Did you know that the little things you do or do not do on a day to day basis affect your oral and dental health and may fall under a list of bad oral habits? These include not brushing or flossing enough, eating too many sweets too often, or even using your teeth to open a bag of chips.

In our challenging economy you want to make sure you are getting the most out of your dental insurance plan. One way to do that is to use it.  Many people have dental benefits either though their employment or they buy it on their own.

However often times it goes unused until there is a larger dental issue that needs to be address.  Larger dental issues means larger dental cost even with dental insurance. By using  your dental insurance plan and having the preventive care done (check up and cleaning) you can help to avoid having larger dental care needs.  Also many dental insurance plans provide preventive care services for free to very low cost. Taking advantage and using your dental insurance plan will help you safe money and provide you with good oral health.

Good oral health is essential for general health and well-being at any age. Oral health problems affect not only the ability to eat and speak but are inter-connected with serious health issues like diabetes, heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis, and preterm or low birth weight.

However there is good news, oral health problems are preventable. A healthy smile for life starts with healthy habits like brushing and flossing, using fluoride, making smart food choices and eating habits, and visiting the dentist at least twice a year.

It is safe to say if you are experiencing dental pain you should see a dentist as soon as possible to confirm the reason why you are having pain.  Dental pain although can be common complaints is not normal and it is a sign that you may need to address a larger dental issue.

Some signs and symptoms to toothache pain can include:  Pain when chewing food, Pain to hot or cold,  presistant pain, Swelling around the tooth or in your jaw, Pain that becomes more severe, dental decay,  and Bleeding from around the tooth or gum.

Toothache pain is caused when the never in the tooth root is irritated.  Some of the primary causes of dental pain is from dental infection, tooth decay, injury or loss of tooth.  Dental pain sometimes originates from other areas and radiates to the jaw, thus appearing to be tooth pain. The most common areas include the jaw joint, and ear pain.

University of Adelaide researchers have made advances in the understanding of one of the world’s most common medical conditions, gastric reflux, and how patients experience pain from it.Gastric reflux affects as many as one in five people in Western countries and is on the increase in Asia.

Got heartburn? More than 60 million adults in the U.S. have acid reflux, or heartburn, and approximately 10 percent are at risk for developing esophageal cancer, due in part to complications from Barrett’s esophagus. But researchers at Rhode Island Hospital discovered a pathway they believe links Barrett’s esophagus to the development of esophageal cancer.

Gingivitis occurs before periodontitis.  Gingivitis usually refers to gum inflammation, initially, with gingivitis, bacteria plaque accumulates on the surface of the tooth. When that happens, the gums get red and inflamed; teeth may bleed when brushing them. Even though the gums are irritated and bothersome, the teeth are not loose, and there is no irreversible damage to bone or surrounding tissue.

Periodontitis is what happens next when Gingivitis goes untreated. With periodontitis, the gum and bone pulls away from the teeth, forming large pockets. Debris collects in the spaces between the gums and teeth, and infect the area. The immune system will start to attack the bacteria as the plaque spreads below the gum line. Bone and connective tissue that hold the tooth start to break down, and teeth over time become loose and can fall out.

Because many seniors find themselves planning for retirement and managing their savings once they finish working, a number of investment schemes have been targeted at seniors looking to safeguard their cash for their later years.

From pyramid schemes like Bernie Madoff’s (which counted a number of senior citizens among its victims) to fables of a Nigerian prince looking for a partner to claim inheritance money to complex financial products that many economists don’t even understand, investment schemes have long been a successful way to take advantage of older people.

What is Periodontitis: Periodontitis is a serious gum infection that damages the soft tissue and bone that supports the tooth.  With periodontitis, the alveolar bone around the teeth is slowly and progressively lost. Untreated periodontitis will eventually result in tooth loss, and may increase the risk of stroke, heart attack and other health problems.   How do you get Periodontitis:  Bacterial plaque, a sticky, colorless membrane which can  develops over the surface of teeth, is the most common cause of periodontal disease. In most cases, periodontitis is preventable. It is usually caused by poor dental hygiene.

While using the Internet is a great skill at any age, the slower speed of adoption among some older people makes them easier targets for automated Internet scams that are ubiquitous on the web and email programs.

Pop-up browser windows simulating virus-scanning software will fool victims into either downloading a fake anti-virus program (at a substantial cost) or an actual virus that will open up whatever information is on the user’s computer to scammers.

Their unfamiliarity with the less visible aspects of browsing the web (firewalls and built-in virus protection, for example) make seniors especially susceptible to such traps.

One example includes:
Email/Phishing Scams

A senior receives email messages that appear to be from a legitimate company or institution, asking them to “update” or “verify” their personal information. A senior receives emails that appear to be from the IRS about a tax refund.

According to the The Renfrew Center Foundation up to 24 million people in the United States experience an eating disorder. This is dark figure that can be even high due to the fact that many people keep their eating disorder a secret.

According to a study by the University of Bergen in Norway, showed that patients who suffer from eating disorders, such as Anorexia and Bulimia, experienced substantially more dental health problems. For example, sensitive teeth, severe dental erosion and facial pain compared to those without.

Perhaps the most common scheme is when scammers use fake telemarketing calls to prey on older people, who as a group make twice as many purchases over the phone than the national average.

While the image of the lonely senior citizen with nobody to talk to may have something to do with this, it is far more likely that older people are more familiar with shopping over the phone, and therefore might not be fully aware of the risk.

With no face-to-face interaction, and no paper trail, these scams are incredibly hard to trace. Also, once a successful deal has been made, the buyer’s name is then shared with similar schemers looking for easy targets, sometimes defrauding the same person repeatedly.

Examples of telemarketing fraud include:

“The Pigeon Drop”

The con artist tells the individual that he/she has found a large sum of money and is willing to split it if the person will make a “good faith” payment by withdrawing funds from his/her bank account. Often, a second con artist is involved, posing as a lawyer, banker, or some other trustworthy stranger.

“The Fake Accident Ploy”

The con artist gets the victim to wire or send money on the pretext that the person’s child or another relative is in the hospital and needs the money.

“Charity Scams”

Money is solicited for fake charities. This often occurs after natural disasters.

Even though there has been some considerable amount of concerns raised about at home whiten products being safe for your teeth, you may want to know that there have been numerous clinical studies that have demonstrated that using a home system to whiten your teeth is both safe and effective when used as instructed.

The fact is that the effectiveness of many home teeth whitening products is so good that there are numerous dentists that complain that they are losing money and patients.  However in most cases that is not correct. At home whitening products actually cause their patients visit their dentist more, and take more pride in their dental health because they have actually raised to a certain level of awareness.

It is advised to consult with your dentist prior to making a decision about or selecting a teeth whitening product which is recommended by most all of the advertisements for legitimate teeth whitening products.

In a society bombarded with images of the young and beautiful, it’s not surprising that some older people feel the need to conceal their age in order to participate more fully in social circles and the workplace. After all, 60 is the new 40, right?

It is in this spirit that many older Americans seek out new treatments and medications to maintain a youthful appearance, putting them at risk of scammers.

Whether it’s fake Botox like the one in Arizona that netted its distributors (who were convicted and jailed in 2006) $1.5 million in barely a year, or completely bogus homeopathic remedies that do absolutely nothing, there is money in the anti-aging business.

Botox scams are particularly unsettling, as renegade labs creating versions of the real thing may still be working with the root ingredient, botulism neurotoxin, which is one of the most toxic substances known to science. A bad batch can have health consequences far beyond wrinkles or drooping neck muscles.