Brushing your teeth properly is very important and unfortunately many dental problems are the result of wrong or insufficient dental hygiene and because people don’t know how to brush teeth. The right cleaning technique is the key! By following four simple steps you can improve your dental health considerably investing in the future of your smile. Watch this video and learn how brushing your teeth the right way will improve your oral health!
Crown vs. Cap?
A cap is the same thing as a crown. A tooth requires a crown when strength is needed, or when there is too much tooth missing for a filling, the restoration wraps around the outside of the whole tooth. There are several different ways to protect a tooth. The usual way is to completely cover the tooth with material, either metal (gold), porcelain or a combination of the two.
A bridge is two or more caps connected together with one or more false teeth in between the caps. Some people like to call their removable appliances bridges but they are really partial dentures; (Dentists call both types of prostheses partial dentures: fixed partial denture or removable partial denture). We remove a significant portion of the tooth to make room for the material the crown is made of. If we simply added material, the gum doesn’t know that the crown isn’t tartar or calculus on the tooth and will recede or move away from the crown and this could create a gum or periodontal disease situation.
Since the tooth has been reduced and the enamel covering is removed, the tooth becomes sensitive unless we place a temporary crown, usually made of an acrylic or composite material. The temporary crown also maintains the position of the tooth while the crown is being made. A temporary crown can be worn from as little as two weeks up to three months.
Crowns can be made of metals such as gold or palladium or a combination of several metals. Porcelain can be baked onto the metal, much like a bathtub, to make the crown look like a natural tooth. There are all ceramic materials used today with dentists claiming that the teeth have no metal. The teeth look all white. The truth is, if the crown is made from zirconium, although it looks white, and zirconium is actually a metal (Remember your periodic table of the elements from junior high school science class?).
There is a big push by laboratories these days to make milled crowns. The fit is good, they look white, and the research claims they have very high strength. I have used many of these types of crowns and they have a higher failure rate than the old fashioned porcelain fused to metal types. In addition, more tooth structure has to be removed for these crowns. Some dentists claim that these crowns are more esthetic because the natural tooth color bleeds through the ceramic material, truth is, most people don’t want their old brown color back.
Any Prosthodontist is considered an expert in crowns, so they will be able to discuss all types of possibilities for their patients.
- John C. Stone, DDS, Cosmetic Dentist, Ft. Lauderdale
Implants and Stunning New Teeth— in Just One Day!
Years ago, implants were placed and buried beneath the gum tissue on one visit, the patient would then wait for 4-6 months for healing, undergo another surgery to expose the implants with extensions and then, after total healing, have the teeth made. This treatment has virtually a 100% success rate.
Today, we do things a little differently. “Same day teeth” and “teeth in a day”, all describe a treatment where implants are placed, and using an educated guess for esthetics and bite, teeth are replaced at the same visit. This saves the patient from a second surgery and shortens healing time (usually about 3 months). The patient wears a custom esthetic denture for the short healing time.
Six months after the initial surgery, the final non-removable prosthesis is made with much more input from the patient and treatment is not rushed.
I truly believe that this treatment has an even higher success rate. The esthetics and bite, what we call occlusion, are all worked out in the laboratory before the patient receives the final prosthesis, giving the patient more hands-on total control and thereby reaching expectations.
If immediate results are what you are looking for, we provide an expert, safe, and professional same day implant service. Contact us for a free consultation.
- John C. Stone, DDS, Cosmetic Dentist, Ft. Lauderdale
Denture Facelifts
A happy couple with dentures - looking great!
The best thing that you can wear is a youthful appearance. When teeth are lost, the bone that
was where the teeth were dissolves, resorbs, and the facial appearance begins to fall inward, skin
droops, and generally one begins to look older regardless of age.
If one is unfortunate such that they lose all of their teeth and need to wear a complete denture, some of the tissue that had been lost can be replaced by the pink part or flange of the denture. If the teeth are positioned properly, and the flange is built out appropriately, the missing teeth can be replaced physiologically by the denture, essentially giving someone a “denture facelift”.
I have studied this phenomenon extensively as a specialist, and after doing this esthetic treatment for over 30 years, I consider myself somewhat of an expert in this concept. Actually, most dentists’ hate doing dentures, I absolutely love doing them. This is why Prosthodontics became my passion. I am confident that you will agree that a quality denture will enhance your youthful appearance and esthetics. My highly trained staff and I excel in the esthetic demands of the most discerning denture wearer. Contact us to learn more.
- John C. Stone, DDS, Cosmetic Dentist, Ft. Lauderdale
