CEREC3 CAD/CAM - Crowns in a One Appointment

Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing [CAD/CAM] is now a feature in our dental office and has revolutionized the way we restore teeth. The CEREC3 machine allows us to design and mill porcelain crowns, inlays, onlays and veneers and complete the work - start to finish - in a single visit. That's right: no more temporaries for two weeks and then return for the final crown. We custom make each one and patients leaves with the finished work that very day. Could it be better?

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Biolase Waterlase Dental Laser

The Biolase Waterlase Dental Laser uses an air/water spray energized by laser light to gently “wash away” a variety of human tissues, including tooth enamel and gum tissue, with no heat. Often we can accomplish our treatments using the laser without the need for an injection. The laser is more precise and kinder to the teeth and gums than a drill or scalpel would be. And the best part is, the laser greatly reduces the post-operative discomfort and promotes more rapid healing.

FDA approved for use in the dental office, it offers us an alternative that many patients prefer. Here are some of the things we can do with the Waterlase:

• Remove hard tissues like enamel, dentin and bone
• Re-contour excess gum tissue
• Correct and eliminate tongue ties
• Remove growths and small lesions on cheek, lips, tongue and gums
• Immediate pain relief for canker sores and cold sores
• Desensitize teeth that are sensitive to air or cold liquids
• Etch teeth for better bonding of composite fillings

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Lasers in Periodontal Therapy

Dentistry has made advances in all fronts, but the most important improvement in care has been the profession’s recognition that healthy gums are the foundation of good health, not just oral health, but your whole body’s health. Gum disease [Periodontal Disease or Periodontitis] has been recently linked to heart disease, lung disease, osteoporosis, low birth-weight and premature babies, and possibly even Alzheimer’s Disease. It’s not just a matter of having stain removed – your life may depend on how healthy your gums are!

The sad fact is, more than 8 in 10 people in America have some form of gum disease. Much of that disease has gone untreated, harming the gums and teeth and general health and well being of millions of people. Dentistry used to place a low priority on dealing with the problem and the treatment protocols we had were not addressing the problem. We now know much more about what can work to improve periodontal health and when we partner that with good home care by patients we have much better success in treating Periodontal Disease.

Periodontal Disease happens when the plaque that forms on your teeth, with its nasty bacteria, migrates down the tooth and contacts the gums. The gums are irritated by the acidic waste products of the bacteria. We call this stage Gingivitis and it’s reversible if we remove the irritating bacteria and you keep it off. As the migration slowly works its way down the tooth, a pocket of infection forms beneath the gums. At this stage it begins destroying gum tissue and bone. We call this stage Periodontitis. Once bone is gone you don’t grow it back. We can treat it, though, and with advances using lasers we can regenerate some of the gum tissue and attachment that Periodontitis destroys.

To treat Periodontitis we must first remove the crud – all that bacteria and tartar – we call it calculus – that’s stuck on your teeth and down in the gums. We will often use the ProSelect Ultrasonic Scaler to remove the calculus. The ProSelect reduces the “nails on a blackboard” sound and the scraping sensation that hand scalers produce. Once the debris is gone, it’s laser time!

With lasers we are now able to affect healing in the gum pockets where the disease does it’s damage. The laser can destroy and remove the diseased tissue around your teeth, zapping the bacteria into oblivion as well as targeting diseased gum tissue, all while leaving unaffected the healthy gum tissue. This treatment has been shown to stimulate your gum tissue to heal from the depths of the pocket up, something previous treatments had difficulty doing. This procedure is called Laser Assisted Guided Tissue Regeneration and we have seen it reduce pocket depths from unmanageably bad to health and manageable. Diagram of this procedure...

All these treatments depend on a patient’s home care and commitment to regular re-care to monitor their progress. We believe strongly that home care is where many treatment failures occur, so we include a RotaDent electric toothbrush in our Periodontal treatment program. The RotaDent is the best electric toothbrush we’ve found. It has two different heads for accessing difficult areas of the mouth. The bristles are unique among brushes and can snake their way in where other brushes can’t. They’re sturdy, hold a charge well and the company that makes them offers a lifetime warranty. We’ve seen success with the RotaDent where other brushes have failed. We like them so much we recommend them to our patients with orthodontic braces, so that they can keep their brackets and wires nice and clean. We also like them for regular home care and if patients want one we have them for sale in the office.

They make nice gifts, too! What better way to show you care than a Dental Home Care Product?

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DIAGNOdent Laser Decay Detection

The traditional way to detect decay at its earliest stage was to take a small metal probe and feel for a stick. That way missed many small lesions. Now with the DIAGNOdent we can scan the tooth using laser light to pick up decay at a much earlier stage, with the resultant filling being much smaller than before. Smaller fillings are faster to place, are less sensitive to temperature and pressure, last longer [because they are smaller they get less stress when you chew] and they weaken the tooth less. It pays to get them when they’re small.

The DIAGNOdent shines a low-powered laser light, similar to those you find in grocery scanners, on the tooth. The laser light causes decayed tooth tissue to fluoresce and the DIAGNOdent detects that. The more fluorescence it sees, the more decay is there and the DIAGNOdent gives us a digital readout and an audible whine so we can see and hear how much decay is lurking, invisible to our eyes, in the grooves and pits of teeth.

This is all the more important because the nature of decay has changed. In the past, before fluoride, decay produced cavities that were wide open at the top, so you could easily see how large they were and detect them easily. Now, with enamel strengthened by fluoride, when decay does occur it can mushroom out under the initial pinhole sized cavity that’s difficult to detect with the naked eye. DIAGNOdents are revolutionizing cavity detection.

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Digital X-ray Technology

Patients might not notice the difference when we take their next set of x-rays, but to us, the changes seem miraculous. Instead of feeding x-ray films into chemical developers and waiting five minutes as they develop, the imaging sensors [we don’t use film anymore] produce images in moments and we can enhance the images to help us see details not possible to see on traditional films. Since the image sensors are much more sensitive we greatly reduce the amount of radiation you are exposed to. The digital images are stored with your file and can be displayed at any time in the future. No more stinky, polluting chemicals dumped into the environment, either. Digital x-rays are Da Bomb!

• Ultra-sensitive sensors means fast exposures with much less radiation
• Quick image retrieval so appointments go faster
• Image enhancement software helps us identify problems easier
• Digital storage with instantaneous retrieval
• Easier copying for insurance companies and specialists
• Eliminates chemical processor and the environmental impact of those chemicals

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