asmile4u - General & Pediatric Dentistry

Preventive

Dental Cleaning
In accordance with the American Dental Association recommendations for patient treatment, we encourage our patients to schedule their regular dental check-ups and cleaning every six months, unless more attention is required. Our examinations monitor periodontal and dental health while also screening our patients for oral cancers. Early detection is essential to the successful treatment of any dental condition. Dental sealants are a very effective preventive measure offered by our profession. The application of a tooth-colored material to the pits and fissures of your teeth improves their natural contours making them more cleansable and therefore less susceptible to decay. This simple and painless procedure offers a patient dramatic protection against future cavities.

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Periodontal Therapy
Periodontal disease (gum disease) affects 75% of the population. In advanced stages, gum surgery is often necessary to control it. In our office, we favor the use of the latest non-surgical periodontal treatments, medication, oral hygiene procedures, and devices. It is our goal to minimize or eliminate the need for periodontal surgery.

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Fluoride Treatments
The widespread use of fluoride to fight cavities has been the greatest breakthrough in the past fifty years of preventive dentistry. Fluoride can help prevent cavities by actually hardening the outer enamel layer of teeth, and it can even stop or slow down the growth of pre-existing cavities.

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Sealants
Sealants are a clear or white plastic that is placed in the grooves of the biting surfaces of back teeth. The deep grooves and pits of back teeth are very difficult to keep clean. Plaque, a nearly invisible film of bacteria and food, collects in these grooves. Every time you eat, the bacteria in plaque form acid. Without sealants, the acid can cause the enamel to break down, resulting in a cavity.

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Oral Hygiene Instruction
Your hygienist may explain the relationship between your diet and dental health, offering suggestions about which foods to select and which to avoid. The hygienist may apply fluoride gels, show you how to select the proper toothbrush, and demonstrate the most effective techniques for brushing and flossing to help you maintain excellent oral hygiene.

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Restorative

Fillings
Minimal areas of tooth decay may be successfully restored using dental fillings. Traditionally, teeth were restored using amalgam (silver), and this material still has its place in certain cases, but we are now able to offer patients a choice in materials. If aesthetics is a concern, a tooth colored material may be used that is virtually undetectable in the mouth.

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Stainless Steel Crowns
Stainless steel crowns are needed when decay has destroyed a tooth to such a degree that there is little of the tooth remaining Stainless steel crowns are highly recommended on primary ("baby") molars so they will have the benefit of a much more durable and reliable restoration. Silver fillings are not recommended for large fillings in "baby" teeth since there is a greater chance of a fracture, which will lead to the necessity for a pulpotomy or extraction.

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Pulptomy
When the nerve of a primary tooth becomes infected, a pulpotomy is necessary to save the tooth. During a pulpotomy the infected part of the nerve is removed and a sedative medication is placed inside the tooth to prevent sensitivity and to promote healing. After the primary tooth has undergone a pulpotomy, it must be crowned to give the tooth strength for chewing pressure.

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Porcelain Inlays
The size and shape of a porcelain inlay is similar to that of a filling; both fit snugly inside the cusps of a tooth to replace the decayed part we removed. The process of making a porcelain inlay, however, is more similar to making a crown, because both are crafted in a dental laboratory to precisely fit your tooth. That's why it takes two ore more appointments to restore a tooth with a porcelain inlay.

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Porcelain Onlays
A porcelain only is fabricated to fit your tooth precisely and is bonded tightly to strengthen and protect the damaged tooth. Like a crown, an onlay covers and protects the tooth's biting surface. Where a crown covers the entire tooth, an onlay fits inside the tooth cusps and covers only the biting surfaces. Because an onlay is fabricated in a dental laboratory, it takes two or more appointments to restore a tooth with a porcelain onlay.

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Porcelain Crowns
A tooth-colored crown may be made of both porcelain and metal, or, thanks to newly available technology, it may be made entirely of porcelain. In the past, porcelain crowns were always built upon a metal core. That was the only way they could have enough strength to withstand the tremendous biting forces that are exerted on all of your teeth. Recent breakthroughs in adhesives, combined with the development of stronger porcelain materials, allow us to make crowns entirely out of porcelain. All-porcelain crowns maintain a translucency that makes them hard to tell from natural teeth. Without metal, the problem of a dark line at the edge of the gums is eliminated.

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Root Canal Therapy
The visible, exterior layer of a tooth is called the enamel. Beneath the enamel is another hard layer, called the dentin. The dentin surrounds a small chamber at the center of the tooth that contains the pulp. Tooth pulp is a soft tissue made up of nerves, arteries, and veins. The pulp extends from the pulp chamber down through narrow channels, called the root canals, to the tips of the roots. The two most common causes of infection in the pulp are deep cavities and fractures or broken teeth. An infected tooth will never heal on its own, and as it gets worse, it will continue to be a source of infection that depletes your immune system, which can affect your entire body. Years ago, your only option would be for us to extract the tooth. But today, we can remove the infection with root canal therapy, and save your tooth.

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Cosmetic

Teeth Whitening
Over time, your teeth darken as minerals penetrate their outer enamel layer. This darkening can be caused by foods and beverages that stain, such as coffee, colas, tea, red wine or berries. Tobacco products, like cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco, can cause teeth to take on a yellowish brown hue. And the natural aging process can also cause your teeth to darken. We can prescribe a home whitening system that will safely lighten these stains, giving you a white, brighter smile! A specially formulated whitening system will be prepared just for you, using impressions of your teeth, so you can get your dazzling smile right at home.

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Porcelain Veneers
A veneer is a thin shell of porcelain or plastic that is bonded to a tooth to improve its color and shape. A veneer generally covers only the front and top of a tooth. Veneers can be used to close spaces between teeth, lengthen small or misshapen teeth, or whiten stained or dark teeth. When teeth are chipped or beginning to wear, veneer can protect them from damage and restore their original appearance.

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Bonding/Recontouring
With bonding, we can close spaces between teeth, lengthen small or misshapen teeth, or whiten stained or dark teeth. We can shape and color a single tooth, or improve your entire smile. When teeth are chipped or beginning to wear, bonding can protect them from damage and restore their original looks.

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Surgical Procedures

Bone Grafts
Sometimes your body needs the assistance of modern science to repair or heal itself. This is the case when you've lost bone from your jaw. To repair your jaw, we can perform a surgical procedure called bone grafting, in which we replace missing bone with other natural bone or artificial bone. The area from which the bone was lost is frequently called a "bony defect." A bony defect may be the result of periodontal disease, tooth removal, trauma, a cyst, or long-term tooth loss. A bone graft not only replaces some of the bone that's missing from your jaw, it also stimulates your body to grow new bone tissue.

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Tooth Extractions
There are a number of situations that indicate to us that we need to extract your tooth. Perhaps the tooth is badly decayed and cannot be saved, or the gums surrounding it have advanced periodontal disease (gum disease) so there's no longer enough bone and connective tissue to hold the tooth in your jaw. Other teeth need to be removed because they aren't positioned correctly in the mouth and there is no other solution, as is the case when wisdom teeth are impacted.

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Gum reduction (Gingivectomy)
Healthy gums that fit tightly against the necks of the teeth are an important part of a beautiful smile. But sometimes the gums grow and extend onto the front surface of the teeth, disrupting the natural balance between the length of the teeth and the height of the gums. To restore balance to your smile, we can perform a procedure called a gingivectomy or gum reduction.

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Wisdom teeth removal
Your last molars, called the third molars or wisdom teeth, typically begin to come in during the late teen years or early twenties. When they don't have room to grow in, or they're trapped in your jaw because they are tilted or rotated, they are impacted. You can avoid the pain and possible damaging effects of an impacted wisdom tooth by having it removed early, before its roots are fully developed. We can monitor the development of your wisdom teeth with X-rays, and remove them as soon as we determine that they will likely cause difficulties.

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Oral Brush Biopsy (surgical cancer exam)
If we cannot easily diagnose a growth or lesion by examining it visually, we will often recommend a biopsy. When we perform a biopsy, we surgically remove tissue - either a small, representative portion, or the entire lesion. Then, send it to a laboratory for microscopic analysis. In many cases, the definite diagnosis cannot be made without this microscopic examination.

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