Category: Blog

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”

It’s important to understand what kinds of emergencies require dental intervention, and which ones will be OK without help. Accidents do happen all hours of the day, but it’s important to know which emergencies can wait and which ones are can wait until normal business hours.

Some types of mouth injuries including cracked, broken, chipped, or ruined teeth result in severe injury to the mouth. Depending on the type of injury be it a sports injury or a fall and where the chip/break/ruined tooth is located depends on if the injury can wait until normal dental business hours the next day.

However, if the entire tooth comes out or multiple teeth are knocked out, or the injury is in a prominent place immediate attention may be needed. If it’s a big enough crack or break is big enough then immediate care is better. Especially if there are sharp edges that can cut your tongue and lips around where the tooth is sliced.

Until you get the tooth looked at try to handle it as little as possible to inflict minimal damage. Bite down on a moistened piece of gauze or a tea bag if the whole tooth comes out. Try not to swallow the tooth if at all possible. You can apply cold, wet compresses to the gums where the tooth was till you get to the emergency room.  The office may be able to get you in if its during business hours as they often leave gaps between appointments for severe emergencies such as this.

If the office is closed, some offices provide an emergency line so go ahead and call to get treatment immediately in emergency cases. Staff at the emergency center can help minimize injuries till you can get further help.

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”

Sometimes it’s hard to determine when to go see a dentist or when to just let discomfort or pain in a tooth wait till the next appointment. Usually, you won’t know exactly what’s wrong with that specific tooth until the dentist looks at it and gives you the report. However, if the pain ever turns into something unbearable, contact your emergency dentist right away to get the next available appointment.

Why Does My Tooth/Teeth Hurt?

It’s not possible to determine the reason a tooth hurts just by looking at it, but there could be many reasons your tooth is hurting, including bacterial infections, grinding your teeth (generally while asleep or stressed), gum disease, injuries, cracked/broken teeth, or cavities.

Other Conditions Can Cause Toothaches

• Other conditions like toothaches can be caused by pain that radiates through the mouth and jaw. Sinus infections and other sinus problems can also cause there to feel like there is pain in your teeth, even though there may be nothing wrong with your teeth. In some cases, conditions like angina or a heart attack can also cause pain throughout the body, including in the mouth.
• Dry sockets after you have your wisdom teeth out is extracted can occur, and cause it to make the teeth feel like they are in pain even if they are not. It’s the tissue underneath where the tooth was extracted from. Call an emergency dentist if you feel like you may have a dry socket before the condition gets worse.
• Infections can cause drainage around the tooth. Signs of infections can include swelling in your face by the site of the infection and even low-grade fevers. Some dental infections may not cause these low-grade fevers, however, so don’t hesitate to call the dentist even if you don’t have a fever.
• Injuries can cause teeth to be knocked loose or out. Tooth loss is considered an emergency, so don’t hesitate to call the after-hours line if you lose any of your teeth through any sort of injury from a sports injury to a car wreck or back.
• Wisdom teeth being removed can also cause problems sometimes such as inflammation, gum pain, and even infections of the gum tissue or site around where the extracted tooth was. Antibiotics may be able to treat the infection and keep it from getting into other parts of the body. However, if you wait till the pain is unbearable, something like a root canal may be required to fix up the deeper rotting in the tooth, and in the worst cases, it can require removal of the tooth.
• If you have difficulty swallowing or breathing with swelling around the infection site you need to go see your dentist even sooner. Your dentist will want to get X-rays and examine the area to determine the best plan for treating your tooth.

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