On 30 July, 2022, Health Live @ Seniors Today hosted Dr Shail Jaggi, an endodontist, who answered questions and spoke on Dental Care for Seniors: Tips, Tricks & Traps.
Dr Shail Jaggi is a certified MicroEndodontist with specialisations in Endodontics, Aesthetic and Restorative Dentistry.
She is a certified Nobel Fellow by Nobel Biocare Implant Systems, She has undergone extensive training in the use of the Dental Operating Microscope and for Advanced Endodontic Procedures like Instrument Retrieval with Dr Yoshi Terayuchi.
Passionate for Cosmetic Dentistry and Smile Designing, she has trained and is also certified for DSD (Digital Smile Designing ) with Dr.Christian Coachman Founder and Director of “Dentalwiz’ —Advanced Specialty Practice dealing with Advanced Endodontic, Restorative and Implant Surgical procedures.
‘Smiles By Shail’ is a dedicated Smile Design Centre for Advanced Cosmetic Dentistry Procedures and Dentalwiz Dental Training is a dedicated training centre which is set up to train from the most Basic to Advanced procedures including Restorative Dentistry, Endodontics ,Cosmetic Dentistry and Magnification in Dentistry.
She devotes most of her practice time in the Advanced Endodontic Techniques, Reconstruction of Badly Broken down teeth, Advanced Restorative Procedures ,Cosmetic Dentistry ,Endodontic Retreatment, Instrument Retrieval and Smile Makeovers to make her patients look and feel great!
A Recipient of the Famdent ‘Outstanding Dentist of the Year’ and ‘Aesthetic Practice Of the Year’ ,she successfully manages to keep the practice cutting-edge and abreast with all current trends in the dental World Her passion is the Dental Operating Microscope which she has integrated into daily dental practice and for Routine, Advanced and Minimally Invasive Restorative and Endodontic procedures.
She has also been using the microscope as a teaching aid thereby making it simpler for young Dentists to appreciate the finer aspects of dentistry. A speaker and key opinion leader for Coltene and 3M keeps her inspired to train and teach younger dentists for the best dental practices.
Dental challenges for senior patients:
- Poor oral hygiene
- Lack of motor control
- Loss of teeth and tooth decay
- Poor nutrition- this can lead to loss of teeth
- Patients on long term medications can sometimes come with the complaint of dry mouth and swollen gums
- Negligence to dental hygiene
- Flattening of the chewing surface
Dentures sit on your soft tissues which means that they take support from the gums and the soft tissue they are on. As we age, the gums and the soft tissue also degenerate and become weak which means that the fit of the denture is poor.
One way to go about it is- get an implant of either side of the mouth and then fit the denture of it. This is called an “implant supported denture”.
A few pointers from Dr Shail:
- If you have a dental issue, address it as soon as you can. The longer you wait, the worse it will get, and the longer it will take to restore/ rehabilitate/ treat it.
- Ask your dentist to save or salvage as much as he/ she can. Extractions can be uncomfortable, painful and it is difficult to get used to an implant or a denture.
- Get a fluoride varnish over your teeth after getting a dental procedure done. Fluoride to a large extent prevents dental decay.
- Regular and routine dental check ups- once a month, if it’s a gum issue you are worried about. Otherwise once is 3 months is enough
- Keep yourself hydrated
- If you have a dry mouth, you are prone to cavities, decay, and plaque.
- Get routine cleaning and scaling of your teeth
- Avoid smoking. Smoking causes vasoconstriction at the small vessels which reduces the circulation. Hence if you have gum disease you have yo be even more careful
- Avoid a provider with an aggressive approach, try to find a preventative dentist.
You can get all your implants placed simultaneously so your dentist can also take care of your bite at the same time.
You require a root canal treatment only if your nerve is involved and damaged. 80% of the time, if your nerve is not involved, a good filling will take care of everything.
