I’m Dr. Peter McPherson. I created this site to provide you with easy to understand information about dental products, procedures, and your oral health. Your oral health has been increasingly linked with a variety of medical conditions including heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and many other conditions that we’re just finding out about now. Good oral health not only helps you maintain a beautiful and healthy smile, but can also be an important component of keeping the rest of your body healthy!
You can use the menus or search bar to find answers to your questions. Please feel free to get in touch with me if you have suggestions about additional topics you’d like to hear about.
Recent Articles
How To Clean Your Retainer, Nightguard, Mouthguard, or Dentures
My Retainer’s Journey I had braces as a teenager and following treatment got a shiny, new retainer that I was supposed to wear every night. After wearing it for a while, my shiny new retainer was no longer so nice or shiny. It was dull, stinky, crusty. Eventually I stopped wearing my retainer (don’t be […]
How to Stop Gagging!
About 1/3 of the population doesn’t have a gag reflex. For all the rest of us, especially those with an extremely sensitive gag reflex, gagging can make life miserable! It can make brushing your teeth, swallowing pills, going to the dentist, wearing dentures, or even looking at tongue depressors or other cringe inducing objects extremely uncomfortable. […]
What To Do About A Child Who Grinds Their Teeth and Snores?
Why Do Children Grind Their Teeth? In years past, it was thought that children who ground their teeth and snored would grow out of it eventually. And the conventional wisdom was in some small way right. After a certain age, a good number of these kids did seem to stop these behaviors (we’ll get to […]
What and When Can I Eat After Dental Work?
I work full time as a general dentist in addition to running this website. On a daily basis I do fillings, crowns, root canals, and extractions. Without fail, when I sit my patients up and explain what we did that day and ask if they have any questions they’ll ask me “When can I eat […]
29 Essential Questions and Answers About Invisalign
Invisalign is a great way to get straighter teeth and is being utilized more and more each year instead of traditional braces. Align Technology (aka AlignTech / the company behind Invisalign) estimate that there will be over 200,000 people who start Invisalign in 2018. With the rise in the number of people being treated by […]
Cosmetic
29 Essential Questions and Answers About Invisalign
Invisalign is a great way to get straighter teeth and is being utilized more and more each year instead of traditional braces. Align Technology (aka AlignTech / the company behind Invisalign) estimate that there will be over 200,000 people who start Invisalign in 2018. With the rise in the number of people being treated by […]
Who Is A Good Candidate For Invisalign?
Many people come to me and ask the question, “Am I a good candidate for Invisalign?”. You may be wondering the same thing about yourself. I’ve found that many adults desperately want to straighten their teeth but aren’t interested in going through traditional braces. If this is you, you’re not alone. You may have even […]
Invisalign
What is Invisalign? Invisalign uses a system of clear aligners that snap down over your teeth. These aligners are changed periodically and slowly move your teeth into position without having to wear unsightly braces. Most people won’t be able to tell you are wearing anything. What kind of impressions, x-rays, or pictures are needed? At […]
Ineffective Whitening Products
There are a lot of different products out there that claim to whiten your teeth with almost no effort whatsoever. Do any of them actually work and if so, how well? Do Whitening Pens Work? – No Whitening pens contain a peroxide solution that you apply to your teeth. A lot them claim that they […]
Dark Spaces In Between Your Teeth
One common question I get, especially from some of my older patients, is why they have dark spaces in between their teeth. Dentists usually call these “black triangles” and they tend to appear as you get older but can appear at any age. Black triangles can appear for several reasons. Bone loss around your teeth. […]
Mouth-Body-Connection
What To Do About A Child Who Grinds Their Teeth and Snores?
Why Do Children Grind Their Teeth? In years past, it was thought that children who ground their teeth and snored would grow out of it eventually. And the conventional wisdom was in some small way right. After a certain age, a good number of these kids did seem to stop these behaviors (we’ll get to […]
Osteoporosis Medication Dangers
Did you know certain osteoporosis medications, particularly if delivered as an IV injection, can affect your dental health? I had a patient recently who came to my office complaining of an ulcer on the tongue side of his gums. It had been there for about a month and wasn’t going away. Most normal ulcers will go […]
Is Vaping Safer For Your Oral Health?
Did you know that one of the single most destructive habits for your oral health (and overall health) is using tobacco products? Cigarettes and other forms of tobacco have been linked to gum disease, oral cancer, heart disease, lung disease, and many other health problems. Quitting just this one habit (easier said than done of […]
Migraines Linked to Bacteria in Your Mouth
A recently released study by researchers at the University of California San Diego has discovered an interesting link between migraine headaches and higher levels of certain types of bacteria in the mouth. Recurring migraine headaches are a very common disorder that can be very debilitating and painful for people who suffer from them. The reasons […]
Don’t Believe the Sugar and Soda Industries!
In 2015 an interesting article came out in the PLOS Medicine journal that documents how the sugar industry manipulated research as far back as the 1960’s about how best to prevent cavities. Some interesting finds… Even in the 1950’s the sugar industry knew that sugar caused damage to teeth and that there was consideration being […]
All About Kids
What To Do About A Child Who Grinds Their Teeth and Snores?
Why Do Children Grind Their Teeth? In years past, it was thought that children who ground their teeth and snored would grow out of it eventually. And the conventional wisdom was in some small way right. After a certain age, a good number of these kids did seem to stop these behaviors (we’ll get to […]
The Ultimate Teething Guide
“So deadly has teething become, that one third of the Human family die before the twenty deciduous teeth have fully appeared.” – Dr. M Thrasher, 1894, Dental Cosmos For as long as we’re able to trace back in human history, teething has been thought to be the cause of a variety of illnesses. Fever, diarrhea, […]
Do Children’s Medications Cause Cavities?
The last thing you’re thinking about when you need to give your child medication is what effect it will have on their teeth. Understandably so! It’s just not something you’d normally think about. Unfortunately, children’s medications especially those that are taken regularly can cause cause some significant damage to teeth if you don’t take certain […]
Should I Take My Child To A Pediatric Dentist?
Once you decide to take your child to the dentist the first decision you’ve got to make is whether you should go to a general dentist or a pediatric dentist. I’m here to give you some more information so you can make a good decision. So first of all, what is a pediatric dentist? A […]
When Should Children Start Using Fluoride Toothpaste?
Ever wondered when exactly you should start using fluoride toothpaste while brushing your kids teeth? Don’t worry, you’re not alone! Many parents have no idea when they should start. The answer to this question will be different for each child and family. I’ll help you figure out what works best for you. Before we get […]
Dental Products
The Best Toothpaste For Sensitive Teeth
Prescription Strength Is Where It’s At… For as long as I can remember I’ve had sensitive teeth. There were always a couple of areas that I knew I couldn’t put ice cream or ice cold water. I’ve been a dentist for a quite a while and over the years I tried every solution out there […]
Do I Floss Before Or After Brushing?
(And Other Questions You’ve Been Dying to Know About Flossing!) Should I Floss Before Or After Brushing My Teeth? The best practice is actually to floss before you brush your teeth. The reason for this is that flossing before your brush your teeth opens up the areas in between your tooth by getting the food […]
Glo Brilliant Personal Teeth Whitening Device Review
Article Updated: 04/15/2018. Is all this worth it?? Let’s find out! The Glo Brilliant Personal Teeth Whitening System makes some pretty spectacular claims about at home teeth whitening. As a dentist I’ve gotten a lot of marketing materials from this company pushing their products pretty heavily. I even had a couple of my staff members […]
Is Homemade Toothpaste A Good Idea?
You can find just about any food or consumer product in a natural or organic version nowadays. If you’re willing to put in some more work, you can even find homemade DIY recipes for all of these things too. I’ve seen everything from soap, to lip balm, to natural laundry detergents. Many of these are […]
Do You Need A High Fluoride Toothpaste?
Did you know that brushing with a fluoride toothpaste consistently is one of the single easiest ways to reduce the number of cavities you develop? A 1000 ppm fluoride toothpaste reduces cavities by approximately 23% while a toothpaste in the range of 2400-2800 ppm reduces cavities by about 36%. A 5000 ppm high fluoride toothpaste […]
Dental Health
The Best Diets For Your Teeth
You can’t go a day without seeing a new article about which diet is the best for losing weight, staying healthy, building muscle, or being environmentally responsible. There always seems to be some new trend that everyone is trying out. It can be hard enough to sort out which one is right for you before […]
How to Brush Your Teeth With Braces (And Other Tips and Tricks)
Keeping your teeth clean while you’re in braces is challenging, to say the least. Don’t worry though! It is possible to keep them clean and your teeth and gums healthy. I’m going to show you all the tips and tricks here. How To Brush Your Teeth While In Braces A lot of people brush their […]
Why Does Food Get Stuck Between Your Teeth?
Imagine this scenario. It’s a beautiful summer day and you decided to grill some meat and corn cobs. You take that first mouthwatering bite and… the food is all of sudden stuck in between your teeth! This isn’t how your cookout was supposed to go! How can you enjoy it if your food gets stuck […]
Do I Floss Before Or After Brushing?
(And Other Questions You’ve Been Dying to Know About Flossing!) Should I Floss Before Or After Brushing My Teeth? The best practice is actually to floss before you brush your teeth. The reason for this is that flossing before your brush your teeth opens up the areas in between your tooth by getting the food […]
How To Prevent Cavities
Many people resign themselves to the fact that they will always develop cavities and that there is nothing they can do about it. Contrary to popular belief, cavities are almost entirely preventable. Even if you are genetically predisposed to cavities, your parents lost their teeth young, or you feel like you’re a lost cause already, […]