If You Are Pressed for Time, You Need CEREC Dentistry

We provide CEREC dentistry for patients looking for an immediate dental restoration or to improve the appearance of their smile. If you are currently in need of dental care and want to have your oral health issues solved immediately, CEREC is the best solution for you because it allows us to eliminate the need for a dental lab in most cases. This means there is no delay between when you visit our office with a need and when we will be able to resolve that need.

Traditional Dentistry vs. CEREC Dentistry

The difference between the two options is dramatic, and the best way to describe it is with an example. If you chip a tooth playing softball, you will need to visit a dentist to have that tooth restored so you can eat like normal and not be in discomfort. Typically, on your first appointment, your teeth will be examined and x-rays taken. Next, an impression of your mouth and measurements will be taken so information can be sent to the dental lab for them to create a new crown or veneer. While, in the office, a portion of enamel will be removed from your tooth so when the final restoration is complete, it can be placed without making your tooth appear overly large. The challenge is that your prepared tooth will be sensitive to everything, including air. To protect it, a temporary restoration needs to be secured using removable glue. You will then need to wear it for a week or two and be careful with what you eat and how you brush your teeth during this time. Many patients have complained that this is inconvenient and requires too many dental appointments since you would then need to come back in so the temporary can be removed and the final restoration bonded in place. That scenario is what you can expect with traditional dentistry.

CEREC dentistry is entirely different. When you come in for a restoration, measurements and images are taken and then uploaded into our software so a 3D model of your tooth can be created. The software will come up with a blueprint that is sent to our milling machine so your restoration can be completed while your tooth is being prepared. A portion of the enamel will still need to be removed, but once done, there is no need for a temporary restoration to be secured. This means you will not need to worry about what you eat or have the temporary come loose. Instead, you will be fitted for a permanent restoration before you leave, and we will bond it in place. When you walk out our doors, you will be doing so with a fully restored tooth that looks completely natural. In this way, CEREC dentistry is enhancing and improving the experience of our patients.

Given how fast and easy CEREC dentistry is, many of our patients are also seeking this solution to improve the appearance of their teeth by using restorations to close gaps, make teeth appear straighter, cover dark stains, and more. To learn about these options for your smile, call and schedule an appointment today.

Dental Veneers  >  Invisalign Dentist

The Impact And Convenience Of Dental Veneers

Among dental devices, dental veneers have made a true impact on how people get their teeth fixed. The goal when you go to a cosmetic dentist is to make sure you leave with a better smile and great-looking teeth. To this end, your cosmetic dentist has a number of tools and tricks, including multiple treatment options that can be used in tandem to give you the best results. Even in this crowded marketplace, dental veneers have been able to shine with their price point, their ease of use, and a number of other advantages they bring to the table. As the demand for better-looking smiles has increased, dental veneers have become one of the most popular ways to achieve that. Many people like the fact that dental veneers augment the teeth, keeping most of your original tooth structure in place while making them look better. Whenever you start augmenting your teeth or using a dental prosthetic, you will be in a situation where your cosmetic dentist will need to remove some or all of your natural enamel to fit the new device.

When it comes to dental veneers, we only remove a very small portion of the enamel, often less than a few millimeters. This allows the veneers to fit properly on the tooth. On the other hand, if you were to get dental crowns, they would require that we shave away the vast majority of your natural enamel, leaving only a nub to which we can attach the new crown for stability. With dental implants, it is even more severe. Dental implants, unlike dental veneers, require that we remove the entire tooth and the root with it, so there is room for a new implant and its new crown. The ability to save the vast majority of your enamel is only one advantage dental veneers offer. Other advantages include a quicker healing and treatment time.

When you opt to get dental veneers, you are shortening the time of your treatment significantly. For the most part, unless there are unforeseen circumstances, you will get your custom dental veneers fitted on the second visit. While this visit may be slightly longer than a traditional appointment, it is far shorter than the treatment time that comes with other options of treatment. For example, you can actually correct mild malocclusion, or crooked teeth, with your dental veneers. On the other hand, you could choose to use braces or Invisalign ® to do the same treatment. Where your veneers would be fitted and completed in the second visit, your braces would require a year or more of treatment. While it is true that veneers can only resolve minor crooked teeth, and that if your condition is severe, you will still need braces or Invisalign®, it is also true that after you are done with your straightening using one of those methods, you will need to add additional treatments like teeth whitening to finish the effect. Dental veneers can solve both problems in one simple solution.

Invisalign Dentist  >  Cosmetic Dentist

The Importance of A Dental Office Visit

We know that the dental office probably ranks highly among places you would least like to visit on a regular basis. Which, in a sense, is ironic given that people who make a habit of coming to the dentist office at least twice a year ultimately end up spending less time getting treatment. This is because we are able to do two things on these routine visits. First, we keep the teeth clean and remove excess plaque. The removal of excess plaque helps contribute to lowered potential for cavities. Second, we examine your mouth thoroughly, which allows us to catch any budding problems and treat them before they grow into something more serious. However, there are still many people who have not heard the message that visiting your dental office will actually save you time, money, and discomfort in the long run. In a study conducted recently, researchers looked at data concerning dental visits over a 12-month span. To get an accurate assessment, they looked at the 10-year span from 2002 to 2012 and found that the overall percentage of people who visit the dentist at least once every 12 months had gone down in that time period. In 2002, 44.5 percent of people visited the dentist at least once a year. By 2012, that number had dropped to 42.1 percent. This means that fewer people are coming in for an annual checkup.

According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control), there is already 27.5 percent of Americans who suffer from untreated decay and cavities. In some demographics, children between the ages of 12 and 15, for example, that number is much higher, often around 50 percent. In addition to this, there is an entire segment of the adult population, 14 percent to be precise, that believes the condition of their teeth is poor. A routine, often short, visit to the dentist office can cure many of these problems and help you stay in the best oral health possible. For the folks who have not been to a dental office in a while and need a little more prompting, here are a few additional reasons why you should consider making that appointment as soon as possible.

The mouth, in many senses, is a barometer for the rest of your body. Examining your mouth gives the staff at the dental office an insight into what is going on with your health. An example of this is that we can tell if you have a vitamin deficiency just through the process of examining your mouth. In addition to this, it has become standard practice at dental offices around the country to conduct a routine oral cancer screening when doing your bi-annual examination. This is because of a growing concern about the number of oral cancer cases. For a dentist, it makes sense to perform the screening, because it is easier for us to catch early symptoms, like lesions that may appear on the mouth or in the throat. Catching a disease like cancer gives you the best chance of fighting and curing it, making screenings an important reason to visit the dental office.

General Dentist  >  Painless Dentist

Visit Our General Dentist Office as Part of Your Back to School Routine

If you have a child that is going back to school, or you are headed back to school yourself, visit our general dentist office as part of your back to school routine. Visiting the dentist regularly is incredibly important, and fitting it into your schedule at a time you will remember can be challenging. Including a visit to our general dentist office in your normal routine makes it more convenient for you.

Save Time

Back to school season is a busy time for everyone, but scheduling important medical and dentist appointments during this time makes sense. Avoid having to take off work or school later by visiting the general dentist now, while you still have a little free time. If you schedule an appointment now, you won't have to think about coming to the dentist for another six months. This will give you an abundance of time to get back into a routine at school or work before you have to make another visit, and it may help you plan ahead for when you know you will have time off.

Prepare for Sports

If you or your child are planning on playing sports this year, a visit to a general dentist office is even more important to consider. A great form of protection from dental damage and tooth loss is a mouthguard, which can be worn during all physical activities that could involve a collision with a ball or another person. Wearing a correctly manufactured and comfortably fitted mouthguard during sports, physical education classes, and even recess can save you time and money in the long run. More importantly, it can save your teeth from irreversible damage and a lot of discomfort.

Revamp Your Diet

Once you have your teeth checked, you may be encouraged to revamp your diet for the coming year. If you have cavities, it may be a rude awakening that you should avoid eating as many sweets, drinking as much soda, or consuming acidic, sticky, and sweet substances altogether. Packing your lunch or planning to eat healthy meals is not only great for your overall health and waistline, but it is also necessary for a healthy mouth. When you visit our general dentist office as part of your back to school routine, we can help suggest healthy foods and drinks that can contribute to stronger teeth.

Maintain Proper Oral Hygiene

Visiting our general dentist office will help you or your child develop better oral hygiene. During the summer break, when you are having fun all day and staying up late, it is easy to forget to perform regular brushing and flossing. If we find cavities during your visit, we can remove the damage and repair your tooth before the coming school year. We can also point out areas where you may not be performing the best brushing or flossing techniques and provide tips on how to accomplish a perfect oral hygiene routine. Also, don't forget to buy new toothbrushes and toothpaste while you are out purchasing school gear.

Do not forget to visit our general dentist office as you are preparing all areas of your life for the school year. We can help you maintain good health and keep you or your child in school without the need to take time off to have a filling placed or a general teeth cleaning.

Dentist  >  Dental Office

Do You Qualify to Get a Dental Implant

A dental implant does more than just give you a chance to have your tooth back; it has changed the entire complexion of the conversation about tooth loss. Previously when you lost teeth, you had the option of choosing either wires and cement or the adhesive that would bond your dentures in place. Today there is a more sophisticated option that not only replaces your visible tooth structure, also known as the crown but replaces the root as well. Dental implants are the most secure and stable way to replace lost teeth.

As a new technology, people have a lot of questions about getting a dental implant. For example, patients want to know how long dental implants last, what the procedures are for placing them, and whether or not they are eligible to get them. As far as the last question goes, there are really no reasons why a person would not be eligible for dental implants, provided their body, and specifically their mouth, are healthy enough for the surgery and for sustaining and supporting the implant as long as it lasts. It is important to remember, from an eligibility standpoint, that dental implants are placed directly into your jawbone by an oral surgeon or a periodontist.

This involves surgery, and you need to be healthy enough for this surgery. Some of the things that may automatically preclude you from getting dental implants include: untreated or out of control periodontal disease, diabetes that has not be treated, cancer that requires ongoing radiation treatments, smoking, and alcoholism. Each of these may restrict your body's ability to bond with the implants or its ability to heal, which drastically increases the probability that the implants will not work.

Dental implants have a very high rate of success, with some studies placing the success rate as high as 98%. This is partly because we take a great deal of care in ensuring that you are ready for a dental implant, sometimes deviating from the standard process to ensure that your jawbone can handle the implant. The journey to getting a dental implant or dental implants starts with a comprehensive examination. This examination will include X-rays and CT scans that give us a complete picture of the condition of your mouth and the density of your jawbone. Dental imaging will also tell us if there are any additional procedures that may be needed to shore up the jawbone. One of the most common procedures that we have to do is known as an alveolar bone graft. With this, we will place a cadaver or synthetic bone to ensure that the jawbone has enough density to withstand and support the implant. Sometimes we may also do a procedure known as an onlay bone graft. This is typically done when there is no tooth and there is insufficient bone available to successfully perform the implant placement. These surgeries take time to recover from, so you will be healing for around six months before the next phase of the implant process. For a few lucky patients, the damaged or missing tooth can immediately be replaced during the same appointment, which is known as an immediate implant placement.

Dental Veneers  >  Painless Dentist

The Longevity and Durability of Dental Veneers

Dental veneers are one of the most innovative ways to replace teeth enamel that has become damaged, discolored, or is no longer appealing to look at. When teeth are not as white as they should be or are misplaced, you can use dental veneers to help solve these problems. As they get more popular, people want to know how long these devices will last. This is actually a very good question. Dental veneers are placed by removing a small part of the surface enamel and then using dental cement to hold the dental veneers in place. From our perspective, we know that dental veneers tend to last at least 10 years. Naturally, this depends a great deal on how well you take care of your teeth and if you do things that may put your teeth and dental veneers at risk. There have been numerous studies done around the longevity of veneers. What we have found is that when we studied people who have veneers, the largest group was people whose veneers lasted between five and six years. When the time frame was expanded to between 10 and 11 years, that number dropped but not significantly. People whose veneers had lasted this long accounted for 93 percent, which was almost the same as people whose veneers had lasted for between 12 and 13 years (91 percent). This shows that people who take care of their veneers can have them last a very long time. The first real drop we saw in the study was when we expanded the life cycle of the dental veneers to between 15 and 16 years. When we looked at the number of patients whose veneers had lasted this long, we found that 71 percent still had their original veneers without any need for repair or replacement.

With dental veneers, as with many things, how well you take care of them will determine how well they will last for you. You cannot do things like using your teeth as a tool, as you risk damaging the teeth and can reduce the life of your dental veneers. We have found that of all the dental veneers that failed, 45 percent of them failed because they had a fracture due to trauma, which can include putting too much pressure on them. An additional 28 percent failed because they were cracked, also a kind of trauma. This shows a very direct correlation between how long your veneers can last and what you do with your teeth.

Another thing to be aware of when it comes to your veneers is that they will respond to your oral health habits. Bad habits can lead to things like gum disease, which can cause the dental veneers to fail. In fact, 13 percent of failed veneers did so because of complications with gum disease. Seven percent failed because of plaque buildup that took place because the patient had bad oral health habits. These are easy to avoid with a little bit of diligence and can greatly extend the life of your veneers.

Invisalign Dentist  >  Cosmetic Dentist

Visit a Cosmetic Dentist if You Damage a Tooth in an Accident

As a cosmetic dentist, we work with patients that do not enjoy the appearance of their smile.  This is often due to dark stains or yellow teeth, gaps in between teeth, crooked teeth or those that are uneven in shape.  The aesthetic challenges that people have with their smile are vast, and we have a solution for addressing virtually all of them, including dental veneers and dental implants.  In most cases, our patients plan ahead for their visit and carefully consider what they want fixed with their smile.  There are times, however, where patients come to see us with a damaged tooth.  If this happens to you, we invite you to give us a call.

The likelihood of your tooth becoming cracked, chipped, or even knocked out is higher than you may think.  Most people do not consider whether or not they will be in an accident or what they would do if their tooth became damaged.  This is unfortunately because over 9 million people visit the ER after a slip and fall accident every year, there are around 5.4 million car wrecks, and over 5 million children will suffer from a sports-related injury.  The chances of being in an accident are incredibly high, and the only question is whether or not your teeth will become damaged in the process.  If they do, we encourage you to call us instead of seeking treatment from the emergency room.

When you visit the ER for a chipped tooth, the doctor can give you medication and send you on your way.  They are not trained in how to restore teeth.  Simultaneously, if you see a dentist that specializes in general care, they may be unable to restore your tooth in a way that looks natural.  As a cosmetic dentist, we specialize in dental restorations, dental veneers, and dental implants, and have multiple solutions for correcting a tooth that is cracked, chipped or otherwise broken while helping it to blend in with the surrounding teeth.  This way, when you smile, no one will be able to tell that you ever damaged your tooth in the first place.  This is our goal – to create a natural and beautiful restoration in a timely fashion.

Any time that you are in an accident and damage your tooth, it is imperative that you have it restored quickly.  A tooth that is cracked or chipped is susceptible to becoming infected.  Bacteria can enter the center of the tooth this way, infect the dental pulp and create the need for a root canal.  This can be uncomfortable on top of the damage that already exists.  By using dental veneers or crowns to restore your teeth, we can prevent this from happening and give you the ability to use your tooth without restriction.

Our solutions
Some of the restorative solutions we use in our cosmetic dentist office are dental bonding, dental veneers, and dental crowns.  We can also replace your knocked out tooth using a dental bridge or dental implant.  Regardless of how your tooth was damaged or how bad the damage is – give us a call for a natural looking restoration.