Spokane Dental Blog

Dr. Smith and the Spokane Dental team work hard to ensure that all patients are treated with excellent care and compassion. We stay educated on the newest research and maintain our high standards in every way we treat patients. But don’t just take our word for it, read some real rave reviews from several of our patients:

April is oral cancer awareness month, and we want to participate in raising awareness with our patients. According to the Oral Cancer Foundation, in 2018 approximately 51,550 new cases of oral and oropharyngeal cancer were diagnosed in the United States alone*. At Spokane Dental, we perform oral cancer screenings at every single visit, and take oral cancer detection seriously.

It’s easy to take for granted the many treatments we have available to us today, both in the dental world specifically, and in the medical world in general. Simply put, there are things we can do today with medicine that we could not do even a short time ago. That means countless people are able to receive relief from their symptoms when those same people would have been left to suffer in previous generations. It is a great thing, to be sure.

A healthy smile is about so much more than white teeth! Your gums, the bone surrounding your teeth, salivary glands, and the soft tissue in your mouth are all important components to a healthy smile. They are also all well taken care of and examined by Dr. Smith and your Spokane Dental team! Here are five tips to follow for a healthier smile:

Toothpaste ads and mouth rinse commercials alike all claim their product will ultimately achieve the same goal: fight gum disease. But when we all think of disease, most of us have a different picture in our mind that doesn’t involve gums at all. So what really is gum disease? We will explore that question, along with how to know if you have gum disease and how to treat it.

The dental health of your children is one of the many things that you feel responsible for as a parent. By providing your kids with the oral health care they need – both by taking them to the dentist and by building good habits at home – you’ll be doing them a favor that can last a lifetime. In this article, we’d like to touch on how sealants and fluoride treatments can help to set your child up for good dental health. You may not know much about this topic at this point, but that’s okay. Feel free to read through this post to get up to speed on the basics and let us know if you have any questions.

As a parent of a teething child it can be daunting to decipher if what your child is experiencing is “normal” or not. Most children have 20 total “baby” teeth that usually begin erupting at around six months of age and finish by the time they turn three. However, there are always outliers or symptoms to wonder about (especially as a new parent). Here are some things to consider about your child’s teeth eruption:

In terms of oral health conditions, gum disease is somewhat overlooked. Sure, most people probably have heard of gum disease, and some will know exactly what it is and what it can do to your mouth. However, when compared to something like a cavity, the general population is pretty much in the dark on this topic.

Do you want whiter teeth? Probably – most people do! There is nothing wrong with wanting to look your best when you walk out the door each morning, and part of looking good is having a beautiful smile. In addition to the alignment of your teeth, part of a great smile comes down to keeping your teeth white over the long run. Fortunately, if yours have started to fade a bit, there are plenty of options available to you today that can remedy the situation.

As far as dental treatments go, root canal has a particularly bad reputation. This is not something that the average person thinks of in positive terms, as the commonly-accepted idea of root canal is one of serious pain and discomfort. In fact, when talking about how painful something else may have been, someone may even say that it was ‘like having a root canal’.