General Treatment

Our practice provides a wide range of dental services. We 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 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 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.

Tooth Extractions

An extraction is the complete removal of a tooth. Extractions are sometimes necessary if a primary tooth is preventing the normal eruption of a permanent tooth, if the tooth has suffered extensive tooth decay or trauma that cannot be repaired, if the patient has gum disease, or if the tooth is impacted (usually the wisdom teeth). Depending on the complexity of the case, an extraction can be performed surgically or non-surgically. A mild anesthesia is used to ensure you or your child is as comfortable as possible throughout the procedure.

If you feel you or your child may need an extraction, please ask our staff for more information.

Crowns and Bridges

Crowns

A crown is a permanent covering that fits over an original tooth that is either decayed, damaged or cracked. Crowns are made of a variety of different materials such as porcelain, gold, acrylic resin or a mix of these materials. Using our CAD/CAM CEREC technology, we have the ability to complete some crowns in one visit. Please see our CEREC page to find out more.

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.

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.

Implants

Dental implants are artificial tooth replacements that were first developed half a century ago by a Swedish scientist named Per-Ingvar Branemark. Implants arose from the patient’s need to secure loose-fitting dentures. Since the advent of the implant, engineering and enhancements to the implant have enabled dentists to expand the implant’s usefulness, including the replacement of missing or lost teeth. Today, implant techniques provide a wide range of tooth replacement solutions including:

Single Tooth Replacement
Anterior Replacement
Posterior Replacement
Full Upper Replacement

If the missing tooth space has no surrounding teeth, the dentist may decide an implant is the most appropriate treatment choice or option.

Post Implant Care

Although proper oral hygiene is always recommended for maintaining good dental health, it is especially important when a patient has received a dental implant. Bacteria can attack sensitive areas in the mouth when teeth and gums are not properly cleaned, thus causing gums to swell and jaw bones to gradually recede. Recession of the jawbone will weaken implants and eventually make it necessary for the implant to be removed. Patients are advised to visit their dentists at least twice a year to ensure the health of their teeth and implants. Dental implants can last for decades when given proper care.

Veneers

Veneers are thin, semi-translucent “shells” typically attached to your front teeth. Veneers are customized from porcelain material and permanently bonded to your teeth. Veneers are a great alternative 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.

Opalescence Whitening

Your teeth will darken over time. Changes in the color of your teeth can be caused by such factors as the food and beverages consumed (like coffee, tea and soda). Other factors for discoloration may include childhood medications or illnesses, tobacco use or improper oral hygiene. Restoring your natural white smile is a priority for our dental whitening team.

Tooth whitening services are growing in popularity, and it’s one of the most requested services offered by our practice. Tooth whitening is an affordable and effective way to combat tooth discoloration while boosting your self-confidence and improving your appearance.

We are trained professionals using industry-approved methods. One highly successful method we use to whiten teeth is Opalescence Take Home Whitening Gels. Prescription-strength Opalescence Tooth Whitening Systems are stronger and more effective than over-the-counter teeth whitening products and are only available through your dentist.

We will create a customized tray from an alginate impression of our mouth; this customization is part of why this system is so effective. To ensure maximum whitening and comfort, the Opalescence gels are available in several strengths. Our whitening process will allow you to whiten your teeth at your convenience – in a safe, effective and economical way to reveal your brighter, whiter smile.

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 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.
Composite bonds, however, are not as durable and long-lasting as veneers and crowns and may need to be re-touched or replaced in the future.

Composite bonds stain more easily and therefore require proper care and regular cleaning. In order to ensure the longest possible duration of the bonding, composites should be brushed and flossed daily. Common staining elements include coffee, tea, tobacco, foods and candy.

Dentures & Partials

Periodontal disease, injury and tooth decay can all cause a loss of your natural teeth. However, we can bring back the smile on your face with dentures to restore your missing teeth. With improved technology and updated materials, dentists can now make them appear more natural and more comfortable for the patient.

Types of Dentures

There are two types of dentures: complete and partial.

Complete dentures cover the patient’s entire jaw.
Partial dentures, with their metal framework, replace multiple missing teeth.

To know which type is best for you, be sure to ask your doctor.

Caring for Dentures

Do not chew ice or other hard objects to avoid breaking your dentures.
If a piece of food gets underneath your denture, simply remove the denture and rinse it off.
Twice a day, brush your gums, tongue and remaining teeth to keep them healthy.
Once a day, clean your dentures with a denture brush and denture cleaning product. You may also want to soak your dentures periodically in soaking solution. After soaking, rinse with cool water.

Unless instructed otherwise, do not sleep in your dentures. Let them soak in water or solution while you sleep.

It may take some time to adjust to your dentures. Speaking and eating may feel different at first, but these regular activities will resume normally once you are accustomed to your dentures.

Snoring Therapy

Snoring affects millions of people of all ages. Snoring is caused by the vibrations of your soft palate. When airway passages narrow, a “flapping” sound occurs. The soft nature of this tissue and blocked air passages cause snoring and sometimes sleep apnea.

Treatment procedures range from changing your sleep patterns to utilizing orthodontic-related appliances that help open the airways during sleep.

Obstructive sleep apnea can contribute or lead to many other conditions, such as high blood pressure, stroke, heart attack and depression.

Our office can provide an anti-snoring sleep guard to help alleviate the problem. Please talk with our doctors or staff about your concerns.

Common causes:

Smoking
Alcohol
Health problems
Obesity
Obstructed nasal passages – deviated septum
Poor muscle tone of the tongue
Daytime fatigue
Sleep apnea
Hypothyroidism
Allergies