Category: Blog

It’s the warmest months of the year that stretch ahead of us with endless time at the beach, pool, or outdoors just relaxing and spending time with family and friends. This is the time of year for graduation parties, class reunions, etc. which means more parties and more photos. This means people do a lot more relaxing, and likely a lot more smiling. Thus, this makes summer one of the most common times for people to seek whitening treatments to make their smile the best it can truly be.

Professional Bleaching Procedures:

The first thing you will need to do is determine which kind of treatment you want so you know which option will be the best for you. The questions abound: Do you have porcelain teeth or a discolored stain to the front teeth? Is there decay on any of your teeth currently? These will have massive implications on what kind of treatments will work for you or which won’t.

Professional whitening recommendations will vary. Some offices will require you to have impressions made of your teeth to make you custom trays that fit into your mouth so you can use the gels they provide in the comfort of your own home to whiten your teeth. Others will provide this treatment in-office using lasers or ultraviolet lights to help active a solution or goo that is put on the teeth to help them whiten. These are the treatments that are going to take longer so sometimes scheduling them before school starts and things get busy can help ensure you have the time you need to get these treatments done. You have more time and these whitening procedures can take a few appointments that may last 1-2 hours in length. Your dental professional can help you determine if these are the right treatments for your situation.

Over-The-Counter (OTC) Treatments:

These are the whitening kits you buy at the local grocery store or Walmart that allow you to do the whitening at home. Usually, these will not deliver quite the results of in-office whitening treatments, but they will also be much less expensive.

These treatments can include things like whitening toothpaste to remove stains from things such as coffees, teas, cigarettes, and other discoloring agents. This toothpaste can help restore the teeth’s natural colors and are a great first-step in the whitening process at home. This toothpaste will not make the tooth more sensitive to heat or cold either, so you can still enjoy ice pop or ice cream without worrying about a stinging sensation in your mouth from the cold on newly whitened, sensitive teeth.

Maintaining the Shine:

Once your teeth have been whitened, you can maintain that shine by going through routine dental checkups, which for most people is every 6 months, and maybe more often if you have a reason to be going more often. Ensuring you have a toothbrush with you on the go so you are brushing your teeth 2-3x a day in the summer as you enjoy extra junk food can also keep your teeth from becoming somewhat discolored again.

If you don’t have a toothbrush, simply rinsing with water is better than nothing! You can also try using whitening pens or trays along with the whitening toothpaste to help touch up discolored spots on your teeth during the summer to help provide your whitest smile possible! Summer is, after all, the perfect time to pursue whiter smiles as you can use both in-office and at-home treatments to reveal a whiter smile to ensure you are shining your brightest.

If you have any questions or would like to learn more about us visit us here or call us 909-465-1016. The Ramona Dentistry Team “Where Family Comes First”

Convenience is really the key for many people actually getting to the dentist, although any time of the year really works to see the dentist, many times the summer is a convenient time for people to make some extra time to get to the office and get those appointments in. Studies show we smile more in the summertime, so seeing the dentist then should be even more of a priority to keep the smile in tip-top shape. This makes summer an even more important time to go visit your dentist for your 6-month appointment.

Here are 3 reasons many people cite for going to the dentist in the summer of all the times of the year:

1. Convenience: The kids are out of school, and there’s no worry about getting everyone out of school in time to make that mid-afternoon appointment. Any time of day works to go see the dentist when everyone has a “free day” to go do so. This also beats the pre-school rush of August/September meaning more open appointments and more choices of when it’s convenient for you to go to the dentist on your own time. Besides, going before the beginning of July means you are getting the first treatment of the calendar year and can get one more to maximize the benefits of the dental insurance your family pays for.
2. Accomplishment: It’s a clean, refreshed feeling after your teeth are clean and you get to sit back and enjoy a nice cold drink… doing it with clean teeth feels all the better. Accomplishments of the school year, work year, and other life challenges are behind you so you can relax and enjoy the warm weather. Do so with clean teeth, and feel even better knowing you have accomplished prioritizing your health as well!
3. Coolness: It’s really too hot to do a lot outside for a large majority of the summer, so why not go cool down in the AC at the dentists during the hottest days of summer, and make sure your oral health is in order while you are at it?

If you have any questions or would like to learn more about us visit us here or call us 909-465-1016. The Ramona Dentistry Team “Where Family Comes First”

Oftentimes, people will smile even if they don’t feel like it. It lessens the awkwardness of social situations, and it helps the person seem more approachable. These various smiles can come at events ranging from job interviews to public occasions. People may smile the whole event without ever being even close to happy. But, the truth is that smiling makes people look a lot more approachable and accessible, but at the same time, it’s important to understand the difference between a real and fake smile.

Genuine Smiles:

When real smiles occur, there are two muscles that primarily flex upwards in the face as was recognized by the French physician Guillaume Duchenne. This involves the major zygomatic muscle that is heavily controlled by the person voluntarily. This is the “smile for the camera” type smile. One that is done effortlessly. At the same time the oculi muscle contracts and forms wrinkles at the outer edges of the eyes showing the smile to be genuine.

Why We Fake Smile:

Your eyes will betray your feelings quite a lot. There are many situations where you are “faking” a smile, and at some point, we all do it. Sometimes its smiling at a joke that’s not funny, and other times its’s because a friend is taking an unwanted picture of us. Yet other times, it’s when we want to make a person feel good about something even if we aren’t happy about it ourselves.

3 Signs of Fake Smiles:

Three signs that a smile is fake can be found in the following:

1. Absence of Closed Eyes: If the person’s eyes are not squinted or closing, then the smile is unlikely to be genuine. The absence of movement in the eye area is a great clue that the person is taking it to make another person feel better.
2. Absence of Crow’s Feet: If the absence of the wrinkles around the eyes is there then you can tell that the person is forcing the smile and not naturally allowing the face to contour to the way the face would move if one was smiling naturally.
3. Visibility of the Bottom Teeth:  If you can see the person’s bottom teeth you can, in fact, tell they are pushing their lips too far apart and making the smile more fake than genuine. The zygomatic muscles are not moving as they should be, and they are probably faking a “cheesy” smile to look good for the camera.

Although we all use the fake smiles at some point, it’s important to understand when people’s smiles are genuine versus not genuine in social situations. This can determine how you react and how you feel how you react to that person!

If you have any questions or would like to learn more about us visit us here or call us 909-465-1016. The Ramona Dentistry Team “Where Family Comes First”