Looking for an alternative to metal braces? ClearCorrect is the clear and simple choice. No wires. No brackets. Just clear, convenient comfort—every reason to smile.
With ClearCorrect, your dentist or orthodontist can straighten your teeth using a series of clear, custom, removable aligners. Each aligner moves your teeth just a little bit at a time until you eventually get straight teeth
Are you missing teeth? Then you are probably a great candidate for dental implants! Missing
teeth are unattractive and unhealthy, causing remaining teeth to drift out of position. This can
lead to a change in your bite, loss of additional teeth, tooth decay, gum disease, as well as
migraine headaches.
Dental implants are an amazing solution to missing teeth. Implants replace your natural tooth
roots to permanently and beautifully hold new, ceramic teeth.
Implants are actually small posts made of titanium, surgically placed into the bone socket to
replace the root of a missing tooth. A strong and durable replacement tooth, made to match your
surrounding natural teeth and blend perfectly, is then anchored in place to let you enjoy laughing
with confidence, smiling comfortably, and even eating your favorite foods.
If you have lost a single tooth because of a traumatic injury, congenital anomaly or advanced
decay, a dental implant is the most comfortable and convenient solution available. Though a
removable partial denture is one option for the replacement of a single tooth, most patients find
this alternative bulky and unsightly. Replacing a single tooth with an implant looks, feels and
functions just like a natural tooth, so you can get back to life!
Implants are also a great solution for anyone with ill-fitting or uncomfortable dentures or partials.
Dental implants give you a great sense of security – your dentures will never fall out or come
loose while you are eating, laughing or speaking.
With a dental implant, you will experience better health. Implants create a comfortable bite,
reduce chances of gum disease, enhance aesthetics and improve your speech.
It sounds just as wonderful as it is: A complete restoration, rejuvenation and rehabilitation of your mouth.
If your teeth appear short and worn from age or neglect, or completely overlap your bottom teeth, or if
you experience pain in the jaw joint, headaches, back pain, muscle tenderness or clicking or popping of
the jaw, then you should consider this procedure.
In our experience, complete smile restorations are not only changing appearances but also are
changing lives.
When complete, you can expect to have a pain-free, healthy bite. The shape of your face may change as
well, becoming more slender and defined, and your features may be more accentuated than before.
We’re experts at calming even the most phobic dental patients. We realize that some patients are apprehensive about receiving dental care.
That’s why we have worked hard to garner a reputation for making patients as comfortable and relaxed as possible.
We have many relaxation techniques available to help ease your jitters. Our most powerful is oral sedation, a pill that will relax you and even get you to sleep. The experience is soothing….calming….and sedating. This will prevent you from dealing with the apprehension and stress of the dental procedure.
While you are relaxed and comfortable, we will take care of all of your dental needs. In fact, we can perform years of dentistry in just one or two appointments. When the treatment is over you will leave the office with a healthy, beautiful smile.
Don’t put off your dentistry because of your fears. We can help you cope with them so you can get back to your life with a healthy smile.
Sedation dentistry is sometimes called “sleep dentistry”, because while you are sedated the doctor performs the treatment and when it is completed you will have no memory of any of it.
Sedation dentistry is completely safe. You will not be unconscious and will be able to respond and during the entire visit. The doctor and his specially trained team of dental professionals will monitor your vital signs and comfort throughout.
Dr. Kara or Dr. Jeremy will have a consultation with you to determine whether you are a candidate for sedation dentistry.
Patients must be between the ages of 18 and 80 to have sedation dentistry. We will perform a careful screening to determine if you have any medical conditions that may prevent you from being a candidate. We have found that several characteristics apply to patients who benefit from sedation dentistry.
People who have….
A companion must drive you to and from your appointment. The night before you will take a pill to begin the relaxation. About an hour before treatment begins you will take another pill. We will escort you to a comfortable chair and begin to monitor you. When you are comfortably sedated, Dr. Kara or Dr. Jeremy will begin your dental care.
When your treatment is finished, your companion will drive you home. Most likely, you will not remember your appointment.
No, this is called oral sedation or conscious sedation. There are no needles, tubes or IVs here. You just simply swallow a pill. You will be conscious throughout the procedure, yet you will be very relaxed and will be able to respond.
In all probability, you will not remember your visit. Many of our patients say, “I remember taking the pill, and the next thing I remember is waking up with my teeth looking beautiful.”
You may be sedated from two to eight hours, depending on the dental treatment that you need. Typically patients choose to have all of their dental work accomplished in one appointment. We can replace crowns or bridges, fix chipped teeth, whiten yellow or stained teeth, restore gums to good health.
Patients appreciate having years of dental work performed in one visit. Your companion does not need to be here for the entire visit. We can call your companion when you are ready to go home.
Chocolate has topped the poll for the thing that makes most people smile.
As this year’s National Smile Month comes to an end today, the British Dental Health Foundation has been asking hundreds of people what makes them smile the most. In a close fought competition a simple bar of chocolate has topped the poll, followed by ‘seeing a loved one’.
Food and ‘relationships’ were common inclusions in a bewildering array of things mentioned in the poll, which spontaneously gave people the ‘Smile factor’ – the theme of this year’s National Smile Month campaign run by the British Dental Health Foundation.
Around half of respondents featured chocolate on their list of items, with 60 per cent of women making it their favourite choice. Men preferred a Sunday roast to chocolate, but both scored highly.
The contagious nature of smiling was also highlighted by around a third of people saying they smiled when they ‘saw someone else smile’.
The Foundation also asked people to choose a colour which made them smile the most. The top polling answer was the nice summery colour yellow with around a third of votes.
Dr Nigel Carter, Chief Executive of the British Dental Health Foundation, said: “We hope this year’s National Smile Month campaign has brought a smile to many people’s faces and has helped to remind everyone about how to care for their teeth.
“It is clear the nation has a very sweet tooth and chocolate definitely has the smile factor. Chocolate may not be the best thing for your teeth, but if everyone follows the Foundation’s three rules for good oral health, it’s something that we can all continue to enjoy.
“As a final reminder for this year, we recommend adopting a simple routine of brushing for two minutes twice a day using a fluoride toothpaste, cutting down on how often you eat and drink sugary foods and drinks and visiting your dentist regularly, as often as they recommend,” advised Dr Carter.
Author: Medical News Today
Scientists have discovered the tool that bacteria, normally found in our mouths, use to invade heart tissue, causing a dangerous and sometimes lethal infection of the heart known as endocarditis. The work raises the possibility of creating a screening tool – perhaps a swab of the cheek, or a spit test – to gauge a dental patient’s vulnerability to the condition.
The identification of the protein that allows Streptococcus mutans to gain a foothold in heart tissue is reported in the June issue of Infection and Immunity by microbiologists at the University of Rochester Medical Center.
S. mutans is a bacterium best known for causing cavities. The bacteria reside in dental plaque – an architecturally sophisticated goo composed of an elaborate molecular matrix created by S. mutans that allows the bacteria to inhabit and thrive in our oral cavity. There, they churn out acid that erodes our teeth.
Normally, S. mutans confines its mischief to the mouth, but sometimes, particularly after a dental procedure or even after a vigorous bout of flossing, the bacteria enter the bloodstream. There, the immune system usually destroys them, but occasionally – within just a few seconds – they travel to the heart and colonize its tissue, especially heart valves. The bacteria can cause endocarditis – inflammation of heart valves – which can be deadly. Infection by S. mutans is a leading cause of the condition.
“When I first learned that S. mutans sometimes can live in the heart, I asked myself: Why in the world are these bacteria, which normally live in the mouth, in the heart? I was intrigued. And I began investigating how they get there and survive there,” said Jacqueline Abranches, Ph.D., a microbiologist and the corresponding author of the study.
Abranches and her team at the University’s Center for Oral Biology discovered that a collagen-binding protein known as CNM gives S. mutans its ability to invade heart tissue. In laboratory experiments, scientists found that strains with CNM are able to invade heart cells, and strains without CNM are not.
When the team knocked out the gene for CNM in strains where it’s normally present, the bacteria were unable to invade heart tissue. Without CNM, the bacteria simply couldn’t gain a foothold; their ability to adhere was about one-tenth of what it was with CNM.
The team also studied the response of wax worms to the various strains of S. mutans. They found that strains without CNM were rarely lethal to the worms, while strains with the protein were lethal 90 percent of the time. Then, when Abranches’ team knocked out CNM in those strains, they were no longer lethal – those worms thrived.
The work may someday enable doctors to prevent S. mutans from invading heart tissue. Even sooner, though, since some strains of S. mutans have CNM and others do not, the research may enable doctors to gauge a patient’s vulnerability to a heart infection caused by the bacteria.
Authur: Medical News Today
