Posts for: January, 2018
It's easy to go overboard with sweets during the holiday season. But overconsumption of sugar, month after month, can jeopardize your oral and general health. A sugary diet nourishes the bacteria that cause tooth decay. Eating too much sugar over time also promotes general health problems such as diabetes and excessive weight gain.
The beginning of a new year is a great time to bring your diet back into balance. But if you really want to cut down on sugar, you'll need to be aware that there is a lot of sugar hiding in foods you where wouldn't normally suspect it. Here are some examples:
Ketchup. Do you like ketchup on your burger and fries? For every tablespoon of ketchup you use, you'll be adding about 4 grams of sugar (one teaspoon). That can add up pretty quickly into a significant amount of sugar!
Canned tomato soup. Read the label of your favorite brand and you might see as much as 12 grams of sugar per half-cup serving. That equals three teaspoons of sugar in every half cup of soup—even more in a full bowl!
Granola. You may think of granola as a healthy choice for breakfast. Yet you're likely to see sugar listed as the second ingredient on many favorite brands—right after oats. This typically adds up to 15 grams of sugar per serving. That's almost 4 teaspoons, in a food promoted as healthful!
Yogurt. Here, the amount of sugar varies widely among brands and flavors. One container of vanilla yogurt might contain 3 or more teaspoons of added sugar. Put that on a breakfast serving of granola, and your first meal of the day has already topped the 6-teaspoon daily limit recommended by the World Health Organization.
So, to prevent sugar from sneaking up on you, it's important to read those labels! And if you have any questions about sugar and oral health, please contact us or schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can learn more by reading the Dear Doctor magazine articles “The Bitter Truth About Sugar” and “Nutrition and Oral Health.”
For major-league slugger Giancarlo Stanton, 2014 was a record-breaking year. After the baseball season ended, he signed a 13-year, $325 million contract with the Miami Marlins — the biggest deal in sports history. But earlier that same year, Stanton suffered one of the worst accidents in baseball: He was hit in the face by an 88-mph fastball, sustaining multiple fractures, lacerations, and extensive dental damage.
After the accident, Stanton didn’t play for the remainder of the season. But now he’s back in Spring Training… and he’s got a not-so-secret weapon to help protect him against another injury: A custom-made face guard designed to absorb impacts and keep him from suffering further trauma.
As sports fans, we’re glad that Stanton was able to overcome his injury and get back in the game. As dentists, we’d like to remind you that you don’t have to be a major-league player to feel the harmful effects of a sports injury — and you don’t have to look far to find a way to protect yourself. In fact, you can get a custom-made mouthguard right here at the dental office.
Mouthguards have a long tradition in sports like football, boxing, and hockey. But did you know that far more Americans are injured every year playing “non-collision” sports like basketball, baseball — and even bicycling? And it doesn’t take a major-league fastball to cause a dental injury: The highest incidence of sports-related dental injuries occurs in 15-to-18-year-old males. In fact, about one-third of all dental injuries among children stem from various types of sports activities. These injuries may result in countless hours being lost from school and work, and cost significant sums for treatment and restoration.
Mouthguards have a proven track record in reducing dental and facial injuries: They are capable of absorbing the energy of a blow to the mouth, and dissipating it in a way that prevents damage to facial structures and teeth. But not all mouthguards are created equal: Custom-fabricated mouthguards, which are produced from an exact model of your mouth made right here in the dental office, offer by far the best protection. They fit better and safeguard the teeth more fully than any off-the-shelf or “boil-and-bite” type can. Plus, they’re more comfortable to wear. And let’s face it: No mouth guard can protect your teeth if you don’t wear it.
What’s more, some recent studies indicate that custom-made mouthguards may offer significant protection against concussion. An increasing awareness of the dangers that concussion may pose to athletes is one more reason why we recommend custom-made mouthguards to active people and their families.
To get his face guard, Giancarlo Stanton reportedly went to a specialist sporting-goods manufacturer in Illinois, and paid around $1,000. But you can get a custom-made mouthguard for yourself or your loved ones right at our office for a fraction of that price. And the peace of mind it can give you is… priceless.
If you have questions about custom-made mouthguards, please contact us or schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can learn more by reading the Dear Doctor magazine articles “An Introduction to Sports Injuries & Dentistry” and “Athletic Mouthguards.”