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There are many kinds of doctors—Doctors of English, Doctors of Philosophy, Doctors of Medicine, Dr. Pepper… (wink). Of course, when we use the term doctor, we most often mean a physician or Doctor of Medicine. But did you know that dentists are doctors, too? Every doctor has a specialty, and a dentist’s specialty is oral […]

Unusual shapes and growths can be alarming anywhere in the body. If you’ve noticed hard bumps growing in your mouth, you might have oral tori. What are Oral Tori? Tori (or a single torus) are bumps in the mouth made of bone tissue covered by gum tissue. They grow slowly and some people have them […]

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dentist! Charpentier Family Dentistry knows that some folks avoid the dentist’s chair like the plague. According to studies at the Dental Fears Research Clinic at the University of Washington, as many as 8% of Americans are too afraid to go to dentists and 20% are too anxious to visit a […]

Temporomandibular joint dysfunction is a really long name… so let’s call it TMJ.  That sounds more familiar—you’ve probably heard it before. Maybe some lingering pain in your chewing muscles and bones even have you wondering if you have it. TMJ dysfunction is sometimes called TMD, TMJD, or TMJ Syndrome, especially if there seem to be […]

But first, what’s a frenum? Or is it frenulum? The short answer is, they’re one and the same—a small fold of muscular tissue that prevents an organ in the body from moving too far. There are several in the body, but the two we’ll be discussing today are located in the mouth—labial frenum and lingual […]

Do you have a spouse or loved one that complains about your snoring? Do you wake up in the middle of the night gasping for air? Do you find that you are always exhausted during the day and just can’t seem to ever catch up on sleep? If these symptoms sound familiar, you may be […]

Many people face tooth loss and are unsure of their options. Tooth loss is difficult socially as well as physically. When you lose a tooth, you also lose the bone that supported the tooth—it simply stops growing since it’s no longer needed. After that bone disappears, your jawbone will continue to shrink away as well, […]

The pulp is found in the center of each tooth and consists of tissue, nerves, and blood vessels, which work together to provide oxygen and nutrients that keep them healthy and strong. If one or more teeth suffer a traumatic injury or decay, the pulp can become inflamed or infected. When this happens in a […]

Your jawbone (the mandible) meets your skull bone (the temporal bone) at the temporomandibular joint or TMJ. On a good day, this joint allows your mouth to open and close, to speak and eat or rest. On a bad day, you can develop pain and dysfunction in the TMJ that affects many areas of your […]

It’s no secret that residents of Louisiana love sports! The folks around here work hard and play just as hard, whether it’s football, baseball, basketball, or numerous other high-impact sports that can cause harm to your family’s mouths—at least 13% of all oral injuries happen during sports activities. Charpentier Family Dentistry wants you to know […]