How to Improve Your Dental Health in the Next 12 Months

There’s something more important, in a way, than your New Year goals. It’s maintaining consistency in what matters ALL year long.

Your dental health is certainly one of those areas that deserves consistent attention. Now that your mind is fresh with thoughts of the New Year why not include some oral health essentials among your priorities?

Four Dental Health Solutions to Prioritize All Year

Consistent preventive dentistry

The longterm health of your teeth and gums depends on routine dental care habits. Your lifestyle choices and common neglect can cause your oral health to decline.

Do this:

Monitor your diet. Prioritize good nutrition by asking about and including teeth “friendly” foods and beverages.

Brush and floss everyday. This is a fundamental for keeping your teeth and gums free from decay and disease.

Calendar you and your family’s dental examinations and teeth cleanings. These twice yearly appointments go a step beyond your at-home dental care to assure that your teeth and gums stay healthy and disease free.

Attack any signs of gum disease

Periodontal (gum) disease is responsible for adult tooth loss. In fact, it’s the number one cause for it plus gum disease can lead to other health risks including heart disease.

Do this:

Stay up to date on your dental examinations and teeth cleanings. These appointments are essential to remove the build up of plaque and tartar from your teeth.

Be aware of any signs of gum infection. Inflamed, bleeding, or infected gums can indicate that something is wrong.

Schedule a deep cleaning when it’s recommended. Scaling and root planing remove the bacteria that multiply within the hardened plaque and tartar on your teeth and beneath your gum line.

Treat your missing and damaged teeth

Missing or damaged teeth can begin a chain-reaction of oral health problems. Misalignment, decay, and bone tissue loss can result from delayed treatment.

Do this:

Get informed about your tooth replacement solutions. Dental implants are a secure, long-lasting missing tooth solution that restores your tooth function and appearance.

Schedule a dental examination following tooth loss or tooth damage. Chips, fractures, or broken teeth can be diagnosed and restored with dental crowns, dental fillings, dental bonding, and veneers.

Know and use your available dental insurance benefits

Your dental insurance should renew each calendar year. This provides you a new amount of benefits for reducing your out-of-pocket costs for treatment.

Do this:

Communicate with your insurance provider about your annual renewal and available benefits.

Schedule the dentistry that’s been treatment planned for you or that you’ve been postponing. Use your benefits before the end of each year.

Contact your Wayne dentist about your dental health goals. Schedule your next dental examination and teeth cleaning to stay current on your treatment.

How Protecting Your Dental Veneers Can Create Lasting Value for Your Investment

How are your investments doing? Your first reaction is likely related to your financial portfolio.

What about your health portfolio? More specifically, your dental health portfolio?

Restorative and cosmetic dentistry provide you a variety of investment opportunities. Each have value to your oral health and your appearance.

Consider veneers

Dental veneers restore your front, smile-zone teeth to a natural looking, attractive condition. Veneers are most often crafted from thin, porcelain shells that are bonded to front surface of your teeth.

Porcelain veneers are effective for:

-Treating your dull, stained teeth

-Repairing your crooked, crowded, broken, chipped, and misshapen teeth

-Filling the gap(s) between your front teeth

Treatment with veneers can also eliminate the need for ongoing teeth whitening. And your dental veneer procedure can restore your smile within two in-office appointments.

Long-term investment value

The costs of your veneer treatment can vary. Compared to the long-term value to your health and appearance they are a cost-effective investment.

If ignored, your tooth imperfections can have a negative impact on your health and increase your treatment costs. Compare your investment in dental veneers with the lasting value they provide your health and appearance.

As you’re considering an investment in dental veneers we recommend that you ask your insurance provider (if applicable) about coverage. This could give you cost reducing options, if your provider coverage allows.

How to protect your investment

Treat your dental investments, including veneers, as you would any of your financial decisions. Protect your dental veneers to assure that they last and are not damaged.

Preventive dentistry is a priority. Care for your veneers by brushing and flossing daily and stay consistent with your professional, in-office teeth cleanings and dental examinations.

You can also protect your veneers with a night guard. This oral appliance is essential if you experience teeth grinding (bruxism).

Be aware of the foods and beverages you consume. Coffee, tea, and red wine can increase the risk of staining your veneers.

Your investment in dental veneers has longevity with proper care. Expect them to function effectively for up to 15 years.

Contact our Wayne dental office about cosmetic dentistry and restorative dentistry. Schedule a dental examination to discuss dental veneers.

Does Your Dental Implant Treatment Need a “Lift?”

Some things require a “team-effort.” For example, dental implant treatment relies on a supportive environment from top to bottom to be successful and long-term effective.

One factor that impacts your procedure involves your sinus cavity. It depends on the structure of your anatomy in the upper quadrant of your mouth.

The roots of your upper molars can be located too close to your sinus area. If this is the case, you will experience an opening into the sinus cavity following the loss of an upper molar.

This would also cause a problem for the implant post being placed in that location.

Your all-around health

Your dental implant (wherever it’s located) requires healthy bone tissue. The bone near your sinus is thin and is therefore not adequate to support an implant.

When replacing a missing upper molar the lower sinus area will need to be lifted or augmented. A sinus lift makes it possible for your new tooth structure to be placed.

About your lift

A sinus lift will add thickness to your bone structure. It’s common on occasion to experience some congestion following the procedure.

Your congestion will clear up during the healing procedure. Once healed you will have normal breathing function, voice clarity, and no additional complications to any allergies you might have.

A sinus lift procedure ultimately improves the success of your implant treatment and allows you to enjoy solid, restored tooth function with a dental implant.

Contact your Wayne dentist about dental implant treatment. Schedule an examination to access the health of your bone tissue to prepare for a successful procedure.

The Advantages of White, Tooth-Colored Fillings Over Metal Fillings

Restorative or reconstructive dentistry can almost seem like a super-power. It’s where your tooth damage, decay, and cavities meet their match.

What’s more convincing?

Treatment for cavities once relied solely on metal fillings. Mercury based materials were the go-to solution until their safety among other issues was questioned.

A healthier choice

White, tooth-colored fillings are now the “gold-standard”. They’re above all a safer alternative to metal.

Silver, amalgam fillings have a tendency to darken over time. It’s also common for metal fillings to require the loss of more tooth structure during the procedure.

This increases the risk of weakening your tooth. Metal fillings can “leak” or open the door to the potential for additional tooth decay to affect your treated tooth or your surrounding teeth.

In addition to being safer

Tooth-colored fillings are less noticeable. The materials used closely match the color and shade of your natural tooth surface.

The composite or resin used for your filling will maintain a white color. Unlike metal fillings, the composite substance will fade less and not darken over time.

Your new tooth-colored filling will restore your tooth to it’s natural appearance. The procedure can be completed most often in one appointment.

Contact our Wayne dental office about restorative or reconstructive dentistry. Schedule an examination to discuss replacing your silver or metal fillings with safer, more attractive tooth-colored, white fillings.

When a Plan B is Necessary for Your Dental Implant Procedure

You’ve heard that dental implants are a secure, long-lasting tooth replacement. You’re ready

to proceed but…there’s one problem!

It has to do with a primary aspect of your implant treatment.

Your jawbone.

Reasons could include gum disease, bone loss, or other related issues. Bottom line, a dental

implant requires adequate bone to securely anchor it.

No worries. There’s a Plan B.

A bone graft can be used to add supportive bone to your jaw. The bone tissue that’s used

adapts and attaches to your jawbone forming a solid location for your implant.

You can use that?

What’s ironic is where the bone tissue can be found and what the procedure accomplishes.

Bone can be used from a number of locations in your own body.

Your chin or another back portion of your lower jaw are often sources of bone tissue for a

graft. If you cannot personally contribute bone or choose not to do so, bone can be taken

from a human cadaver, cows, and in some instances we can use synthetic resources.

What to expect

Your bone grafting procedure can be done in our dental office using local anesthesia for

single tooth implants. Multiple implants and the use of a larger amount of bone tissue for

the graft can require an off-site procedure.

We will help assure your comfort during the procedure. Bone will be extracted from the

designated location (chin or jaw) and secured into the location where bone tissue is needed

for your dental implant.

Some important details

It is essential that your bone graft area be allowed to fuse with your available tissue. This

healing period of approximately six months prior to implant placement will also improve the

success of your dental implant.

Pain medication can be prescribed to you following the procedure. An antibacterial solution

such as a mouthwash also helps assure the area heals properly.

Contact our Wayne dental office about dental implant treatment for your tooth loss.

Schedule an examination to ask questions about the implant procedure and determine the

health of your bone tissue.

What Teeth Bonding Does and Where It Can Help You the Most

Some things are less complicated than you might have imagined. Restorative or reconstructive dentistry for example.

Veneers get top billing because the aesthetic benefits are outstanding. Yet teeth bonding is an equally beneficial treatment that’s simple plus cost-effective.

An easy assumption

You can evaluate your smile appearance with a variety of measurements. Whiteness and alignment are popular choices.

Your oral health is certainly an all-important measure. It’s essential that your teeth are straight and aligned. That said, it would be risky to focus solely on the appearance of your teeth and miss the value of proper alignment. Your dental health relies on a variety of factors including your satisfaction with the appearance of your teeth.

It helps to have options

Teeth bonding or dental bonding is a versatile treatment. Speaking of appearance and comprehensive oral health, it provides a benefit for both.

Bonding basically repairs your teeth that are chipped, stained, or cracked. Like veneers, dental bonding can also restore your gaped teeth.

The appeal factor of teeth bonding is due to the use of tooth-colored resin. This material is bonded to your tooth enamel to blend with your natural tooth color.

Stains, discoloring, and gaps are covered with the bonding material. The shape of your tooth can also be restored with the treatment.

Teeth bonding costs less than a dental crown or porcelain veneers. Treatment time is simpler and less time consuming as well.

Risk prevention

Your chipped teeth or the unnatural gaps between your teeth can cause problems. These circumstances allow your teeth and gums to be vulnerable to oral bacteria.

Decay can result from bacterial growth on your tooth surfaces. You’re at risk for cavities when bacteria is not eliminated.

Bonding covers the surfaces of your treated teeth. The areas exposed by chips, cracks, gaps, or other damage are protected with the materials used.

The preventive dentistry value plus the time and cost savings give teeth bonding a strong advantage for restoring your health and appearance.

Contact our Wayne dental office about your tooth damage. Schedule a dental examination to discuss teeth bonding for improving the health and appearance of your teeth.

Why It’s Vital to Occasionally Check Under-the-Hood of Your Dental Implant

It’s not like there’s a mileage limit. But dental implant maintenance and check-ups will help assure that you get the most mileage from the treatment.

An implant is a superior solution for tooth loss. Dental implants replace your missing tooth or teeth and they help preserve the health of your bone and gum tissue.

This makes the ongoing viability of your implant essential. A healthy dental implant means proper tooth, gum, and bone function.

Give it a few months

Monitoring the health of your implant is an ongoing process. With that in mind it’s recommended that you allow a period of time for your dental implant to fully adapt to your bone tissue.

This process is known as osseointegration. Your jaw bone establishes a secure bond with your implant over a period of months during this process.

We will inform you about a necessary follow-up timeline early in your treatment. A good time to discuss this is during your post-treatment check-up for healing and suture removal.

Don’t be deceived

Your dental implant will become a natural addition to your existing teeth. Over time you will perhaps not recognize that you had the treatment.

This confirms the effectiveness of an implant as a tooth loss solution.

Remember this…

Out-of-sight-out-of-mind is not a reason to avoid a look-under-the-hood on occasion. Follow-up consistency allows us to check for any bite, alignment, or tissue adaptation problems.

Outcome improvement

Your ongoing gum and bone tissue health is one follow-up focus. The other has to do with the overall health of your crown, denture, or implant supported bridge on the surface portion of your dental implant.

Gum disease, infection, tissue damage can threaten your implant. The artificial aspect of a dental implant is immune but the supportive tissue surrounding it is not.

Keep your tissue and surrounding teeth healthy to improve the success of your implant procedure. Dental examinations and teeth cleanings two times per year are all the more important for protecting your implant investment throughout its lifespan.

Contact your Wayne dentist about dental implant treatment for tooth loss. Schedule a consultation to discuss the implant procedure and maintaining the health of your implant.

The Problems Solved by a Full-Mouth Restoration

A do-over. Perhaps you’ve needed one on occasion.

“Need” is an important word when your dental health is involved. Full-mouth restoration or full-mouth reconstruction (as it’s often called) is a dental specialty that focuses on restoring all your teeth in your upper and lower jaw.

The treatment is most often completed over a period of time. And it’s common for a variety of dental problems.

Want vs. Need

A full-mouth reconstruction falls more into the category of need. Although understanding its value to your overall health can easily provide you the motivation to want the treatment.

Your need for a full-mouth restoration can result from various dental issues. These can include tooth loss caused by decay or trauma, fractured or injured teeth, damage caused by teeth grinding, or ongoing head, neck, or jaw pain caused by a poor or uneven bite.

First things first

Your first step will involve a thorough dental examination. I will examine the presence and extent of any tooth damage, tooth wear, or other signs of dental trauma.

It’s important to observe the health of your teeth and gums. Their relationship to each other and the presence of any disease must be treated for any restorative dentistry to be effective.

Bite correction is also essential. Any reconstructive dentistry that follows will provide you the healthiest outcomes.

It’s also necessary to observe the appearance of your teeth and how they compliment your gums. Color, shade, and alignment are an essential aspect of your full-mouth restoration.

Why prioritize?

Certain treatments may not be necessary. Your initial consolation and dental examination will help determine the best procedures for your restorative treatment plan.

Procedures, cost, and time involved are also important considerations. Again, your need for restorative dentistry is the priority.

Contact our Wayne dental office about your tooth loss, dental trauma, or related oral health issues. Schedule a consultation to discuss a full-mouth restoration to improve your health and appearance.

A Sign That Something’s-Up With Your Dental Implant

You’ve invested time and dollars in your dental implant treatment. It’s delivered everything you had hoped.

Now…

You have a strong, secure, fully functioning new tooth. And you’re equally pleased that your implant isn’t directly vulnerable to decay or disease.

Then one day…

You notice some inflammation around the site of your implant. It’s inflamed enough to get your attention and signal that something isn’t quite right.

First, it’s important that you noticed. Second, it has less to do with your dental implant and perhaps more to do with your natural gum tissue that surrounds it.

Implant infection treatment is your next best step. This procedure helps eliminate the risk of damage to your dental implant and surrounding gum and bone tissue.

An oral infection where your implant is located can lead to more serious dental health issues.

So, why is there an infection?

Food is the common culprit. For example, popcorn kernels and foods containing small seeds can become impacted (lodged) between you implant crown and your gum tissue.

Simple neglect or lack of awareness trigger the gradual progress towards inflammation. If you ignore the inflamed area long enough an infection will occur.

Remember, your dental implant resists infection and decay. Your gums and bone tissue do not.

Plaque and tartar can form beneath the surface edges of your dental crown and your implant. That’s somewhat harmless until the bacteria within the tartar attacks your vulnerable gum tissue.

Oral bacteria are aggressive. They will produce an infection if they are not removed.

Implant infection treatment focuses on the tissue that holds your dental implant. Your gums are cleaned, treated, and disinfected to eliminate the infection.

The procedure also checks for any bone tissue damage. This helps keep your jawbone healthy and your implant secure.

Contact our Wayne dental office about dental implant treatment. Schedule a dental examination if you are experiencing any gum inflammation.

Best Dentist in Philadelphia

Dr. Spina is the best dentist in Philadelphia, if not the world. He restored all my damaged teeth and restored my faith in dentistry. Truly a gentle giant and a master.

—Thomas Webster

5 out of 5 stars