Showing posts with label teeth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teeth. Show all posts
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.
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
Cosmetic Bonding
What do you do if you have a small gap in between your teeth?
You could get braces.
You could get crowns or veneers.
But both of those options are expensive and time consuming.
What if there was a way to close gaps that didn't cost a lot that
could be done in 1 appointment?
There is!
It's called cosmetic bonding.
Here is a case that I just did today.
Before
After
Cosmetic bonding is a small amount of filling material that
is placed on the side of 1, or both, teeth in order to close the gap.
There are other types of cosmetic bonding but the same concept applies.
It's as strong as a normal filling because that's what it is.
No numbing shots
No big bill
No weeks or months of treatment
Monday, November 14, 2016
Which floss is the best?
People ask me which type of floss is the "best" type of floss.
Thin Floss
Thick Floss
Waxed......
Unwaxed.......
Floss on a handle
etc.
etc.
etc.
The answer to this is easy.
The best floss is ........whichever floss you will use.
The percentage of people who will floss daily is around 40%.
And the number of people who will never floss is around 20%.
So the "type" of floss you use is not nearly as important
as actually "using" the floss. Because it really doesn't matter.
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
What is a Root Canal?
People ask me all the time....
"So what exactly is a root canal"?
Well it's really not that complicated.
Let's make it a little easier to understand shall we.
The inside of your teeth are hollow.
There is a CANAL running through them like a
canal that carries water.
The canals run down the entire length of the the ROOT.
The canals in your roots carry the nerves of the teeth.
When the nerve dies, and/or becomes infected, it will cause
pain and/or infection.
A root canal is simply going into the ROOT to clean out the CANAL.
Thus ROOT CANAL.
The picture here simplifies it really well.
The tooth on the left has a cavity that has gotten down into the nerve.
After a root canal, the picture on the right, there is no longer a nerve in
the canals. There is now a filling.
No nerve .......... No pain.
Thursday, November 3, 2016
Why do I need regular dental visits?
Some people refuse to come to the dentist unless it hurts
or unless they can see something wrong in the mirror at their house.
These very same people are usually the ones that end up with the
largest amount of crown, root canals, and broken teeth.
Below is a perfect example of why REGULAR dental
visits are so important.
The tooth below did not hurt.
The patient couldn't see anything wrong with it.
Once we took a digital image and blew it up a little however,
the problem became very clear.
There is a crack in the tooth.
We were able to remove the cracked portion and place a new
filling that will, hopefully, stop this small crack from progressing
into a much larger problem in the future.
The after image.
Please do not wait for pain, or actual tooth breakage,
before you go see your dentist.
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Replacing Amalgam Fillings
Sadly, one of the tactics used by shady dentists out there is to
tell people that all of their silver fillings need to be replaced.
Do silver fillings need to be replaced?
Yes.
Almost everything artificial needs to be replaced.
BUT, ALL the silver going bad at one time?!
NO
Let's take the 2 fillings below as an example.
This filling I WOULD replace.
The border between the filling and the tooth is
deteriorating and allowing bacteria to get down into the tooth.
This metal filling I would NOT replace.
You can see that the border is perfectly sound.
There is no reason to inject the patient with drugs,
and further traumatize the tooth by drilling into it to
remove a filling that is serving its' purpose just fine.
And NO there is no clinically proven studies that show that
keeping silver fillings in your mouth is dangerous to your health.
I will post a link below by the American Dental Association.
Monday, October 24, 2016
Dental Advertising
You all have seen the billboards.
You've received the ads in the mail.
Dentists advertising half price treatments.
Offering cleanings, and/or whitenings for life.
Why do they do it?
Should you answer the ad?
Are there any catches?
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
"It's like pulling teeth!"
When people think something is hard sometimes they say .....
"It's like pulling teeth!"
Well, here is exactly what they mean.
I extracted this tooth today.
One of the roots makes a complete 90 degree turn!
Inside of solid bone!
It's kind of like trying to pull a fence post out of the ground
if 5 feet under the ground the fence post bends 90 degrees.
So yah, it's hard.
Thursday, August 25, 2016
A hole in your chin?! Why regular dental visits are so important.
Are regular dental visits THAT important?
YES!!!
Here is an example.
A patient came into my office the other day complaining of
"pain in the chin area".
I took an x-ray and was a little shocked by what I saw.
Below you will see 2 x-rays.
One is the unaltered x-ray.
The other is the x-ray with the problem area circled in red.
The dark area is a problem.
Typically bone will have a look like cotton.
Some white, solid, areas but also many darker
air filled spaces as well.
A giant dark spot where bone should be is NOT a good sign.
A quick test of all of the teeth in the effected area revealed that
there was zero sensitivity related to the teeth themselves.
No discomfort with hot, cold, chewing, etc.
Still only pain when finger pressure was applied to the lower chin.
I phoned the oral surgeon and the patient was sent right over.
Below you will see a picture taken in the middle of the surgery.
There was a cyst below the lower anterior teeth.
The cyst was removed and is currently being biopsied.
Please make it a point to go into your local dentist on a regular basis.
It looks as if this patient will be just fine.
But things could have been much much worse.
Tuesday, August 23, 2016
The Same Sonic Toothbrush. Only Better.
Wanting to buy an electric toothbrush?
Wanting the quality of the major brands?
Without the cost of the major brands?
Would it be a plus if that toothbrush was designed
by an actual dentist who has worked in the field for decades?
Thursday, August 18, 2016
Sports Mouth Guards for Children
Kids are getting into sports earlier and earlier these days.
It seems as if your child doesn't make a decision about what
sport they will choose, for life, by the age of 4 that they
are already too late.
With all of these kids getting into the sporting realm the
number of sports related injuries is bond to increase.
As a dentist one of the saddest things I see is broken, healthy, teeth.
Teeth that have been badly neglected break all the time, and the
person responsible for the neglect typically knew it was coming.
But the little 7 year old didn't.
To see a child headed for a lifetime of trouble due to a totally preventable
injury is not a happy day.
Please get your child a mouth guard.
It does not have to be expensive.
As long as the guard fits properly it should do the job.
The only worry is guards that fit so poorly that the child risks
have it come out during activity and fall into their throat
and become a choking hazard.
Sprained ankles and broken collar bones will heal .
Teeth won't.
Thursday, August 4, 2016
Tooth still hurts AFTER root canal and crown!!
Have you ever had a toothache?
Have you ever paid a lot for a root canal?
Have you ever paid even more for a crown?
Did it work, or does the tooth STILL hurt?!
What to do?
The tooth in the middle of the screen is just such a tooth.
This patient came to me at the end of her rope.
Too much time, to much money, and too much discomfort.
The failing tooth was extracted and an implant was placed.
The implant was then given 3 months for the bone to heal around it.
After 3 months a tooth was placed on the implant.
No more pain.
No more worry.
If the bone holds (which it should in most healthy patients)
this will be one of the strongest teeth in the mouth.
This tooth should need no more dental work for the lifetime of this patient.
Thursday, July 28, 2016
Baby Bottle Tooth Decay
Tooth decay is not a hard thing to understand.
Sugars from sweets, fruit, milk, etc etc etc etc get into
someone's mouth.
The bacteria, naturally occurring in the mouth, ingest the sugars.
The bi-product of this bacteria - sugar combination is acid.
The acids eat your teeth.
That's it.
Soooo, the take home point here is this........
The longer you have sugar in your mouth the more chances there
are for the bacteria to produce the acids that cause decay.
Time + Sugar = Decay
One of the saddest manifestations of this is Baby Bottle tooth decay.
Little tikes that get put to bed with a bottle.
They will drink a little, fall asleep, wake up and drink a little, then fall asleep.
The result is that they have sugars on their teeth, essentially, all night long.
Feed your little ones with a bottle if you so choose.
But then after that make sure to brush their teeth.
Or, at very least, give them a drink of water to help rinse the sugars away.
Getting your 2 year old to obey you is tough.
Getting them to sit still while I drill on their severely decayed teeth ......
nearly impossible.
Monday, July 11, 2016
Teaching my kids.
I wanted to let my kids know that they live in luxury. Not the giant ski boat, 4 car garage, 6,000 sq ft home, or vacation cabin in the woods kind of luxury. I don't own any of those things anyway. I mean food in the pantry, running water, and more than 1 set of clothes kind of luxury. So we went on a trip. We went to Peru. We wore flip flops in the hotel, at night, to keep from contracting anything. And during the day we worked side by side with local villagers in an attempt to give them a brighter future. My kids worked hard all day, ate simple food, and repeated the process, for days. All at 12,500 feet above sea level. It was very hard, and exactly what I wanted for my kids. We will never forget the experience and hopefully my children understand a little more about the world they live in and the blessings that are theirs. If anyone else has interest in going I would highly suggest it. Google search "eagle condor humanitarian Salt Lake City Utah" for more information.
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