Your son just crashed his skateboard and cracked a tooth, or maybe your daughter fell off the monkey bars at school and now has a chipped front tooth. For children, and some adults, repairing chipped or damaged teeth with tooth-colored restorative materials directly bonded to the teeth may be the perfect solution to restore their smiles.

What is Involved: Composite bonding is a technique that has been developed to correct chipped teeth and other minor dental imperfections. It may also be used to correct mild crookedness or gaps between teeth. The procedure requires the application of a tooth-colored composite resin material to the surfaces of teeth, which is then sculpted to the desired shape. It can be performed in a single visit for one or multiple teeth. The procedure usually takes between one and two hours, and the end result is a beautiful, natural-looking smile.

Advantages for Kids and Adults: Composite resin bonding is a good choice for kids and teens since their jaws are still growing and developing, and they may still be engaged in high-risk activities. After your child's teeth and jaws are fully developed, we can discuss options for more permanent restorations such as porcelain veneers or crowns. These require removal of more tooth structure, which could compromise the long-term health of your child's teeth if done too soon. Composite resin restorations, which bond straight to the teeth and require little to no tooth preparation or drilling are therefore a good option for fixing chipped teeth, and they're less expensive than choosing veneers.

Disadvantages: The longevity of composite resin restorations is related to how well you maintain your teeth. Many people can go for ten or fifteen years before they need to have the bonded resins repaired or replaced. Others will tend to stain and wear after only one or two years and will need some touch-up work.

Contact us today to schedule an appointment to discuss any questions you may have regarding dental bonding. Read more about this topic in the Dear Doctor magazine article “Repairing Chipped Teeth.”

While the long-term success rate for a dental implant is well over 95%, there are factors that can compromise their success. For this reason, our office has put together this list so that you can be prepared should you ever need a dental implant. We feel that by providing our patients with this type of easy-to-understand information, we can educate, address any concerns and help produce the best results.

The three most common categories for classifying factors that influence dental implant success are: general health concerns, local factors and maintenance issues. As you may suspect, general health concerns include factors such as:

• Whether or not you smoke or use tobacco products.
• Certain prescription and over-the-counter medications you are currently taking or have recently taken.
• If you have or have a family history of osteoporosis (“osteo” – bone; “porosis” – sponge-like).
• If your medical history includes any cancer or radiation treatment to the jaws.
• Or if you have a compromised immune (resistance) system.

The second category is “local factors” and includes bone quantity and quality — there must be sufficient bone to anchor implants. Other considerations that fall into this category include whether or not you clench or grind your teeth or have additional bite concerns, as all of these can have negative impacts on both the short and long-term success of an implant.

The last category concerns maintenance. While dental implants are superior works of technology that can last a lifetime and produce results that are nearly identical to natural teeth in looks and durability, they do require routine maintenance. This includes daily cleaning (brushing and flossing) and routine visits to our office for evaluation and professional care to make sure they are functioning properly.

To learn more on this subject, continue reading the Dear Doctor magazine article “Factors which can influence implant success.” You can also contact us today to schedule an appointment to discuss your questions about dental implants.

Parenthood comes with no manual — if it did it would surely include many essential tips to make your job easier while improving your children's lives. One important fact that surprises many people, is the age you should take your children to the dentist for their first dental appointment, age one. The reason that the age one dental visit is so important is that it establishes the foundation of oral healthcare for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, some parents wrongly assume that because primary teeth “fall out anyway,” they do not need to worry about them. Nothing could be further from the truth!

One problem children may face is Early Childhood Caries (ECC) tooth decay. This is a type of tooth decay that occurs from sucking on a bottle filled with sugary liquids such as formula, juices and fruity drinks for extended periods of time and from a sleep-time bottle. ECC can affect all the primary (baby) teeth in infants soon after they come into the mouth.

Bringing your children into our office for their age one dental visit enables us to establish a friendly, trusting relationship with the whole family while we assess your children's oral health. During this consultation we will identify if the teeth and jaws are developing correctly, whether habits such as sucking on baby bottles are causing tooth decay or if there are other underlying issues that may indicate future problems. And this ounce of prevention often enables us to stop an anticipated problem before it even starts.