A Sleep Dentist Can Help You After an Accident

As a sleep dentist, we help a lot of people that have been injured in an accident.  Many people do not think about whether or not they will ever be in a car wreck or other type of accident, if their teeth will ever be damaged or what they would do if it happened to them.  This is understandable, but it often leads people to seek care in the wrong place – the emergency room of a local hospital.  If your tooth was knocked out, visiting the ER will allow you to receive medication, but it will not do anything for your missing tooth or the health of your mouth and jawbone.

Visiting our office will.

If you think that you will never have the challenge of dealing with a lost tooth, here are some facts to consider.  Every year, one in three people over the age of 65 are injured in a slip and fall accident.  These types of accidents are not just reserved for seniors.  They impact men and women of all ages and represent 9 million trips to the ER every year.  For those who play sports, in children alone, there are over 5 million sports injuries annually and that does not even consider how many adults become injured while playing a game of basketball at the gym.  Even driving a car is not safe since around 5.4 million car wrecks happen annually.  With these statistics in mind, it is more of a question of when will you get into an accident and not if you will.  Simultaneously, you never know if your teeth will become damaged in the process.  If they are, be sure to give us a call.  We specialize in oral surgery and can replace any teeth that have been knocked out or correct a jaw that has been damaged.
The benefits of visiting a sleep dentist –

Getting into an accident is traumatic enough. When you have subsequent injuries, it can be difficult to then think about visiting the dentist.  We understand that the thought of receiving dental care is stressful for some people, even if it does not actually cause discomfort.  While recovering from another trauma people tend to avoid anything that could cause them anxiety.  Fortunately, this is unnecessary when you visit our dental office.  As a sleep dentist, we can provide you with the dental care that you need without the anxiety that it brings. We can place you under a light sleep so that the dental work is performed without you being consciously aware of it.  This way your experience will be relaxing and when you wake up, your dental restorations or surgery will have been completed.
As a sleep dentist, one of the most common procedures that we perform is the placing of dental implants.  If your tooth was knocked out in an accident or you lost it due to an infection or gum disease, we can typically replace it with an implant.  This is a permanent solution that works by placing a metal post under the gums and securing it to the jawbone.  The bone and metal will fuse together through the process of osseointegration to form a new root system that your new tooth can be attached to.  All of this can be completed while you are fast asleep.

Are You Healthy Enough for Traditional Oral Surgery?

Oral surgery should never be taken lightly. If you need it, you should receive it soon before more long term damage is done to your oral health. Traditional oral surgery may not be for everybody though. If your health is at stake, it is important to seriously ask yourself if you are well enough for traditional oral surgery. It can be a more invasive procedure and a potentially harmful procedure for people who have had recent illnesses or have current serious health problems that make them more vulnerable. If you are concerned that you are not healthy enough, or you do not want to endure the long recovery period that comes with some surgeries like gum grafting, visit our office for an alternative option that works wonders. 

Traditional oral surgery still works excellently and is advised for many patients, but if your health puts you in an at-risk category, our laser therapy might be the best option for you. Our laser surgery uses an intense beam of light to correct dental flaws. Unwanted or unneeded tissue is easily vaporized with the laser energy. Lasers can also be a wonderful alternative to classic root planing and scaling. Our dental lasers gently remove bacteria and infection as they cleanse your gums and teeth. These lasers are often used to clean infected areas prior to another laser surgery like a gum graft. The pros of laser oral surgery are unlimited, but a few of the main uses and desirous qualities are listed following.

The Pros of Laser Oral Surgery:
Dental laser oral surgery is quicker and more efficient than traditional methods.
The use of lasers can detect early decay in your teeth.
Lasers remove bacteria more quickly than traditional dental tools.
Laser therapy is a less invasive way to remove the infection below the gum line if you have periodontal disease.
Lasers can reshape your gums after periodontal disease as an alternative to gum grafting.
Laser surgery cuts down on recovery time because it is so minimally invasive. The laser heat can jumpstart healing.
Laser heat seals blood vessels and minimizes the need for sutures after a procedure.
Our dental lasers can cut through and drain a tooth abscess for fast relief.
We can use our lasers to gently remove small potentially cancerous bits of oral tissue to send it in for a biopsy.
Dental lasers can be used to remove lesions or sores that might be causing discomfort.
With dental lasers, you don't have to fear the ominous sound of a dental drill. This can be helpful for people who suffer from dental phobia.

Our laser oral surgery minimizes discomfort, and the potential for swelling following a procedure is reduced.
Although the pros of dental laser oral surgery far outweigh the cons, there is sometimes still a need for traditional oral surgery. In cases where your immune system is already compromised, we definitely encourage you to pursue a laser oral surgery first as it will more easily maintain your oral health as your immune system continues to heal.

Laser Dentistry  >  Oral Surgery

How Implant Dentistry Can Benefit You

The primary focus of implant dentistry is to provide you with a strong, stable, and great looking replacement when you have lost a tooth. For your natural teeth, the job of stability and strength falls to the root. The root also has a symbiotic relationship with the jawbone that helps it to provide additional support for your tooth. In order to replicate the work done by the root, we use a tiny titanium screw that is placed directly into your jawbone, in most cases, which not only gives your new tooth the security it needs but also imitates the relationship with the jawbone. There are numerous reasons we can give you as to why you should consider using implant dentistry to replace a lost tooth. The most popular reason we have heard from our patients is the convenience. Since the dental implant is virtually the same as a tooth, in many aspects, it requires no additional maintenance and places no further limitations on what you can and cannot eat. For many people this ability to carry one with their lifestyle, despite having lost a tooth, is the critical component to choosing implant dentistry over some of the other alternatives.

As implant dentistry continues to make great stride in improving the quality of people's lives after they have lost teeth, there is more information available about them and more patients who actually come in with some information about implants. This is good because it then allows us to work with you on understanding the process even better and explaining some of the nuances. It also allows us to create a plan that will help you reach your goals with implant dentistry. For example, most people know about implant dentistry using a tiny titanium screw that is placed directly into the jawbone. This is known as an Endosteal Implant, and is definitely the most common type of implant that we use. However, we base the type of implant we use on the amount of bone density available and if the jaw bone can actually sustain an implant. If we find that your jaw cannot sustain a regular implant, we have the option of doing what is known as a Subperiosteal implant. A Subperiosteal implant is placed in the gum but slightly above the jawbone, or resting on the jawbone so that there is no added pressure placed on the already weakened bone structure.

Another small nugget that we like to sometimes share with patients is that there are two schools of thought when it comes to the healing process after the implant has been placed. One group favors a one-step approach. This approach completes the implant surgery by covering the implant with tissue and then leaving it to heal naturally. The bone and the gum tissue heal over a period of 4 to 6 weeks. The other school of thought is to use a two-step approach. In this method, the dentist places a small device known as a dental abutment over the implant, allowing for the bone and tissue to heal around it. The healing takes exactly the same amount of time as the one-step approach though the abutment does provide some additional protection.

Cosmetic Dentist  >  Gum Recession

What is Laser Dentistry, How Does it Work, and How Can it Help Me?

 Laser dentistry is the way of the future.  Based in modern medical science, a laser is a device that emits a narrow and very intense beam of light that neither diffuses nor spreads out. When focused at close range, these beams act on tissue. Laser dentistry employs this beam to shape or even remove soft or hard tissue. While this may sound bizarre or even painful, in certain procedures, lasers have several distinct advantages over more conventional forms of dentistry.

1) Lasers are Precise: Because lasers are precision instruments, a laser dentist can, with great accuracy, remove unhealthy tissue, without doing any damage to the surrounding healthy tissue. Some procedures may not even require sutures.

2) Minimize Bleeding: The high-energy light helps to coagulate blood, thus reducing bleeding.

3) Lasers Speed Up Healing Time: because the high-energy beam sterilizes the area, the risk of bacterial infection is reduced which speeds up the healing.  This is one of the main benefits of laser dentistry since it allows you to feel normal, faster.

4) Lasers Reduce The Need For Anesthesia: A laser dentist has much less need to use anesthesia because lasers can often be used in place of painful drilling and incisions.

5) Lasers are Quiet: While this may not sound like a technologically important point, the sound of a conventional  drill often makes patients very uncomfortable and anxious.  When using lasers, our patients are more relaxed and comfortable in general.

Lasers and Gum Disease

Lasers were approved by the FDA in the early 90's and are fast becoming the instrument of choice in a number of dental procedures. Laser dentistry is especially effective in treating gum disease, most notably Gingivitis and Periodontitis.  Since we specialize in using lasers to treat gum disease, many people visit our office that are under the care of a general dentist, but are interested in a faster and more comfortable treatment.

What you should know about gum disease.

Gingivitis happens when there is an inflammation of the gums, caused by bacteria and plaque buildup. Typically the gums are red,  inflamed and bleed during tooth brushing. While,  characterized by redness and swelling, chronic and untreated gingivitis leads to Periodontitis, which is a far more serious condition.

Periodontitis is when the gum recedes from the teeth, forming pockets that collect debris. Plaque spreads below the gum line, and as the pockets become infected, the bacteria begin to destroy the connective tissue that holds the teeth in place. The teeth get loose and eventually fall out. Periodontitis is the primary cause of tooth loss in adults.

Gum disease is primarily caused by poor oral hygiene that leads to the buildup of plaque. However, are a number of other factors, including hormonal changes that can occur during pregnancy and puberty, etc. can cause gum disease. Also included are certain medications, illnesses that affect the immune system, and a family history of gum disease.

Prior to laser technology, treating periodontal or gum disease was a matter of deep cleaning the pockets of all plaque and tartar, which harbor the bacteria, along with a course of strong antibiotics. In more advanced cases, the procedure could be classified as surgery. However, all too often the periodontal disease came back, which caused many to wonder if the disease could ever be fully and finally cured. However, lasers have considerably simplified and improved the treatment by vaporizing diseased tissue, and killing the bacteria that caused the disease. Since there are no strains of bacteria that can resist the laser, you can be certain that your gums will start to heal.  By using laser dentistry, we can even help healthy gum tissue to surround your teeth like it once did.  This is a revolutionary way to treat this age-old problem so call our office to learn more.

The Link Between Gum Recession and Smoking

Smoking is a common habit, but many people do not realize it is a direct link to gum recession. There are many alarming stories about smoking and the negative effects it may have on your general health, but many people do not know that it can also greatly affect your oral health by creating an increased risk for gum disease and even oral cancer. Gum recession is a common issue in adults, and the cause is often not realized. If you have a history of smoking, you may fall victim to gum recession, or you could possibly already be experiencing it. The risk of gum disease and one of its major accomplices, gum recession, increases substantially when you smoke cigarettes or use tobacco in any form.

One of the first signs of periodontal disease, a detrimental condition that develops in your gums and causes deep infection and tooth loss, is gum recession. When you have not kept up with dental visits or made oral hygiene a priority, you may fall prey to periodontal disease. A few other factors, like smoking, can also contribute to the potential development of the condition. Since smoking involves direct contact with nicotine, smoke, and other toxins to your teeth, gums, tongue, and the roof of your mouth, all of those tissues become weakened over time, increasing your chances of gum recession. Every time that you smoke you become more susceptible to developing problems with your gums. If gum recession is caught in the beginning stages, it can be slowed and nearly reversed, but if smoking continues and gum recession persists, you can have irreversible and unappealing damage that causes great discomfort. Even if your gum recession can be helped, smokers have a slower healing process because their oral tissue is generally weaker than the average non-smoker.

Not only does gum recession mar your appearance, it can also cause you to experience discomfort when you eat due to the exposed nerve endings near your teeth. These exposed nerve endings make your teeth more susceptible to decay. Even if your teeth are worked on and preventative measures are taken, you may still be subjected to tooth loss because of continued smoking. These problems are a physical and financial burden. Replacing lost teeth can be expensive and time-consuming, and your replacement teeth may never be as high-functioning as your natural teeth were. However, if you have your gums treated at the first sign of gum disease, the damage can be reversed, and your teeth may be saved.

If you smoke and already have some gum recession, we are able to help. If you are a smoker and are not sure if your gums are showing signs of recession, we can tell you. You can also watch for signs that include red and swollen gums, bleeding gums, and teeth that appear longer than normal. If you have neglected your oral health by continued smoking, now is the time to start paying attention. Visit our office at the first sign of a problem to give yourself the best chance of having healthy gums and retaining your natural teeth.

A Cosmetic Dentist Can Improve Your Health and Smile

As a cosmetic dentist, we practice in a field of dentistry that has been around from the very inception of the science. When you consider why man first started looking for ways to care for his teeth, you realize that it was a desire to have better teeth, whiter teeth, or to simply keep natural teeth that lead to the creation of modern dentistry. While much has changed since those first days, cosmetic dentistry is still seen as dental work that works to improve the appearance of teeth, gums, and the bite. This definition is accurate, but we believe that it only tells part of the story. As science is developing a deeper understanding of our teeth, so too is it becoming clearer that the gap between cosmetic and functional dentistry is not quite as wide as once believed. Today’s cosmetic dentist performs a number of vital procedures including crowns, gingivectomies, and bridge that are paramount to the health, hygiene, and functionality in the human mouth. 

For example, cosmetic dentistry encompasses the fitting of a dental crown. Who can imagine a world, today, where we do not have the benefit of a dental crown? A crown is a synthetic tooth that is used to cap a broken or damaged tooth in such a way that no one can tell the difference between the real tooth and the replacement. Crowns are used in cases of an accidental breaking, chipping, or cracking of a tooth and also in cases where the tooth has been damaged by an infection. In either case, we have the option of removing some of the enamel, in a process known as shaving, and replacing it with a full or partial dental crown that takes the place of the natural tooth. We know that this helps with appearance, but it is equally important to note that teeth play a vital role in chewing, biting, and speaking. When cosmetic dentistry replaces a damaged tooth with a crown, we are giving you back the full range of functionality with that tooth, and that is more than just cosmetic in nature.

Think about the fact that somewhere between 30% and 40% of the population suffers from a malocclusion. A malocclusion is the misalignment of your teeth to form an overbite, underbite, open bite, crowded teeth, or even those unsightly gaps some people have between their teeth. Since malocclusion does not pose a direct threat to dental health, the correction of this condition has been deemed to be cosmetic in nature. The challenge with this is that uncorrected malocclusion can lead to serious dental challenges that will impact your mouths functionality.

People who suffer from malocclusion often have a very hard time cleaning every part of their teeth. This is because typically, the teeth are misplaced and have uneven gaps between them. The unevenness creates challenges for the brush to reach every nook and cranny, and often makes it impossible for a person to floss. The plaque that is left behind builds up and eventually leads to dental problems like cavities, bacterial infections, and gingivitis; all of which can be avoided by having  us, as a cosmetic dentist, resolve the malocclusion in your mouth. This is only one of the ways that improving the appearance of your teeth, can also improve your oral health. 

Pinhole Surgical Rejuvenation Is Idea for Diabetic Patients

We offer Pinhole Surgical Rejuvenation for patients suffering from gum disease.  This is a common condition that millions of adults experience at some point in their lifetime.  When bacteria and plaque build up under the gums, it can cause irritation and make the gums swell, bleed, or even start to recede.  This is a serious condition that if left untreated can often cause bone and tooth loss.  For this reason, we recommend that you have the condition treated right away.

For many people, the idea of having gum disease treated is far from pleasant.  This is because the standard treatment involves using dental tools to pull the gums away from the tooth and scrape out the plaque and tartar.  This, understandably, causes irritation and discomfort.  In our dental office, we use lasers as a viable and more comfortable alternative to traditional therapy.  This ensures that our patients can receive the care that they need, without the sensitivity.

If, however, the gums have started to recede, Pinhole Surgical Rejuvenation is a way to restore the gums.  Gum recession occurs when the gums pull away from the tooth structure, and pockets are created in the gum tissue.  Bacteria tends to gather there and will eventually start to attack the tooth, causing bone loss.  Restoring the gum tissue and securing it back around the tooth is necessary for protecting the tooth.  The standard method of doing so is with a gum graft.  In this scenario, tissue is taken from the roof of the mouth or a tissue donor and sutured to the gums prior to them being secured back around the tooth.  The procedure is effective but invasive, leading to a longer recovery time.

In order to find a faster and more comfortable way to accomplish the same thing, we now offer PinholeSurgical Rejuvenation.  In this procedure, there is no cutting, no sutures, and no discomfort. Instead of cutting open the gum tissue, a small needle size hole is created so that we can get inside of the gum tissue.  By moving the collagen around, the body makes more collagen, further stimulating the growth of additional gum tissue. The needle size hole will close up on its own, so no sutures are necessary. In fact, most patients have healthy looking gums (no sign of a procedure) the very next day.  This is in comparison with gums that have undergone surgery and look like it.

The reason that this procedure is so much better for diabetics is due to how difficult it can be for a diabetic to recover from any type of procedure.  When blood sugar is uncontrolled, it inhibits the ability of the white blood cells to fight infection and heal the body. This creates complications when a diabetic has dental work done, or any type of physical procedure because it can create a much longer recovery time.  A traditional gum graft takes two to three weeks to recover from for healthy patients.  For a diabetic, this could be a month or longer.  Using Pinhole Surgical Rejuvenation instead, means that a diabetic can have healthy gums without the risk of further complications or a delayed recovery.

Gum Recession  >  Periodontist