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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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 

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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.

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

ADA Statement on Silver Fillings

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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?

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