Our specialities go far beyond exceptional dentistry that keeps your teeth bright and white – we are always focused on improving your overall health through dentistry, and this goal provides us many opportunities to help people suffering from issues related to their teeth, jaw, or oral health. There are several issues that may arise over the course of your life, and even if you have brushed your teeth at least twice a day, flossing regularly, there is nothing you can do to prevent some issues from occurring. We treat these problems under the broad umbrella of “wellness specialties”. Treatments vary based on severity of the issue experienced, which we will determine at our offices. Once we have identified the problem, a simple consultation will provide us the direction we need to care for your current and future health.
What is a Kaizen Dental Wellness Specialty?
These are treatments designed to improve your health, as well as your overall quality of life. Most of these issues are not life-threatening, excluding sleep apnea which may impede airflow if left untreated; our treatments are intended to alleviate or reduce symptoms that are caused by the original problem. With our help, you will find the way to relief and management of your symptoms.
Identifying Oral Health Issues Impacting Wellness
You are in safe hands at Kaizen Dental. As part of your regular checkups, we are always inspecting and logging any potential trouble points we come across, meaning often times before you notice the symptoms we already are tracking the problem. Consider bruxism, known as teeth grinding, which can leave fractures in your teeth visible during inspection. Depending on the severity of the bruxism, someone suffering from it may experience headaches, jaw pain, tooth sensitivity, or other symptoms. Our typical recommendation for treating this issue is a night guard to protect your teeth from unconscious clenching and grinding. It may be possible to treat this through jaw alignment as well, given that clenching can often be brought on by a misaligned jaw that can be treated by pulling the jaw forward and into a place that puts less stress on the various muscle groups involved with clenching.
Another issue we frequently treat is sleep apnea, which can be annoying for both the person suffering from it, as well as their partner. Snoring is the most apparent side-effect of sleep apnea, but far from the only one. In severe cases, snoring may not occur at all as the airway is fully blocked, but even in mild cases snoring is not the clearest way to diagnose sleep apnea. If you wake up coughing or gasping for air in the night, you may be experiencing sleep apnea. To treat this issue, we often will recommend CPAP machines, which supply a constant flow of air to your lungs, ensuring you are able to receive oxygen, and keeping you asleep and waking up well-rested.
Nutrition Advice and Consultations From Kaizen Dental in Richmond, BC
We also offer nutritional and dietary recommendations that will help you to make the right decisions the next time you’re at the grocery store. We work together with the patient to determine areas of concern, or dietary foods and drinks that may be having the largest impact on their oral and overall health. By discovering these points, we are able to find alternatives that will keep your teeth and wellness in check. To give you a brief on some easy recommendations that could supplement anyone’s regular diet, it goes without saying at this point, “Calcium good, sugars bad”, but you might not be aware that acidic foods and drinks, such as citrus fruits and juices, or wine, can be detrimental to your enamel, wearing it away with each bite or sip. To counteract this, try snacking on some leafy greens or crunchy greens which will scrub off the acids clinging to your teeth. Water is an easy way to get some of the leftovers gone quick, so wash your foods and drinks down with a tall glass of water.
There is always room for improvement, and at Kaizen Dental we are constantly seeking new ways to help you live life to the fullest. To this end, our wellness specialties continue to grow in their diversity and ability to reduce symptoms and create the opportunity for a healthy you. If you are experiencing persistent problems, never hesitate to let us know, your health is our greatest priority and we will take the detective lens to any trouble you feel or notice.