Our preventative focus ensures you have a bright lifetime smile. We focus not just on treating what’s wrong, but educating you to live a happy and healthy life.
Our program is designed to help prevent new cavities, maintain teeth that have been restored, and manage oral disease. This includes teeth cleaning, fluoride treatment, oral cancer screening, and sealants. At the initial visit oral hygiene instructions and techniques are reviewed and are reinforced at subsequent recall visits. We provide enthusiastic and creative solutions for prevention along with high quality personalized care.
The following are helpful recommendations:
Until recently, dentists filled and sealed cavities exclusively using amalgam (silver fillings). Unfortunately, these fillings (or restorations) could weaken teeth because too frequently a large amount of the original tooth structure had to be removed. Modern dentistry has increasingly turned to composite fillings as a strong, safe and more natural looking alternative.
Composite resins or tooth-colored fillings are a mixture of glass or quartz filler in a resin medium. Composite fillings provide good durability and resistance to fracture in small to mid-size restorations that need to withstand moderate chewing pressure. Composites are “bonded” or adhesively held in a cavity, often allowing the dentist to make a more conservative preparation. Less tooth structure is removed when the dentist prepares the tooth, and this may result in a smaller filling than that of an amalgam.
The cost is moderate and depends on the size of the filling and the technique used by the dentist. Composite fillings require that the prepared tooth be kept clean and dry during placement of the filling. Composite fillings are subject to stain and discoloration over time.
Gaps, chips, discolored or misshapen teeth can now be treated conservatively and with excellent results using porcelain veneers. Veneers can mask the imperfections of your natural teeth and can even correct minor malpositioning of teeth without braces.
Veneers are natural in appearance and a perfect alternative for patients wanting to make minor adjustments to the look and feel of their smile. Veneers are thin, custom-made shells fabricated from tooth-colored materials (porcelain and ceramic) that are bonded to cover the front of the teeth. They are an ideal choice for improving your smile and have become increasingly popular due to their simplicity and versatility. Placing custom veneers requires a high degree of technical skill as well as attention to cosmetic detail. We place veneers routinely, and design each case individually to match and enhance the characteristics of each patient’s smile.
Root canal therapy is needed when the nerve of a tooth is affected by decay, trauma or infection. This can result in inflammation then infection, and eventually an abscess. This simple treatment can save your natural teeth and prevent the need for extractions and dental implants or bridges. Symptoms of the infection are generally acute dental pain or sensitivity to hot, cold or biting forces. If you experience any of these symptoms, your dentist will most likely recommend root canal therapy to eliminate the diseased pulp tissue. The injured pulp is removed and the root canal system is thoroughly cleaned and sealed. This therapy involves local anesthesia and may be completed in one or more visits depending on the tooth.
Would you like straighter teeth without the hassle of braces?
Unlike old fashioned metal braces, Invisalign straightens your teeth without wires and brackets, using a series of clear, customized, removable appliances called aligners that gently move your teeth into straighter position step-by-step. It’s virtually undetectable, which means most people won’t notice them, and best of all, you can easily remove them when you eat, brush and floss.
An average Invisalign treatment course takes less time – about a year in most cases. You’ll visit us every 6 to 8 weeks for adjustments and to monitor your progress.
The Invisalign System combines advanced 3-D computer graphics technology and orthodontics. Each aligner is precisely calibrated and manufactured to fit your mouth at each stage of the treatment plan. Your first step is to visit our office to determine if Invisalign is right for you. After sending precise treatment instructions and records, Invisalign uses advanced computer technology to translate these instructions in a sequence of finely calibrated aligners. Each aligner is worn for about two weeks and removed to eat, drink, brush and floss. As you replace each aligner with the next, your teeth will begin to move gradually until the final desired alignment is attained. Then you’ll be smiling like you never have before!
When tooth removal is necessary, we do simple and complex (surgical) extractions under local anesthesia.
When restoration procedures such as root canal therapy, crowns, or fillings are not enough to save a tooth, it may need to be pulled, or extracted.
Here are a few other reasons why teeth may need to be removed:
Tooth extraction procedures today are far less painful than ever before, thanks to powerful anesthetics and sedatives. In many cases, a patient who has an extraction experiences little or no discomfort, and only minor bleeding.
Patients sometimes need to take an antibiotic, and take precautions following the procedure to ensure that infection doesn’t occur. Smoking, vigorous brushing and rinsing, forceful spitting, strenuous physical activity, and drinking liquids through straws are strongly discouraged during the post-operative period because they hinder healing and may cause the wound to open. Cold compresses applied to the outside cheek near the extraction area can help reduce any swelling and promote faster healing.
Crowns are typically used to restore a tooth’s function and appearance following a restorative procedure such as a root canal or if a tooth is weakened due to structural breakdown. When decay in a tooth has become so advanced that large portions of the tooth must be removed, crowns are often used to restore the tooth. Crowns are also used to attach bridges, cover implants, or to prevent a cracked tooth from becoming worse.
Crowns are fabricated in a laboratory and are made from porcelain fused to a metal substrate, all-porcelain, or many of the new ceramic materials that have been developed. All-porcelain crowns are usually made for anterior (front) teeth or highly esthetic areas. Metal-porcelain crowns are usually made for posterior (back) teeth that need to withstand heavier forces.
Bridges are similar to crowns, but are made to replace a missing tooth or section of missing teeth. Because they are custom-made, bridges are barely noticeable and can restore the natural contour of teeth as well as the proper bite relationship between upper and lower teeth. Bridges are sometimes referred to as fixed partial dentures because they are cemented to existing teeth and cannot be removed by the patient.
A tooth is usually reduced in size to accommodate a crown or bridge. An impression is taken and a cast is made of the existing teeth. The impression is sent to a special lab, which manufactures a custom-designed crown or bridge. A temporary crown/bridge is placed until the final restoration is ready to be inserted. With proper care, a crown or bridge can last for many years. It is very important to follow the same oral hygiene instructions that are followed for natural teeth.
Now you can have beautiful white teeth quickly, safely, and effectively. Professionally supervised whitening can be accomplished in one visit or in as little as one week with prefilled trays.
Choose prefilled trays for only 20-30 minutes a day for whitening on-the-go or at home:
Choose In-office professionally supervised treatment for immediate results in 60 minutes:
Teeth whitening is a chemical process used to lighten the color of the enamel and dentin. The procedure can be performed entirely in the dentist’s office or by the patient at home, using materials provided by the dentist.
The active ingredient in whitening gel is Hydrogen Peroxide. As Hydrogen Peroxide is broken down, oxygen enters the enamel and dentin, bleaching any colored substance while keeping the structure of the tooth unchanged. During the In-office professionally supervised procedure, patients can watch television, listen to music or even take a nap. The entire procedure takes just over one hour. The procedure begins with a preparation and protection protocol followed by one hour of bleaching, and lastly a five-minute desensitizing treatment (a thorough dental cleaning is recommended prior to the actual whitening session). The most common side effect is a temporary increase in tooth sensitivity to cold, but these symptoms usually disappear within 1-3 days.
If a tooth is extracted or missing, it is now possible to replace it using dental implants. An implant is like a new tooth made of metal and porcelain that looks just like your natural tooth. It’s composed of two main parts: One part is the titanium implant body that takes the place of the missing root, and the second part is the tooth-colored crown that is cemented on top of the implant. Implants are placed into the bone, where they integrate and are thus stronger than a natural root and will never require a root canal or filling. An implant will help maintain the health and shape of the bone in the jaw area, and neighboring teeth do not need to be filed down to replace a missing tooth as with a bridge.
In addition to tooth replacement, implants may be used to anchor dentures, especially lower dentures that tend to shift when you talk or chew. Dental Implants are a great advancement in dentistry as they permanently replace missing teeth in a way that no previous dental technique has been able to achieve.