What Your Tongue Says About Your Health

Your tongue is pretty amazing. Just think of all the things it does for you! It lets you taste your favorite foods. It helps you chew. It starts the process of swallowing. It’s clear that your tongue plays a very important role in your life. But did you know that your tongue can also be a good indicator of your overall health? Join us at Collins Dental as we take a look at what your tongue can tell you.

Symptoms and What They Mean

There are many different things to look out for when inspecting your tongue. We’ve outlined some of them below so that you can look out for your oral and overall health.

    • White Tongue: If your tongue has white patches, it could be thrush. Thrush is a fungal infection that most often occurs after an illness or if you are taking medications that can affect the bacteria in your mouth. However, if the white areas are hard and can’t be scraped away it could be leukoplakia, which is linked to cancer.
    • “Hairy” Tongue: If it looks like there are patches of brown, black, or white “hair” on your tongue, it could be caused by certain antibiotics, diabetes or smoking.
    • Blue Tongue: If your tongue has a bluish color to it, it may be an indicator of poor oxygen circulation. This could be caused by an issue with the lungs.
    • Yellow Tongue: Yellow tongues are caused by a buildup of bacteria. This is most commonly associated with poor oral hygiene, tobacco or alcohol use, or dry mouth.
    • Dark Red or Purple Tongue: This coloration could be caused by a simple vitamin deficiency. However, it can also be an indicator of Scarlet Fever.
    • Burning Feeling: If your tongue feels like you just scalded it with hot coffee, you might be suffering from burning mouth syndrome. It could indicate an issue with the nerves in your tongue or could be caused by other issues, such as diabetes, infections, or acid reflux.
  • Smooth Tongue: If your tongue looks glossy red and has no bumps, it could be a nutrient deficiency. Being deficient in iron, folic acid, or Vitamin B is associated with this. However, it could be caused by something more serious, such as celiac disease.

 

You should make checking your tongue part of your regular oral hygiene routine. Now that you know some of the symptoms that you should keep an eye out for, you can take better care of your oral health and your overall health. 

If you have any questions about your tongue or overall health, please call our Winter Springs, FL office at (407) 699-9831.

Speech Impediments and Teeth

Fetch. Vivid. Jive. Start. Zoo. Chair. Gym.

All of these words rely on the teeth to form their first sound.

Our world would not be able to function without communication. While there are many forms of communication, verbal communication and listening are perhaps the most important. As humans are the most social animals, human speech is the most complex. In order to form sounds, humans use several different structures to create it, including the lungs, trachea, larynx, vocal chords, tongue, and teeth. All of these structures work together in a way that allows us to express our wants, needs, emotions and dreams. 

Articulation happens in the mouth, and creating clear speech without teeth is all but impossible. There are several words that depend on the teeth for their pronunciation. The sounds that rely on the teeth for their production are known as “strident” sounds, but what happens to the teeth to impact these strident sounds we create?

Teeth and Speech

  • Overcrowded Teeth happen when instead of growing into their correct position, the teeth do not have enough room and grow into unnatural positions. This can affect tongue position and the ability to form certain sounds.
  • Overbites happen when the top arch of teeth stick out far beyond the lower teeth, which can make it especially difficult to form sounds like the ‘stridents’ mentioned above. 
  • Openbites are caused by the top teeth and the bottom teeth not coming together in the correct position, which can lead to them looking open. This can create an interdental lisp. 
  • Gapped Teeth are caused when there is an excessive amount of space between teeth and a whistling sound can arise when creating speech.

The best way to fix these issues and get clearer speech is to correct the issues within the mouth. There are numerous ways in which this is possible, most notably with metal braces and Invisalign® By correcting how the teeth are positioned in your mouth, you can pronounce your words with greater precision and get rid of a lisp altogether. Schedule a consultation with our Winter Springs, FL office by calling (407) 699-9831 and see what treatment options will work best for you.

Introducing the VELscope – The Latest Technology in Oral Cancer Identification

Oral cancer is a serious health issue and you should be getting oral cancer screenings regularly. At Collins Dental, we perform oral cancer screenings as part of all of our regular dental checkups. We are incredibly excited to now use the VELscope to allow us to better identify signs of oral cancer in our patients.

How the VELscope Works

Traditional oral cancer screenings rely on light alone to identify potential cancer signs. With the VELscope, we can view tissue fluorescence, increasing the effectiveness of our oral cancer screenings. Natural tissue fluorescence, caused by fluorophores, will emit its own light when excited by the right wavelength of light. The fluorescence reveals information about cellular and structural activity that can be useful when identifying oral cancer.

Advantages of the VELscope

  • Fits into your regular checkups. With this tool, we don’t need to schedule you for any additional time to screen for oral cancer. Just as we would have done a screening without this technology, we will continue to check for cancer during your dental checkups.
  • Provides easily identifiable visual information. The VELscope provides us with bright visuals that ease the identification of potential oral cancer. This means more accuracy for us and more peace of mind for you.
  • Photo documentation. With the VELscope, we can easily save the images provided to your patient records. If anything changes with your oral health, we will be able to quickly and easily compare against past images to determine if it could be oral cancer.

If you have any additional questions about oral cancer or the VELscope, contact our Winter Springs, FL office at (407) 699-9831 or use the links below to learn more about the VELscope.

Learn About the VELscope Determine Your Oral Cancer Risk

How to Choose the Right Dentist for Your Family

Selecting a dentist for your family can be a difficult decision to make. You want to make sure that you find a dentist that not only takes great care of your children’s dental health but also your own. At Collins Dental, we want to help you select the right dentist for your family, which is why we’ve put together some tips to help.

  • Find a dentist you can stick with. It’s important to choose a dentist that will continue to see your kids as they grow. Having continuity in your family’s dental care is critical. It gives your children a sense of routine in their dental care and allows them to get comfortable with going to a dentist that they get to know. Additionally, it lets the dentist get to know your family, allowing them to know what the best treatment options for your family would be.
  • Choose a dentist that sees young kids. As soon as children have teeth emerging, they need to have their dental health taken care of. Children should start seeing the dentist by at least age 3. Building good dental health habits when they are young can set them up for success for their whole life.
  • Ask for suggestions. Asking friends and family that have kids if they have suggestions for dentists to go to can help. You can also do research online to see what dentists other people in the area recommend. 
  • Consider convenience. It’s much easier to develop good dental health habits, including going to see the dentist regularly, if it’s convenient to do so. Choose a dentist that makes it easy to set up appointments, offering a variety of options so you can select the option that works best for you. Think about the location of the office as well. Dental office’s that are close to your home will make it simple to get to and from your appointments.
  • Don’t forget emergencies. Dental emergencies can happen to anyone at any time. Choose a practice that welcomes emergency patients. Ask the dentist what their policy is on emergency appointments to ensure that you can get dental care when you need it the most.

We hope that these tips help you find the dentist for your family. If you have any questions about our dental practice or would like to set up an appointment, give our Winter Springs, FL office a call at (407) 699-9831.

Why Teachers Love Our Dental Office

5 Reasons For Winter Springs Teachers to Love Collins Dental

1. We provide all services you would need

Being a one-stop shop for our patients is important to us. We want to create a convenient way to take care of your oral health without having to visit multiple offices to get the job done. At Collins Dental, we offer preventative care, restorative dentistry and cosmetic dentistry. 

See All Dental Services

2. Extended Hours 

Our office works to accommodate everyone, which is why we offer extended hours for our patients. We open at 7 am on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and we close at 6 pm on Thursdays. 

We know that school days can trap your schedule, making it difficult to schedule appointments. This means that you don’t have to disrupt your school day to see the dentist!

3. Convenient Online Patient Portal

We offer an online patient portal to access your account and schedule appointments online. You can also view your appointment and treatment history, as well as online payment options and insurance balance information. 

4. Affordable Dental Care

Collins Dental believes in affordable dental care. Whether you have dental insurance or not, we offer an affordable way to take care of your oral health. Our office accepts cash, check, major credit cards and all major Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plans. If you are unable to pay in full at the time of your service, we also offer external payment plans through CareCredit and Compassionate Finance. With these options, you get low monthly payments that are usually interest-free. 

View Third-Party Payment Plans 

We also offer an in-house membership plan to cover costs of dental services. With our membership plan, there are no waiting periods, no exclusions, no yearly maximums and no deductibles. We offer three different plan options depending on your dental needs. 

Collins Dental Membership Plan

5. Wonderful Doctors and Staff

Our doctors and staff at Collins Dental are dedicated to putting their patients at ease and providing gentle dental care. We care about making our patients happy about their experience at our office. We believe that teachers sacrifice a lot to educate children and young adults. We understand what it means to dedicate your life to helping other people. If you are a teacher looking for a dentist in Winter Springs, contact Collins Dental to schedule an appointment. We can’t wait to welcome you to our office!

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Exterior of the Collins Dental office in Winter Springs, Florida

Collins Dental

5744 Canton Cove
Winter Springs, FL 32708
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Hours

Monday - Wednesday: 7:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Thursday: 8:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Friday: 7:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Phone

(407) 699-9831

Fax

(407) 699-9896

Email Address

info@collinsdentalcare.com