Healthy Mouths, Healthy Lives!

First Year Dental Visit

In August of 2012, the Ad Council joined with The Partnership for Health Mouths, Healthy Lives, a coalition of more than 35 leading dental health organizations, to debut Kids’ Healthy Mouths. Dental decay is the most common chronic childhood disease with more than 16 million kids suffering from untreated tooth decay in the U.S., oral disease is estimated to cause kids to miss 51 million school hours and their parents to lose 25 million work hours annually, and disproportionately affects children from low-income families. 

At Cooley Smiles Family & Cosmetic Dentistry, we recommend children have their first dental visit by age 1 as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (www.aapd.org), and maintain regular 6 month cleaning appointments for exams. Parents and their children can visit www.2min2x.org to watch entertaining videos and listen to music, while children are brushing their teeth. Make oral health part of your New Year’s Resolution.!

Call us today at (425) 998-6998 to schedule your child's appointment!

Can Oral Health Affect Dementia?

Maintain Your Health With A Healthy Mouth

Dental researchers have determined a relationship between oral health habits and dementia. According to a University of California study, oral health habits may affect whether a person develops dementia later in life. Researchers measured oral health habits of residents of a Laguna Hills, CA retirement community between 1992 and 2010. They followed 5,468 adults with no previous diagnosis of dementia age and a median age of 81 and determined that participants who reported brushing their teeth less than once per day had up to a 65 percent greater risk of developing dementia than those who brushed three times daily. 

At Cooley Smiles Family & Cosmetic Dentistry, we strongly encourage all of our patients to visit twice a year for a professional cleaning and exam by the doctor. This ensures that gum disease and dental decay are kept in check and your mouth maintains a healthy environment for a healthy body. For our patients with periodontal disease, Dr. Aaron and Dr. Brandon Cooley may recommend more frequent visits to treat the higher counts of bacteria and control your dental disease. To schedule your new patient or regular checkup with your Bellevue, WA dentists, call us at (425) 998-6998 for your appointment!

November is Diabetes Awareness Month

Since people with diabetes are at a greater risk of developing some oral health problems, this is a good reminder of the importance of staying. Some of the common oral health problems associated with diabetes are: gum disease, fungal infections, infections and delayed healing. Periodontal (gum disease) is no laughing matter; it's also connected to heart disease and other health-related issues.

Our friends at www.perio.org tell us:

Diabetic patients are more likely to develop periodontal disease, which in turn can increase blood sugar and diabetic complications.

People with diabetes are more likely to have periodontal disease than people without diabetes, probably because people with diabetes are more susceptible to contracting infections. In fact, periodontal disease is often considered a complication of diabetes. Those people who don't have their diabetes under control are especially at risk.

Research has suggested that the relationship between periodontal disease and diabetes goes both ways - periodontal disease may make it more difficult for people who have diabetes to control their blood sugar.

Severe periodontal disease can increase blood sugar, contributing to increased periods of time when the body functions with a high blood sugar. This puts people with diabetes at increased risk for diabetic complications

For more information and to watch a video on how diabetes can impact your oral health, visit the MouthHealthy A-Z page on Diabetes.

Ready to learn more and schedule your appointment?
We are accepting new patients, and both of our doctors at Cooley Smiles Family Dentistry in Bellevue, WA have experience in treating patients with gum disease. Give us a call today at (425) 998-6998 or visit our website for more information!

What To Do in a Dental Emergency

Accidents happen, and knowing what to do when one occurs can mean the difference between saving and losing a tooth. There are many common dental emergencies and learning how to deal with them is important. For all dental emergencies, it’s important to visit your dentist as soon as possible. Most dentists, like Drs Aaron and Brandon Cooley at Cooley Smiles Family & Cosmetic Dentistry, reserve time in their daily schedules for emergency patients so be sure to call your dentist and provide as much detail as you can about your condition. If the accident occurs when your dental office is not open, visit your local emergency room, but be sure to keep excellent notes so that the dentist the ER refers you to can appropriately bill your insurance.

At Cooley Smiles, serving patients in Bellevue, WA and the surrounding areas, we always reserve time for emergency patients and welcome your call. Remember that the best prevention against a dental emergency is having a regular dental home that you seek preventive care with. A little bit of prevention can go a long way! Contact us today to learn more about the services our dentists provide to the Bellevue, WA and Seattle, WA community.

To learn more about what to do in case of an emergency, visit mouthhealthy.org.

Carb Craving Linked to Sleep Apnea

At Cooley Smiles Cosmetic & Family Dentistry in Bellevue, WA, we believe in offering our patients the very best and latest in information for their overall health. In June we shared information via our sleep apnea newsletter about a recent study that has linked sleep apnea with an increase in carbohydrate craving. Unsure whether sleep apnea is affecting your life? We can help - so call us today!

June 13, 2012 in Sleep apnea

Researchers in New Jersey are encouraging primary care physicians to screen for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in patients with Type 2 diabetes. They found that in a small sample of clinic patients, the risk for sleep apnea was high among diabetics compared with non-diabetics, and that sleep apnea appeared to be associated with carbohydrate craving.

Their study, being presented today at SLEEP 2012, screened 55 patients for diabetes, OSA and carbohydrate cravings. More than half of the patients were diabetic. Among the diabetic patients, the prevalence of OSA was 82 percent, and diabetics had almost double the risk of carbohydrate craving than non-diabetics. In addition, researchers found that patients with OSA were almost twice more likely to have carbohydrate craving than patients without sleep apnea.

"This study provides an indication of the magnitude of the associated risk between sleep apnea and self-reported carbohydrate craving in the diabetic population," said study co-investigator Mahmood Siddique, DO, clinical associate professor of medicine at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, N.J.

"Previous studies have shown that sleep deprivation may lead to changes in hormones that regulate appetite and hunger," Siddique said. "These hormonal changes can lead to significant craving for high-calorie carbohydrates such as cookies, candy, breads, rice and potatoes. The current study supports previous findings by validating this in a community sample of diabetics."

The study, conducted by the Sleep and Wellness Medical Associates LLC, is one of the first cross-sectional clinic-based studies to show an association between OSA and self-reported carbohydrate craving among patients with Type 2 diabetes.

 

To read more on this study, visit http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-apnea-linked-carbohydrate-craving-diabetics.html.

Family Dentistry

Welcome to CooleySmiles. We have been providing exceptional cosmetic and Family Dentistry in Bellevue, Factoria and Issaquah, Washington areas for more than 35 years.

CooleySmiles is family-run practice in every way. Bellevue dentists  Dr. Aaron Cooley and Dr. Brandon Cooley joined their father's practice, which was founded more than 35 years ago. Their father has since retired, passing the torch to his two sons. Dr. Aaron and Dr. Brandon both grew up in the Bellevue area and they remain contributing members of the community to this day.

We invite you to learn more about CooleySmiles and the family dentistry that we provide at www.cooleysmiles.com.