A post appeared last week on the mynewsmile.com blog about prophylactic wisdom tooth removal. It’s worth taking a look.
Archive for 2011
Prophylactic wisdom teeth removal
Friday, December 23rd, 2011Thanks from Ivy
Monday, November 14th, 2011Ivy from Brisbane, Australia, wrote last week about using Lumineers to cover her stained teeth. She then followed up with a question about how to bleach those stained teeth when she was having teeth bleaching sensitivity issues. Here is Ivy’s appreciative response:
HUGEST thank you ever so much! This has been extremely helpful. I cannot begin to explain how appreciative I am.
Have a wonderful day.
- Ivy from Brisbane, Australia
Bleaching makes my teeth sensitive. What do I do?
Monday, November 14th, 2011Last week, we fielded a question from Ivy in Brisbane, Australia, who was asking about having Lumineers to cover her teeth stains. Here is a follow-up comment from her and a question:
Thank you so much for your time. You have truly provided me with the most valuable information thus far.
Yes,the shape of my teeth I am happy with. By conventional bleaching I mean take home trays from my dentist using Night White bleach.
However, I experience sensitivity, (I m only able to use this for 1-1.5 hrs at a time) and am not happy with the shade of white achievable.
Any recommendations as to how I can achieve a whiter smile?
- Ivy from Brisbane, Australia
Ivy,
There are two ways for you to get better results with your teeth bleaching.
One would be to find a dentist who knows how to deal with the sensitivity issue.
I checked websites of cosmetic dentists in Brisbane, to try to find someone who knows what they are doing, and of the first few I looked at, I was most impressed with Dr. —–. I don’t know about his artistic skill, and there are some procedures that he is advocating that give mediocre smile makeovers, but he seems to at least be knowledgeable, by the memberships he maintains and where he has trained. There are ways to deal with this sensitivity issue – different bleaching gels, pre-treating the teeth to make them less sensitive, etc. That is one route.
The other would be to just work around your sensitivity. If you can wear the tray with the gel for 1 to 1 1/2 hours at a time, that really isn’t that bad. And what you would do would be to just keep on going. The longer you go, the whiter your teeth will get. If you have the persistence to stay with it, I’d keep doing that for a month or two – whatever you need to do until your teeth are the whiteness you want. I’d suggest overshooting the mark by a little bit, because there is a little relapse that occurs in the first week after you stop bleaching.
This blog sponsored by Colorado Springs cosmetic dentist Dr. Joseph Rota.
Lumineers to get rid of my stains?
Thursday, November 10th, 2011I have had Invisalign to correct mild crowding of my front lower teeth and am happy with the position of my teeth,I have no caries or fillings and no gum disease. I am however unhappy with the mild discoloration/yellowing which has occured over time and am not satisfied with the result of conventional whitening methods, so I am exploring lumineers or composite veneers to attain a permanently brighter and whiter smile. How will my orthodontic treatment be affected by veneers? Which of these two methods would you consider more favourable?? I appreciate your time and look forward to hearing from you.
Kindest Regards,
Ivy from Brisbane, Australia
Ivy,
I’m not sure what you mean by “conventional whitening methods.” Maybe what you need then are unconventional whitening methods because it’s whitening that would be the correct treatment for your situation.
Here’s how I analyze your situation.
You are happy with the alignment of your teeth. You didn’t say anything about their shapes, so I’ll assume you’re happy with that. What you’re unhappy with is the color, and you speak of the color as “mild discoloration/yellowing which has occured over time.” Effective professional bleaching techniques are excellent at removing acquired stains and they even go beyond that and whiten the natural color of your tooth beyond their original whiteness, similar to what happens when someone bleaches their hair. The only stain they have trouble with is tetracycline stain, which is extremely dark and is structurally embedded in the dentin of the teeth. But there are new bleaching methods that even work very well for tetracycline stains now.
I would strongly caution you about doing direct dental bonding or Lumineers if the only problem you have is with these acquired stains. Lumineers is a brand of porcelain veneers that is typically done without any tooth preparation, meaning that they will tend to make your teeth bulky and they will add about 2 millimeters of length to your teeth. Also, the laboratory that fabricates the Lumineers is not the best esthetic dentistry laboratory and the teeth tend to come out looking pasty and fake.
Bonding requires a true artist to do it correctly, and I’m not sure, even if you were to travel to Brisbane, if you could find a dentist artistic enough to do a good job for you with this. And even if it is done well, it is quite expensive and is fairly susceptible to scratching, dulling, and staining. There are some excellent cosmetic dentists in Melbourne. But again, if you like the alignment and the shape of the teeth, bleaching is the treatment of choice.
Neither of these treatments should affect the alignment of your teeth if they are done only on the upper teeth, but they could if they are done on the lower if they aren’t done correctly.
My recommendation would be to find a dentist with more expertise in cosmetic dentistry who is more familiar with some of the stronger teeth bleaching techniques. Any acquired stain should be able to be removed by bleaching that is properly done.
This blog is sponsored by Colorado Springs cosmetic dentist Dr. Joseph Rota.
Read a follow-up question from Ivy, and the answer about teeth sensitivity while bleaching.
What toothpaste to use for porcelain veneers?
Saturday, October 8th, 2011I’m planning on getting porcelain veneers, and had some questions about taking care of them afterwards, specifically about the toothpaste. My dentist told me to get a toothpaste with baking soda in it, but I read that baking soda is abrasive and not good for porcelain veneers.
- Monica from Maryland
Monica,
The reason you may be getting conflicting information about baking soda and how abrasive it is is that it comes in different forms. There is straight baking soda, out of the box, which is in a powder form. Yes, that is rather abrasive. But when it’s dissolved in toothpaste, it has low abrasivity. And it is a popular ingredient in toothpastes, because it has a buffering action that neutralizes plaque acids.
You do want a toothpaste that has low abrasivity, not so much to protect the porcelain, which is harder than tooth enamel, but to protect the resin bond between the porcelain and your tooth. This fine line which is at the margin between your porcelain veneer and the tooth is the weak spot that can most easily wear down and become stained. An excellent toothpaste recommended by many cosmetic dentists is Supersmile, which can be purchased on the Internet. It has a very low abrasion yet it is excellent at removing stains. It is a little expensive, but could be worth it to protect your investment in your porcelain veneers. Yes, it does have baking soda in it, but it is in a low abrasivity form.
Another thing to watch when you have porcelain veneers. Don’t let your dental hygienist use any power polishing equipment like the Prophy Jet. This delivers a power spray of sodium bicarbonate (i.e. baking soda, and a very abrasive form of baking soda) that does clean your teeth very well but it removes the glaze on the porcelain and makes them very susceptible to staining. One cleaning with a Prophy Jet can ruin your porcelain veneers.
This blog is sponsored by Colorado Springs cosmetic dentist Dr. Joseph Rota
What’s the best way to screen a cosmetic dentist?
Wednesday, September 28th, 2011What is the best way to find and screen a dentist specializing in cosmetic work specifically porcelain veneers in the city I am living, namely Dallas, Tx?
- Sam from Dallas
Sam,
There isn’t a really good way for a lay person to screen for a good cosmetic dentist. Celebrities find them by reputation, because in celebrity circles, many of them have had smile makeovers, and they quickly discover who the good cosmetic dentists are. But for most of us who don’t circulate with those people, there isn’t a really good way. You can ask to see photographs of their work and you can screen out some of the bad ones that way, because they won’t have any photographs. But you still leave yourself open to being burned. I have seen that happen. We have many people walking into our office very disappointed with the cosmetic dentistry they have received.
There is an excellent website, however, that is run by an accredited cosmetic dentist where they list recommended cosmetic dentists by reputation, by examining photographs of their work, and by checking educational credentials, and I believe they list several excellent cosmetic dentists in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. The site is www.mynewsmile.com. You can check it out.
Dr. Rota is their recommended cosmetic dentist for Colorado Springs, and when he got listed, he had to document several cases and answer questions about them before they would accept him onto their list, so we know they aren’t like other referral websites where a dentist can just pay a fee to get listed.
This blog is sponsored by Colorado Springs cosmetic dentist Dr. Joseph Rota.
See pictures of his porcelain veneer work.
What to do about a dark porcelain veneer?
Tuesday, August 30th, 2011I have had one veneer done on my front tooth about 7 years ago, My dentist did such a fabulous job, you cant even tell one of my front teeth was fake. This past year however, there is darkening up at the gumline. When a picture is taken of me the one front tooth looks smaller than the other. What can i do rewhitten the top of the venner by my gum line in the front? is there an alternative without getting the veneer redone? i have read you can lighten your orginal tooth from the back which I am currently doing. Do you know by chance how long it takes to see results and will this lighten the fron by my gum line. Thanks in advance for your help.
- Donna from Boca Raton
Donna,
Yes, you can whiten the tooth behind a porcelain veneer a little bit, but I don’t think that will help your situation. First of all, what you’re telling me is that this veneered tooth is now uneven in color, because it is not darkening uniformly but is getting darker at the gumline. Teeth bleaching whitens a tooth uniformly, so it won’t correct a color discrepancy like this.
But more importantly, the reason a porcelain veneer will start to darken at the gumline is usually because it is leaking. The bond has maybe washed out there because it wasn’t very strong to begin with, and stain and possibly decay is getting up under the veneer. You need to have this checked by an expert cosmetic dentist, and then be prepared for possibly replacing this veneer. Ordinarily we would expect a porcelain veneer to last much longer than this, so maybe the dentist had some problem with the bonding procedure in this difficult area under the gumline.
But be careful. You don’t know how lucky you are that this looked so nice when you had this done 7 years ago. 95-98% of dentists could not do this that well. So if you aren’t going back to the dentist who first did it, don’t rely on the dentist’s self-proclaimed expertise in cosmetic dentistry. There’s a good way to find an excellent cosmetic dentist, and that is with the website mynewsmile.com. They examine the credentials of dentists who claim to be cosmetic dentists, plus they examine photographs of their work and recommend based on that information. Dr. Rota is their recommended cosmetic dentist in Colorado Springs, and they have several cosmetic dentists they recommend in the Miami area.
This blog sponsored by Colorado cosmetic dentist Dr. Joseph Rota.
Dental bonding to fix white spot lesions after braces
Saturday, August 13th, 2011I was at the orthodontics a while back and we were talking about white spot lesions. I never brushed well but I started because I heard of the lesions and got really scared. After noticing my hygiene I asked if I had stains and she told me she couldn’t tell because they form around the brackets. Also if I do have stains and I decide to undergo a cosmetic bonding process after my braces to get rid of the white spot lesions will I be covered by my dental insurance.
- Anthony from New York
Anthony,
Yes, I wish orthodontists would put up pictures of the smiles of people who didn’t brush conscientiously when they had braces on, so that there would be no chance that their patients would misunderstand how easy it is to get these lesions on your teeth. You cannot let food sit on those brackets or they will make ugly white or brown spot lesions on your teeth that you’ll see when the braces come off. Brush after any time you eat anything.
And yes, the way to fix those lesions is usually with dental bonding after the braces come off. Unless they are extensive, and in that case you would want porcelain veneers.
Some dentists may think that bleaching will take care of these spots, especially if they are brown. Stay away from any dentist who suggests that – they don’t know what they’re doing.
And yes, dental insurance should help pay for those. The dental bonding or porcelain veneers is done to repair damage to your teeth, so that would be within the scope of most dental insurance contracts. But understand that the dental insurance may well have a minimum amount they will cover. They may only cover the minimum treatment required to repair the damage to your teeth, which will be less than what would be required to get the teeth to look beautiful. And my recommendation would be to go to an expert cosmetic dentist for this work and not to a regular family dentist. A family dentist will not likely stock the necessary materials to make this repair look beautiful.
This blog is sponsored by Colorado Springs cosmetic dentist Dr. Joseph Rota
Wants to know about Clear Choice complaints
Thursday, July 28th, 2011I am due to have the full upper and lower implants done soon. I would like to know of any complaints about having both done.There are only about 6 good teeth on the lower that are good, but am having all pulled,about 10 to accomondate a matching full upper and lower sets to match. Please let me know of any complaints or positive of this procedure done on others,
Thank You
- Donna from Denver
Donna,
If you do a search on “Clear Choice dental implants complaints” on Google, you can find a number of complaints. Let me put some of that in perspective and then give you some advice.
Clear Choice Dental Implants Centers is a nationwide chain. They recruit oral surgeons and prosthodontists and then devote themselves to only providing dental implants care. As far as what I know, their dentists provide good care and are fully trained for the procedures they do. They are generally specialists.
I have seen a lot of criticism, though, of their treatment planning and sales policies. They tend to recommend the extraction of all remaining teeth. For some people, that is a turn-off. It sounds like that is what you want, however. They also make heavy use of the all-on-4 dental implants technique. There are some risks with this technique, and it would be good for you if you could get another opinion and see what other options may be available for you.
Also, from what I have heard I believe they are very expensive for the services they provide.
So I would recommend getting a second opinion before having them do this work, so you can compare notes. There is almost always an alternate approach, and sometimes the second opinion can save you thousands of dollars.
A word to the wise.
This blog sponsored by Colorado Springs implant dentist Dr. Joseph Rota.
Read more about the cost of dental implants.
Read about affordable Colorado Springs dental implants.
A paralyzing fear of dentists
Thursday, July 14th, 2011I’m 62 years old and have avoided going to the dentist for most of my life. From childhood, I have had a paralizing fear of dentists. I had an abusive mother who never took me to a dentist unless I was in excruciating pain.
Anyway, as an adult I have never been able to overcome that fear. Now I am compelled to make a visit and shall most likely need dentures. I’ve been searching dentist sites in my area but haven’t been able to find a dentist who professes his or her commitment to helping people like myself. I’m so despondent.
A few months ago one of my grandchildren asked me why I never smiled. It broke my heart. Thank you for receiving this email. I hope you know of someone in my area who can help me.
- Gail from Ohio
Gail,
Your reaction to receiving dental treatment is completely normal, considering the experiences you’ve been through. In my experience in trying to help people like you, the most effective way to overcome that fear is to have successful dental experiences using sedation dentistry. When you have the bad memories that you have had, I’ve really found that using sedative medications to help you get through the appointment is a very effective way to treat you comfortably. Oral sedation is simple, effective, and easy. You take a pill about an hour before your appointment, and ordinarily your memory of the appointment is either spotty or non-existent.
And then, once you have some successful dental experiences, you may be able to gradually overcome those fears and hopefully eventually not need any sedation.
Of course, if you end up needing dentures, you’ll just need to get through that treatment and then subsequent treatment shouldn’t be that difficult for you.
This blog sponsored by Colorado Springs Gentle Dentist Dr. Joseph Rota.
I did a search on the Internet to try to find a dentist that I believe would be sympathetic to your situation, would understand you, and be able to help you using a variety of techniques including possible oral sedation. I couldn’t find anyone in your neighborhood that I’d recommend, but I found a dentist the other side of the city. It’s about a 50-minute drive, so hopefully that will work for you. Her website is: __________. Check it out and see what you think.