An estimated 1 in 8 people have sensitive teeth. By understanding the causes, diagnosis, management and prevention of this all-too common condition, you can get to the root of the problem and go beyond suggesting desensitizing toothpaste and discussing oral hygiene habits.
The three levels of preventive dental care
Depending on a patient’s oral health, preventive care requires different strategies and treatments. The three levels of prevention – primary, secondary and tertiary – consider the role that age, genetics, social, economic and environmental factors play in caries risk.
New Sesame Street episode highlights importance of children’s oral health
A recent episode of Sesame Street is all about dentists. Watch the full episode with your young ones to learn about the importance of oral hygiene and what to expect when visiting the dentist.
Pediatric periodontal disease: Causes and kinds
The fundamentals of brushing and flossing are nothing new. So when educating children about the importance of good oral hygiene, the challenge is to find a new way of providing familiar information. In this post, we list some common causes and types of pediatric periodontal disease.
A child’s first dental visit: How to create a positive experience for a lifetime of good oral health
Creating a positive experience for a child’s first dental visit is important in setting the foundation for a lifetime of good oral health. Here’s how to keep children comfortable in the chair.
Dental Implant Care Beyond the Chair
Successful implant home care depends on educating patients about how infection risks for implants are different than for natural teeth and encouraging them to develop an effective routine for plaque removal that they can practice two or three times a day.
Empowering Your Community on World Oral Health Day
Celebrating World Oral Health Day is a great opportunity to go beyond the walls of your dental office by raising awareness within your community. Here are five ways to educate both your patients and your community on the importance of good oral health.
10 Steps to Promote a Culture of Patient Safety
While patient safety has long been paramount to modern dentistry, the newest challenges posed by COVID-19 have inspired many practices to review their policies and procedures. To help promote patient safety, the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD) has created a list of recommendations.
National Children’s Dental Health Month: 6 Tips for Pediatric Oral Health
National Children’s Dental Health Month is a great time to remind yourself and your patients why pediatric dental care is so important and revisit the steps that can help ensure a lifetime of good oral health.
Educating Patients on the Importance of Oral Health and Routine Dental Care
Making sure patients are well informed of the importance of oral health before they even book their hygiene appointment can help curb anxiety or other barriers that may be preventing them from coming into the dental office. And with staff training on how to communicate key oral health messages with patients, the oral hygiene appointment can be the perfect way to build relationships and trust with patients.
How to Automate Patient Engagement
Patients who are engaged with their providers value dentistry more and are more willing to commit to case acceptance. With engagement and education, patients begin to see the importance of oral health. Here are a few tools for improving patient engagement.
Want to Achieve 90% or Better Case Acceptance?
As dentistry moves towards the medical model of care, statistics and metrics from the practice management software are going to become more important (more on that at another time). Many practices feel that their case acceptance is around 85 – 90% but when the truth from the software is told, it can be 60% or less. Why? There could be many reasons for this, but often the patient is receiving mixed messages from the team.
8 Ways To Score An A+ In Oral Hygiene This School Year
The beginning of a new school year can get crazy, as your lazy summer mornings turn into mad dashes to the bus stop. In the hustle and bustle of back...
8 Intriguing Dental Applications for Virtual Reality Technology
According to recent projections released by Grand View Research Inc., virtual and augmented reality in the health care market will swell to become a $5.1 billion industry by the year...
9 Foods to Eat to Keep Your Teeth Healthy
How many times each day do you remind your patients to brush and floss their teeth? We may be going out on a limb here, but we're guessing you say it...
A Realistic Guide for Talking to Your Patients About Teeth Whitening
Your patients want to look and feel their best – which includes sporting beautiful pearly whites. That’s why offering teeth whitening services at your practice is a no-brainer since every...
Exposing 3 Dirty Little Secrets of Sterilization
In the deepest, darkest corner of dental practices of old, sat the grizzled bastion of infection control – the sterilization center. It was here that sterilization occurred, far from the...
Patients Know They’re “Supposed To” Care About Oral Health…But Do They Know Why?
If your leg is broken, you’re going to make an appointment to see the doctor and you understand perfectly well why: your leg hurts! If you can’t read the PowerPoint...
2 Birds, 1 Toothpaste: 2 Benefits to Using Prescription Strength Toothpaste
As a dental professional, you undoubtedly are often asked by your patients, "What's the best kind of toothpaste to use?" For many patients, any off-the-shelf toothpaste is adequate for daily...
May (Tooth) Picks: How to Explain 7 Fun Oral Health Products to Curious Kids!
As you know from pedo-focused (Tooth) Picks past, we love gabbing about the importance of helping children establish proper oral care habits as early as possible. One of the best...
10 Uses for Floss that Don’t Involve your Teeth!
It’s Earth Day: A day when recycling, re-purposing, upcycling, and small ways to give back to planet earth are all top of mind. Many dental products - including most dental...
The 7 Steps of Endodontics
Fortunately, Endodontics - the dental specialty which concerns the study and treatment of dental pulp - is an area of dentistry that has seen tremendous growth over the last 20...
Brushing of the Future is Already Here: Bluetooth Toothbrush Bundle Giveaway
Flying cars and hover boards may not be here yet (well, at least not safe ones), but the future has arrived when it comes to one thing: brushing your teeth....
February (Tooth) Picks: 5 Products to get Kids Hyped About Oral Hygiene
February is National Children’s Dental Health Month, which we at Patterson couldn’t be happier about! You best believe we’ll take any chance we can get to talk about the importance...
3 Educational Videos for Dental Implant Patients
It’s easy to understand why patients facing a tooth implant can be confused. There are so many things to consider. How is the implant placed? What are alternative treatments? How...
4 Best Practices for Patient Postoperative Care Instructions
All successful oral surgeries require an equilibrium of effort between practitioner and patient: excellent dentistry on your part, and an adherence to postoperative care instructions on the part of the...
Explaining the Benefits of Sedation Dentistry
In today’s busy dental practices, where general dentists are doing more complex treatment cases, it is more important than ever that dental teams are aware of how the practice makes...
Put patient safety first with eye protection
Dental clinicians and staff wear eye protection because it’s a requirement to keep them safe while at work. So why not offer the same protection to patients? Imagine this scenario:...
Fluoride Varnish: Is it Right for Your Patients and Practice?
We all know that good oral healthcare begins at an early age (by age 1, if we’re following the guidelines of the American Association of Pediatric Dentistry and American Dental Association)....
3 Common Oral Health Myths – Busted!
As an RDH, I hear a lot of “facts” about teeth and gums and I feel the need to set the record straight on a few of them. These are...