As we celebrate the beginning of a new year, many of us will use this opportunity to make resolutions to lose weight, stop smoking, spend more time with family. Some people even resolve to take care of the smile they’ve been hiding. At Huisman Family Dentistry in Holland, we can help you fulfill your resolution to get the smile of your dreams so you can stop hiding and start smiling.
Time and life itself can take a toll on our smiles. And that’s nothing to be embarrassed about. In fact, sometimes genetics, accidents, or simply aging can result in a less than ideal smile. Don’t worry. A lot of the teeth trouble we see can be easily fixed with our Holland cosmetic dentistry options.
At Huisman Family Dentistry, we offer a variety of cosmetic dentistry options to take your smile from hidden to vivid. Whether you need a professional whitening treatment to brighten your smile, veneers to enhance the aesthetics of your teeth, or a complete smile makeover, we’re here to help.
With the New Year upon us, there’s never been a better time to start fresh with a new smile. If you’re ready to reveal your smile in 2014, give Huisman Family Dentistry a call today. We’ll discuss your smile goals and work together to determine the best cosmetic dentistry options for you. Don’t wait. A new smile – and a new you – are closer than you think.
Sometimes our pearly whites can lose their luster and become less than our ideal shade of white. It’s natural, and anything from wine to berries can cause it. If your smile has become a bit dull, you may have been considering teeth whitening. But with so many choices, how do you know which is best for you? You start by talking with Huisman Family Dentistry!
Huisman Family Dentistry in Holland wants to urge all who are interested in whitening their teeth to speak with us first. While whitening may seem like a harmless, simple task, there are a variety of things to take into consideration.
Over-the-counter options may be appealing because of their price tags, but they can also cause damage, and sometimes, even pain. The bleaches used in teeth whitening can damage the gums and other soft tissues inside your mouth, causing mouth sores and discomfort. Since the trays that are often found in drugstore kits are not custom fitted to your teeth, it’s possible for the whitening solution to sit on your gums for a prolonged period of time and cause irritation. Additionally, if you’re already experiencing, or are at risk for sensitive teeth, unsupervised drugstore whitenings can exacerbate these complications.
So does this mean you need to avoid a crisp, white smile forever? Not necessarily. If you come to visit us first and discuss your desires, we can suggest the best option for your teeth or even perform the whitening for you in our office. Sometimes we may even recommend a different option like veneers or bonding. Take the first step to a bright, white smile. Call our Holland dental office to schedule an appointment today!
In addition to following a good home oral healthcare routine of flossing and brushing, maintaining biannual checkups at Huisman Family Dentistry in Holland is the best thing you can do for the health of your smile, and your body.
When you stop in for your six month appointment, we’ll check for any signs of gum disease, oral cancer, cavities, broken teeth, damaged fillings, and more. We’ll also conduct a thorough cleaning and polish and floss your teeth for a clean, fresh mouth.
While we obviously love to keep your teeth and gums healthy, visiting us at least every six months doesn’t only help your smile, it can also help protect your overall health
Oral health issues, like gum disease, can lead to whole-body problems such as cancer, strokes, heart disease, and other scary health problems. By maintaining regular checkups and cleanings with your dentist in Holland, you can help catch any potential problems before they start or before they have a chance to affect the rest of your body.
Visiting Huisman Family Dentistry at least twice a year is essential to your oral healthcare routine. If you’re at risk for certain dental issues, we’ll sometimes recommend that you see us more often to ensure that we’re being proactive with your health.
If you’re due for a checkup and cleaning, give our Holland dental office a call to schedule an appointment today. We can’t wait to see you!
At Huisman Family Dental in Holland, we hear this question often, “Is flossing really that important?” The short answer is, “Yes, flossing is that important.” And here’s why.
Flossing is a crucial part of having a healthy mouth and healthy gums. In fact, the American Dental Association (ADA) recommends daily flossing in order to achieve optimal oral health. By properly flossing, you’re able to remove food particles, plaque and bacteria that forms between teeth, something that brushing alone can’t do.
While brushing is a very important to the well being of your mouth, to get the healthiest mouth possible, it should be paired with flossing. A proper brushing-flossing combination reduces your risk of cavities and gum disease, and makes your Holland dentist very happy!
Flossing Tips for Healthy Gums
Floss before brushing your teeth
Glide the floss in between each tooth using a sawing motion
Angle the floss in a “c” shape around the tooth and slightly below the gumline
Repeat on the opposite tooth
Unravel the floss from your fingers, supplying fresh floss for each set of teeth
Finish up with a proper brushing
Even if you brush twice a day and floss daily, it’s still important to maintain regular visits to your dental office in Holland. Due for a checkup or professional cleaning? Don’t worry. Call Huisman Family Dental today to schedule your appointment today.
Brushing your teeth is something we all learn to do at an early age, and is even considered fun in the beginning. However, over the years, we become so used to brushing our teeth that we have a tendency to not really pay attention to how well we’re doing it. This could lead to a less than optimal clean and put you at risk for dental problems. At Huisman Family Dental in Holland,we want everyone to know that it’s not only important to brush your teeth, but to also make sure that you’re doing it properly.
Although we’re always happy to hear that our patients are brushing their teeth twice a day, we also want them to know that an incorrect technique can leave teeth exposed to harmful plaque and tartar. Proper brushing helps you successfully remove these oral health dangers along with other harmful bacteria, and helps protect against cavities, bad breath and gum disease.
We recommend brushing at least twice day, in the morning and before bed, and also following our proper brushing techniques, which include:
Aiming your bristles at a 45-degree angle to reach under the gum line
Using soft, circular strokes instead of horizontal ones to avoid abrasions
Cleaning your entire mouth including front, back and chewing surface of each tooth and your tongue
Making sure that each brushing session lasts for at least two minutes
No matter how perfect your technique may be, it’s still very important that you visit your Holland dentist for routine checkups and professional cleanings. If you’re due for a checkup or cleaning, give Huisman Family Dentistry a call to schedule your appointment today.
Walking down the toothpaste aisle at the local supermarket can be an overwhelming experience — especially if you aren’t sure what you’re looking for. When choosing the right toothpaste for your smile, there are a few important characteristics to take into consideration other than just simply your favorite flavor or the one that’s on sale. At the Holland dental office of Dr. Jeff Huisman, we want to go back to the basics and talk about a few of the things you should look for when buying toothpaste.
Make sure your toothpaste has fluoride. Fluoride is an important ingredient that’s necessary for healthy mouths, and has even been proven to protect tooth enamel from decay. In fact, according to the Academy of General Dentistry, brushing with a fluoride toothpaste twice daily can reduce tooth decay by as much as 40%.
Look for the American Dental Association (ADA) Seal of Acceptance. Products that have the ADA seal have undergone clinical studies by the association and the claims, whether it’s cavity fighting or tartar control, are backed by scientific findings.
Use a toothpaste that appeals to your personal preferences and needs. With such a wide variety of toothpastes on the market, it’s important that you find one that you like and fits your needs. Toothpaste not only serves to clean teeth and remove bacteria, but it can also help ease tooth sensitivity, whiten your smile, and control tartar. By selecting a toothpaste that has a flavor and texture you like, you’re more likely to use the toothpaste to brush the recommended two times a day.
Using the right toothpaste is only a small part of an overall oral health routine. Brushing with a fluoride toothpaste twice a day and keeping up with your professional dental cleanings and checkups in Holland are both important to maintaining good oral health. If you’re due for a cleaning or checkup, call our Holland dental office and ask to schedule your appointment today.
You always make sure to brush your teeth twice a day to maintain optimal health, but are you using the right toothbrush? All of us at Huisman Family Dentistry want to make sure that our patients not only understand the importance of regularly brushing their teeth, but also that they know whether they are choosing the right toothbrush at their pharmacy or grocery store.
With so many options to choose from, selecting a toothbrush often comes down to which color is liked best and which is cheapest. However, not all toothbrushes are equally safe and effective at thoroughly cleaning your teeth so your Holland dentist is here to help.
One of the most important parts of a toothbrush to take into consideration is the type of bristles. The design of the bristles, whether they are straight, slanted, or uneven, doesn’t really matter too much as it’s more important to have a proper brushing technique. However, the texture of the bristles is really important to note.
Toothbrushes come with either soft or hard bristles, and while it may seem like common sense that hard bristles would more safely remove plaque and bacteria, the opposite is actually true. Hard bristles can cause damage to the surface of the teeth and irritate the gums, whereas soft bristles offer a more gentle clean. In fact, the American Dental Association (ADA) recommends soft-bristle toothbrushes for safe and effective cleaning.
The size of the toothbrush handle and head are also important features to think about when choosing the right toothbrush. The size of the head should easily fit into the mouth and comfortably reach the back teeth. Those with a smaller mouth will benefit from a small head or even a youth toothbrush. The size of the handle should be comfortable to hold and should be long enough to reach the back teeth without causing discomfort.
Lastly, as we all know, there are two options of toothbrushes to choose from – manual and powered. Is one better than the other? According to the ADA, both types of brushes are effective at thoroughly cleaning teeth and the choice between the two is a personal preference. What’s most important is that you’re comfortable with your toothbrush and that you use it twice a day.
Using the right toothbrush is just a small part of a healthy oral maintenance routine in Holland. While Dr. Jeff Huisman and all of us at our Holland dental office want to encourage our patients to maintain proper oral hygiene at home, we also want to express the importance of keeping up with your regularly scheduled professional dental cleanings and checkups for optimal oral health. If you’re due for a checkup or hygiene visit, give us a call to schedule your appointment today!
While it’s really no secret that we encourage our patients to limit sugar intake, it may surprise some to learn that it’s not only the sugar that’s harmful to your teeth. At Huisman Family Dental in Holland, we want all of our patients to know that while sugary snacks can cause damage to your teeth, some are more harmful than others.
The key ingredient in all sweets is, of course, sugar. And while sugar can wreak havoc in your mouth, sugary sweets that are sticky, like caramel and taffy, can be even more damaging. The texture of these foods and others like them causes the sugar to linger on your teeth longer, leaving your them vulnerable to decay.
Sticky foods don’t necessarily have to be sweet to be dangerous. Sticky foods in general are harmful to dental restorations and can easily pull out fillings or loosen crowns.
While sweets and sticky foods are most definitely dangerous to the health of your teeth, other foods that may not be so obviously bad are just as detrimental, if not worse.
Crunchy foods, like popcorn or even ice, can not only cause broken teeth in Holland, they can also cause tiny cracks and chips, which leaves teeth more susceptible to cavities and other problems. While our teeth are strong and are made to help us chew, they aren’t unbreakable. And crunching ice cubes and catching the hidden kernel in your bucket of popcorn with your molar are just the types of things can cause a broken, or chipped, tooth.
All of us at our Holland dental office want to keep patients’ smiles healthy. One of the best ways you can help is to make sure you maintain regularly scheduled appointments – especially if you’ve got a sweet tooth or really love to munch on popcorn.
If you’re due for a check up, or if you happen to experience a dental injury from your snacking habits, don’t wait. Give us a call to schedule an appointment as soon as possible.
We’ve all seen those famous ice hockey players skating around the ice, grinning ear to ear after scoring a goal, and yet we can’t help but notice that gap in their mouths where a tooth once was. A lost or chipped tooth is an all too common injury, not only in hockey, but in many other sports as well.
In fact, some of the most common dental injuries occur as a result from sports activity and include:
Chipped teeth
Dental fractures or tooth “cracks”
Displaced teeth
Lost teeth
Infections
The best way to prevent these types of injuries is by using a mouth guard made at our Holland dental office.
Sports mouth guards can greatly reduce the risk of mouth injuries and can even decrease the chances of a concussion or jaw fracture. Both the American Dental Association (ADA) and the Academy for Sports Dentistry (ASD) recommend a properly fitted mouth guard to successfully protect your mouth during a sporting activity. And only your Holland dentist can give you a sports mouth guard that’s properly custom fitted just for you.
At Huisman Family Dentistry, we encourage all of our athletes – both children and adults – to take care of their mouths during contact sports. If you’re playing in a recreational league, your kids are just starting to play, or if you’ve been training and playing your whole life, a sports mouth guard made in Holland can save your teeth, and your smile. Don’t wait for an injury to happen, take the preventive approach and call us today.
Do you often wake up feeling worse than when you went to bed? Is your mouth dry and your head aching…and you haven’t had a drop to drink? You might be suffering from sleep apnea. That’s right! You don’t have to be a certain age or weight to have sleep apnea – even kids have it – and it has been connected to all kinds of trouble from difficulty concentrating to sexual dysfunction. If you’d like to stop waking up feeling like you have been on a bender without any of the fun, read on!
What Causes Sleep Apnea?
Sleep apnea generally happens when the tongue and soft palate collapse onto the back of the throat. But what causes THAT to happen?
Relatively large tongue or tonsils when compared to the windpipe.
More than normally relaxed throat muscles.
Neck or head shape that constricts or reduces your airway size.
Control over muscles reduced due to aging
Obesity causing extra soft fat tissue to thicken the windpipe
Ultimately, obstructive sleep apnea is what its name says it is – the obstruction ( or constriction) of the airway.
Many patients benefit from using a CPAP or Continuous Positive Airway Pressure machine. Unfortunately, some of our patients have found they can’t tolerate them for one reason or another. Sometimes they can’t sleep because of the noise. Other times they can’t stand the feeling of the forced air. Whatever the reason, if you can’t tolerate a CPAP machine or you would like to try something smaller and more comfortable, ask us about our oral appliance therapy.
We use the Thornton Adjustable Positioner® (TAP®), a custom adjustable oral appliance that is worn while sleeping. This soundless,portable and easy-to-wear appliance holds the lower jaw forward, preventing the tongue and the soft tissue of the throat from collapsing into the airway. Our patients are amazed at how much better they feel.
For more information about how Dr. Dr. Jeff Huisman can help his Holland patients with sleep apnea, call 855.599.5584 today!
These Reviews Have Us Smiling!
Are you curious about what makes Huisman Family Dentistry stand out?
Don’t just take our word for it—check out the rave reviews from our happy patients!
