Services

While we offer a broad range of dental services, here is a list of some of the most common procedures we provide.

 

Composite resin restorations

Composite resin is a tooth colored restorative material used for fillings in front teeth and in smaller restorations of back teeth.  This enables us to restore broken or decayed teeth back to their original appearance with a minimally invasive procedure.  Because of issues with strength and wear resistance, composite's use in back teeth is limited to smaller restorations or in areas that are not under direct stress from biting.

 

Porcelain Veneers

Porcelain veneers are ultra thin pieces of porcelain that can be bonded to the front of your teeth to improve the appearance of your smile.  A small amount of the enamel on the front side of your tooth is removed to create space for the porcelain, then the veneers are bonded to the teeth creating whiter, straighter, or better shaped teeth.  In our office we have the option of having the veneers made by a laboratory technician or using CEREC 3D CAD/CAM technology to fabricate veneers in a single visit.

 

Fixed Bridges

A “bridge” is a solid restoration attached to two or more teeth that spans an area where teeth are missing.  The teeth on either side of an empty space are used as abutments to support a fabricated tooth in the empty space.  Bridges can be made out of gold, metal covered with porcelain, or completely out of porcelain.

 

Root Canal Therapy

A root canal is performed when the nerve or pulp of a tooth is irreversibly damaged.  Despite its reputation, most of our patients find root canals to be a relatively easy, pain-free procedure.  When the nerve in a tooth is dead or infected it causes inflammation around the root of the tooth which in turn causes pain.  To relieve the pain and eliminate the infection, the dead or infected pulp of the tooth is removed using very small instruments.  The canal that remains is smoothed and shaped, and a rubberized filling is placed to the very tip of the root.  A restoration is placed over the opening in the tooth to finish sealing the canal from both ends.  A tooth with root canal therapy is brittle due to the loss of vitality and the removal of the center part of the tooth.  Therefore, a crown is placed over the tooth to strengthen it and protect it from future fracture.  Root canals have a success rate of around 95% making it a reliable means to save teeth that otherwise would be extracted.

 

Teeth Whitening

Having whiter teeth has become one of the most common requests from dental patients.  We offer a variety of methods for whitening your teeth. 

The high end of whitening treatments is in-office bleaching.  This procedure is performed in the office in about an hour.  The teeth are isolated from the gingival tissues and a bleaching gel is placed on the teeth for 10-30 minutes per arch.  In most cases we also treat the patient with an at-home bleaching product for the greatest effect. 

The next level of whitening is obtained from custom made at-home bleaching trays.  These are thin, clear plastic trays made in our office after we take impressions of your teeth.  The patient takes the trays home, places a special bleaching gel in the tray, and wears the tray for at least 30 minutes a day or overnight.  The desired result is usually accomplished within two weeks.

We also offer a pre-packaged whitening product called Opalescence Treswhite as a more economical choice for less drastic whitening cases.  This is similar to the bleaching trays without being custom-fitted.  The patient wears the whitening strips for 30 min to two hours a day for up to two weeks.

 

Removable Partial or Complete Dentures

Our goal is to save your natural teeth whenever possible.  However, in some cases this is not possible, or you may already have multiple missing teeth.  In these situations the best solution may be replacing teeth with removable prostheses.  We can fit partial dentures to your remaining teeth to fill in the gaps and snap on to what is there.  If there are no more suitable teeth for retaining a partial denture, we can remove all of your remaining teeth and fabricate complete dentures.

 

Dental Implants

Dental implants can replace missing teeth with a permanent, fixed prosthesis or a removable prosthesis.  The screw shaped implants are placed in the bone of your jaws.  Then a single crown, a bridge, or a denture can be fabricated to place over the implants.  The replacement teeth function nearly the same as your natural teeth.

When we plan implant therapy we recommend a specialist who performs the surgical steps of placing the implants.  Then we complete the restorative phase of the treatment by fabricating the crowns, bridges or dentures to cover the implants and replace your teeth.