Happy Arbor Day from all of us at the Dr. James Stewart dental practice in Livonia, MI, recognized as a Tree City USA by The National Arbor Day Foundation for the last 15 years. Join the celebration, and plant a tree this weekend. Buchanan Elementary students passed out seedlings and literature today for the the community’s Arbor Day event, coordinated by the Livonia Tree City Committee. Of course, as dental professionals, we always celebrate Arbor Day. Just check out these tree-related dental practices and remedies.
Leafy Remedies
Who’s a more well-known Arbor Day enthusiast than Johnny Appleseed, credited with planting apple trees across the country?
Less well known fact? He was also a dental health advocate.
Eating an apple a day, well, let’s just say it works on dentists as well as doctors. The fibrous apple helps clean teeth and heal gums.
No Arbor Day list is complete without mentioning lemon trees.
Add fresh lemon juice into a cupful of water for a drink to staunch bleeding gums and reduce the risk of gingivitis. Be careful, though, not to apply the juice at full strength or directly on your teeth. It erodes tooth enamel.
Some people advocate for the use of tea tree oil, a natural antiseptic and analgesic, as a way to kill bacteria and relieve a tooth ache. But skip this Arbor Day tie in, as direct oral contact can irritate sensitive oral tissue.
Arbor Day Delights
And if the many natural, tree-related treatments used historically and currently weren’t enough to demonstrate our excitement about all things Arbor Day, how about these tree-loving procedures?
Dental ImPLANT, or an endosseous implant or fixture, is a surgical component connected to the bone of the jaw or skull to support a dental prosthesis. Common uses include a crown, bridge, denture, facial prosthesis, or to act as an orthodontic anchor.
And, just like for trees, a tooth isn’t a healthy without a ROOT.
That’s the canal inside a tooth holding the tooth’s nerves and blood vessels. If the canal becomes infected, endodontic surgery or a root canal surgery can be required. That’s when we remove the nerves and blood vessels from a tooth to prevent further damage.
About James Stewart DDS
Dr. James R. Stewart, Jr., graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.S. in microbiology and then earned his D.D.S. degree from its School of Dentistry in 1987. The following year, he completed a general practice residency at Sinai Hospital of Detroit.