Northwest Arkansas Dentists » tooth

Facts About Wisdom Teeth

admin — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 19:41:15 +0000

A large number of people do not have room for wisdom teeth. This may be the result of an evolutionary change because our diet has changed over thousands of years and we don’t eat as many greens and nuts and our jaws are not as big as they used to be. We are seeing more and more people in the past few generations did not even form some of their wisdom teeth. Those who do have wisdom teeth and don’t have room for them will get impacted teeth. When a tooth becomes impacted it can do damage to the tooth in front of it.

Depending on how it’s sitting in the jaw bone(or what happens in most cases) the wisdom tooth will come part way out of the jaw and then the gum tissue surrounding the enamel covered crown of the tooth can’t adhere to the enamel and a pocket forms. Food can get trapped in the pocket and cause an infection caused periocornitis. This infection causes swelling and pus from around the wisdom tooth that will come and go but become more frequent and severe over time. Quite often it is necessary to remove those wisdom teeth and, in many cases, it is a surgical procedure to extract the tooth.

In our office, we provide IV sedation so that the patient isn’t aware of the treatment while it is going on, and will recover better than with just using a local anesthetic. Taking out wisdom teeth is sometimes an elective thing but it is usually best to do it when the patient is younger before the bone becomes dense. Early extraction also gives less likelihood of the wisdom teeth causing damage to the other teeth, caused by the patient’s bite or resorption of the tooth in front of it. If extraction of wisdom teeth is ignored and it is growing into the molar in front of it, the patient may get almost like decay but its resorption similar to the resorption you get when permanent teeth come under the baby teeth and resorp the roots. Sometimes if you ignore it, you will end up losing multiple teeth: the wisdom tooth and the one in front of it, and then the one above it because it doesn’t have a tooth to function against. For these reasons, extraction of wisdom teeth is an important thing to evaluate at an early stage.

What is the Purpose of Dental Implants?

admin — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 16:42:13 +0000

For over 25 years dental implants have provided a natural looking solution for replacing missing teeth and for stabilizing or anchoring dentures. Before placing the dental implant into the jawbone, an analysis is taken to determine how the upper and lower jaw functions together. In addition, photographs, x-rays, and molds are taken of the teeth, smile, mouth, and jawbones.

Based on the analysis, we develop a plan that is in harmony with the patient’s goals and desired outcome. Most commonly, the patient’s goal is to replace their missing teeth, to use implants in place of their partial dentures, or for use with their dentures to create stability when chewing.

Some implants need time (four to six months) to fuse to the jawbone so that they will be strong enough to hold the crowns, bridges, or dentures. Implants usually require a surgical and restorative phase, but in some cases they can be used almost immediately after placement in the jawbone.

Typically, dental implants replace the roots of the missing teeth in the bone so that whatever attaches to it will be more stable. Individuals who have lost many of their teeth, if they have enough bone, have many options for stabilizing and making their dentures more functional with implants. Implants can also be used to build fixed bridges attached in part of the mouth, which is more like replacing teeth that the patient can really bite with. The advantages of putting in implants underneath the denture is, in addition to support, it stimulates the health of the bone and keeps it from resorbing as it does when it has a denture placed on top of it. One of the problems we have is that when the teeth are taken out, the bone begins to shrink down as it responds to the pressure of the dentures.

Over years of wearing dentures, the bone continues to shrink and eventually the dentures do not fit the mouth. Implants slow down this process dramatically by stimulating the bone to stay healthy and keep it from resorbing. The dentures will last longer because the underlying areas of the bone are healthier.

If you would like to learn more about implant dentistry to see if it is the best option for your goals for oral heath and beauty, please contact our office to schedule an evaluation.

Stabilizing Your Dentures for Comfort AND Function

admin — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 19:49:44 +0000

We have become passionate about learning more about dentures over the past several years. Early in our dental practice we saw a new patient who was in her thirties and had dentures since she was sixteen years old. She had absolutely no bone left and could not wear her dentures. Back then we did everything that was known at the time to help her and this sent us on a quest as life-long students in dentistry. In today’s dentistry we have better answers, but at the time she was still unable to chew with her dentures. Our newest technology gives us options such as bone grafting, implants, and other stabilization. However, if a patient loses their teeth and simply puts plastic over the gums, they are going to be orally handicapped. For this reason, we do the best restoration that we can that is functional and aesthetic. This approach makes the patient look like they should look if they had their original teeth. That was a problem for most dentures in the past because, as the lower jaw shrinks, the neutral zone between the tongue and lip moves back. To keep your denture from having this constant movement of being pushed back and up, you couldn’t support that lower lip like you normally would. That’s why so many people with dentures look older-because they are not supporting the lips plus they wear them way to long and the jaw is over closed. As the jaw is over closed then you get the “Andy Gump” look where the chin almost meets the nose.

One of the things we do with our dentures is to work with our patients so that they can tolerate having their bite over to where it should be. And now, as a standard of care, someone who is missing a lot of bone in the lower jaw, if possible, should have implants. If you can stabilize the denture and support the lip where it should be, it takes years off the patient’s face.

Advancements with Fillings

admin — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 19:41:16 +0000

There has been a lot of progress made in the area of filling materials for teeth for small areas of decay. Previously, silver imogen was the major choice for dentists. One downside of these silver fillings is that they are held in mechanically so the dentist has to undercut the preparation to get it to lock in to the tooth, resulting in the removal of good tooth structure to get it to mechanically lock in to the tooth. Because they did have to make a larger opening to put in a silver filling, dentists were many times reluctant to fill the smaller cavities, waiting until the cavities were bigger to put in bigger fillings. The bigger a silver filling gets, the more discrepancy there is in the coefficient of expansion. This means the metallic filling will expand and contract more than the tooth structure it is in when making contact with hot and cold foods. When this happens over an extended period of time, often times the teeth will crack or the margin between the filling and tooth will break down, causing leakage. The biggest problem found with baby boomers who received these big silver fillings when they were young, is most of them needed crowns as they grew older. So now there is a push to perform less invasive dentistry and the composite resins have come a long way from previous generations. The composite tooth color restorations wear more like tooth structure now and they bond to the tooth so the dentist doesn’t need to rely on undercuts. This allows us to remove just the decayed area itself and bond the filling into the tooth, preserving more structural integrity to the tooth.

Because we are taking care of decay at an earlier stage and using filling that bond to the tooth that have a coefficient of expansion that is more similar to the tooth structure, there are fewer cracked teeth caused by the restoration, the fillings are smaller so they last longer, and cosmetically they blend to look more like part of the teeth.

When fillings get to be a certain size, regardless of the material, you are exceeding the limits of that material for it to be an effective restorative product. In this case, porcelain restorations can be shaped and cast to fit in or on the tooth and bond to the tooth. This solution can be effective for teeth that need full coverage to protect where they have been cracked or broken. Often times now we don’t have to do a full crown when we can do different shaped restorations that bond to the teeth and maintain more structural integrity to the tooth.

Whitening and Bleaching Teeth

admin — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 19:57:30 +0000

Bleaching and whitening is a popular service in dentistry. When done correctly, bleaching has evolved to be safe, effective, and to not damage the teeth. We caution patients about using some over-the-counter whitening products. While many are safe, most are not as strong as what we use at our office and some contain high levels of acid. Short term this will make the teeth whiter because it removes some of the minerals and reflects more light, but it is actually damaging to the teeth over long-term use. Some of these products also make the teeth more sensitive. We are careful to use products that cause less sensitivity and bleaching teeth is a routine service.

Patients who are considering restorations to their front teeth, whether composite fillings or crowns, should consider bleaching before the restorative work because bleaching can not be done afterwards.

What is Sedation Dentistry?

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:01:21 +0000

A large segment of the population does not seek proper dental care because of fear. Today there are several options that make dentistry much more comfortable. For years nitrous oxide has been available, which is an analgesic gas that raises the pain threshold and alleviates anxiety. This is a good solution for many patients and the gas is out of the system within just a few minutes of breathing oxygen afterwards, so a designated driver is not necessary after treatment.

Some individuals are reluctant to even just have their teeth cleaned because of fear. For these individuals we have oral medication that can be taken 45 minutes to an hour before their appointment that will alleviate their anxiety. The medication is strong enough to really do an effective job so these patients will need a designated driver after treatment.

If we are going to be doing significant dentistry on an individual who is not comfortable sitting for an extended amount of time or has an extreme fear, IV sedation is available. This is a safe method of sedating the patient so that they will not have an unpleasant memory of the treatment. They will not be unconscious, as with general anesthesia, so there are not extreme dangers associated with this sedation. Patients can still respond and inform us if something is bothering them so that we can respond accordingly.

Sedation dentistry allows us to help individuals who have had years of neglect and sometimes get them back to good oral health in just one or two appointments. Once they are healthy, our goal is to keep them in good oral health.

What is a Root Canal?

admin — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 13:06:56 +0000

Sometimes there is dead or dying tissue in the canal that holds the roots of the teeth which can cause an abscess, sometimes it is painless but many times it can be a painful experience for the patient. A solution is making an opening into the canal that is in the roots and then removing the diseased tissue from the tooth all the way to the tip of the root and cleaning, shaping, and disinfecting the inside of the canal and then sealing with a plastic material and cement so that bacteria can’t get from the bloodstream back into that space again. In the canal, when it gets infected, the first thing that happens is an increase in blood flow, which causes swelling. The swelling cuts off the blood supply and then the blood can’t fight the bacteria. This causes dead and diseased tissue which becomes a continuous source of food for the bacteria. They grow and then an abscess occurs when the bacteria start getting out to the end of the root and that is when a patient will experience a throbbing pain.

Some symptoms can be sensitivity to hot and cold that lingers afterward, spontaneous throbbing pain, and pain upon chewing. These symptoms do not necessarily mean that the patient needs a root canal. For example, cold sensitivity, if it goes away immediately, may be a sign of an irritated but healthy nerve. However, if you have hot on a tooth and it lingers for a long period of time, most of the time that will be a tooth that needs a root canal.

The most common scenario where it is necessary to do a root canal is if there is infection in the root from decay. Occasionally a root canal is also necessary due to trauma, a cracked tooth, and in rare instances during tooth restoration if the canal is to close to the surface of the tooth.

Facial Beauty and the Role of Dentistry

admin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:16:01 +0000

As dentists, when we get the teeth to the right position in the facial structure, it purses the lips, makes them look fuller, and it gets rid of a lot of the initial wrinkles that form early in life around the mouth…And also the most important part of dentistry, as it relates to facial beauty, is in people who have a bad bite or have tmj problems. These individuals always have a tenseness in the muscles of the face because of chronic pain, or as they wear their teeth-their mouth over closes. If you restore health and comfort, the muscles relax and the face takes on a totally different youthful appearance.

In the teeth that are worn – that’s when you start getting the profile where the chin sticks out too far and the lower third of the face appears too short. This makes people look like they are wearing dentures even with their natural teeth. So for restoration done on the mouth, with a proper bite that opens right to the level where the muscles work best, tis will also add greatly in the facial beauty and rejuvenation of the face. We recommend for individuals who have a dental issue, to get that fixed before they consider doing a face lift or any cosmetic surgery. You can reduce the amount of surgery that is needed and, sometimes that eliminates the need for a face lift for some of the problems around the mouth. If there is someone who does need facial work, having a beautiful smile to go with it dramatically increases the effectiveness of the results.

When someone looks at a person for the first time, they notice their eyes, then they notice their smile, then they notice their other facial features. The smile is an incredible part of projecting beauty and youthfulness. For anyone who has had the misfortune of having to have gone to dentures, it’s important that those dentures get relined or replaced frequently enough to maintain the support of the lips and the height of the teeth to keep them from looking old before their time. In some cases you can tie that into implants because, to keep the dentures in the right place and to keep the gums from being sore, implants become necessary.

Sinuses and Teeth Positioning – Relationship

admin — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:33:23 +0000

If you have an abscess tooth, and its not hurting too bad, it could be draining in to the sinus, causing chronic sinus irritation. When you look at an x-ray of the upper tooth, the roots are visible up there and the sinus comes down – usually following a pattern of that root. In other words, the roots are holding that up and when you take the tooth out, there is constant gentle pressure there inside the sinus. The bone reacts to pressure and the bone in the maxilla is softer bone. So it does what we call numatizes that area.: the sinus starts enlarging, getting bigger because it is gently pushing that bone and the bone is resorbing (losing substance).

We see a many individuals who, when their teeth are out, have paper thin bone between the ridge and the sinus. If it’s a denture, then that can be tender all the time when they have sinus problems, and the bone goes away so we don’t have a place to put the implants. If the teeth have been removed and left our for a long time, you can still get implants, but you have to go through a grafting procedure to raise the sinus floor and grow new bone to put implants in. The other thing that is particularly prominent when you have a tooth on the side but the middle teeth are missing, is the sinus comes down and now you have a low spot where the fluids are always sitting. This makes the individual more prone to get infections.

What are some symptoms that may indicate that the sinus problems you are having may be related to your teeth? If you had a tooth taken out and you want to have it replaced you should do it sooner rather than later so that the sinus doesn’t numatize and you don’t require an extra surgery.