Thursday, July 13, 2017
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Monday, July 10, 2017
Monday, April 10, 2017
Tooth completely broken in half!
Sometimes people chip teeth.
Sometimes they crack them.
And sometimes .... they break them completely in half!!
This tooth below is broken completely in half.
What can be done!
Can it be saved?!
In short... No Way.
There is no magic here.
No miracle cure for something like this.
This tooth ended up in the jaws of the pliers.
Later down the road other options can be discussed.
As for now however, the tooth is in Heaven with
the patient's wisdom, and baby, teeth.
Thursday, March 23, 2017
Dental Implant
Lots of people want to know what exactly happens
during a dental implant procedure.
Well, here it is from start to finish.
#1 Patient comes into the office with a tooth broken off at the gums.
#2 Tooth is extracted and implant is placed.
VERY IMPORTANT point her is that the person does
NOT leave with a tooth at this point.
The "implant" is merely the titanium screw that sits in the bone.
There is a period of healing that now has to happen.
#3 Once healing has happened a connecting piece is placed onto the implant.
An impression of the piece is then taken.
The final crown will cement down over this connector.
#4 Here is a picture of the tooth in place.
It is now completed. The 3 pieces (implant , connector, and tooth)
are all secured to one another and the patient is ready to
return to full function.
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
Can that tooth just be fixed with a filling?
A common question I get is ..........
"can that broken tooth just be fixed with a filling"?
The answer to that is normally, yes.
But it is important to understand what a filling is.
A filling is NOT a new tooth.
A filling is a patch.
Like a patch in a pair of pants.
The patch relies on the strength of the remaining tooth for support.
This puts added stress on the remaining healthy tooth structure.
Here is a picture of 2 teeth where fillings were placed.
The fillings run the length of the tooth.
The sides of the tooth are now responsible to support the fillings.
The tooth on the bottom is holding but the tooth on the top has fractured.
The future of the top tooth is now in jeopardy.
How bad is the break?
Has the break extended into the nerve, thus requiring root canal?
Is there enough tooth for a crown?
Will the tooth need to be extracted?
Make sure to ask your dentist which is better for you.
Thursday, February 2, 2017
Fixing that smile
Always such a treat to do cases like this.
Colton had never been happy with his teeth.
He played High School and Collegiate sports.
The impacts from those years of playing sports had left him with
broken, chipped, and nerve damaged teeth.
He wanted to know what was possible.
So we showed him.
Colton before ....
Colton After
2 Appointments.
2 weeks in temporaries.
1 happy camper
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Fixing it BEFORE it breaks
It's been a while since my last posting.
My wife and I celebrated my 20th wedding anniversary.
We traveled out of the country for a minute or two.
Anyway, I'm back.
Today we need to talk about getting regular dental visits so that
you can catch things BEFORE they get out of hand.
When people come into my office we use a digital camera to take
pictures. These pictures allow us to see more more detail then normal.
In the above picture we can see a metal filling in a molar.
The margins of the filling look decent enough.
What doesn't look decent is the cracks in the tooth that appear
to be extending in several directions.
In the above picture you can see what we did to rectify the situation.
We removed the old filling and the cracked enamel.
We then placed a filling.
There was no need for a crown because we caught it early.
I have no doubt that had we waited the cracks in this tooth would have progressed
and the tooth would have fractured.
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