Ask the Dental Experts

Friday, June 26, 2009

Houston Pediatric Dentistry

Infant tooth care
Pediatric dentistry begins as soon as your child gets his or her first tooth. As teeth come in, you should begin cleaning them after each feeding with a moist gauze pad or washcloth. You should also clean the gums. As your child grows, be sure to also floss his or her teeth, and pay attention to places where the teeth are close together.

Flossing
Flossing to plaque where a toothbrush cannot reach and is essential to keeping teeth and gums healthy.

Space maintainers
If a baby tooth is prematurely lost, it can cause a loss of space in the dental arch. Pediatric dentists use space maintainers to keep this from happening. It only takes two appointments, on the average, to make a space maintainer.

Disclosing tablets are used to expose hidden plaque
Plaque is the main culprit for cavities and gum disease, but it is virtually invisible to the naked eye. Dentists use disclosing tablets, made from bio-friendly vegetable dye, to stain the teeth bright red and expose the plaque.

Repair of fractured anterior teeth
New bonding techniques and materials used in pediatric dentistry now allow cosmetic dentists to restore a fractured tooth to virtually new condition.

Braces
Braces make it hard for children to remove all of the plaque from their teeth. Children should use a soft toothbrush with fluoride toothpaste. They should brush after every meal in a circular pattern.

Ankylosis
If a primary tooth loses its normal ligament connection to the jaw, it becomes fused directly to the bone. This often occurs with lower first molars. If this happens to your child, schedule a visit to a dentist immediately.

Stainless steel crowns
Pediatric dentists use stainless steel crowns to repair primary teeth that have been damaged by large cavities. These crowns are much less expensive than porcelain equivalents and can be placed in a single visit.

Filling procedure
A rubber dam, made from a stretchy, rubbery material, is placed in the mouth to act as a safety net against debris.

The dentist then removes the decay from the tooth and reshapes its surface with the handpiece. He or she molds the composite bonding material to fit the shape of the tooth and presses it into its surface.

Cavities
Cavities are possibly the biggest problem that growing children face. Dental hygiene and regular trips to the dentist are the best way to protect your children against rampant tooth decay, pain, and alignment problems that can result from teeth that are left unattended.

Pulpectomy
In pediatric dentistry, a pulpectomy is the equivalent of a root canal in an adult tooth. It removes the infected nerve and fills the space with bonding material.

Pulpotomy
This procedure is less intensive than a pulpectomy. It involves removing only some of the irritated portion of the pulp and leaves the remainder of healthy root canals intact.

Labels: cavities, cosmetic dental braces, dental fillings, pediatric dentistry, pulpectomy, pulpotomy, stainles steel crowns

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Diagnodent

Diagnodent is a new dental science that can detect the smallest amounts of tooth decay. This method is far more effective than previous treatments that have historically had difficulty locating cavities that hide in the pits and grooves of molars. In the past, dentists had to use by X-rays to find these cavities, but even then sometimes the very smallest of cavities were still t0o hard to detect.

Diagnodent is far more sophisticated. It uses a laser to scan the teeth. This laser consists of several wavelengths of light, including fluorescent light, which possesses a very unique quality. When it strikes a cavity, fluorescent light bounces off and returns to a sensor, which in turn converts its findings into a numeric readout. If the Diagnodent laser detects an actual cavity, it makes an audible sound.

People often ask us why such a sophisticated piece of technology like Diagnodent had to be invented to begin with just for the sake of finding cavities. The answer may be surprising to you. Detecting cavities is no longer easy. They are smaller than ever before because fluoride in city water supplies has changed caused tooth enamel to become much harder than it was in previous centuries. While it is true that fluoride successfully strengthens teeth against larger cavities, smaller pockets of tooth decay are still able are much, much harder to find. If these cavities do gain a foothold, they often penetrate directly into the dentin layer before they are finally discovered.

Diagnodent is a painless procedure, so if you are one of among the many people who simply cannot stand to have a dental probe in their mouths, you will certainly appreciate the benefits of laser technology. The comfort zone that the laser creates is simply amazing, because it makes going to the dentist a quick, simple, and painless experience.

Diagnodent is often used hand-in-hand with dental X-rays. X-rays are still very good at finding cavities between teeth, near the gumline, and close to tooth roots. However, they miss smaller cavities on the surface many times. When a laser is used as a complement to dental X-rays, then even the tiniest developing cavities do not escape from detection.

Whenever decay is found in its very early stages, dentists can treat it with far less expense and far less complicated treatment. Decay in its very early stages can be removed with micro-dentistry and air abrasion without having anesthetize the mouth and drill a hole in the tooth. Cosmetic dental bonding can then be used to repair the surface of the tooth after the decay has been removed. Dental bonding is much more natural-looking in appearance and more resilient to further wear on the teeth than standard metal fillings.

Labels: cavities, dental x-rays, diagnodent, tooth decay

Air Abrasion

Air abrasion is a new dental science that lets dentists remove the smallest possible amount of tooth structure while removing tooth decay. It also lets dental professionals use stronger, more natural looking cosmetic tooth restoration techniques. Air abrasion is truly both a tooth saver and a time saver.

During the 19th and 20th centuries, general dentists used manually operated tools. The traditional metal probe, which is actually still used in general dentistry today, was the mainstay tool for detecting pockets of tooth decay, and for removing tartar and decay from teeth. However, its main disadvantage lay in the fact that it removes a great deal of tooth surface area in the process. Over the past few years, dental science has developed new methods like micro-dentistry for detecting cavities that are far less invasive to tooth structure. Air abrasion is a new technology that allows for a minimum of tooth damage combined with the maximum possibility of tooth decay removal.

The key to its success is the ability of air abrasion to remove decay on teeth without touching them.
A special handpiece propels tiny, abrasive particles through a stream of clean, dry air onto the teeth. This is remarkably effective for solving a number of tooth problems. It is also effective for removing discolorations and stains, and it can repair and replaces small fillings. Most importantly, though, it used to exposes hidden cavities.

These cavities, although very small, are very much a big problem. Because municipal water supplies contain fluoride which hardens teeth, cavities now form as very tiny spots of decay on tooth enamel. These spots can then penetrate the hardened enamel and worth their way into the dentin. Because they are very hard to see with the naked eye, they are also very hard for dental instruments to detect and treat.

Special dyes have to be used to find these tiny cavities, and then air abrasion has to be employed to remove decay in order to repair the tooth with cosmetic dental bonding. Air abrasion and micro-dentistry offer many advantages over the typical way of dealing with cavities. There is no anesthetic or drilling involved. Also, there is little or no heat and the majority of the patients who receive air abrasion treatment find it to be remarkably comfortable as well as painless. People can come in, sit comfortably through the treatment, then drive back to work or back home with no side effects and no numbness in their mouths. This is perfect for busy professionals on the go.

The greatest thing about air abrasion is that it better preserves teeth than do probing tools and dental drills. Because only a minimal amount of tooth structure is removed, most of the natural tooth remains intact.

Labels: air abrasion, cavities, micro-dentistry, tooth decay

Houston Micro-Dentistry

A new dental technology called micro-dentistry uses special tools like dyes and air abrasion to detect, and remove tiny areas of tooth decay. Micro-dentistry was developed in response to municipalities putting fluoride in city water supplies. This was done to purify water of bacterial agents that could and did cause widespread tooth decay (and other ailments) in entire populations.

While the introduction of fluoride into municipal water supplies solved the problem of pandemic tooth decay, it had the secondary effect of changing the nature of tooth enamel itself. Fluoride hardens the surface of tooth enamel and makes it resistant to the formation of larger cavities. This does not prevent tooth decay completely, however. It simply changes the way tooth decay develops. Before introduction fluoride was introduced into water supplies, cavities normally struck the exposed grooves in the surface of a tooth. These cavities were very easy to detect with a dental explorer (the small metal probe used in general dentistry) and standard film dental x-rays. Everything is different now. The changes in enamel structure caused by fluoride in public drinking have caused cavities to be much smaller and difficult to diagnose than ever before. Micro-dentistry has been developed as a response to effectively counter this problem.

What now happens when a cavity forms is tooth decay penetrates what appears to be perfectly strong, intact tooth enamel. Cavities can then penetrate the softer dentin level underneath the outer surface of the tooth. If standard treatments are used, dentists have to detect (if they can) and treat these cavities very early on while they’re still in hard outer enamel layer. If a cavity reaches the inner dentin layer, it grows much more rapidly, and if it is not dealt with and stopped, it will infect the pulp and begin to kill the tooth root. This is where micro-dentistry has stepped in to provide some amazing alternatives to treatments (such as root canals or even tooth extractions) that would cost people a great deal of pain and money.

Micro-dentistry begins with the applications of a red or green dye that stains the teeth and reveals areas of decay. The dentist then uses air abrasion to gently clean the pits in dental enamel and to expand the narrow grooves in teeth so that we can better test the surface for the presence of any decay. By using much smaller instruments than those employed in regular dentistry, we can then repair the damaged tooth surface with a dental bonding compound or sealant

One big advantage offered by Micro-dentistry is its ability to remove only the smallest possible amount of tooth structure and when removing tooth decay. It is also a painless procedure that should require no anesthetic.

Labels: air abrasion, cavities, dental dyes, fluoride, micro-dentistry, tooth decay, tooth enamel