General Treatment

Our practice can provide a wide range of dental services. We can typically provide every type of dental service without having to refer you to other specialties. This flexibility saves you time and keeps your total dental care within one practice. Our emphasis is on total preventive care for our patients. Total care begins with regular hygiene visits, regular checkups and continued home oral health routines.

Our practice also provides the highest-quality services for restoring mouths that have been damaged by dental disease and injury and common problems that require cosmetic dentistry. Our primary goal for our patients is to achieve and maintain optimum oral health through advances in techniques, technologies and by maintaining their scheduled dental exams.

Fillings

The concept of a “filling” is replacing and restoring your tooth structure that is damaged due to decay or fracture with a material. We will replace old, broken-down amalgam/metal fillings that contain traces of mercury with white fillings (composites) to restore your smile and teeth to a more natural look and feel.

With today’s advancements, no longer will you have to suffer the embarrassment of unsightly and unhealthy silver/mercury fillings or metal margins of the past. Eliminate the dark, black appearance in your teeth with new-age, state-of-the-art, tooth-colored resin or porcelain materials (Cerac).

Comparing White Fillings Versus Silver Amalgam Fillings:

  • White fillings bond to the tooth; they strengthen the tooth by restoring most of its original shape. Silver amalgams, on the other hand, weaken the teeth and make them more susceptible to breaking. Broken teeth can be very expensive to replace; white amalgam can actually save time and money in the long run.
  • White filling composites are preferred by most patients. This is due to the natural color, strength and overall appearance and feel. Composites are naturally more comfortable.
  • Hot and cold sensitivity is greatly reduced with composite material compared to the silver/mercury amalgams.
  • Restorations with composites require less removal of tooth, less structure to place than those with amalgams and especially with new cavities. Dramatically smaller holes are needed with a composite.
  • White fillings are healthier because no traces of mercury are used, unlike silver amalgams.

BEFORE AFTER

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Bonding

Bonding is a common solution for:

  • Fixing or repairing chipped or cracked teeth
  • Reducing unsightly gaps or spaces between teeth
  • Hiding discoloration or faded areas on the tooth’s surface

Often used to improve the appearance of your teeth and enhance your smile. As the name indicates, composite material, either a plastic or resin, is bonded to an existing tooth. Unlike veneers or crowns, composite bonding removes little, if any, of the original tooth.

Composite bonding has many advantages:

  • It is a quick process, which typically lasts less than one hour.
  • It does not reduce the tooth’s original structure and is relatively inexpensive.
  • Composite resins come in many different shades and provide better matching of shades to the natural color of your teeth.
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In order to ensure the longest possible duration of the bonding, composites should be brushed and flossed daily.

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Veneers

Veneers are a very conservative way to protect and cosmetically transform the shape and color of your teeth. These thin, durable and comfortable restorations are customized from a porcelain material and are permanently bonded to your teeth. Veneers are a great alternative to otherwise painful dental procedures to improve the appearance of your smile.

Common problems that veneers are used for:

  • Spaces between the teeth
  • Broken or chipped teeth
  • Unsightly, stained or discolored teeth
  • Permanently stained or discolored teeth
  • Crooked or misshapen teeth

Veneers are a great aesthetic solution to your smile that may even help you avoid orthodontic treatment. Subtle changes to your smile can be achieved with veneers, and in most cases, veneer application is completed in only two office visits.

Please contact our office if you have any further questions on veneers.

 

BEFORE AFTER

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Crowns

A crown (cap) is a protective covering that fits over an original tooth. It is used when the tooth needs to be protected because it has been badly compromised by large decay , trauma or severe biting force. Crowns are made of a variety of different materials such as porcelain or gold.

The treatment plan for a patient receiving a crown involves:

  1. Numbing the tooth to remove the decay in or around it.
  2. Re-sculpturing the tooth to provide an ideal fit for the crown.
  3. Making an impression of your teeth in order to create a custom-made crown (usually takes one to two weeks).
  4. Making a temporary crown out of acrylic resin and fitting it onto the tooth during the interim period when the permanent custom-made crown is being created.
  5. Applying the permanent crown (when received from the lab) by removing the temporary crown and fitting the permanent one onto the tooth.
  6. After ensuring that the crown has the proper look and fit, the dentist cements it into place.

This process generally consists of a minimum of 2-3 visits over a three to four week period.

Once the procedure is completed, proper dental hygiene, including daily brushing and flossing, is required to maintain healthy, bacteria-free teeth, gums and crowns. This helps in the prevention of gum disease. Given proper care, your crowns can last a lifetime.

 

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Splint Therapy

A bite splint is used to artificiially correct your bite while you sleep. If you don't have a perfect bite, you subconsciously at night, try to fix it by grinding your teeth. This grinding is triggered by stress and puts severe force on your teeth, jaw joint and jaw muscles. You notice it by cracked and sensitve teeth, painful muscles and in severe cases, an earache.This removable acrylic guard protects your teeth and realigns your jaws to decrease TMJ pain and reduce joint strain. Your splint will be custom fitted from impressions of your teeth and is worn usually at night. yp>

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Gum Disease

 

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DIAGNOdent

Did you know that half of cavities found in your teeth could go undetected by current diagnostic techniques? However, our office now offers a new diagnostic method that can more accurately define caries in teeth.

We offer a unique service that can detect caries at the earliest stage. The DIAGNOdent Laser Caries Detector is over 90 percent accurate in detecting even the smallest lesions that don’t even appear on X-rays! Early detection enables us to better preserve and protect your teeth.

The DIAGNOdent Laser Caries Detector boasts a high patient acceptance and satisfaction with its quick, simple and painless nature.

For more information about DIAGNOdent, please visit their website at www.kavousa.com.

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Waterlase

In order to bring you a more pleasant dental experience, we use Waterlase Dentistry™ for both hard and soft tissue procedures. Through a combination of water and laser energy (HydroPhotonics™), Waterlase has revolutionized laser dentistry with more accuracy and precision and with your comfort in mind.

With Waterlase Dentistry, we can remove decay, perform a root canal, treat canker sores, herpetic and aphthous ulcers or even create the smile you’ve always wanted. Tooth, bone and gum procedures have never been easier. Procedures that once took several appointments can now be finished in as little as one visit! Waterlase Dentistry can cut into the tissue without the discomfort that heat, pressure and vibration normally causes. Thus, the patient needs less anesthesia or fewer shots. It’s so gentle that the procedures can be completed with little or no bleeding and less swelling.

When performed by a trained dentist, Waterlase Dentistry is extremely safe. Ask us how comfortable your next procedure can be with the new Waterlase Dentistry system.

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Bridges

A bridge is a dental device that fills a space that a tooth previously occupied. A bridge may be necessary to prevent:

  • Shifting of the teeth that can lead to bite problems (occlusion) and/or jaw problems and resultant periodontal disease.
  • Bridges safeguard the integrity of existing teeth and help maintain a healthy, vibrant smile.

There are three main types of bridges, namely:

  • Fixed bridge- this is the most popular and consists of a filler tooth that is attached to two crowns, which fit over the existing teeth and hold the bridge in place.
  • The “Maryland” bridge is commonly used to replace missing front teeth and consists of a filler that is attached to metal bands that are bonded to the abutment teeth. The metal bands consist of a white-colored composite resin that matches existing tooth color.
  • The Cantilever bridge is often used when there are teeth on only one side of the span. A typical three-unit cantilever bridge consists of two crowned teeth positioned next to each other on the same side of the missing tooth space. The filler tooth is then connected to the two crowned teeth, which extend into the missing tooth space or end.

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Valplast Dentures

Valplast is a nylon-like material that has replaced the metal and acrylic denture material used to build the framework for standard removable partial dentures. Valplast is nearly unbreakable and can be made rather thin. The best part is the material can be made to match the natural color of the gums. Valplast can be used to form not only the denture base but the clasps as well, making Valplast dentures practically indistinguishable from the gums, so no one will even know you’re wearing dentures!

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