This Won’t Hurt A Bit Advances Are Taking The Pain Out Of A Dental Visit
If you’re like most folks, just the thought of making a dental appointment sets your heart aflutter. Now, we won’t try to kid you - going to the dentist is never going to be fun. But according to the American Dental Association, there is a variety of new treatment advances that could mean fewer trips to the dentist in the future.
What can you expect in the next few years? How about a vaccine that helps fight cavities? A sealant designed to help teeth resist decay? Or laser treatments that harden teeth and keep them from chipping and breaking?
Even do-it-yourself dentistry may soon be a part of everyday care. Innovators are working on mouth rinses designed to reverse or even decrease the size of cavities and an antibiotic toothpaste to combat the bacteria that causes gum disease. Here are some new technologies available now:
-Surgery-free treatment for gum disease. Red, swollen, bleeding gums are a sign that infection has invaded those tiny spaces between your teeth. In the past, treatment often required surgery to remove the tiny pockets of bacteria. Not so anymore, thanks to a new prescription product called Actisite.
“This is a dental floss-type string imbedded with antibiotic,” reports Dr. Milton Palat, chairman of periodontics at the New York University School of Dentistry. The string is packed into the inflamed gum line, where it remains for two to three weeks. “During that time, it releases antibiotics directly to the site of the infection,” says Palat. Although most patients still require a scraping procedure to remove surface debris, Actisite helps preclude invasive surgery that involves cutting and rolling back the gums to remove bacteria.
Coming soon, says Palat: an antibiotic gel that sticks to gums and kills bacteria even faster and easier.
-Air abrasion fillings. Does just the sound of that whirring drill send shivers up your spine? Not to worry - air abrasion cavity treatment is here. “Working much like a sandblaster, it uses air to painlessly wear down the area of the tooth where the cavity lies,” says Dr. Michael Krochak, director of the Dental Phobia Center of New York. Once the surface is free of decay, a normal filling can be put in place. One caveat: Current air abrasion systems can’t dig out old fillings, or be used on cavities deep in the tooth’s structure.
-Painless injections, and no more novocain mouth! The Patented Metered Injection System, or PMI, is a pain-free way to receive a Novocain injection that also won’t numb your face and tongue. According to Krochak, who helped test the new device, the reason regular shots hurt is not the needle, but rather the pressure that forces the liquid anesthetic into the gum line. Because it’s difficult to control the flow, it’s usually impossible to release the anesthetic slow enough to avoid pain.
PMI is a computerized injection system that releases tiny, pre-controlled squirts of anesthetic into disposable tubing. “The tubing is attached to a wand-like structure, inside which is a very fine needle,” says Krochak. Dentists touch the wand to the gum line and turn on the computer - and in seconds the anesthetic is delivered in such minute amounts it virtually causes no pain.
And because the dosage and delivery is so precise, dentists can control the injection so it hits only the nerve connected to the tooth, leaving the face and tongue alone. “Patients can go back to work, have business meetings, give presentations, all within an hour of having dental work,” says Krochak.
-Do it yourself teeth cleaning. They’re called sonic tooth cleaners, the new generation of electric toothbrushes that use radiation-free ultrasound waves to knock the plaque and bacteria off your teeth and gums. It looks like a regular electric toothbrush with a supersoft bristle head, and users are instructed to brush normally. The sound waves, which you can’t feel, are activated during the brushing, going through gums and even deep into the pockets between teeth, which harbor bacteria. A fancy gadget, for sure, but dentists say they really work.
“I think they’re terrific - they do a very good job of cleaning your teeth, particularly if you don’t have the manual dexterity to do it with a regular brush and some dental floss,” says Palat.
In fact, he says, daily use of sonic cleaners may help you avoid not only gum disease but also the dentist, by cutting down on the need for cleanings or even fillings. The sonic brushes are manufactured by a number of companies and sell for $80-$100 at drug and department stores; extra brush heads are about $4 each.