Hi, my name is Brian Berry-Berlinski. I am excited because I love this dental place called Smile Matters. There are several reasons I am so fascinated with this place: the people are warm, the dentist is cool and funny. She invited me to take a brief tour of the office and to meet the people who work there. They have a bulletin with the question, “What makes you smile?”.

Patients who walk into the office write on a piece of paper something that makes them smile. So now I am adding my answer to what makes me smile. My answer to the question “What makes me smile?” is: my loving family makes me smile. Thank you for welcoming me into the Smile Matters family, I am excited and looking forward to my next visit there!

Temporomandibular joint disorder can take the form of one of many problems afflicting the jaw joint.  This disorder is also known as Costen’s syndrome and myofacial pain dysfunction.  When the joints and muscles do not work together, it can lead to any number of problems with the jaw including bite problems, clicking sounds, ear pain, headaches, locked jaws and stiffness.  Many jaw problems can lead to temporomandibular joint disorder such as dental problems and misalignment of the teeth, gum chewing or fingernail biting on a habitual basis, jaw trauma such as fractures, stress and teeth clenching or grinding.  You can also develop temporomandibular joint disorder through other habits such as constantly holding a phone between the head and shoulder.

The symptoms of temporomandibular joint disorder tend to be chronic.  Some symptoms include dizziness, ear pain, fullness of the ear, headaches, ringing in the ear or tinnitus and sounds such as crunching, grinding and popping.  They usually occur due to overusing the jaw muscles, spasms or unbalanced activity.  The symptoms sometimes do not appear to be related to temporomandibular joint disorder and treatment usually targets the elements that cause the symptoms.  Dental and medical tests can help determine if you suffer from TMJ disorder.

When symptoms are present, a doctor may use computerized tomography and dental x-rays to make a bony evaluation of the joint’s details.  Magnetic resonance imaging allows the doctor to analyze the soft tissue.  Should the doctor discover that you do indeed suffer from temporomandibular joint disorder, you will receive treatment to help alleviate the pain via anti-inflammatory medications, heat and ice and a soft diet.  You will also have to follow other orders with your treatment regimen such as getting plenty of jaw rest.  You may also have to undergo physical therapy or stress management.  Other methods include corrective dental therapy, occlusal therapy and surgery.

Most patients who suffer from temporomandibular joint disorder report common symptoms such as ear pain and headache.  Less than half usually report the dizziness, fullness of the ear or ringing in the ear.  It is important to seek medical help if you experience any symptoms or suspect you have temporomandibular joint disorder.  However, some may recommend that you avoid pursuing treatments that will permanently change your bite or your jaw.  No matter what type of treatment you prefer, you should know that it is not necessary to suffer the pain of TMJ.

Contact our office in Fremont, CA for a consultation with Preet Sahota, DDS so she can explain how she can help you with your TMJ problem.

Alison Ruge, Sr User Researcher Voice Technology Group, Cisco Systems. Inc. (July 2007)

Stephani Morgan is currently working on her PhD in Religious Studies At UC Berkeley. She is a inspiration to the Smile Matters team.

The article points out what we already tell our patients with young children: fluoridated tap water promotes healthy teeth in your kids and helps to fight tooth decay such as cavities.

See the original article here.

Here’s a video from Declan (February 2011)

The Grammy award winning artist replaced his bottom set of enamels with a set of diamond implants. After he did the work, he posted on twitter with a photo and wrote, “My teeth are real diamonds… these are not fronts… I replaced my bottom row of teeth with diamonds.”

Maybe not the smartest move, but this is also the same guy that said last week that Coldplay is better than The Beatles, and even President Obama once called the man “A Jackass”.

West showed off his fancy new look in an appearance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” this week and told the TV host why he felt he needed to replace his teeth.

The reason?

“I just thought the diamonds were cooler.”

Brianna didn’t like that she had a gap between the two front teeth and mild crowding in the lower teeth. She didn’t want veneers, so we went with the Invisalign invisible braces.

This case is still in progress, but the images show some real progress using the invisalign system. We plan to use some conservative bonding and laser to contour her gums and to enhance her overall look.

She also bleached her teeth and tries to keep her teeth shiny and white on her own, but working at Starbucks doesn’t help!

He came in to see us after a friend referred him and his entire smile was painlessly restored to health!

He intends to  continue with some more work in the future to further improve his smile. He particularly liked listening to Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb on our Bose noise reduction headphones during the reconstruction work!