Suncoast Periodontics & Dental Implant Specialists

28/10/2025

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15/05/2025

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Scientists have discovered a link between gum disease and Alzheimer’s. The bacteria Porphyromonas gingivalis, known for causing chronic periodontitis, has been found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. In mice, it triggered amyloid beta buildup — a key hallmark of the disease. This raises the possibility that infection and inflammation may play a larger role in neurodegeneration than we thought.

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03/05/2025

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03/05/2025

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Halitosis is also known as bad breath 🤭

I recently had the pleasure of conducting a joint lecture on halitosis with Dr Amanda Phoon Nguyen at . Whilst gum disease is often a cause of bad breath, sometimes it's not. Other causes of bad breath can include:
💦 dehydration
☕ caffeine
🥂 alcohol
🤡smoking
🦷 other dental disease such as tooth decay
🫁 respiratory infections
💊 medications

Once biological causes of halitosis have been excluded, it can be important to consider pseudohalitosis and halitophobia. The graphic was kindly created by Dr Amanda Phoon Nguyen for sharing with our medical practitioner colleagues. Perhaps you could share it with yours.

14/03/2025

Thank you ANZAP for an amazing conference and fun filled Gala. A special thanks to all of the organising committee and the sponsors.

11/11/2024

Thank you to all of our Practice family for a hard year of dedicated work. We all enjoyed the amazing show put on by Circus Soleil Luzia

16/10/2024

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It's a common question with not such a simple answer.

Once you have been diagnosed as a periodontal patient, you will always be considered at risk of future gum disease. It is a condition which requires long term management rather than one off treatment to provide a cure. This is why we prefer the term "Supportive Periodontal Treatment" (SPT).

🦷 Control of plaque above the gum line - Periodontists have tools and tricks for almost every situation to make you a super cleaner!
🦷 Meticulous control of plaque below the gum line - once gum pockets are deeper than 3mm then special tools are required
🦷 Assessment of any LOCAL factors contributing to gum disease - root grooves, fillings below the gum line, dental implants and many more factors can complicate how gum disease behaves. These factors can change between appointments and need to be mananged.
🦷 Assessment of any SYSTEMIC factors contributing to gum disease - your general health is a significant contributor to gum disease activity. Reassessment of changes is essential at every visit and can change how often you need to attend for SPT. Your periodontist may liaise directly with your medical practitioner/s for your best health outcomes.
🦷 Surgical intervention - the need for surgical intervention is a highly personalised decision. Periodontists receive extensive training during their specialist degree in all the types of surgery which can be considered, and most importantly when they are appropriate for you.

We love our general dentists because they are the "general managers" of your oral health and will direct you where you need to go for the best help. Periodontists are highly specialised in all things gums and some people just need a bit more than a regular scale and clean.

If you're worried at all, feel free to chat to your local dental professional. Alternatively you can book an appointment directly with a Periodontist in your area without the need for referral.

25/09/2024

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MYTH. Unfortunately, most people only get pain from gum disease when it is too late to treat. Gum disease is a chronic inflammatory condition which means the inflammation is low grade, but present over a long period of time. The long term inflammation causes breakdown of the bones and ligaments that support the teeth. Eventually teeth become loose, wobbly and painful to bite with. Gum abscesses can also develop leading to severe pain, swelling and bad breath.

When gum disease is in its early stages, there may be some "itchiness", slight tenderness and occasional bleeding. These signs are easily dismissed as being from "flossing too hard" or they can be missed altogether. Pain is a sign of advanced gum disease that can be complex to treat.

Early detection of gum disease is the best way to prevent loose, wobbly and painful teeth. Make sure your comprehensive dental check up includes a periodontal screening test with full periodontal charting and diagnosis if screening tests indicate it is needed.

For more info check www.perioinfo.org

02/08/2024

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04/04/2024

For my dental colleagues

The topic of Group 3 was "Oral Medicine", which addressed the influence of both material- and anti-resorptive drug-associated factors on clinical and biological outcomes and complications in implant dentistry. Focused questions addressed the following 3 categories: (1) Implant materials other than t...

28/12/2023

...and just before 2023 was about to cut the finish line, an interesting study on the implant supracrestal complex design was just published in JPD from a group in Yonsei University (Han et al 2023). The study measures angles of the abutment/prosthesis and relates them to changes of the marginal bone level. The measurements use 2D periapical radiographs, but moving away from subjective tangent lines and follow a "plane and point" reproducible definition of angles, similar to our 2023 paper in CEDR. They measure 3 angles, one for each vertical millimetre for the first 3 mm of the abutment.

🎯Maybe not surprisingly, they found that its the angle at the first and second mm which really relates with increased marginal bone loss, not the entire contour and not the top 3rd mm from the bone margin. The cut-off points they reported were between 28-34 degrees for the angle defined by first mm range, and 20-33 degrees for the angle by the 2nd mm range. This is what we would describe as the “Deep Angle”, which in our study we defined at the 1.5 mm distance from the implant platform, somewhere in-between the measurements in this study. Also they very wisely avoided the term “emergence angles”, as the true point of emergence is not visible in periapical radiographs.

😍 I think we have made true progress towards methods which can now quantify more precisely and reproducibly the elements of the prosthetic design, while at the same time shed light in its impact to the clinical outcomes. At the same time, it becomes apparent that we have different “regions” in the implant supracrestal complex that cannot be assessed with one single measure, angle or descriptor. The Deep angle seems to be what determines the early marginal bone loss or remodelling, while the Mucosal Emergence angle is what relates to inflammation! These two features might be at times 2mm apart, but it's a whole different process they define!
Before the year ends, have a look at the study by Jin-Won Han et al in JPD 2023!
https://www.thejpd.org/article/S0022-3913(23)00780-1/fulltext

04/11/2023

https://globalnews-ca.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/globalnews.ca/news/9984605/tooth-regrowth-drug/amp/

The ability to regrow your own teeth could be just around the corner. Story continues below advertisement A team of scientists, led by a Japanese pharmaceutical startup, are getting set to start human trials on a new drug that has successfully grown new teeth in animal test subjects.Toregem Biopharm...