Category: Health

Your Dental Wellness Journey – Navigating Care and Treatment Options

Wellness is a state of being full of vitality and health. Oral wellness is an important step on your journey to total body wellness and can have a profound impact on your quality of life. It begins with prioritizing your oral hygiene practices and routine dental visits, implementing healthy eating habits, and instilling good lifestyle choices from childhood.

At Northbrook dentist, we believe that a holistic approach to your care is the best way to ensure long-term health and wellness. Our goal is to help you maintain a happy, healthy smile that supports the rest of your body. By incorporating these practices, you can avoid chronic diseases that threaten your overall wellbeing.

Whether you are battling a chronic disease or are at risk for developing one, we want to be there to provide support throughout your healthcare journey. Our team includes trained Care Navigation specialists who specialize in connecting you to resources that can assist with managing your condition and supporting your overall well-being. Our services are offered primarily via phone conversations and follow-ups at a frequency that suites each patient. Face to face consultations are also available if needed.

A Medical and Dental Health History Review

Our dental and medical health histories are custom-built by our hygienists to uncover potential risks and trends. They can include a detailed family history, past illnesses, medications, and more. Combined with the clinical notes that your dentist will generate after your exam, these details can give you a greater picture of your health and identify potential connections between systemic diseases and your oral health.

Preventing Dental Injuries

From preventing oral injuries during sports to helping you cope with a dental emergency, our team is here to guide you along your dental wellness journey. We’ll teach you how to protect your teeth and body through proper hygiene, diet, and lifestyle choices that promote whole-body wellness.

A Healthy Gut & Immune System

A strong immune system is crucial for maintaining overall wellness. Our gastrointestinal tract plays a major role in our oral health and can be negatively affected by certain conditions like diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, and autoimmune disorders. Our hygienists can identify and treat oral signs of these conditions, such as gum disease, which is linked to an increased risk for heart disease, stroke, and inflammatory bowel disease.

Gum Disease and Your Lungs

Did you know that your gums are an important part of your respiratory system? Studies have shown that bacterial infections in the mouth are correlated with inflammation and poor lung function. Fortunately, you can prevent gum disease and protect your lungs by practicing the right hygiene routines.

Stress and Your Oral Health

It is no secret that stress can affect our mental and physical health. However, it’s less commonly known that stress can manifest itself in our oral health as well. In fact, some studies have found a link between gum disease and stress.

With a focus on reducing patient anxiety, Leanne enjoys getting to know each of her patients. She is always available to discuss your insurance coverage or cost of treatment and connect you to resources that can assist with easing financial burdens.

Non-Surgical Treatment Options for Hip Pain

Hip pain is a common problem that can limit your activities and decrease your quality of life. It’s important to see an experienced hip relief doctor in Los Angeles for accurate diagnosis and effective treatment.

Medications like acetaminophen and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) reduce swelling and pain. NSAIDs may also help treat some hip conditions such as muscular tears, bursitis, and arthritis.

Nonsurgical Treatments

Often, hip pain is caused by activities that increase friction between the bones of the hip joint. This can make performing simple movements like climbing stairs or sitting down from a chair difficult and painful.

Commonly, over-the-counter pain relief medication such as acetaminophen and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can offer temporary relief. If these methods fail to provide lasting relief, a physician should be consulted.

The physician can administer a hip injection using ultrasound guidance to ensure the injection reaches the site of the problem. The numbing agent is typically a cortisone injection that can relieve the inflammation of the hip joint, reducing the discomfort. Injections of hyaluronan can also help to lubricate the hip and alleviate pain by reducing stiffness in the joint.

In cases where the underlying condition cannot be treated with nonsurgical methods, a physician can perform hip arthroscopy through a small incision. This procedure allows the doctor to remove debris from a hip joint, correct bone deformities, and repair damaged tissue without the need for surgery.

Physical Therapy

Hip pain can result from problems in the joint itself or the muscles and ligaments that support it. We provide comprehensive physical therapy to reduce or eliminate your hip pain and restore normal functional mobility.

Your first visit starts with a detailed evaluation to understand what is causing your hip pain and how it has affected your life. We ask about the aggravating and relieving factors, and X-rays and MRI may be recommended to gather additional information about your hip joint.

Our team creates a personalized hip injury treatment plan that includes muscle-strengthening exercises, range of motion movements, modalities (like heat or ice), and stability training. We also instruct you on proper posture and body mechanics. Your therapist will also develop an at-home exercise program that you can use to keep the benefits of your sessions alive outside the clinic. Performing these exercises daily is the best way to prevent your hip pain from returning.

Steroid Injections

Steroid injections work to reduce hip pain by reducing inflammation over time. They can also help decrease the need for prescription pain medication.

During the procedure, the doctor will clean the injection area and might use a type of X-ray called fluoroscopy to guide a needle into the hip joint. You might feel some pressure when the needle is inserted, but it shouldn’t be painful. You should let your doctor know if you do experience a lot of pain.

Once the needle is in place, a mixture of anesthetic and cortisone will be slowly injected into the hip joint. The injection site will likely feel sore for a few days as the numbing medicine wears off, but applying ice can be helpful. The injections can provide relief that lasts for weeks or months, depending on the condition being treated. This can allow you to begin physical therapy and return to daily activities sooner. You should avoid using a hot tub or bath after having a steroid injection in your hip.

PRP & Stem Cell Therapy

Both PRP and stem cell therapy work to amplify the body’s natural repair system by boosting the concentration of platelets at the injury site. Platelets are blood cells that help form a blood clot to stop bleeding and release growth factors to promote healing.

Stem cells are unspecialized cells that can change into other cells to replace damaged or diseased tissue. They’re found throughout the body and can be used to restore cartilage, tendons, ligaments, and bones.

For this treatment, your doctor will clean and numb the area where the injections will be administered. A special syringe will then be inserted into the hip area (iliac crest) to extract bone marrow blood. The sample is then sent to the laboratory, where it is concentrated by centrifugation. This results in a high-concentration of platelets, which is then injected into the hip region under live X-ray or ultrasound guidance. You may feel soreness immediately after the procedure, but ice packs and over-the-counter pain-relievers can help.