Harriman Family Dental

Maintaining good oral health is an important foundation for an attractive smile and for your overall health. We provide a full range of general dentistry procedures designed to prevent oral illness, and reverse illness or repair damage. From basic checkups to repairing or even replacing damaged teeth, we offer quality oral healthcare for patients of all ages. We utilize some of the latest technologies in dentistry in a warm and welcoming environment.

Many people think that since your child’s first teeth are going to fall out anyway, there’s no need to take care of them. However, there are many good reasons to take care of these teeth, because:

-Baby teeth hold places for adult teeth and encourage jaw development
-Oral hygiene habits established early will help later
-Infections of baby teeth and gums can affect developing teeth and overall health
-Baby teeth help with speech development

To help protect your child’s teeth, we will talk about some of the causes of tooth decay. All tooth decay is caused by acid that is excreted by oral bacteria living in the mouth. These bacteria eat mostly sugars and simple carbohydrates, and they will usually consume all that’s available from a meal in about 20 minutes, after which time the pH in the mouth returns to neutral and the minerals in saliva can repair damage to the teeth.

Gum disease — also called periodontal disease — is a chronic infection of the soft tissue around your teeth. It’s the leading cause of tooth loss among adults, and its effects on your health go far beyond the mouth. Bacteria from the mouth spread through the body and are definitely linked to cardiovascular problems, diabetes, and pregnancy complications. Gum disease may also be linked to cancer and other serious health problems as well.

Most adults in the US have some degree of gum disease. Some of the more common symptoms include:
-Red, swollen gums
-Tender gums
-Bleeding gums
-Persistent bad breath
-Loose teeth
-Teeth that seem to get longer

Dental sealants are useful in protecting your back teeth from decay that begins on the chewing surfaces. These large, squarish teeth, called molars and premolars, can be especially hard to clean, making them vulnerable to decay.

Dental sealants help reduce the risk of cavities
These teeth are hard to clean, not only because they’re far back in the mouth, but also because they have deep crevices that help your teeth break up and crush food. Sometimes these crevices might be properly known as pits because they’re that deep and dark. Because they’re hard to clean, these pits can often accumulate bacteria and food particles that lead to decay of the teeth, which makes the pits even deeper and harder to clean.

Sealants cover up these crevices and pits so that food and bacteria don’t accumulate there. They don’t significantly interfere with chewing, because these deep canyons and pits aren’t as necessary now that we don’t eat as much roughage as our primitive ancestors did.

Sealants are especially good for children who have a hard time reaching and cleaning these back teeth, but the American Dental Association recommends them for adults, too.

Dental veneers are a powerful, versatile cosmetic treatment. They can be used to correct almost any cosmetic complaint you may have about your smile, including:

-Gaps between teeth
-Discolored teeth
-Worn teeth
-Chipped teeth
-Small or poorly shaped teeth
-Dental veneers can improve the appearance of your smile

In addition, dental veneers can be used to completely redesign your smile so that, in one month you can have a completely new smile that matches your personal style.

Lumineers are a type of porcelain veneer that offers many of the same benefits as well as some unique benefits of their own, making them a highly desirable cosmetic dentistry technique. The reasons why people choose them include:

-Whiten discolored teeth
-Restore chipped or worn teeth
-Straighten crooked teeth
-Smile improvement in just two visits
-Little to no tooth material removed
-Lower risk of sensitivity
-High durability

People who get Lumineers are happy to have their smile dramatically improved, and they are a great choice for the right candidates. When properly placed on the right candidates, they could last 20 years. In a clinical trial sponsored by the company, only 10 out of 167 Lumineers needed replacing after 20 years.

Braces have been around for centuries, but Six Month Smiles takes the concept and applies the latest techniques and technologies to achieve a more efficient and reliable braces treatment. As a result, with Six Month Smiles, we can achieve:

-Average treatment time of six months
-Shorter, more convenient appointments
-Lower cost than other approaches
-More comfortable treatment
-More predictable results
-More discreet appearance

Six Month Smiles puts the most obvious benefit in its name–treatment time averages six months. And there’s more time savings, too–with Six Month Smiles, your appointments are shorter than with traditional braces. With less time commitment, we are able to deliver Six Month Smiles for less than other orthodontic treatments.

Snap-On Smile is a great approach for getting a smile makeover without many of the things that a smile makeover can involve. With Snap-On Smile, you:

-Can cover crooked teeth, stained teeth, and tooth gaps
-Can cover chipped or cracked teeth
-Can replace missing teeth
-Can preview a smile makeover
-Don’t need to have any of your teeth worked on — no dental procedure
-Get a smile makeover in just two visits — it takes less than a month!
-Pick the style of smile you want
-Can replace old-fashioned partial dentures
-Get a new smile for less

It can cover up most of the tooth problems that people try to correct with smile makeovers.

Teeth bleaching is a chemical approach to whitening your teeth. It works best when your teeth have been stained by organic molecules that get trapped in your tooth enamel. The teeth bleaching can break down the organic molecules related to stains such as:

-Coffee
-Tea
-Chocolate
-Berries
-Red wine
-Dark beer
-Smoking

If this is the source of your staining, teeth bleaching will dramatically whiten your teeth.

Tooth-colored fillings are rapidly becoming the most popular filling option in the US because they offer many benefits, such as:

-Require less preparation of tooth
-Blend in with natural teeth
-Create a good seal with tooth
-Don’t turn black (oxidize)
-Insulate teeth.

Tooth-colored fillings can often be placed with the removal of only a small amount of tooth material. By preserving more of your natural tooth material, this can help maintain the strength of your teeth. Tooth-colored fillings can be matched to the shade of your teeth. They are also polished to give them a luster like your natural tooth enamel. They don’t turn black in your mouth, and they insulate your teeth against changes in temperature, such as drinking a cold beer between bites of hot pizza.

These benefits make tooth-colored fillings a treatment that is both attractive and practical. People tend to be happier with their tooth-colored fillings than they are with metal amalgam fillings. https://www. riveredgedental. com/dental-fillings/

Dental crowns are used in reconstructive, neuromuscular, or cosmetic dentistry situations where significant amounts of tooth material have been lost or will have to be removed. Some of the common uses of dental crowns include:

-Cracked tooth
-Extensively decayed tooth
-Large filling failure
-Protect a tooth after a root canal
-Supporting a dental bridge
-Topping a dental implants
-As part of an instant orthodontic procedure with porcelain veneers
-Cover a discolored or poorly shaped tooth
-Build up teeth to support a healthy bite

Because of their practical and cosmetic benefits, dental crowns are the most commonly requested dental restoration.

Dental inlays and onlays are the best filling option available. They are made using some of the most advanced materials available, and as a result, they offer the following benefits:

-Most natural-looking tooth restoration option
-Can restore lost strength
-Is the longest-lasting tooth restoration option available.
-Inlays and onlays are a great tooth restoration option

Dental inlays and onlays are made of an advanced ceramic material. This ceramic can be precisely matched to the color of your teeth, and the luster of them is closer to the appearance of your natural teeth.

The advanced ceramic used in inlays and onlays is strong enough that it isn’t just a filler material — it restores strength lost when your tooth decays. They’re made of the same material used in all-ceramic crowns, so you know they can be very strong.

As a result of their strength, inlays and onlays can last longer than other fillings, including both tooth-colored fillings and metal-amalgam fillings. They can also look more attractive for longer, as dental inlays and onlays have a ceramic coating that helps them stay stain-free.

Dental bridges are a tooth replacement option with a long history of success. Before the invention of dental implants, they were the best tooth replacement option available, because they:

-Can replace one or more missing teeth
-Allow you to eat a full diet
-Are permanently fixed in the mouth
-Can restore damaged teeth
-Look natural
-Are long-lasting

Dental bridges can be used to replace multiple lost teeth, though how many teeth can be replaced depends on the position of the lost teeth, the teeth or implants available to support the bridge, and the health of your bite.

Dental bridges are fixed permanently in your mouth. They don’t slip out when you’re eating, talking, or laughing. In addition, dental bridges can be helpful if you have damaged or decayed teeth next to a missing tooth because they provide protective crowns over these teeth.

When properly placed and maintained, they can look natural. People won’t see that one or more of your teeth doesn’t have a root unless you experience receding gums or significant bone loss in the area.

Dental bridges are long-lasting — they can last ten years or more.

Other than routine wisdom tooth extraction, there are many reasons why a tooth extraction might be performed, including:

-Orthodontic treatment
-Tooth trauma that cannot be repaired
-Gum disease
-Infected tooth
-Badly decayed tooth

In some cases of orthodontic treatment as part of a smile reconstruction, it may be recommended that one or more teeth are removed. It’s important to get a second opinion about whether the tooth extraction is necessary in your case.

Normally, a damaged tooth can be repaired with a dental crown, although a root canal might be recommended if the pulp — the internal, living part of the tooth — was exposed. But if the tooth doesn’t have enough remaining structure to support a dental crown, extraction may be necessary.

Gum disease can lead to loose teeth. In some cases, it’s best to treat the gum disease and try to maintain the natural teeth. In other cases, it may be beneficial to remove the tooth to help with gum disease treatment.

A decayed or infected tooth might need to be removed if it has suffered too much damage to the tooth roots. Otherwise, a dental crown or root canal procedure can restore this tooth to full function.

It’s always important to carefully consider tooth extractions before they are performed, because the tooth cannot be restored once it is removed.

Root canals are used to treat a tooth in which decay or damage has allowed bacteria to attack the living tooth nerve, or pulp, inside your tooth. You might notice some common symptoms of an infected tooth, such as:

-Spontaneous severe tooth pain
-Tooth pain that keeps you from sleeping or participating in activities
-Sensitivity to heat, touch, or cold that lasts for at least 15 minutes
-A bad taste in the mouth
-Pimple-like sore that develops on your gums near a tooth
-Discoloration of a single tooth
-Fever and related flu-like symptoms

Although most people experience pain related to an infected tooth, not everyone does. If you have several other symptoms but no tooth pain, it’s still important to talk to a dentist.

Neuromuscular dentistry starts with an understanding that there are three main components to your bite. First, there are the teeth, which do the actual biting, but as hard tissues, they play an important role in determining the resting position of the jaw. The relationship among the teeth determines the resting position of the jaws as well as how they come together for chewing or swallowing.

Next, there are the muscles. The muscles do the hard work of chewing, but they also help hold the jaw in place when it’s resting. Remember, the jaw isn’t supported by other bones—it hangs down and relies on muscles, ligaments, and other soft tissues to support it. Finally, the jaw muscles are “on-call” to other muscles. They are all prepared to offer what help they can if one muscle is not able to do what is asked of it.

Then there is the jaw joint itself. The temporomandibular joint is one of the most complex joints in the human body. It is designed not just to open up and down, but also to slide forward and back, move from side to side, and tilt at an angle. The jaw joint consists of two bones that come together, the mandible, or lower jaw, and the temporal bone, part of the skull. Between them is a tough but soft cushioning disk that is held in place by ligaments.

Part of the reason why so many people with sleep apnea don’t know they have it is that many of the signs and symptoms are either generic or hard to notice. One of the most common signs, snoring, is often dismissed as being an unimportant nuisance.

Symptoms you may notice include:
-Daytime sleepiness
-Falling asleep during the day
-Waking up feeling unrested
-Difficulty focusing or being interested
-Decreasing ability to exercise
-Weight gain
-Moodiness

What Causes Snoring

Snoring is caused by slow, deep breathing through narrowed airways. Air has difficulty traveling through these narrow airways, which causes turbulence. The turbulence results in vibrations that resonate in the throat, mouth, or nose, resulting in the sound we hear.

Airways may always be narrow, which is most frequent in people whose snoring comes from the nose. More often, the airways shrink at night. When we’re awake, our muscles and gravity help hold our airway open. But when we lie down at night, gravity pulls the airway closed, and our muscles relax, allowing the collapse to occur.

Snoring and Sleep Apnea

When the airway doesn’t just narrow in sleep, but closes fully, that’s called obstructive sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a potentially deadly condition that should be treated.

Snoring is the most common warning sign of sleep apnea, because your airway will typically narrow before it closes. Your sleep partner might notice not only loud snoring, but also a gasping or choking sound that accompanies the closure of the airway and the slight awakening necessary to reopen the airway.

Loud snoring, especially that accompanied by a choking sound, should be taken seriously and be grounds for talking to your doctor, a sleep doctor, or sleep dentist.

Headaches are probably the most common chronic pain condition. Unfortunately, because they are common, they are often neglected in research, so that headache treatment lags behind other areas of care. People with chronic headaches, including migraines, often get care that is only partly effective. For some people, though, TMJ treatment works well to dramatically reduce or eliminate them.

Is TMJ Responsible for Your Headaches?

There are many headache causes, so it’s important to determine whether TMJ or something else is to blame for your headaches. Here are three clues to look for:

Other TMJ Symptoms: TMJ headaches aren’t normally your only symptom of TMJ. Check the list to see if there are other indicators you might have TMJ.
Headaches Related to Jaw Activity: If your headaches follow periods of intense jaw activity, such as chewing a tough meal or snack, or talking a lot during the day, then it’s more likely that your headache is TMJ-related.
Eliminate Other Common Causes: Make sure your headaches aren’t related to common headache triggers such as dehydration, overexertion, alcohol consumption, and the like.

What Can Myofunctional Therapy Do?
Myofunctional therapy begins with the facial muscles, but it can have far-reaching impacts on your oral and overall health.

Myofunctional therapy can:
-Train muscles to swallow properly
-Teach the tongue, lips, and jaw how to stay in the proper position
-Encourage nasal breathing
-Encourage proper growth of the jaws, face, and airway
-Correct speech problems
-Improve open bite or underbite
-Stabilize orthodontic treatments
-Resolve TMJ symptoms
-Reduce or eliminate snoring or sleep apnea
-Many of the above problems are related to what are called orofacial myofunctional disorders (OMDs) . OMDs occur when - your facial muscles aren’t functioning in a way that harmoniously encourages the development of your facial structure.

Retraining your muscles to perform their functions helps stop or reverse the negative consequences of an OMD.

Partial dentures are used when you’ve lost some teeth in an arch, but not all the teeth in that arch. The typical partial denture consists of one or more false teeth attached to a plastic base that uses metal clasps and hooks to secure itself to your natural teeth for support.
Partials can be used in either the upper or lower arch, and we can often add additional teeth to the same denture if you lose additional teeth.

Full dentures are used when you have lost all the teeth in either your upper arch or lower arch. These include false teeth set in a base that looks like your natural gums. The teeth can be made of the same plastic as the base or they can be made of a ceramic material to make them look more natural.

Problems with Dentures
Because dentures have been around so long, we have a very good idea what your experience will be like. Unfortunately, the news isn’t all good. Although they do provide a reasonable replacement for your teeth, people often complain about:
-Loose fit or slipping
-Discomfort from extended wear
-Gum sores
-Unattractive appearance
-Damage to neighboring teeth
-Cleaning difficulty
-Poor chewing function

As a general rule, these and other minor irritations are just to be expected as part of wearing traditional dentures, but there are ways that we can improve your denture experience.

Your functional appliance moves your teeth and reshapes your jaw through the application of steady pressure over time. If your appliance isn’t in place all day long, it can’t do its job.

In general, you should only remove your appliance for:
-Contact sports
-Swimming
-Playing a wind instrument
-Eating (maybe)
-Contact sports can damage your appliance and you might suffer injury from your appliance during sports. When swimming, your oral appliance could interfere with breathing. If your appliance interferes with your ability to form the proper embouchure when playing your instrument, you may remove it.

Ideally, you should learn to eat with your appliance in. When you’re chewing, your teeth and jaws are being subjected to exactly the kinds of forces that your appliance utilizes to expand your jaw and move your teeth. So, ideally, you should learn to eat with your appliance in. However, if you must eat without your appliance, that may be permissible, depending on the appliance and your treatment goals.

Whenever you are not wearing your appliance, it should be in its protective case.

Some discomfort and irritation from your appliance is to be expected. The teeth and bones are being moved and reshaped with pressure, which can be uncomfortable at first. Your body will grow used to the appliance, and discomfort will go away, although it may return at adjustments to a lesser extent. Over-the-counter pain medication can typically manage this discomfort.

If the wire is irritating your cheeks, orthodontic wax can smooth the interaction to reduce friction. If your appliance is poking your or causing sharp pain inside the arch of your teeth, contact us immediately.

Never try to adjust or refit your appliance unless you have been explicitly instructed to do so. Only perform adjustments you have been explicitly instructed in. If you have any doubts about what adjustments you can perform, contact us before attempting any adjustment.

Improper adjustments of your appliance can break the appliance and either postpone or interfere with your results.

How do you feel when you have a dental appointment coming up? Do you feel anxious? Do you find yourself unable to work or enjoy free time because you’re worried?

How do you feel when you’ve finished your dental appointment? Are you tired, sore, and worn out? Do you hurt more than you should–with sore muscles from head to toe?

What if your dental appointment could be the most relaxing time on your schedule all week? What if you could leave your dental appointment feeling rested, rejuvenated, and with a renewed creative and personal energy?

That’s what NuCalm can do. NuCalm relaxation dentistry can help you feel calm at the dentist’s office. With NuCalm, your dental appointment can be a stress-reliever, not a stress-causer. If you want to learn whether you can benefit from NuCalm relaxation dentistry in River Edge, NJ, please call (201) 343-4044 today for an appointment with a relaxation dentist at the River Edge Dental Center.

Relaxation Dentistry vs. Sedation Dentistry
You may have heard dentists advertising “sedation dentistry” or “sleep dentistry” as the way to overcome your dental anxiety. While these techniques can work, they rely on medications that give you a drugged out feeling.

Sedation drugs stress your system and may not be helpful in overcoming your dental anxiety. With sedation dentistry, you may feel even more out of control and helpless, which could the cause of your anxiety in the first place. Sedation dentistry can help you get the work done, but it’s not going to make you feel better. And after you leave a sedation appointment, you may be useless for anything else all day.

But with relaxation dentistry, we can eliminate your anxiety using your body’s natural mechanisms. There are no drugs, and you won’t feel drugged out. Instead, what you experience is more like deep meditation. You’re awake, but deeply centered in your consciousness, drifting through thoughts at the edge of sleep.

Benefits of Relaxation Dentistry

With relaxation dentistry, you can overcome many of the things that make you feel uncomfortable at the dentist. You can control:
-Fear of sights, sounds, and smells
-Tension in the jaw, arms, back, and neck
-Difficulty getting numb
-Difficulty sitting still
-Sensitive gag reflex

These can also be controlled with sedation dentistry, but with relaxation dentistry, you also enjoy:
-No drugs
-No drugged out feeling
-Takes effect in five minutes
-Wears off immediately
-Drive yourself to and from your appointment

And, in addition, many people experience additional benefits from using NuCalm, such as:
-Improved focus
-Increased energy
-More creativity
-Better sleep
-Many people who used to dread their dental appointments start looking forward to them once they try NuCalm. Instead of something that stresses them out, it becomes the most relaxing part of their week.

Why an Attractive Smile Is a Vital Asset

Many people think that cosmetic dentistry is a luxury or something to put on your someday wish list, but the truth is that your smile is important, and that you use your smile every day of your life.

Perhaps most importantly, your smile is an essential part of your image of yourself. From your first awakening in the morning until just before bedtime, your face in the mirror may be the first thing and the last thing you see every day. It shapes your sense of self, for good or bad.

And you’re not the only one judging you on the basis of your smile. When surveyed about what they most want in a potential date, both men and women cite a smile above everything. And when surveyed about hiring practices, most managers would hire someone with an attractive smile over someone with similar qualifications but an unattractive smile. And they would offer them a higher starting salary.

When asked what they remember from a person after their first meeting, twice as many people say the smile of their new acquaintance, not what they said, what they wore, or how they smelled. And when speaking fondly of a deceased person, the smile is the most commonly cited attribute.

To a great extent, your smile is your image, both to yourself and to others. And that makes an attractive smile crucial to everyone.

If you are looking for a convenient, inexpensive, but attractive way to reshape chipped teeth or close a gap in your smile, then dental bonding may be the right choice for you. Dental bonding can be used for many minor cosmetic problems with your teeth, can be completed in a single visit, and is much less expensive than many other cosmetic dentistry options you may have considered. When it’s performed by a skilled cosmetic dentist, it can also yield very attractive results.

What Can Dental Bonding Do?
Dental bonding is a very flexible cosmetic dentistry procedure. It can be used to fix many common cosmetic complaints, including:
-Chipped teeth
-Small cosmetic cracks (craze lines)
-Small or poorly shaped teeth
-Gaps in your smile

And those are just the common applications. There are actually many, many situations where dental bonding can produce a quality fix.

Have you ever wished you could straighten crooked teeth and close gaps in your smile without metal brackets and wires. Well, you can, with Invisalign. Invisalign uses clear plastic aligners to straighten your teeth. Not only are these aligners virtually invisible, they’re completely removable, so you don’t have diet restrictions. And you don’t have to clean around wires, just brush and floss like always. You’ll enjoy that these aligners won’t nick or irritate your cheeks, tongue, or lips.

Benefits of Invisalign
If you are looking for a comfortable, convenient orthodontic treatment, then Invisalign might just be right for you. Some of the reasons why people choose Invisalign include:
-Aligners are clear, and nearly invisible
-No irritation to cheeks and lips
-Aligners are removable
-No diet restrictions
-Cleaning is easy
-Fewer dental visits

Of course, the main benefit of Invisalign is in the name: it’s almost invisible. These clear plastic aligners are very hard to see, and you can wear them all day and no one will notice you have them in. The brackets, wires, and rubber bands of traditional braces are much more visible.

And when you get rid of the brackets and wires, you eliminate a major source of irritation from braces, which can rub and cut against your cheeks and lips.

Having removable aligners can make your orthodontic experience much easier. Whenever you need to smile for a close up or have a special close encounter–from the bedroom to the boardroom–your aligners can come out, as long as you make sure to keep them in for at least 20 hours a day, and 22 hours most days. You won’t have to plan your life around braces.

TMJ is a complex condition–or, according to some, a complex constellation of conditions–that we are still trying to understand. TMJ is a disorder that affects the function of the jaw and has effects that radiate through the entire body. The most commonly reported symptoms include:

-Popping or clicking in the jaw
-Limited jaw motion or locked jaw
-Jaw pain
-Face pain
-Headaches
-Tooth wear or damage
-Ringing in the ears or ear pain
-Dizziness or vertigo
-Neck pain
-Shoulder pain
-Back pain
-Tingling and numbness in the fingers

Popping and clicking in the jaw is one of the most directly related jaw effects of TMJ. It’s related to a displaced cushioning disc between the two parts of the temporomandibular joint: your lower jaw and your skull. When this disk is out of place, your jaw joint is not properly cushioned, and it can experience damage.

The displaced disk can eventually prevent you from fully opening your jaw–or even opening your jaw at all.

The most common form of jaw pain in TMJ is sore, aching muscles. That’s because TMJ can often keep your jaw from finding its position of maximum rest, so your jaw muscles remain constantly tense. Jaw pain can also be felt in the jaw joint, or as a sharp, electric pain caused by pressure on nerves. Face pain is typically an extension of jaw pain, resulting from similar and overlapping symptoms.

Headaches related to TMJ are usually tension headaches caused by the tense muscles in the jaw. However, they can also be migraines, caused by an overloading of the trigeminal nerve, the trigger point for migraines as well as the primary control nerve for the jaw and its muscles.

Tooth wear and damage in TMJ are related to improper jaw position that puts excessive force on some teeth or causes overactive muscles to grind the teeth (bruxism) .

Ear symptoms in TMJ can relate to pressure of the joint on the temporal bone, which houses the delicate bones and other structures of the inner ear. However, it can also be related to the jaw joint or muscles’ interference with nerves running from the ear to the brain.

Neck pain, shoulder pain, and back pain, all derive from the fact that all our muscles work together. When the jaw muscles aren’t working properly, they can share their dysfunction with other muscles through their working partnerships.

Jaw misalignment can also lead to misalignment of your vertebrae, which can pinch nerves leaving the spine. This most commonly evidences itself as tingling or numbness, and is most often felt in the fingers.

What Causes Snoring
Snoring can be caused by any obstruction in your airway that prevents your body from drawing enough air in when you breathe. The constriction in the airway creates a turbulent airflow that vibrates your tissues. This vibration causes the sound that we hear as snoring. Obstructions can occur at any point in the airway, including:

Nose
-Top of the mouth
-Behind the tongue
-Throat

Although many people tend to blame the nose and structures like the uvula for snoring, the loudest snoring and that most likely to be associated with sleep apnea is related to the tongue and throat.

Dangers of Snoring

Although people tend to discount snoring as a minor nuisance, it can actually be a very serious problem. Snoring can cause:
-Loss of sleep for you and those around you
-Atherosclerosis (hardened arteries)
-Increase risk of car accidents
-Domestic disputes and violence

You might think you’re sleeping soundly when you’re snoring, but you’re probably not. Not only are you short on air, but you can actually be awakened by the sound of your snoring, even if you don’t know it.

The vibrations from snoring can cause tiny injuries to your arteries. These injuries turn into scars, which can harden your arteries and cause the accumulation of plaque that can break off and cause a stroke.

Because you’re not sleeping well, you have an increased risk of falling asleep at the wheel, which can lead to car accidents. And because snoring disrupts sleep for you and others in your household, it can lead to fights and violence.

Is It Sleep Apnea?

And probably the most significant danger of snoring is its link to sleep apnea. In sleep apnea, your airway isn’t just constricted, it’s actually cut off. Your own tissues are literally strangling you. When this occurs, your brain senses the oxygen shortage, tells your heart to pump harder, and wakes you up enough to restore breathing. This can happen hundreds of times a night, even though you might not know it.

Benefits of Functional Orthodontics
-Functional orthodontics can achieve many goals that fixed orthodontics can’t. With functional orthodontics, you can:
-Expand the size of the jaw
-Make room for all your teeth–no need for extraction
-Create balance between the upper and lower jaws
-Improve airway to lower risk of sleep apnea
-Improve bite to reduce risk of TMJ
-Avoid jaw surgery

Functional orthodontics don’t just apply pressure to your teeth, they apply pressure to your jaw. The same mechanisms that let your body remold bone around your teeth can be utilized to encourage your body to grow and reshape bone. Thus, instead of making room for your teeth by removing teeth, we are able to create more room so that all your natural teeth will fit.

When people have a significant under bite or overbite, the problem is that one of the jaws is too small. Stimulating growth in that jaw can bring the two into harmony again.

The configuration of your jaws determines the size of your airway. By creating a more harmonious relationship between the jaws, you can reduce or eliminate airway obstructions. In a similar way, functional orthodontics can help avoid bite problems like TMJ.

For many people, the only alternative treatment that can give similar results is jaw surgery. The expense and risks associated with surgery make functional orthodontics a more appealing choice.

Dr. Martirossian wants to be sure he can help all his patients live better through dentistry. That’s why he is continually expanding his horizons with ongoing education about new advanced developments in dentistry, including general dentistry, cosmetic dentistry, neuromuscular dentistry, and holistic dentistry.

Dr. Martirossian has long been selected as one of America’s Top Dentists by the Consumers’ Research Council of America. He was the cosmetic treatment dentist and lead dental advisor for the Mother/Daughter Makeover Challenge sponsored by Bergen Health and Life Magazine.

Dr. Martirossian began his career as a dentist when he received his Doctor of Dental Science from New York University. He performed a residency nearby in the Bronx at Lutheran Medical Center.

But Dr. Martirossian has never stopped his dental education. Soon after finishing his residency he completed a 2-year dental implant course at the New York University College of Dentistry.