Seattle Dental Care. Because we do care.

The impact of good sitting and standing posture is familiar to most of us, but good tongue posture may not be as familiar. Why is proper tongue posture important? You may have heard that the tongue is a strong muscle, but it is actually made up of eight separate muscles. The tongue’s multiple muscle attachments impact our mouths, sinuses, noses, heads, necks, and shoulders. It is no surprise that improper tongue positioning can lead to problems with all of those areas, headaches, long face syndrome, vision problems, and sleep apnea- to mention a few. 

Some of our patients may have seen recent news coverage indicating that non-urgent dental care in Washington will be suspended starting December 3. We want to inform you that these reports are incorrect. Non-urgent dental care in Washington is not being suspended.

Your safety is our foremost concern. We want to reassure you that we are following guidelines from the American Dental Association (ADA), CDC, and Washington State Department of Health to keep our patients and team healthy and safe, and that these guidelines are working. To date, according to the CDC, there has been no documented transmission of COVID-19 in a clinical dental setting.

Dental unit water lines pose a unique problem in the dental industry. Splatter from patient’s mouths can contaminate waterlines and, if not properly maintained, can lead to cross contamination, illness, and in rare cases, death. In April 2016, 20 dental patients in Georgia had to be hospitalized due to infection from contaminated dental unit water used during treatment.

There is currently no mandatory water line testing required in the United States for dental offices. The dental offices themselves are relied upon to take the proper measures to protect their patients. In-office tests can be ordered and performed easily, however results are not required to be shared with any regulatory board or posted in office.