Get Back on the “White” Track

Seeing an orthodontist to straighten out your smile is one of the best things you can do for your confidence and your self image. But it’s important for adult and child patients alike to realize that braces and similar applications like Invisalign can’t do everything to fix your smile.

Some patients, especially our adult patients—coffee addiction is real!—may also want to whiter teeth. But recognizing some of the most contributing factors to yellow teeth and avoiding them, can be one of the best ways to get rid of the yellow and get back on the “white” track.

If you’re looking to straighten out your smile, of course you should see Dr. Reed first. But to take that extra step towards a smile that shines, take note of the following foods and lifestyle choices you might want to cut out, according to this LiveScience article:

Not surprisingly, dark-colored foods and beverages — including coffee, red wine, black tea, colas, dark sauces and various fruits, such as grapes, blueberries and pomegranates — have the greatest potential to stain teeth. These items are high in chromogens, pigment-producing substances with a penchant for sticking to tooth enamel.

Acidic foods and beverages can worsen matters by eroding tooth enamel and making it easier for chromogens to latch onto the teeth. Tannin, a bitter compound found in wine and tea, also helps chromogens attach to tooth enamel.

Additionally, smoking and chewing tobacco are well-known culprits behind extrinsic stains, as is poor dental hygiene, which allows dental plaque to accumulate on the teeth.

To schedule an appointment with Tina Reed Orthodontics, call us today at 412.421.8565 or click here to send our staff a message.

Smiling: It Does a Body Good

Reed Orthodontics patients know all too well how much of a confidence boost a straight smile can be. But proudly smiling also has numerous other health benefits, according to some recent studies.

One study, conducted at the University of Kansas, showed that the act of smiling helped the heart recover more quickly after completing a stressful task:

“The neat thing about this is that smiling during the stressful period also has positive benefits for your heart health for several minutes after you’re smiling, which is pretty cool,” said one of the researchers. “We’ve seen so much work out there showing it’s good for emotional and social health and well-being, but this really is the first study among its kind to show that smiling is beneficial to you physically.”

And another study highlighted the role that happiness and smiling play in preventing heart disease!

Over a period of ten years, Dr Davidson and her colleagues followed 1,739 healthy adults (862 men and 877 women) who were participating in the 1995 Nova Scotia Health Survey. At the start of the study, trained nurses assessed the participants' risk of heart disease and, with both self-reporting and clinical assessment, they measured symptoms of depression, hostility, anxiety and the degree of expression of positive emotions, which is known as "positive affect".

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After taking account of age, sex, cardiovascular risk factors and negative emotions, the researchers found that, over the ten-year period, increased positive affect predicted less risk of heart disease by 22% per point on a five-point scale measuring levels of positive affect expression (ranging from "none" to "extreme").

So, there you have it, Club Reed! Smiling isn’t just for good looks—it’s for good health.

If you’re an adult and have always considered getting braces, there are lots of alternative treatments available to you, such as Invisalign and Smart Moves. Call Reed Orthodontics today for a consultation, at 412.421.8565, or click here to send us a message.