It’s Time for Football and Perhaps an Emergency Dentist?

With the arrival of fall sports, an emergency dentist is busier than ever. Most people don’t realize how dangerous playing sports can be for your teeth.  Even a recreational game of football or pickup game of basketball can end with a broken tooth and need for help right away.  According to the American Dental Association, sports injuries are one of the highest, if not the highest, cause of tooth injuries within the U.S.  Additionally, sports injuries lead to 13 to 39 percent of adult tooth loss on an annual basis.  This is a huge percentage when you consider how few adults play organized sports. Even a casual game can lead to an injury.

There are ways to protect your teeth this fall and throughout your lifetime.  Begin by keeping your teeth healthy.  When teeth and gums are free from infection and gum disease, they are stronger than teeth that are infected.  When you think of your teeth, consider a pond that has been frozen over after months of cold winter.  When the ice is solid, it is safe to skate on that pond and hours of fun can be had by children throughout the neighborhood.  When that same pond has a tiny crack, simply walking on it can lead to the ice shattering and someone falling into the icy cold water.  Teeth are similar in that when they are strong and infection free, they won’t break when used or even bumped into.  If, however, there is a small crack or cavity, that same tooth can experience major damage if hit while playing sports.

In order to avoid needing to take a trip to the emergency dentist, we recommend that our patients have their teeth cleaned twice a year so that we can remove bacteria and plaque in order to prevent cavities and gum disease.  If we notice any signs of infection, it can be treated right away so that your teeth can stay strong and healthy.  This preventative step is critical for maintaining strong teeth.

If, however, your tooth does become damaged – we offer restorative solutions that can repair your tooth so that you can eat and speak like normal, without pain.  If, for example, your tooth has been cracked we can use a dental veneer or dental crown to restore it.  A veneer is a thin shell that is placed on top of your existing tooth and good for small cracks or chips.  A crown is a cap that surrounds the tooth and a better option for a tooth with a major crack or one that has lost a significant amount of enamel.  We can also help if your tooth has fallen out.  We offer both dental bridges and dental implants as a way to replace a missing tooth.

Regardless of how your teeth have been damaged, as an emergency dentist we can repair your tooth and help you to get back to life and back in the game as quickly as possible.  If you need help – give us a call, even if it’s on the weekend. 

Wine Drinkers Rejoice – A Cosmetic Dentist Can Keep Your Teeth Looking Beautiful

As a local cosmetic dentist, we can keep our patients’ teeth looking bright, white, and beautiful regardless of what they like to drink.  Most wine and coffee drinkers know that their teeth can become stained but giving up their favorite beverage is simply no fun.  We get it and provide ways to help our patients look great while enabling them to enjoy eating and drinking all of their favorite foods without worry. 

One of the ways we help our patients is by offering a teeth whitening procedure.  This can be done every three months or once a year, depending on how your teeth look now and how white you want your teeth to become. This is an affordable way to keep your teeth looking amazing and will remove the majority of stains while turning yellow teeth into bright white ones.  The challenge with teeth whitening alone is that some stains may not come out with this procedure and in between visits your teeth may become yellow again.  This is not ideal for people that want to continue to drink wine and coffee or smoke cigarettes.  While the whitening effect works, once you start doing these things again – teeth will respond by yellowing.  

Dental veneers are an alternative solution that is excellent for people who want to keep drinking wine without the fear of their teeth becoming stained. Veneers are made of ceramic or porcelain which are stain resistant materials. They don’t respond to the food that you eat or your favorite glass of merlot. Instead, they hold their shade of white fairly well.  This makes it important to work with a cosmetic dentist to select the perfect shade of veneers prior to having them bonded to your teeth.  

The veneer itself is a thin shell that is placed on the top of your natural teeth.  It can cover dark stains, close gaps in teeth, correct damaged teeth, even out the length of teeth and more.  It is an extremely effective procedure and works well if you have teeth that are not responding to whitening, or you want a more permanent way to keep your teeth white.  

Patients that also have damaged teeth may benefit from wearing dental crowns.  We offer crowns in an all-ceramic material that looks completely natural.  They are a cap that surrounds the tooth entirely, making a crown ideal for teeth that are cracked, or a large portion of the tooth is missing. Since they are made in a ceramic or porcelain material, they look beautiful and are also stain resistant.  

Before having dental veneers or crowns placed on your teeth, we recommend that you have your teeth cleaned and whitened.  This allows us to ensure your teeth are healthy and remove any bacteria or plaque.  Additionally, by having your teeth whitened you can make an educated decision as to which teeth you want to have veneers on.  You may only need them on one or two teeth, instead of all of them.  To learn more about your options, call our cosmetic dentist office today.