A recent survey in the U. S. News and World Report showed that ONLY 50% of American adults are satisfied with their smile! Are you one of them? If you are looking for a dental care provider, here are some tips about choosing a dentist who can improve your smile.
1. Do your homework before you make your first visit. A beautiful smile has an impact on your appearance and your health, so, it is important to use care when selecting a dentist. Ask family, neighbors, or friends to suggest a dentist. Ask your coworkers to recommend a dentist because they most likely have the same dental insurance as you do. A personal referral is the best kind.
2. Your family physician may also suggest several dental practices for you to consider.
3. You can also go online and search for a dentist in your local area.
During your initial phone call, or at your initial visit, use the following checklist of questions:
4. Is the office easy to get to from your home, or office? Is there ample parking? Is the parking free?
5. Is the office neat and orderly? Does the office have state of the art equipment?
6. Is information provided in a welcome packet? Is the appointment schedule convenient for you?
7. How many years has the dentist been practicing?
8. Does the dentist seem interested in your total health? Does the dentist know the latest trends in dentistry? Does the dentist take continuing education classes?
9. Does the hygienist provide dental health instruction for preventative measures? Were your medical and dental histories recorded and placed in your permanent file?
10. What arrangements does the dental practice have for emergencies outside of office hours?
In addition, you might want to ask about such special services such as teeth whitening, or dental implants, since dentists can provide you with so much more care than comprehensive oral exams and professional cleanings. Dentistry has come a long way and many new technologies are now available to give you the beautiful smile you want to have!
Dr. Robert Luther, Jr. can be contacted at (412) 788-6300 and visit his website at www.pittsburghlaserdentist.com. For more information, visit or call (412) 235-2500.

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The Whole Smile
By Joseph Curley, DMD, FAGD

There are few things we do everyday that effect our mood, and the mood of those around us, more than smiling. Consider the check-out clerk at the grocery store. The commerce of that interaction is a smile, and we leave it either feeling good, or as though it never happened. Smiling creates a window opportunity for positive interaction with those around us. The act of smiling activates muscles in your face that communicate with the pleasure areas of your brain that improve your mood. Intuitive, I suppose, but worth considering.
I have had the fortunate opportunity to help many people feel good about their smile. It is the most gratifying part of my professional work. Sometimes it is instant and intense. At the completion of a smile make over, a patient will hold a mirror poised to see their new smile for the first time, face turning red and eyes welling with tears, they can barely speak. When words finally do come out they often say something like, “I can’t believe I didn’t do this sooner. Thank you,” and then gush. Other times it is more subtle. The patient holds the mirror, smiles, and says something like, “That looks great, thanks,” and departs with little change in affect. This patient will usually return for a follow up visit in a week or so with a distinct spark in her mood. Feeling better about her smile, she probably smiled a little more after leaving that day. Her perception about her appearance was effected more by the feedback from her friends, family and co-workers than her own feelings about her smile. When she smiled, she got compliments, so she smiled more. This positive feedback created more smiles over the week and changed her disposition organically. Either way, it is a good day at the office.
The analysis of a smile is a complex process going far beyond teeth. It considers health and function, shape, symmetry and color of all the supporting structures. It involves a complete analysis of the frame of teeth, the gums and lips. Symmetry of gum contour, the gingival drape, is an essential component. Considering the lips and the area of the face immediately around the lips is important as well. Subtle changes here can dramatically enhance the frame of beautiful teeth, creating a more youthful and vibrant smile.
With time, the red part of our lips begins to fall and curve under, giving a “thin-lip” appearance. Deep smile lines extending from the edges of the nose toward the chin, the marionette lines, compound the effect of the “mature” smile. Dermal fillers are tools that can be used to erase these signs of time. Dermal fillers are injectable solutions that fill in deep folds, minimizing their appearance, and plump up lips creating a more youthful look.
Whether you wish your smile were just a little brighter, or you are wondering if a comprehensive smile make over is for you, the tools of modern dentistry in the right hands can give you back that spark in your smile, or perhaps change your life.
Dr. Joseph Curley is a general dentist practicing in the Shadyside neighborhood of Pittsburgh. For information on how to obtain a complimentary smile analysis, call (412) 235-2500.

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Oral Health Impacts Overall Health, Especially As We Age
By Lois Thomson

"New procedures are available to dentists that will help patients determine if they are a candidate for a heart attack, stroke, diabetes, osteoarthritis, etc.," says Steven R. Crandall, D.M.D. There is considerable excitement about a new FDA-approved blood test that can be administered in the dentist's office, and can prove to be a life-saver.
As Dr. Crandall explained, "The basic concept is that inflammation is part of many diseases we experience. For example, it's associated with heart disease and periodontal disease and stroke. It's becoming apparent that there may be an oral systemic connection, and dentists who see patients more frequently than most physicians do, can take an active role in evaluating whether or not there is an inflammatory response going on within a patient.
"By simply doing a pinprick to get a few drops of blood, dentists today have the means to send in a small sample to a lab that can evaluate whether or not something known as a C-reactive protein (CRP) is in the blood, which would indicate there is an inflammatory response going on within the body. And there are several diseases that have inflammation associated with them."
The level of CRP indicates different levels of inflammation, and those levels are associated with different disease processes. According to the American Dental Association, as high as 70 percent of the population has bleeding gums, inflammation of the gum tissue or periodontal disease. Dr. Crandall said the dentist can clear up any issues that might be related to periodontal disease, and then re-evaluate the problem to see if the CRP is still there. "And if it still exists, then typically the patient is referred to a physician for further evaluation. Going through this procedure, occasionally it has been found that the patients suffer from any number of different things, including cancer, gout, diabetes, heart disease, or be a candidate for stroke."
This process can utilize the new testing protocol or the conventional protocol of having blood drawn through the patient's own physician's office.
Many symptoms that cause a patient to seek the help of their physician actually have their origin in the dental realm. Dr. Crandall already has a long history of helping his dental patients with problems physicians haven't often been able to treat. He said many ailments are the result of occlusal disease, which is when teeth don't fit together properly. This can result in a muscle imbalance that often leads to headaches, migraines, neck or shoulder pain, or ear aches. "Some physicians are aware of the fact that it can be bite-related, but most are not," he said. "Some dentists aren't even aware of it, unless they've had additional training."
And Dr. Crandall has had that training. Following dental school, he attended the post-graduate dental program at the Pankey Institute in Florida, and he has the ability to detect such problems and the training to alleviate them.
"So there are a number of things I think physicians and dentists could coordinate a little better than we currently do," he concluded. "It's just a matter of bridging that gap a bit more than has been done in the past to create an important health care team."
For more information, call (412) 833-6166 or visit www.stevenrcrandalldmd.com.

For more articles, download the Fall '08 issue (PDF)