Our teeth

The visible part of a tooth, otherwise known as the crown, is only a small portion of the living system. The crown is made up of enamel, the hardest substance found within the body. It is bone that has been enriched with large percentages of calcium. That's why people who drink lots of milk or take calcium supplements have strong bones and teeth. The enamel is thickest at the crown, and thinnest near the roots of the teeth.

Throughout your life you end up having 2 completely different sets of teeth. The initial set is the baby teeth (deciduous teeth) that eventually fall out. They are whiter, softer, and less sturdy than adult teeth. Hence, they tend to wear out much faster than permanent teeth, but they also fall out to make room for them. Making sure that there's enough space in the vacancy caused by a lost baby tooth is important for healthy adult teeth.

New developments include the implantation of artificial teeth or binding posts into the gums or jawbone; antibiotic fiber for periodontal disease; root canal surgery, a procedure that ameliorates pain while permitting teeth to remain in place; and nearly painless lasers to repair dental cavities, usually making local anesthesia unnecessary.

Dental crowns

Grinding your teeth, an improper bite, age, fillings and tooth decay can all be contributing factors in the wearing down, cracking or breakage of your teeth. Dental crowns cover the entire visible surface of your affected tooth and add strength, durability and tooth stability.

In other instances, crowns are used to replace a actual missing tooth. These crowns are anchored to the teeth on either side, with a bridge section connecting the two crowns. Instead of bridges, single tooth dental implants may be used that eliminate the need for supporting the crowns.

Be sure to discuss with your cosmetic dentist that the cement color used for your permanent crown will be the same as used for your temporary crown. A try in paste is used for this purpose. The color of the cement does affect the overall color of a porcelain crown, so this needs to be discussed long before your temporary crown is placed.

In some cases your cosmetic dentist may choose to use a Flipper instead of a temporary crown. A Flipper is a false tooth to temporarily take the place of a missing tooth before the permanent crown is placed. A Flipper can be attached via either a wire or a plastic piece that fits in the roof of your mouth. Flippers are meant to be a temporary solution while awaiting the permanent crown.

Teeth whitening

Teeth whitening can be accomplished many different ways. Considered a cosmetic procedure, teeth whitening has become very popular in recent years with the development of various methods that range from drugstore products to dental visits.

While there is no medical need to whiten teeth, it is a procedure that can have a big impact on a person's self-esteem. Severely yellowed or discolored teeth can make a person self-conscious and reluctant to smile.

Dentists are able to provide much more dramatic teeth whitening. Some patients opt for a take-home kit that provides results in a few days, while others choose a one-hour procedure that uses advanced technologies to immediately bleach teeth several shades lighter. Take-home kits usually involve custom-fit trays with a whitening gel of carbamide peroxide, to be worn for several hours at a time over some number of weeks as determined by the dentist. These kits are usually less expensive than the one-visit whitening procedures.

Mild side effects are to be expected with any teeth whitening procedure, and may range from slight discomfort to sensitivity to hot and cold. While serious side effects are extremely rare, any extended sensations of pain should immediately be reported to a dentist. Irritation to the gums and mouth tissues should also be watched for and reported if persistent.

Teeth contouring and reshaping

You maybe candidate for tooth contouring and reshaping, if you want your teeth to appear less crowded, lack chips and fractures, have decreased overlaps or to be without pits or grooves in the enamel, this procedure should be discussed with your cosmetic dentist.

Tooth reshaping, or tooth sculpting, is a safe and conservative way to improve your smile. Teeth may become weaker if large amounts of enamel are removed, tooth reshaping should be limited to minor changes or combined with veneers or bonding for the best smile.

The cosmetic dentist will mark your teeth with a pencil prior to performing the procedure. This helps the cosmetic dentist in their sculpting process. As your cosmetic dentist sculpts the tooth, imperfections are artfully eliminating or minimized. A sanding drill or laser may be used to remove small amounts of surface enamel gradually. Abrasive strips are then moved back and forth between your teeth to shape the actual sides of your teeth. Then the teeth are smoothed and polished. Usually anesthetic is not needed. Teeth contouring and reshaping usually takes one to three visits.

Dental bonding

Bonding is a composite resin filling placed in the back teeth as well as the front teeth. Composites are the solution for restoring decayed teeth, making cosmetic improvements and even changing the color of your teeth or the reshaping of teeth. Bonding will lighten any stains you may have, close up minor gaps and can be used to correct crooked teeth.

A very mild etching solution is applied to your teeth to create very small crevices in the tooth's enamel structure. These small crevices provide a slightly rough surface permitting a durable resin to bond materials to your teeth. The resin is then placed on your tooth and high-intensity light cures the resins onto your tooth's surface - with each individual layer of resin hardening in just minutes. When the last coat has been applied to your tooth, the bonded material is then sculpted to fit your tooth and finely polished.

Teeth straightening

Lingual braces are similar to classic orthodontic braces but are attached to the backside of the teeth, rather than the front. Although they still have many of the problems of standard braces, they are not visible and may be chosen by adults who do not wish for visible braces. Lingual braces are more expensive than standard braces but the fastest method of "invisible" teeth straightening.

Some tenderness and soreness is to be expected with any method of teeth straightening, especially soon after an adjustment is made. The bone on one side of each tooth socket will be compressed, and the other side must be filled in with new bone as the tooth moves through the jaw. Standard orthodontic braces may cause superficial irritation to the interior of the mouth, a symptom that can be reduced with salt water gargles and a soft wax on the surface of the brackets. Severe side effects to teeth straightening are nearly unheard of, and the process is considered very safe.

Dental fillings

If you have a cavity in a tooth, broken fillings, mercury fillings, or amalgam fillings, this type of dental filling is well worth discussing with your dentist. Mercury fillings or amalgam fillings can easily be removed and replaced with far more attractive colored fillings. These fillings actually strengthen your tooth beyond the level it had with the amalgam fillings.

Composite resins may also be used to enhance the appearance of any tooth, which is a tooth bonding procedure. The composite resin will strengthen and enhance the natural tooth structure as it does with use as a dental filling.

Composite resin fillings are applied in thin layers, and slowly built up to form the complete filling. A bright dental light will harden each layer before the next is applied. Once your filling is completed, your dentist will use a special paper, articulating paper, to adjust the height of your dental filling and that your bite remains correct. Your tooth is then polished.

There are no known health risks of receiving composite fillings. If such a filling is not going to be enough to protect your damaged tooth, or if your tooth enamel is thin and will easily fracture, or if your tooth has had a root canal that weakened your tooth condition, your tooth may require additional protection such as a crown.

Teeth bridges

In areas of your mouth that are under less stress, such as your front teeth, a cantilever bridge may be used. Cantilever bridges are used when there are teeth on only one side of the open space. Bridges can reduce your risk of gum disease, help correct some bite issues and even improve your speech. Bridges require your commitment to serious oral hygiene, but will last as many ten years or more.

If you a space from a missing tooth, a bridge will be custom made to fill in the space with a false tooth. The false tooth is attached by the bridge to the two other teeth around the space - bridging them together.

The dentist will then make an impression, which will serve as the model from which the bridge, false tooth and crowns will be made by a dental laboratory. A temporary bridge will be placed for you to wear while your bridge is being made until your next visit. This temporary bridge will serve to protect your teeth and gums.

Definition interpreting

Dental fillings

• Dental fillings are inserted as restorations in the treatment of dental cavities, after drilling out the cavities.

Dental implants

• Dental implants are surgically fixed substitutes for roots of missing teeth. Embedded in the jawbone, they act as anchors for a replacement tooth, also known as a crown, or a full set of replacement teeth.

Dentures

• Removable complete dentures are full-mouth false teeth, which are used when a patient has no teeth left on either the mandibular arch, the maxillary arch, or both.

Veneer

• A layer of tooth-colored material, usually porcelain or acrylic resin, attached to and covering the surface of a metal crown or natural tooth structure.

Anesthesia

• Total or partial loss of sensation, especially tactile sensibility, induced by disease, injury, acupuncture, or an anesthetic, such as chloroform or nitrous oxide.


• Local or general insensibility to pain with or without the loss of consciousness, induced by an anesthetic.


• A drug, administered for medical or surgical purposes, that induces partial or total loss of sensation and may be topical, local, regional, or general, depending on the method of administration and area of the body affected.

Bridge

• A dental bridge is a prosthesis used in place of missing teeth and may be removable or permanently attached.

Dental cavities

• The formation of cavities in the teeth by the action of bacteria; tooth decay.


• Also known colloquially as tooth decay.

Dental crown

• Full-coverage restoration (sometimes incorrectly called a cap) is a prosthetic tooth designed by a dentist and usually created by a lab technician.

Porcelain

• A hard, white, translucent ceramic made by firing a pure clay and then glazing it with variously colored fusible materials.

Stomatology

• The medical study of the mouth and its diseases.

Tooth bleaching

• Also known as tooth whitening.

The right way for being beauty