Tooth pain is caused when the nerve root of a tooth is irritated. Most common causes of dental pain are - dental (tooth) infection, decay, injury, or loss of a tooth (including tooth extraction). Below are some of the ways to ease tooth pain at home while you wait to be seen by your dentist.

• Use an analgesic that is available over the pharmacy counter, like ibuprofen or acetaminophen. This will help relieve inflammation associated with the pain. Follow instructions on the label and take only recommended dosage.
• Apply a Tooth Desensitizer over the area. You can purchase a product over a pharmacy counter. All you need to do is apply the stuff to the sensitive area, and within minutes, you will notice a reduction in sensitiveness.
• Apply clove oil to the affected area to ease tooth pain. You can pick up a bottle of clove oil in any pharmacy.
• Wheat grass has excellent properties to fight tooth decay. Use wheatgrass juice as mouthwash as often as you desire.
• You can use icepack on the affected area to chill the pain. Make sure you wipe the icepack with a towel to avoid frostbite. However, if you find that ice aggravates your sensitive tooth, skip ice treatment.
• If you have a swelling on the cheek from tooth pain, use a cold compress on outside of your cheek to reduce the swelling.
• Rinse mouth with warm water. Although this will not bring down the pain, it will remove any food debris that might be causing or aggravating the tooth pain.
• Take room temperature food. Be careful of temperature extremes. When you intake hot, cold or sweet food, as these foods/beverages may aggravate an already sore and sensitive tooth.
• Place a clove of garlic dipped in rock salt on the affected area.

Bad breath, also known as ‘halitosis’, can occur from time to time, and can also be long-lasting, depending on the cause.
Bad breath such as ‘morning mouth’ is considered normal, and there is no major cause for health concerns. ‘Morning mouth’ condition can be attributed to changes in our mouth during our sleep. During day time, our saliva acts as the agent that washes away decaying food and bad odors.

Since our body creates less saliva during night time, generally mouth gets dry and dead cells tend to stick to the tongue, and also to the inside of cheeks. When bacteria use these cells for food, they produce a foul odor. Brushing and flossing thoroughly before bed, and brushing our teeth and tongue first thing in the morning, will usually eliminate morning breath.
Bad breath can be caused by other factors such as:
• Poor dental hygiene (Not frequently brushing and flossing properly allows collected food to decay in the mouth). You will notice the symptoms when teeth are coated with film or plaque. You may notice food trapped between the teeth and pale or swollen gums.
• Gum disease
• Infections in the mouth — Periodontal (gum) disease
• Respiratory tract infections — Throat infection, swollen glands in the neck, sinus or stuffy nose, lung infections
• External Agents - Eating onions or garlic, drinking coffee, chewing tobacco, smoking cigarettes
• Dry mouth – xerostomia (caused by medications, medical disorders, decreased saliva flow during sleep, and ‘mouth breathing’)
• Systemic illnesses - such as cancer, diabetes, liver disease, kidney disease, lung disease, sinus conditions, reflux disease among others.
• Psychiatric illness - pseudohalitosis (some people believe they have bad breath, but others do not notice it)
Incase you notice having persistent bad breath which is not improving with brushing and flossing, its time you see your dentist for a thorough dental examination.

Bruxism is the word taken from Greek word “brychein” which means gnashing of teeth. Brychein means different things to different experts. It is basically grinding of the teeth, typically accompanied by clenching of the jaw. It is an oral parafunctional activity which occurs in most of the humans.

Bruxism in other words is the medical term for clenching or gnashing your teeth. Often it happens that people with bruxism unknowingly clench their teeth together during day time. This is different from tooth grinding or clenching that occurs at night. Adults who are affected with bruxism do it at day time or night time while children’s do at night time.

Bruxism can result in chipped broken, reduced teeth, loose teeth or even receding gums. Now bruxism can be mild and at times it if not treated in time then it can be severe leading to jaw disorders, headaches, damaged teeth and other problems.

As bruxism mostly occurs while people are sleeping, therefore they are not aware of this habit and so they are not diagnosed with the condition until complications occur. Due to this it is important to know all the signs and symptoms of bruxism at regular intervals.

Basically to avoid Bruxism, you should visit your Dentist regularly. If you become aware of the problem at start, then it can be avoided just by stopping clenching, gnashing of teeth.

Dentistry is one of the most important aspects in a person’s life, as Mouth is a part whose care is to be taken of very well. And people are most of afraid of a Dentist than any other Health practitioner, as the pain in Dental treatments is sometimes unbearable. And everything depends on how good the Dentist is, and how good he deals with a patient who visits them.

When it comes to a dental surgery, things are hard both for the Dentist and the patient for which both of them should have a proper understanding, and a dentist should have a proper check on patient’s mental condition, and his medical and dental history. Similarly the patient should gain confidence and set his/her mind that the Dentist is going to be the best for them. If there is no understanding between the two, then that would be the biggest drawback and leads to failure of the treatment.

In many countries, nice dental insurance plans are available, but it would just be a mistake if you choose a dentist by depending on the Dental insurance coverage. Because it is not money that you are going to seek from a Dentist, but it is the best treatment and surgery that you would require from a dentist.

- The first thing before you go to a dentist is that you have to seek friends/family members advice and see whom they are referring to if they have any good/bad experience with any dentist! That would help you a lot as it makes you easily understand the nature and work of the Dentist. And once you are treated well by a Dentist, that would help you minimize your fear and you don’t feel hesitated to visit him again if needed. But if you are new to a place and don’t know much about the Dentists there, just word of mouth from others is the best thing to do.

- Check for hospitals and health care centers that provide dental services in your area. A dentist in charge in these schools may be able to provide you with good recommendations. A dentist in charge may very well know the reputation and the performance of his fellow practitioners in the region.

- Try to find a dentist in your region who may suit your budget, this may be done mainly by checking any online source, checking the price quotes. There are big directories on the Internet showing lists of Dentists and their specific quotes for any surgery or dental practice. If you don’t have problem at spending high money, then it would be easy to find a well reputed dentist who knows how to empty your pockets!

- Moving to a new place? Then it would be hard for you to find a good one! There is a simple solution for that. Most of the dentists know and recommend each other and this makes an easy task for you. Once you are going to shift to a new place, you can ask the present dentist if he knows any good dentist in the place where you are going to move to.

- Don’t get the treatment done on you first visit! Your first visit is only going to be a “Visit” and you are going just to take an Appointment. When you are going to a dentist, keep a few things in mind to check about the dentist -

• He should check your head to neck region, and not only your mouth!
• He should ask for your medical or dental history.
• He should make you understand what all you need to get done in the treatment. A good dentist first tries to teach the patient about the problem, and then asks the patient whether he/she needs the treatment to be done or not.
• He shouldn’t be on-topic always. A small talk about some other normal topic would help in increasing good interaction between the dentist and the patient, by which the patient gains good impression about the Dentist!

There are other things too that a patient needs to keep in mind while finding a good dentist, but i hope these points are enough to make the 1st impression about a dentist. And many of you should be aware of the word gentle dentistry as it deals with the treatment by an ideal dentist.

The University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry has revealed that there is a special computer program through which traces a specific place in the mouth where dental implant has to be placed.

According to Dr. Joseph Califano, program director of periodontics and oral surgery, in the Traditional way of surgeries, the spot decision of placement of implants do not give the complete picture of the bone and the part where an incision is made to locate the bone. The traditional manner is often less than optimal, Califano said, because it involves on-the-spot decision-making during the procedure.

A special software “SimPlant Planner”, shows the review of the denture or the oral part on 3-D computed tomography scan, which also displays the perfect anatomical part of the scanned region.

He said - “We can place implants virtually on a trial basis,” “This allows us to review many options and develop an ideal surgical plan that fully supports the prosthetic plan we developed. We can eliminate most of the unknowns, which facilitates both patient consultation and the educational process, since the treatment decisions are made preoperatively.”

Normally X-rays are used to locate the region by the periodontists but these techniques always have a few limitations which do not give perfection to the procedure. These X-rays are not as accurate as CT Scans. After the CT Scans are done, there is a special plan made with better formulation, and a drill guide is constructed that allows the surgeons to precisely place the implants in the patient’s mouth.

This type of program is helpful both to the patients and also the dental students to make better decisions in the field of operation.