under the supervision of a dental professional, are harsh and abrasive. If you fail to allow for enough time between your whitenings, these chemicals can irritate your gums and encourage recession. In extreme cases, your tooth enamel will start to break down, becoming brittle and sensitive. Eventually, your beautiful white teeth will become translucent and blue.

With this in mind, make sure that you give your teeth the whitening they deserve. A professional, in-office procedure is the best way to assure lasting results that will not compromise your oral health. Contact our Bellevue dentist for safe and effective treatment.

Tea, in many of its forms, is largely regarded as a health food. Fans of these valuable beverages drink them for their antioxidants and other valuable nutrients. It can therefore come as a surprise that your tea-drinking habit may be linked to a greater risk of throat cancer.

This is according to research conducted on a selection of patients suffering from esophageal cancer. Studies revealed that it was those who regularly drank more than a litre of hot black tea that were most likely to develop malignant growths in the throat. Fortunately, you don’t need to give up tea in order to save your throat. It would seem that the problematic factor at play is the high temperature of the beverage, which can be damaging to your fragile tissues. Tea of above sixty-five degrees seems to entail greater risk, while tea of over seventy degrees is substantially worse.

With this in mind, try allowing your tea to sit for at least four minutes after it is done boiling. It is after this point that you can expect it to fall below the sixty degree mark. Meanwhile, you can stay on the lookout for cancerous developments in the throat and mouth with regular visits to our Bellevue dentist.

We all bite down on our cheeks every once in a while. It’s never a pleasant experience, and it can take a while for these delicate tissues to repair themselves. Some people find that they bite down on their cheeks more often than they think they should, which makes them wonder whether or not the problem may be in their teeth.

The good news is that biting your cheeks is one of those things that is just going to happen to all of us periodically. Even if your teeth are perfectly straight and healthy, you will occasionally make a mistake.

If you are biting yourself multiple times in the same place, it is probably because the injured tissues of your cheek have become swollen and therefore easier to bite a second time, further aggravating your injury. You therefore will want to take particular care of your cheek when you chew, avoiding any further bites and allowing the tissues to recover. If the problem is particularly bad, you can consult your dentist about orthodontic wax or a similar protective product. Talk to our Bellevue dentist to learn more.

There are many of options available in the world of modern dentistry for people who lose one of their permanent teeth. Implants, bridgework, and dentures, each of these are great ways to plug the hole in your bite and give you back the aesthetic and functionality you had before. However, in the future, places like our Bellevue dentistry clinic may be able to effectively insert one of your own teeth back into your head.

Though the process is still a little immature, a group in London has reported some success in growing entirely new teeth from human stem cells. Using this science, a dentist may be able to take some of your own stem cells, develop a new tooth in a laboratory, and place it into your mouth. There the tooth can accept blood flow and grow just like one of your original teeth, without any of the problems frequently associated with an artificial tooth. Though further work needs to be done before the technique is ready for use in a dental office, we are all excited to see where this science may take the future of dental care.

If our Bellevue dentist asked you if you knew the causes of tooth decay, you’d probably have an answer ready. You’re sure to know that candies, gums, sodas, and other sweet-tasting foods are the biggest no-no’s of dental hygiene. Unfortunately, this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Agents of tooth rot can be hiding where you least suspect them. Many people assume that only junk food poses any particular threat to their teeth, but this is far from true. Fruit is one of the sneaker sources of sugar; though fruit is a valuable part of your diet, even whole, all-natural fruit can be just as hard on your teeth as certain sweets. This is especially true for fruit juices and dried fruit.

Another unfortunate antagonist is your cough drop. Many medicinal items like this are packed with sugar, and a minute or two of sucking on one can quickly turn your mouth into a bacterial free-for-all. So, after relieving that pain in your throat, be sure to rinse!