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We’re here to ensure you have all the information you need for a healthy, confident smile. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, feel free to contact our friendly team—we’re always happy to help!
At your first appointment, we use this time to get to know you and let you get to know us too. While you are here for this first visit, we do a very detailed exam of your teeth, your gums and bone, your occlusion (bite), and your muscles and jaw joint. We will take radiographs and pictures. Once we have all this data, then we can recommend the ideal treatment for you and you can make that treatment decision with your doctor together.
Usually, you will be numb for about 3-5 hours total, including the time you are sitting in the chair. If it is more convenient for you, your doctor can give you a dose of a REVERSAL agent to help that numb feeling go away quicker. We offer this at no charge as a courtesy to our patients.
A dental Assistant can be certified or trained on the job. They often go to school for up to a year after high school or more and learn medical history, dental materials, dental anatomy, radiography, and infection control. They are often a very important right hand of the dentist and are often trained in Nitrous (laughing gas), temporaries for crowns and veneers, cord packing, design and fabrication of CEREC crowns, and more. They are essential to the day-to-day efficient running of all dental practices.
On the other hand, a dental hygienist goes to 2-4 more years of school after high school and treats the patient on their own. They are responsible for reviewing medical histories, taking radiographs, doing periodontal exams, oral cancer screenings, oral hygiene instruction, tobacco cessation instruction, nutrition counseling, and scaling both healthy and periodontally involved mouths. They are often the only provider a patient sees other than an exam by the doctor for a few minutes, where they present all their findings to the doctor in a precise and organized manner.
People often make treatment decisions based solely on what their insurance will cover, assuming that their insurance “knows what is good for me”. Unfortunately, this is not usually the case. Every patient’s dental needs are different and unique. This is why your doctor will do your exam and make recommendations based specifically on your needs. Your insurance company is a business and YOU are NOT the customer, your workplace is!!
We use the term “dental benefits” to try to help patients understand what they are getting from their “dental insurance”. Dental insurance was started in the 1970’s by dentists with an idea to help out their patients. At that time, the benefit allowed was $1000.
As you can see, that amount hasn’t changed much if at all but in 1970 $1000 bought a LOT MORE of everything!!! This is why we don’t participate with “dental insurance companies” because we don’t believe they offer much in the way of benefits. We do believe they will give each person in the family some benefits each year, up to your yearly maximum, but it is different for every person and every plan. As we’ve said before, you, the patient, are NOT the customer, your WORKPLACE is.
We are very particular about why and when we take x-rays. We follow the American Dental Association’s recommendation to take bitewing x-rays once per year, and a full set of x-rays every 3-5 years. If your dentition has no fillings and no decay, we can delay x-rays up to 12 months depending on your oral hygiene. If you have a very high decay rate, you might find us recommending x-rays more often than once per year.
A full set of x-rays is necessary every 3-5 years, per American Dental Association recommendations. Dentists follow this in order to examine your bone, the apices of your teeth for infection or resorption, your sinuses, your TMJ (temporomandibular joint), and your teeth for decay. It is much easier (and less expensive) to treat an issue when it is found early than to treat it when it is far progressed, just like any other disease. If you have never had one before, we do one at age 18 to have a baseline to compare to.
We find soda and energy drinks cause a lot of decay in our regularly filling-free population of teenagers. This is because there is an incredible amount of sugar (even if it is in the form of carbohydrates for our athletes) in these drinks, and they are often sipped over a longer period of time which leaves more time for the acids to bathe the teeth and cause decay. We recommend no soda at all in the diet or maybe once a week with a meal as a treat. Water is the very best drink for the teeth and also hydration. To keep decay away, daily flossing is needed since liquids can get into every nook and cranny.
Cracks in your teeth can be caused by clenching and grinding or chewing on very hard things like almonds, ice or candy. A crack might appear to be very small, but bacteria is quite small in comparison too, and can sneak into those cracks and affect the pulp (or nerve) of any tooth. This is why we “report” and “chart” all those cracks in your teeth, and you will probably hear us recommend a crown on teeth that have cracks. If left untreated, you may possibly need a root canal in the future or even an extraction if the bacteria is left unchecked inside the tooth. Nobody knows how long is too long!
As soon as the first tooth appears in your child’s mouth, start brushing! Of course, this may look different than what you do for your own teeth. You can use a dry gauze to wipe that tooth or a baby-size DRY toothbrush. No toothpaste is recommended at this age BUT it IS recommended when your child turns 1 year old. WHY? To help get your child used to the taste of it. Use a VERY MINIMAL amount until the child can spit and then only a small pea size. Fluoride toothpaste is always recommended, and often Fluoride chewable vitamins are recommended if you don’t live with Fluoridated water. Ask your dental hygienist for a FREE WATER TEST KIT to check for Fluoride in your water.
Decay can be caused by being put to bed with bottles of juice or milk. We know that as a parent you want to make the best choices for your children in order to ensure they eat right, stay healthy, and have healthy teeth. You may be surprised to learn that giving your children fruit juice can actually do a lot more harm than good. Fruit juices, even ones that are labeled “ALL NATURAL,” or “ORGANIC,” contain sugar, which causes serious decay.
The decay problems that we see in our office are caused by fruit juices more than any other cause. Parents who are aware of the sugar in the juice and the risk for decay from that sugar sometimes think if they add water to the juice it will reduce the risk. This is incorrect. Even if juice were watered to a ratio of 10 to 1, it would still be just as dangerous. The sugar is still there, and there is still enough of it to get into every crack and crevice in your child’s teeth and can cause massive decay.
Children who are put to bed with bottles of juice are sure to have decay problems at a very young age. Bottles of milk at bedtime are just as detrimental to your child’s oral health. There are natural sugars in milk and fruit juice that will pool around the teeth while a child sleeps. When children sleep, their saliva flow is reduced, which does not allow for those sugars and acids to be washed away.
The best practice is to not use a bottle at bedtime. If a bottle must be used at bedtime until the habit can be broken, only use fresh, unflavored, natural water in the bottle or sippy cup.
We hope this information will help you to maintain optimal oral health. Please feel free to ask our doctors or staff members any questions you have regarding this subject. We truly want to help you maintain the best oral and physical health possible!
Cosmetic dentistry is the discipline in dentistry that is focused on the change in appearance of a patient’s teeth and soft tissue. This can be done with procedures such as tooth whitening, porcelain veneers, bonding, porcelain crowns, orthodontics, and recontouring of the gum tissue to create the appearance of a natural, ideal, healthy smile. This uses the same materials and methods as regular fillings and crowns but can sometimes be more extensive than restorative dentistry. The treatment plan is usually based on what the patient’s wants are, instead of needs.
Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday
8:15am – 5:00pm
Thursday
9:15am – 5:00pm
Friday–Sunday
Closed
