In the News

It's time now for some trusted dental advice from the friends at Lifetime Dental Health, and we've all heard this before, you need to go see the dentist every six months, twice a year to maintain good oral health. What you may not realize is that if you don't have good oral health, the effects can ripple through the rest of your body.

Dr. Richard Barry and Dr Beth love with Lifetime Dental Health are here with me with more. Welcome to both of you. Nice to have you here.. Yeah. It is so true, Beth, that you know what happens here goes through the rest of the body, isn't it? And we don't think about that. No. Most of us don't think about that, but it is very true.

It can start with something as simple as gum disease and then the gum disease progresses into periodontal disease and then this turns into inflammation. It affects our whole body. Dr. Barry, why is it difficult though, for some of your patients to understand that importance? Because maybe, I feel fine, so I don't need to see you?

It's interesting, statistically 85% of adults live with gum disease and they don't even know it. And it's really an epidemic. Part of the problem is there's no pain associated with it until it gets bad. And so 50% of people don't even go to the dentist because they feel fine.

And, and it's not just gums that they're thinking, I don't have a sore tooth. I don't have a sore gums, so I don't need to go. But you can, Dr. Love, you can see things in someone's mouth at an early stage before there's complications. Yeah, absolutely. That's why it's so important that you see your dentist every six months and have your teeth cleaned and have them examined because then we can find these things at an early stage and then we can do something about them.

Give me an example of what you might find that would really help if you found it at an early stage. we just find bleeding gums. It's just, just as simple as that. Sometimes people don't even know that they have bleeding gums until we do some of our testing and then that gives us the indication that we do more tests after that to see how advanced it is. Then what do we need to help to eradicate that and we walk our patients through different protocols to help them.

Get that mouth as healthy as they can. Well, Dr. Barry, what can periodontal disease lead to?

Well, periodontal disease is actually a bacterial infection, and it can spread to your blood through your bloodstream, and it can cause an increase in incidents like heart disease, stroke, cardiovascular disease, uh, and you can see on the chart.

Preterm birth rate. Many other things that can lead to these other issues that absolutely can, because the mouth is sort of a haven for bacteria. The mouth has so many forms of bacteria and, there's about 10 different bacteria that really cause the problems. We'd like to talk about another time about testing for that.

Dr. Love. Is it, um, hard to treat this then? Especially if it's caught early? If we catch it early, it can be as simple as just getting on a better protocol for the patient. Come in at a tighter up to see us at a tighter schedule, three months as opposed to six months. Getting them brushing with a certain type of a toothbrush, flossing daily, changing their technique.

Then as the disease progresses though, then we have to get into treatments that are a little bit more time for the patient and then the surgery. But we like to catch it early so that we don't have to, yeah.

Um, are there different ages that periodontal disease will affect more? Well, it can affect any adults, not kids as much, not kids as much as usually happens, uh, when you're in your 20s or 30s. Um, and there's certain diseases that, uh, you'll find it worse if you have diabetes.

You have a higher incidence of periodontal disease as well. Yeah. Which kind of makes sense because those things are all tied together. What should people look for Dr. Barry in their own mouth so that they might be able to, not necessarily self-diagnose, but know if they really need to kind of see some of the common signs are. First of all, bleeding gums because healthy gums don't bleed.

Also, if you notice gum recession is another sign, those are the two common signs. And gum recession can lead to some sensitivity, which is a way that people kind of know something's going on. And I know next week we're going to have a more in depth conversation about this and what people can do.

And some of, as you alluded to, Beth, that there are some other ways that people can keep it from happening, but also one, once it is happening, how you can make it better for folks. And, and I know you have some ideas to share, so it's a pleasure to have both of you here. Again, we'll keep brushing.

It really does work. Go see your dentist. Go see them. Thank you both. It's great to be here.

Well, it's time to get some trusted advice from the dental experts at Lifetime Dental Care. And last week we were discussing the impact of gum disease on your overall health. Today we're going to further explore the mouth and body connection and you might be amazed at that. And we're also looking at ways of treating gum and preventing gum disease.

I'm joined once again by doctors Beth Love and Richard Barry. Pleasure to have you both here. Pleasure to be here. I'm glad we're going to explore this conversation because there's so much that people don't know or think about. And Dr Love, let me talk to you first. How do we know what affects our gums from what affects then the rest of our body?

Well, we know from our conversation last week that gum disease is a bacterial infection that creates inflammation. And this not only breaks down the bone and the supporting structures around our teeth, it's also been linked a lot of major systemic illnesses, including. Cardiovascular disease, stroke of diabetes, certain types of cancer, premature births, and also of low birth rates.

We have that listed there on the screen. And Dr. Barry, I'm amazed that some of these problems can start. Do they start with bad gum disease? They absolutely do start with bad gum disease. We like to do assessments of the gum disease. We do an evaluation. It's important to have a very good dental checkup.

From there, we do an evaluation of clinical findings and x-rays to determine the extent of the disease. And at that point we make a proper diagnosis and appropriate treatment plan. It's interesting, Dr Barry, cause people don't think of going to see you folks for that. They think I have a sore tooth and that's why they go to see you.

Or they go for a cleaning. They forget about that gum part, don't they? Absolutely. And it's critical. It is critical. What can you do to someone when you see that start of gum disease when they have that? Develop a treatment plan and do the appropriate cleanings, and we can do it mostly nonsurgically.

And the later stages of disease can require some surgery to correct the problem, but with early detection we can do it with most patients non surgically. Dr Love, and people know when they're having problems. I mean, are there indications that a person should be able to identify themselves? There are issues going on with my guns.

Sometimes there are, sometimes people do have bleeding gums. They have some pain, they have itching, they have a mouth odor, but most of them, it can be a pretty silent disease. But it's also that there's an interesting fact here that they, uh, they've estimated that the gum tissue, the surface area of the gum tissue that is infected with gum disease is the same size as the surface area of the Palm of your hand.

Well, what does this mean. Well, if you had an infection that was this big on your body and it was bleeding and it was inflamed, would you do something about it? And you'd notice it certainly right, and you would do something about it. And like Dr. Barry said, we can treat this now of with a local anesthetic very comfortably.

We can make our mouth, our patient's mouth healthy, and then therefore. We can reduce the risk of gum disease being a link to all of these other systemic illnesses. Dr. Barry, you alluded to the possibility of surgery. Is that in very severe cases. That's usually it. Severe case, but the key is early detection, because I'd say probably 80% of our cases, we can do nonsurgically in less invasively, and we have some before, after pictures or just some pictures of some folks that have had some real issues.

And I think it's, some of those are pretty identifiable. Yes. That's the healthy gums and it's two healthy gums right there. Yes, pink gets her any indication there are pink and they don't bleed and they look nice and those are good. I know we have another one. It's not so much, and I know this person probably waited too long before they went to see you.

Yes, they did. That's an extreme case, but that's what it can do. Develop into. It's interesting that you talked about the tie in between diseases because I'm a heart disease survivor, so because of that, I have to have antibiotics before I'm treated by my dentist every time. And that's the norm, right, Dr. Love?

Because that the bacteria in your mouth can transfer to the rest of the body. They do. They do transfer. Yeah. There are open wounds that are created by the gum disease, those bad bacteria that are causing the gum disease get into the bloodstream, travel to your heart valves, travel to your coronary artery.

Sure. It's kind of scary. It is scary. It's very frightening. Yes. Dr. Barry, what's this? Right here? Well, that is if there's a persistent infection, we can do a sophisticated DNA laboratory test which takes, uh, a saliva sample and we placed it in there and FedEx it off. And what that does is it, uh, measures the type of bacteria and the, the level of bacteria.

And we know that certain bacteria is. Cause all these problems. There's bad bacteria, 10 of them. You know, the hundreds of bacteria in your mouth. There's probably 10 that caused most of the problems with gum disease and systemic problems. Wow. It is amazing how we are starting to use DNA sampling for so many things in such a good way.

It is very interesting. Dr. Barry, Dr. Love. Thank you so much. We hope everybody will give you a call if they see that they need some issues having a checkup. Yes.

Well, there are so many factors that go into choosing a dentist and that experience, quality and care are certainly at the top of the list. There's also the X factor, how you feel when you walk into the office. Are you comfortable with the staff? For Lifetime Dental Health all of these things are important and they want to build relationships with their patients.

Here to share more. Dr. Richard Barry and Dr Beth Love. Welcome to both of you. It's nice to have you here. Nice to be here. And I just want to mention that this is the start of a weekly segment with you too. You'll be joining me every week on day time to talk about dental issues. Good advice, I'm sure for our viewers as we go forward.

But tell me a little bit about your practice. Let's start at the beginning. Dr. Barry. Well, we've both been in the business for over 30 years, so we have lots of experience and, uh, we're here to help any patients from age three to 103. Well, that was one of my questions, Beth, are you a pediatric, do you combine, are you for everyone?

We're for everyone. Yes. We see children as young as even one years old. As soon as the teeth started coming into the mouth, that's when we like to start seeing them. And usually at that young age, yes, absolutely. Because that's when their problems can start. And so we want to be there so that the problems can be taken care of.

And is it also a good idea to get them in young to get used to going to the dentist? Absolutely. Now if we bring them in, we get them used to the office. We'd give them rides, we show them our little mirrors and all our little instruments and our glasses, and then they get to choose a prize so that the experience is a good experience.

And then they walk away with, I want to go back there. And that's what you want. Dr. Barry, I know probably through the years you have seen your share of folks who have anxiety when it comes to the dentist. How do you, in your practice, make sure these folks feel comfortable? Well, first of all, when patients come in and we try to figure out what brought them in, what their problem is, what their concerns are, and we try to develop a tailor-made treatment plan for them.

If they have fear for the dentists, we have ways to use conscious sedation to allow them to glide through their appointments. And that's just probably one thing you mentioned, getting to know the patient. Why is that important? Well, people come in for many different reasons. We don't want to assume why they came in.

They are all unique problems and we come up with unique solutions for them. What type of dentistry do you practice, Dr. Love? I mean, is it everything from cleaning and do you do any type of braces? What's your, how, how wide range? It's a very wide range. Dr. Barry and I are very committed to continually doing education courses so that we're on the cutting edge of everything that's out there.

Short Term orthodontics, which, a lot of our adult patients are loving because it gives them straight teeth that they had when they were a teenager and then, then they just shifted a little bit. Yeah. And then we do everything else too. We're learning to do implants right now.

We feel that's a very important thing for our population is our baby boomers. Boomers are aging. We don't want dentures. We don't want partials. We want teeth that feel like teeth and are solid in our mouth. So that's very important. So from cleanings, restorative of extractions, dr really, you're a one stop shop.

We are, and our patients really appreciate that they don't have to go out and meet a new staff. Just do that whole experience over again. Your office is on Bethel road, Dr. Barry, and it's beautiful. Very cute. Thank you. I think that in itself would make people feel good about coming to the dentist and make them feel comfortable there and feel like they're at home.

You've been in business such a long time. How has the dental industry changed for you and for your patients? Oh, there's constant techniques changing. We have to go to school all the time to keep up with it all. And we are on the cutting edge and we have the latest technologies, and we have a very modern facility, and we have just about everything that's new in dentistry.

When you talk about people coming from that first time, do you usually have a consult with them and then they come back in for an appointment? Is it done on the same day, doctor? Well, what we do is when they come in, it's all about them. We want to get to know them. We want them to get to know us, meet our staff, take a tour.

And basically we listen, we listen to what brought them in. We do a thorough exam and determine what their problems are and also from what they said, and come up with a solution for their unique problem. Well, we've had your information on the screen so that if folks want to reach out to you, Dr love Dr. Barry, they can do so and knowing that they can be as old as one or they can be as old as 81.

Absolutely. Want to see them. It's a pleasure to meet both of you and we will see you next week. All right. Thank you. It's been fun. Thank you. Appreciate it.

I'm sure my next guests have some advice about brushing teeth after all that candy. Of course, you already know that. So today we're talking about orthodontic care, and more and more grownups are looking to have their teeth straightened and maybe they never had braces as a kid, or maybe their teeth have moved as they age, whatever the reason,there are plenty of options that don't involve a mouth full of metal.

I'm joined once again by doctors Beth Love and Richard Barry with Lifetime Dental Health. Welcome back to both of you. I know that advice is brush your teeth after all the candy, right? Absolutely. Let's talk about this field of dentistry and how it's changing.

Dr. Barry, especially for adults, you talk about braces in terms of orthodontics. What do you mean by these new terms that you're using now? Well, right now, we like to use different methods of orthodontics, not the traditional method where you have the brackets and abrasives and the metal mouth.

We have two different kinds of, methods that we can use. We can use Invisalign, which is clear retainers, and we also have some braces that are tooth-colored that don't show. Are these braces again, full mouth like we used to know like, but familiar with. But you know, like I said, when they're clear or not clear, but tooth color, you don't see them at all.

And we take that from a smile that's unattractive to a very attractive smile. We don't actually, correct your bite so much, but we focus on the teeth that you see when you're smiling broadly. That's what you're talking about. Those sorts of six Oh six that's it. Those are the social six. And we take those anterior teeth and we transform them from that smile that you're ashamed of, into that smile that you can smile confidently with.

So that's the social six that we're talking about, and we focus on that. And there are new ways now I know to achieve those results. So Dr. Barry, one is Invisalign. How would you explain that procedure? Well, the Invisalign is actually a series of clear removable trays or retainers that you wear for two weeks.

There's a picture of him there, and after two weeks you remove them and you place the next set in a series. And. Depending on the amount of correction determines the number of trades that you need, and it usually takes 10 to 30 trades to accomplish. And how long did would this be? Six months. A year? Well, if you wear them every two weeks, if it's 20 trays, that means 40 weeks.

And do they wear this all day long when they sleep? They eat. Yeah. The nice thing about the Invisalign is that the patient can take them out to brush your teeth. They can take it out to eat, but for compliance sake, you have to wear them about 20 to 22 hours a day, so if you want to take them off for a special occasion, you can, but the longer you wear them, the faster.

Okay. Got it. Okay. Dr. Love, there's another one now called the six month smile. How is this different from Invisalign? Well, six months smiles is actually more popular, it's becoming more and more popular with our adults. It does have brackets and wires, but the beauty of six month smiles is that these brackets and wires, Oh, we do have a picture up there if some of an adult wearing the six month smiles. The beauty of it is, that the brackets and wires are tooth colored. They're inconspicuous compared to those metal mouth braces that we had when we were a child. Right? So that and we move teeth with a special titanium wire that has memory in it. This efficiently and gently moves the teeth into the proper position.

Dr Barry and I like this six month smile because we have more control over this tooth movement as compared with the Invisalign. This decreases the treatment time and we can generally complete cases within a four to a nine month period. The average being six months. Hence six month smiles.

And you can do this right in your office?

Absolutely. Because people think, Dr. Barry, they have to go to an orthodontic office to get this type of work done. They don't. We specialize in this area. We have some before and after pictures, and that's one of those things that really, If you are questioning whether or not it's worth it for you as an adult. And I know Dr. Love, there are more adults now that are much more conscious of their smile and they're doing this, aren't they?

They are.

The adult patient that has, wanted to have braces, but they put their kids through it, but now it's their time and they just don't want to go. There's like, yes. You know what? It doesn't matter the age. Does it Dr Barry? I mean, we all deserve this ourselves. Age 70 or 80, whoever wants it, they can have it done.

Great results. It's nice to see both of you. Thank you. .

The number one reason most people avoid the dentist is the fear of possible pain or discomfort. And this anxiety keeps people from getting necessary treatment. So in today's segment with a trusted team at Lifetime Dental Care, we explore their methods of helping people relax. I'm joined once again by doctors Beth Love and Dr Richard Barry of lifetime dental health.

Welcome back to both of you. It is the number one, you know, anxiety, Beth, you know that as well, but it's also a game changer in that now you have some options for people. Can you explain in a nutshell what sedation dentistry is all about? Oh, well, this is going to be hard to believe by a lot of people, but dentistry can be completed in a safe, comfortable and relaxing environment. Even if our patients have anxiety or they fear the dentist. So sedation dentistry is going to make your dentistry comfortable. We can do it completely comfortable. We can do it effective and efficiently, but most importantly, the patients won't remember or be aware of the sights, the smells, and the sounds.

Sedation, dentistry is a way for our dentistry to have the dentistry that they want. And they need be completely relaxed and at ease. And I would think, doctor, Barry, that that helps you as a dentist as well. If you don't have a patient who is so anxious about things, you can really do your job to help them.

Oh, it really has. When they're relaxed, we're more relaxed, so right. We can deliver a lot of dentistry in a short amount of time. And when I talk to my patients about sedation, the first thing they say is. Well, doc, are you going to knock me out? And I said, no. It's not like a general anesthetic. It's a conscious sedation where you are awake, but you're so relaxed with the medications that we give that you won't remember anything.

You can still swallow on your own. You can breathe on your own. And it's very relaxing for them. Is this an IV sedation? Is this a pill? What is this stuff? Well, it's a pill. It's a, prescription medication similar to Valium. We use, a number of different types similar to Valium, the same drug class.

And what that will do is it'll just totally take their fear away and allows us to, like I say, get as much done as we can. And Dr. Love, you mentioned that people won't remember the sights and the sounds because for some people, if they had a bad experience, that's what brings the anxiety to the forefront.

Absolutely, and that's what we try to do with sedation dentistry. We administer medications orally that take the edge off. Sometimes we give a prescription sedative the night before so that our patients are guaranteed a night of good rest, and then they wake up relaxed in the morning.

But something else that sedation dentistry isn't, it doesn't require the use of more needles because these medications are taken and swallowed whole or it's crushed and then placed under their tongue by either Dr Barry and I. Do you have to have special education, additional education in order to do practice this way?

Am I right? Absolutely. Yeah. We have advanced education, taken a lot of classes for it, and we've done countless sedations, so we're very comfortable and effective at doing it. And what's the reaction of patients, Dr. Barry? Well, it's interesting. Uh, I call my patients at night and when I talk to them, um, I, one of my questions is.

Well, how long do you think you were in the chair? And they'll say, wow, I think it was about 45 minutes or an hour. And in reality it is. We probably had them in a chair for two or three hours, and then they say, I don't remember a thing. I said, well, that's perfect. That's exactly what you want to hear.

Right? Exactly. And this is for most people, any age, Dr. Love. Um, we deal basically with an adult population. Okay. Because there is some more specific training that you need to do with children. And so, yeah, if we can, I think our old, I'm trying to remember my oldest patient that told me tales nursing can drive to the office.

Dr. Barry, they can drive home. Well, if we're using oral sedation, they have to have a caregiver drop them off and take them home and monitor them for a few hours afterwards. Pretty normal, I would think. Um, you feel a little groggy afterwards. The types of medications that we use stay in your system for 24 hours, so that we do ask that someone be with them for that or the rest of that day.

And that we prefer that they not drive, you know, within a 24 hour period because the drugs are stored within. And then they’re spit out, if you will, back into the system at different times. You know, Barry, we've had your phone number and email up there, but I suppose if someone does want to call and make an appointment and they want this, they should tell you at that time when they want to make an appointment, we will be glad to talk about it.

And you know, most of our patients that have this are raving fans. I mean, because we're able to deliver to a segment of the population, dentistry they couldn't have had any other way. Yes. That's wonderful. Great. Good stuff, Dr Barry, Dr Love. Nice to talk to you. Thanks. Thank you so much.

If your partner is constantly complaining that your snoring is keeping them up at night, well, that snoring could be more than an annoying habit. Snoring could be a sign of something more serious. And joining me this morning, Dr. Richard Barry, and Dr. Beth Love, both with Lifetime Dental, and it's good to see you both again.

Thank you. . Here it is. We're getting ready to discuss this. Dr. Barry goes, yep, I'm a snorer. I was cured with the appliance, so my wife is very happy. I'm sure she is as other partners are too, and hopefully we're going to make a lot of people happy today. Beth, I said it could be more than an annoying habit.

What could be a sign of snoring? That means it could be something worse. Well, snoring is the hallmark symptom of sleep apnea. It's a continuum and it can get worse as we age. That is one of the signs that we look for, is it just age? Snoring is, it gets worse.

It actually closes off the back of the throat. So, if you're snoring loudly, there's probably an 80% chance that you have sleep apnea, which is a potentially life threatening disorder. And the louder or the longer, the more serious. Absolutely.

I know that Dr. Barry snoring can be a sign of sleep apnea or other things. I mean, sleep apnea is kind of an indicator and could lead to other things. What are some of those things that could happen? Well, there's a whole host of illnesses and serious problems and signs associated with sleep apnea. Um, high blood pressure, heart disease, heart attack.

Stroke, uh, diabetes. Uh, there's a whole list of, a litany of things that are associated with sleep apnea. So you can't ignore it. Is that your advice? I mean, if you know that you have sleep apnea best you can or had, yes. Yeah. You can't ignore it. It is life threatening. Why is it?

Well, if you have sleep apnea, your blood pressure goes up, you can have a more serious problem with the incidents of stroke or heart attack. And there's a lot of, research that indicates that. You said that you had an appliance and you brought it actually, which keeps you quiet, but also is something that people can have if they have sleep apnea.

That's right. If they, come to our office and we have, a formal diagnosis, which only a sleep physician can do. And once we have a formal diagnosis, they'll say, you know, you’re normal or you’re mild, moderate or severe apnea, and so we can do different devices to help cure that problem.

Well, how do they work? I mean, you put them in your mouth. What does it do in order to stop the snoring? They're very sophisticated oral appliances, which advance the jaw. Pulls the tongue forward, and that opens up the airway so that air can get down into the lungs. Because what happens in sleep apnea is that you have repetitive episodes of partial or complete blockage of the upper airway.

So you're not getting oxygen sometimes. Absolutely. That's what's happening. Right? And so, you're interrupting your REM sleep, you're not getting restorative sleep. And then. All of those things affect all of these other things we were talking about with heart disease, or diabetes, stroke of even things like sex drive and dysfunction and things that you don't even think about that because you're not, your body is not right, restoring itself at night, not getting good sleep. You're not getting oxygen.

And the amazing thing is there's some 40 million Americans who have this, and the unfortunate thing is 90% of the time it's undiagnosed and untreated, and this affects people of all ages. And it affects men more than women. Do you feel better with your appliance?

I do. Yeah, I do. I feel like I'm more restful. I used to fall asleep in the afternoon a little bit, so that was an indicator too for folks if you're sleeping. In fact, there's a big problem with that because a lot of people have car accidents because they fall asleep. During the day, not alert.

You showed us your device. Are there other kinds of devices, Beth, or is it just mainly that type? All different types of devices. There are some that just have elastic straps. You can't adjust them as well. We use the ones that you can adjust because you have to tighten that person and make sure that they are receiving the right amount of oxygen.

They many times have to go back to the sleep of medicine physicians and make sure of that, and have the sleep tests redone. You have to, the only way you can know for sure that you have sleep apnea. It's using a polysomnogram, which is read by sleep medicine. So they get the test and then they come to you for the answers.

This has been very eye opening. Thank you so much for sharing this. You're welcome.