WA dentist details what she looks for when evaluating dental health, social media trends to avoid

There's a lot to look out for when it comes to your dental health, but maintaining a healthy smile goes way beyond your teeth. Here to talk about dental wellness is Dr. Priya Sridhar with PS Dental Studio in Kenmore. Thank you so much for being with us. Absolutely. It's my pleasure. Thanks for having me. You know, you go to the dentist and you think of checkups and things like that. And, you know, some people from a young age, they don't want to go. It's not fun to go to the dentist, but it also can be something that's helping you kind of further your permanent health. Look healthy, feel healthy. So talk to us about some of the symptoms that we should watch out for that could be a sign of bigger issues down the road. Yeah, I think one of the biggest things that I like to focus in our office is that airway health. Airway, as a dentist, I always look at people's airway. And we can actually look and diagnose a lot of sleep health issues. Most of the people don't even realize that they have sleep apnea. So when me as a dentist look at that, we usually direct them to go to their doctor and get a sleep evaluation done. The other thing I talk to my patients about is the jaw discomfort. A lot of times people talk about the jaw tension and discomfort. What they don't realize is that it has a lot to do with how their teeth come together. And unfortunately, people think that, oh, it's just a stress. But I really think... Encourage a lot of patients to go get their teeth evaluated. Can I send my husband to you for his sleep habits? A lot of people always say, you've got to check into this. First off I wonder if he's not breathing but there are a lot of trends on social media How do you deal with those or you know look at what's out there and relate that to you know Your dental well-being and your health because it starts there, right? I mean you can get your jaws can get sore. You don't know if you're grinding at night. How about that? Yeah, I think There are so many trends out there, I'm always like, I'm always blown away by the amount of trends that there are, but realistically... If you want to follow something, always ask for your doctor. I'll ask the doctor, find out if this is actually valuable to you. And just because it worked for somebody doesn't mean it necessarily will work for you. And don't put yourself in a situation that it will complicate more things for you. So how about like mouth taping? I've seen that as a trend out there. A lot of people go to social media to kind of get some of their health and wellness. And they know they should check with a doctor. But what does that do? I think mouth taping has been a trend in the last couple of years. In the last couple of months, I should say, mouth taping really helps for patients with mouth breathing. It does not help with patients with like sleep apnea. So if you are a mouth breather, my recommendation is do not, it really would help you trying to breathe through your nose. Now, if your nose is clogged and you're trying to tape your mouth, it's not going to work for you. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. That's, some people are constantly stuffed up and if you're taping everything shut, then obviously you're not going to be breathing. So what about the stress in the jaw? We carry a lot of it at night. I know my dentist suggested me wearing a mouth guard because apparently I'm a grinder. Yes. So one of the telltale signs for having a jaw tension is like you wake up with a lot of soreness in the jaws, headaches, tension headaches, and sometimes your partner might also complain about your clenching or grinding. Yeah. Um, First and foremost, yes, you want to go get yourself evaluated to make sure your teeth are coming together. Second, night guard is maybe a solution for some people, but not for everybody. So before you get a night guard, either over the counter or just having a dentist evaluate you, make sure it's the right thing for you. Okay. And one thing here I really want to ask about, because I just went to the dentist for the first time in a while. They always say I floss well, but I kind of had some build-up from I drink coffee a cup in the morning and then a couple cups of tea. So I've cut the tea out now. What can we do to help keep our pearly whites? All right. I think tea is obviously one of the culprits, right? You can always use over-the-counter Crest White strips. The Crest White strips have been really wonderful. Avoid eating anything that has stained, drinking wine or anything that can continue to stain your teeth. Whitening toothpaste. There are a lot of people that use whitening toothpaste, but it doesn't really do much, right? So Try to avoid as much as stained foods as possible. And then there's the trend, too, of getting veneers. Hey, my old teeth are bad. Can I just go to veneers? But those could be costly. You have to look at other routes, right? Absolutely. Veneers are a great solution for people who want to enhance their smile. People who have had a lot of whitening, nothing is working. I've had patients who's like chipping, breaking. Now teeth are not looking cohesive in their mouth. They're more conscious. Veneers are a great solution and it can be an investment but just like any other investments you will take good care of them. Yeah well thanks for talking to us about you know keeping your teeth healthy and your mental health because I know they can go hand in hand and then all the trends out there you just don't know where to go. Absolutely thank you so much for having me. All right Dr. Priya Sridhar thanks for being in studio with us.