Have A Smile You Can Be Proud Of

Do you feel uncomfortable when you smile?  Do you hold back smiling?  Some people actually cover their mouth when they laugh or smile.  Why?  Because they wish they had a beautiful smile, and they are ashamed of smiling in front of others.  Do you have any idea how that makes these people feel, or how it limits their lives?  Cosmetic dentistry has solutions for people to smile with pride.

How can modern cosmetic dentistry help beautify a smile?
 

Bonding
Whitening

Veneers

Crowns/Bridges
Invisible braces           
Conventional braces
Crown lengthening
Snapon Smiles
Laser treatment for gummy smiles
Dental implants

That’s quite a list.  These various services address all the various cosmetic challenges someone can face when they smile.  What do you dislike about your smile?

Spaces between teeth
Crooked teeth
Old discolored fillings
Teeth too long or short
Gummy smile
Yellow or dark teeth
Missing teeth

You have so many ways available to you to make a change and get the smile you want and deserve to be proud of.  We do a smile analysis and help you pinpoint the areas of your smile that make you unhappy.  Sometimes when we provide the analysis, the questions we ask help to clarify what the issues all actually are.  Then we discuss the various options and look together with our patient to see what procedure or combination of procedures will bring about the best result.  We factor in the desired result and the budget.  We find that most people do not want to compromise on the result once they know what they want and how to get it.

If you are happy with the shape and size of your teeth, but wish they were whiter, you’d be amazed at what a difference whitening can make.  If your smile is basically attractive, whitening can be just the thing to make your smile pop and give you the confidence you are looking for.

Bonding is when we hand sculpt tooth colored material onto the front surface of a tooth to change its size, shape, color and fill in gaps between teeth.  The filling material fits into small openings in the enamel that are made with dilute acids that take away some of the mineral in the enamel.  These openings enable the bonded material to lock into the enamel.

There’s a lot to learn about these cosmetic techniques.  We will continue our discussion in upcoming blog posts.

For more information about this topic visit www.TavorminaDentistry.com or give us a call at 973-761-5090.

How To Replace Missing Teeth And Enjoy Eating Again!

Did you know that dental implants can offer missing tooth replacement that looks very natural and feels remarkably secure?

Whether you have full or partial dentures or are just missing teeth and have no replacement teeth, dental implants may be an option for you.  As a means of attaching natural-looking teeth directly to the jaw, dental implants can replace one or more teeth, provide support for a bridge, or be used to attach a full denture for either retention or support.

At this time, there are two types of dental implants that are considered safe and effective by the American Dental Association.  These are endosteal and subperiosteal dental implants.

To determine which type of dental implant to use, our practice first looks at the patient's jawbone.  The jawbone must be able to support the dental implants, and both the quantity and the quality of bone must be taken into consideration.            

Endosteal implants act like a metal "root" and are implanted directly into the jawbone.  When the jawbone is thick, a cylindrical endosteal implant is used.  When the jawbone is thin, a slender, plate-type dental implant is recommended.

Unlike an endosteal implant, subperiosteal implantation does not go directly into the jawbone.  Instead, a metal framework is inserted onto the jawbone and under the gum tissue.  This approach is used when the jawbone has an inadequate amount of bone available for endosteal implantation.

Patients who are candidates for subperiosteal implants usually have been lacking some or all of their teeth for several years and there is not enough bone to support their denture.  When there is so little bone remaining to support a denture, it is especially true with lower dentures, that the denture wearer experiences pain and has difficulty to the extent that many of such denture wearers are dental cripples.

The jawbone itself can also be changed or augmented to create a foundation for the dental implant or implants needed by the patient.  To a great extent, the choice of removable or non-removable replacement teeth by the patient will dictate the kind of dental implants used; and the type of dental implant, in turn, is usually the determining factor regarding whether or not augmentation of the jawbone is necessary.

A thorough dental evaluation including a clinical examination of your teeth, radiography (x-rays) and a complete medical history is required to determine if you would be a good candidate for dental implants.

For more information and information on other dental topics visit DrTav.com or call us at 973-761-5090.

Does My Root Canal Therapy Tooth Need A Crown?

A tooth may need a root canal therapy for many reasons.  For those of you who have heard of the term, but don't know what root canal therapy is, we would like to offer some background information.

Inside the hard tissue of each tooth lives the source of vitality for each tooth.  There is space called a chamber inside the hard structures of a tooth, and that chamber houses the blood supply and nerve supply of the tooth.  Sometimes the nerve of the tooth becomes infected and ultimately dies.  When this happens, the blood and nerve supply and any infection in the tooth must be removed and cleaned out.  The chamber extends via narrow canals down the tooth and into the roots of the teeth.  When root canal therapy is needed, the chamber and the canals in the roots are cleaned, disinfected, and shaped so that an inert material can be placed in the canals to seal the tooth and allow any infection that may have spread into the dental bone to heal.  This procedure is called a root canal therapy.  It only treats the nerve and any remaining blood supply to the tooth.  Once decay or infection has entered the chamber, a root canal therapy is the only way to treat this problem, other than extracting the tooth.

Sometimes there are no symptoms at all, and the infection is seen on an x-ray as a dark area at the tip of the root.  Other times, there’s a toothache to deal with – there can be spontaneous pain, and pain to hot and cold and chewing.  Of course we want to save the tooth, so we do a root canal therapy.  But then what do we have to do for the tooth?  Depending on the cause of the root canal, sometimes there is enough tooth structure remaining so that only a small filling is needed to close the opening where the doctor entered into the chamber to perform the root canal procedure.  However, sometimes the tooth has died because of trauma that has fractured or broken tooth structure, or most times, the tooth has had extensive decay that entered the tooth nerve chamber and also destroyed a significant amount of the tooth.  When enough tooth structure has been destroyed by decay or trauma, a dental crown is needed to restore the original form and function of the tooth.

It’s also important to note that sometimes so much tooth structure has been lost, that the dentist has to create a substructure onto which a crown can be cemented.  This is called a post and core.  The post goes into the root canal as a support for a core onto which a crown is fitted and cemented.  When significant tooth structure has been lost, these restorative procedures are needed. 

Teeth that have had root canal therapy obviously can be functional, however, they are dead.  Because they are dead, they tend to be more brittle and susceptible to fracturing.  This is another reason to crown a tooth after having root canal therapy – to protect it from fracture.  It is a shame when someone has saved a tooth with a root canal therapy only to lose the tooth in the future because they didn’t have the tooth protected with a crown.  If a tooth fractures vertically, it cannot be saved and must be extracted.

We hope this information has been useful to you and invite you to visit DrTav.com for more dental information, or call us at 973-761-5090.