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Dental Myths & Facts: Protecting Your Smile at Every Age
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Your oral health is about much more than having a beautiful smile.
Many people don't realize that unhealthy gums and untreated dental problems can impact their overall health. In this informative episode of A Senior Citizens Forum, host Janice Wood sits down with dental expert Dr. Henry Kim to uncover the truth behind some of the biggest misconceptions in dentistry.
You'll discover why bacteria from gum disease can travel throughout the body, why bleeding gums should never be ignored, and how routine dental care may help prevent much more serious health concerns.
The conversation also explores:
Why toothaches shouldn't be ignored
What really causes cavities and gum disease
The truth about fluoride
Are dental X-rays dangerous?
Can whitening damage your teeth?
Why today's dental treatments are safer and more comfortable than ever before
If you've ever delayed seeing the dentist because of fear, uncertainty, or misinformation, this episode may completely change the way you think about oral health.
Janice Wood
Host and Producer of A Senior Citizens Forum
Owner of Benefits4U2 Insurance Services
Aseniorcitizensforum@360tvlive.com
(310) 245-0332
License #0F35236
Dr. Henry Kim, DMD, MMSc
General, Cosmetic and Implant Dentistry
Prosthodontics, Periodontics, Endodontics and Orthodontics
(949) 472-5499
Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night with a throbbing toothache or noticed that your gums were bleeding and wondered? Have you ever put off going to the dentist because you thought of waiting, it would just get better, but it got worse? Or you were worried that those dental x-rays would be harmful instead of good for you? Welcome. Those questions are exactly why we're here today. Hello everyone, I'm Janice Wood. I'm so glad you're joining us today on the Senior Citizens Forum. We're going to be discussing myths and misconceptions of dental hygienes, the things we heard for years, but may not have known the full story. Does oral health really affect the rest of your body? Are bleeding gums something to ignore? And when is actually waiting, making it worse? To help us separate fat from fiction, Dr. Henry Kim is coming back on the Senior Citizens Forum. Dr. Kim, welcome to a Senior Citizens Forum.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for inviting me back.
SPEAKER_00Yes, I'm so excited to have you back. Well, Dr. Kim, welcome back to a Senior Citizens Forum. In the past, we've had some really interesting discussions. So if anybody is interested in from implants to healthy teeth and healthy mouth. But today we're going to be talking about myths and misconceptions in the dental hygiene world. Okay. But first, let's talk about you for a little bit. You graduated from Harvard.
SPEAKER_01Yes, I went to Boston University Dental School to get my dental degree. And uh I did my postdoctoral training in prostodontics at Harvard for three years after the dental school. Yeah, that's already almost 28 years ago or 26 years ago.
SPEAKER_00That's always hard to believe how time goes by so quickly. Yes. But let's talk about some of the misconceptions. Sure. So in my greeting, we talked about okay, you have a toothache. Yes. You wake up and it hurts. You shouldn't be ignoring it as far as I'm concerned, but people do.
SPEAKER_01Right. Well, there are a number of uh things that are uh causing uh pain in your mouth. Uh it could be dental origin, or it could be uh how we say is a tingle origin, that is, uh from the gum that you may have pain. So if it's uh dental origin, normally you should have a very sharp pain that shoots through the tooth, and sometimes it's too much to bear. If you have a pain from gum disease or uh from your gum, oftentimes it's more of a throbbing ache because of the uh the gum is swollen. So you could distinguish those two types of pains from uh how the the uh the the pain manifests in your mouth.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but when it hurts, it hurts.
SPEAKER_01Yes, it hurts. That's what we're we're we're here to serve.
SPEAKER_00Right, we're talking about that. So one of the things I think people, let's go back even a little further. One of the people don't realize that your oral, your mouth, what goes on in that affects the rest of your body. I mean people don't believe that it affects the rest of their body.
SPEAKER_01We do know that the uh the bacteria from your uh uh oral cavity can travel into your system uh via the blood vessels. Um so if you have a lot of gum disease uh which causes swelling of the gum and bleeding of your gum, it's easy for the bacteria to get introduced into your blood system and and travel through out your body and and end up in certain organs. Um so sometimes it can end up in your heart, you end up with endocarditis, and oftentimes uh you find oral bacteria in such a case. So we want to make sure that you have a healthy mouth and good healthy oral condition so that the uh those bacteria doesn't get introduced into your uh overall system.
SPEAKER_00So how would you go ahead and and prevent that? Say I'm somebody that's like doesn't believe in going to the dentist, okay? And I haven't been to the dentist for years because I think the x-rays are gonna be harmful. Right. Do more harm than good. So why are x-rays not harmful?
SPEAKER_01First of all, I always tell my patients clean teeth means healthy gum. So when you have uh clean teeth, there's less bacteria that's built around the uh the tooth that will cause the gum disease um so that uh you will have less uh bleeding of your gum. So that the uh you'll have less bacteria getting into your blood system. So uh in order to maintain healthy oral condition, you need to have clean teeth where a lot of the bacteria will s adhere to and then harbor. So that's number one concern. We want to make sure you are doing your job at home to maintain your oral hygiene at home so that you will have less bacteria in your mouth, on your tooth surfaces.
SPEAKER_00So that leads into something else, okay? So if you're looking for just brushing your teeth doesn't really do it.
SPEAKER_01Well, we want you to make sure that the uh that you do your part at home. That is to say that you brush your teeth, floss your teeth, um, maybe even use water pick to make sure that you're getting rid of uh whatever the food debris that might that you might have collected over the day, you know, throughout the day, and get rid of plaque builder on your tooth by brushing, flossing, and and water pick.
SPEAKER_00There's a lot of different uh types of instruments that you can buy. Yes. Okay. Like I see those little I don't know what to call them, but I want to say a horseshoe, but it's not a horseshoe. It has like a string going across it.
SPEAKER_01Right. It's a dental floss that's connected to a little holder. Um and yes, oftentimes those are very helpful uh because you can actually uh reach more difficult areas with the dental floss that way. So whatever you can get your hands on to achieve that goal of clean teeth, I you know, I would recommend um you know just about anything that you can you know use to do that.
SPEAKER_00Because I'm a little fanatic about my teeth. Okay. I look at it in in a mirror that's like 15 times, you know, as you I look in there and go, oh my God, look at all that stuff. I thought I brushing was gonna get it all. And I use an electric toothbrush, right? I've used hand toothbrushes, and it doesn't get it all.
SPEAKER_01Right. Uh oftentimes what the patients end up doing is that they just kind of go through the motion of brushing and they do not realize that they have skipped over a few teeth. So I always tell patients to kind of use your tongue to kind of go over each tooth and make sure the teeth are nice and clean. And if you feel that there's something still left on the tooth, go back to that tooth and brush that tooth until you feel that teeth are clean.
SPEAKER_00Well, I know a lot of people are afraid to go to the dentist. Right.
SPEAKER_01So, like you mentioned, dental x-ray is the concerns for uh uh for a lot of patients because they don't want to be exposed to radiation. But the uh dental uh radiation that we use is a very minimal amount of uh radiation, uh so you'll be assured that the uh it's safe. Um I know some states don't even require uh to have the lid apron on during the x-ray taking. But you know, for your precaution, I know a lot of the offices will still use the uh lid apron to minimize the uh the exposure of your body to uh x-rays.
SPEAKER_00But those dental x-rays, they can catch so much.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00I mean, you it's gonna show you as the dentist if there's decay.
SPEAKER_01Certainly taking uh using the dental x-ray to get the radiograph to show what's going on beneath the um the gum and inside the tooth is very helpful to determine the the origin of the pain.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so when you don't see the dentist on a regular basis, that plaque that germs or the food that gets caught, right? One can create gum disease. Right. Okay. Right. Or does does that plaque also cause tooth decay?
SPEAKER_01Oftentimes the patients don't realize that the oral disease that we get, dental decay and gum disease, are what we call the infectious disease caused by the bacteria that we have in our mouth. Everybody has bacteria in mouth, but when the level or the number of bacteria increases because you haven't taken good care of uh your teeth by having a good uh hygiene habit at home, um, that's when the the bacteria become more active to cause dental decay or the gum disease. Oftentimes people or patients think that it's the uh sugar or it's the plaque that's causing the dental decay or the gum disease, but it's in fact the uh the bacteria that's in your body, in your oral cavity, that will cause dental decay and gum disease. So we want to make sure that the uh the critical number is not reached. We want to make sure we minimize the uh the bacterial county in your oral cavity so that those diseases can be uh prevented.
SPEAKER_00So you just mentioned the word sugar.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00A lot of people drink a lot of coffee, and I see them add tons of sugar to it. Or they're drinking sodas with both artificial and sugar. Artificial sugar, yes. So with the artificial sweeteners, can that be just as bad as sugar?
SPEAKER_01Right. They're they're all say uh food for bacteria. So in fact, when you're taking a lot of sugar and retain the sugar in your oral cavity, it activates those bad bacteria that's causing all this uh disease. So we want to make sure that your mouth has less carbohydrates that lowers the pH. That is to say, your mouth becomes more acidic. When your mouth becomes more acidic, then these bacteria uh are more active. They like acidic environment. So especially the uh the sodas that you may be drinking not only provides sugar, but because they're acidic in its nature, you now your mouth becomes more prone to dental decay because of that. So you're activating not only the bacteria, but you're feeding the bacteria to become more active. And the acidity of the drink itself now is causing what we call the demineralization of the enamel. And that's where the decay starts.
SPEAKER_00And that's where that toothache may come from at some point.
SPEAKER_01Right, because that dental decay starts to move through the tooth and and enters first the enamel and then into dentin. And once it gets the dentin, that's the inner layer of the uh the tooth, it's more organic. That's to say there's a lot more uh nerve endings and uh that are coming from the pulp of the tooth towards the outer uh outer surface of the tooth. Um so now when the dental decay becomes deeper into the tooth and enters the dentin, that's when your tooth becomes more sensitive.
SPEAKER_00So when you're talking carbohydrates, yeah. Okay. So we mentioned artificial sweeteners and sugar. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So if you were eating some pasta, that's also sugar or consider carbohydrates. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Or that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Because we were just talking earlier that said I was a bread finesse. Right. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00That's all carbohydrates.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So uh anytime you actually uh uh take in food, your body wants to digest the food and for proper digestion from the mouth all the way to your stomach, um, things become a little bit more acidic by the process. And because of that, we want to make sure that we get rid of the acidity in the mouth soon after taking the food uh by brushing your teeth, by you know, rinsing with the water at least, so that the um we don't allow the other teeth to be exposed to that acidity for prolonged time.
SPEAKER_00Aaron Powell So I'm gonna ask you, does genetics have anything to do with any of this? Uh maybe perhaps.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so genetics, um, if your body produces more acid, or let's just say uh if you have acid reflux, gastric acid uh will eventually come up and and could cause more erosion of the teeth. Something like that could be considered as genetically um related, or your mouth you know maybe naturally more acidic than other people.
SPEAKER_00So it's really important to go to the dentist on a regular basis. Yes. What would you consider a regular basis? Not once every five years.
SPEAKER_01No, not once every five years. Um I would say that the end you're gonna have a constant development of plaque buildup on your tooth surface. And those plaque will just stay on until you get rid of them. But the plaque you can get rid of by simply brushing your teeth. But once they start to calcify, they adhere to the tooth surface. Once they adhere to the tooth surface, they're called calculus or or totter. Once they become totter, you can't brush the totter off your teeth. So nowadays we would really strongly recommend patients coming every three months for for dental cleaning. We it used to be every six months, but every six months is too far apart. So uh if not every three months, maybe uh every four months. Even those patients who have uh immaculate uh hygiene at home, uh they tend to build a lot of plaque and tartar uh in six months, uh which in turn can cause gum disease because the tartar will harbor a lot of the bad bacteria that's causing the gum disease. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I find out as as people get older, more things get get caught in between the teeth.
SPEAKER_01What's happening is that the gum level and the bone level over time with the uh even with the mild uh level of gum disease will have recession of the gum, recession of the bone. And as as the gum and the bone recede, it uh uh exposes a space more spaces in between teeth. And because the more spaces uh created, uh now you've you have more food getting caught in between teeth. So it simply means that uh you have to spend more time uh as you get older uh to clean your teeth. Nowadays we do recommend water paint where it's pressurized water can shoot the uh the loosened uh the plaque or food much better than than than you would with just simply using the uh floss itself.
SPEAKER_00All right, this has always been interesting. I mean, there's always so much to cover.
SPEAKER_01I know, but this is the very basic you know, a lot of patients don't realize how important it is that they they uh to to have a good oral hygiene at home and have you know develop a good habit in order to really keep your teeth clean, in turn come healthy, in turn keep your body healthy.
SPEAKER_00So important.
SPEAKER_01Yes, it is.
SPEAKER_00Because you don't realize all those germs that that come in.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Because it's germy.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's one reason why you would want to change your toothbrush every n every so often. You want to change your toothbrushes because the bristles they lose their elasticity or they lose the strength of the thing.
SPEAKER_00I always find that when I run out of a toothpaste, that's when I change my Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's one system you can use.
SPEAKER_00And if I get sick, I always get a new toothbrush.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's a good uh that's a good practice. And then certainly that will help you to keep the toothbrush clean and and and you know, less bacterial or viral buildup.
SPEAKER_00Well, just like your towels and washcloths.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00They build up bacteria, so does the toothbrush.
SPEAKER_01I think that's a good practice. So every now and then you want to change your toothbrushes.
SPEAKER_00But just really quick. So if people are watching this and they have little children, those little those baby teeth are really important also.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Uh the baby teeth should be also taken uh care of. Um so I would recommend all those uh that young parents to really uh encourage their children to brush their teeth really well. If not, help them brushing their teeth and and showing them where to brush and how to brush. It's very important. Yes. And it's very important for them to develop a good oral hygiene habit from the early ages so that uh as they grow up that you know, once they go to college, you don't know whether they're near their teeth or not, right? Because parents are not always around. So, you know, it's important that that you know you help them to develop a good habit.
SPEAKER_00I have another myth. If you keep brushing your teeth, will that take away the enamel? Can that do that?
SPEAKER_01Yes, that you can do that. You can actually abrade the teeth enamel surface waste. Everything has evolved so much.
SPEAKER_00Yes, okay. And I saw you give a talk the other day about AI and how it's changing dentistry.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And you don't think about this is a field that's also changing. Yeah. So the horror things that we used to hear about from 20, 30, 40. Yeah. I can go back farther than that 50 years ago. Yeah, you get a dentist that created pain for you. Well, one, I would say get a new dentist. A lot of dentists do not create pain.
SPEAKER_01Dentists are here to to you know get you out of pain, not to create pain. Right. Um, but just like any other field of medicine, uh, you know, oftentimes when we do certain procedures, uh, it's what we'll call the control trauma. So let's just say if we're trying to get rid of dental decay, we have to drill into the tooth. So way back when when the anesthetics, dental anesthetics was very uh prevalent, so then oftentimes the patient or the doctor will drill into the tooth without the anesthetics. And that certainly is a lot of pain that for a patient. I remember I had my tooth uh uh uh filled. Um I don't think that dentist um gave me anesthetics. Um but that that's almost 40 years ago. Um but uh nowadays we have a very good dental anesthetics that we can use to uh minimize any kind of sensitivity or pain so that patients can uh stay comfortable during the dental procedures while we're getting rid of the dental decay from the tust and not cause tremendous pain for the patients. So uh we have come a long way in in that regard. Um maybe in another 40, 50 years we will have, I don't know, maybe a machine taking care of those dental fillings. For the robots actually, yes, exactly. With the AI artificial intelligence. I think that still has a long way to go. Um but uh you know currently we do have a good um uh technology and and and we have a very good dentist with the full of knowledge and skills to uh take care of the patients.
SPEAKER_00So if you've had a bad experience with a dentist, I would say try another dentist.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I think we we are uh educated well enough about dental phobia that that we understand where the uh the uh the fear comes from. Oftentimes it's from the bad childhood memory. Like I said, my first visit to dentists with that um dental anesthetics to have a feeling that seeing a smoke rise, you know, uh things like that uh from drilling, uh you know, that certainly can you know instill a lot of fear in in in in a lot of patients. So if your dentist uh has a good understanding of uh dental phobia and how the how those childhood memories can affect current situations, uh maybe then uh you will have easier time, you know, going through a dental procedure with those dentists.
SPEAKER_00And if you have some fears, talk to the dentist before you start. I would think that would be open up the conversation so they're aware of what's happening.
SPEAKER_01Yes. So make sure you tell your dentist that you had those experiences.
SPEAKER_00One of the things that we haven't discussed is the different metals that go in the mouth.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00I remember in my days as dental assistant mixing the silver fillings. Right. And the machine that went.
SPEAKER_01They still use that. I think some doctors are still using them. Uh I know there's some uh heated debate about you know whether it's gonna affect your overall health or not. Overall, we know that it has been a safe dental material to use. Nowadays, uh they have veered away from using dental amalgam, and now they're using uh resins or composite resins that's at what we call the tooth colored fillings nowadays. Because we have developed a bonding system between the resin and the tooth surface, longer lasting. Uh we are now uh mostly using tooth colored fillings.
SPEAKER_00Okay, good. But I have another one I wanted to ask you about, and that's teeth whitening. Does that affect the structure of the Tooth at all?
SPEAKER_01Tooth whitening uh works uh with the uh the uh the peroxide, uh bromite uh bromide peroxide that we use for the uh whitening. And basically what we do with the peroxide is that we bubble out all the stains that are caught, I guess we can say pores of your teeth. And we want to bubble that out with the peroxide, and that's how the whitening works. So does it damage your tooth? Uh not not really. Uh but it can cause sensitivity uh of the tooth, uh simply because we are kind of opening up those pores where the nerve endings might be. And um because of that, we after we do the whitening, uh, we provide uh fluoride to cover up those uh uh open the pores.
SPEAKER_00So when I'm doing tooth whitening at home, yeah, I should be doing some fluoride along with it.
SPEAKER_01The strength of the peroxide that we give you for take home uh whitening is not so high, so that you can simply just use the uh toothpaste, meaning like you can just um uh rinse your mouth out after using the whitening solution that we provide for home uh whitening. And um simply brush your teeth with the toothpaste that that you have at home, and that should be enough to uh reduce the sensitivity. If not, your dentist should be able to provide you with uh fluoride varnish or anything like that to reduce the sensitivity.
SPEAKER_00So that takes us now to the m the myths on the fluoride, because we're hearing all this stuff right now about fluoride not being good for you.
SPEAKER_01If you have too much of anything, it's not good for you. But if you have a proper amount of uh uh fluoride, um then then I think it's good that that it will strengthen the uh enamel surface. If you have too much of uh fluoride and you end up with something called fluoresceus, and then you end up with the uh darkening of the tooth or maybe even uh negative effect on the enamel. Obviously you don't want to just suckle in like uh uh fluoride candy all day long. Um but um just having just about uh right amount of fluoride from your toothpaste, uh that should be enough to keep your teeth um healthy and and and resistant to dental decay. Um but if you're trying to uh have too much of it, uh it certainly will have a uh negative effect.
SPEAKER_00Well, Dr. Kim, thank you so much from going through some of the myths and misconceptions of dental hygiene. And what I would say to everybody, please go to the dentist on a regular basis. It's a healthy thing for your whole body. And if you have any questions for Dr. Kim, please feel free to get in contact with us. We would love to hear from you. And if you want to see any other shows that Dr. Kim has done on a Senior Citizens Forum, please go on to E360 TV and you're gonna find those shows on there.
SPEAKER_01Well, Dennis, I thank you always for inviting me back.
SPEAKER_00Yes, it's always a pleasure. You're so full of fabulous information. And uh I know I won't have a toothache if I think. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_01Thank you, Dennis.