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Demi Moore revealed on The Tonight Show this week that she is missing her two front teeth. She said that stress caused her to grind and clench her teeth breaking off her upper central incisors. Although I did not do her dentistry, I wanted to share with you her photos and what modern dentistry can do. She appears to have porcelain crowns on all her teeth and a bridge across the front to fill in the missing teeth. Ms. Moore also probably had a bone graft and periodontal surgery to sculpt her gums.
Stress can indeed take a toll on people’s teeth. When people are stressed they tend to grind and clench their teeth. This causes them to wear their teeth down and crack and fracture them. It also caused pain and headaches. Stress also effects the immune system and our ability to fight gum disease. Periodontal disease causes bone loss around the teeth. When you are stressed, you also do not eat or sleep well and tend to neglect your teeth and gums. Combine clenching and grinding with weakened teeth and gums, and teeth are going to break for sure!
A small break can be repaired with a filling or crown. Sometimes a root canal is needed. If the tooth is fractured or broken down to the root, it cannot be saved and we need to extract it. Here is an example an upper premolar tooth that was fractured down the middle from grinding and clenching that I extracted.
A simple preventative solution to help protect your teeth while clenching and grinding during sleeping is a nightguard. A nightguard is a proactive step to protect your existing healthy teeth. A clear, thin removable device, your custom-made bite splint, is worn over your lower or upper teeth as you sleep.
Studies suggest those who grind and clench their teeth may experience up to 80 times the normal tooth wear per day compared to those who do not. The good news is that a simple bite splint can help offset the effects of this often-subconscious habit while protecting your teeth from daily wear and tear.
This patient had a fractured molar that we tried to save with a root canal. The root fracture was too large and we were unable to save and restore the tooth. So I recommended to extract the tooth and placed a dental implant. Turned out fantastic and the patient is very happy he can chew again on his left side :-)))
Today I finished up this nice case. The upper right first molar tooth was broken down and non-restorable. I first extracted the tooth and placed a bone graft. Following 3 months of healing we placed a Zimmer-Biomet 3i titanium dental implant. Then after allowing 3 months for the dental implant to isseointegrate, placed the computer scannable Encode healing abutment. Then took the final impression and delivered the screwed retained implant crown.
This patient had a heart attack and some other health issues and wasn’t taking very good care of his teeth. He came to me with tooth pain and wanted me to help. Since his remaining teeth were in poor condition, I recommended to extract his remaining teeth and make complete upper and lower dentures.
The dangers of snoring
More than 80 million North Americans snore. Taking into account the snorer’s spouse and children, as many as 160 million people are negatively affected by snoring. And snoring doesn’t merely interrupt your sleep cycle. The struggle for breath can result in soaring blood pressure, which can damage the walls of the carotid arteries and increase the risk of stroke. At certain levels of severity, complete blockage of the airway space by the soft tissues and the tongue can occur. If this period of asphyxiation lasts longer than 10 seconds, it is called Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), a medical condition with serious long-term effects.
What causes snoring?
During sleep, muscles and soft tissues in the throat and mouth relax, shrinking the airway. This increases the velocity of airflow during breathing. As the velocity of required air is increased, soft tissues like the soft palate and uvula vibrate. The vibrations of these tissues result in “noisy breathing” or snoring.
Surgical techniques used to remove respiration-impairing structures have shown only moderate success rates (20 to 40 percent). For the majority of snorers, the most affordable, non-invasive, comfortable and effective snoring solution remains a dentist-prescribed, oral snoring preventative device such as Silent Nite.
How Dr. Gentry can help you with a Silent Nite Slide-Link appliance
Silent Nite sl is a custom-fabricated dental device that moves the lower jaw into a forward position, increasing space in the airway tube and reducing air velocity and soft tissue vibration. Special connectors are attached to transparent flexible upper and lower forms. The forms are custom laminated with heat and pressure to the dentist’s model of the mouth. The fit is excellent and comfortable, permitting small movements of the jaw (TMJ) and allowing uninhibited oral breathing.
Patient wearing the anti-snoring applianceInstructions and connectors to vary jaw position
This video is actually for dentists, and explains all about the anti-snoring device.
This patient wanted me to give him a beautiful white smile. I placed porcelain crowns on his upper front teeth 3 years ago and he returned now to do the lower teeth. Here are the pictures:
beforeafter completing upper 6 front teeth3 years later, he’s ready to fix up the lower teethlower 8 porcelain crowns cementedlooks fantastic!!! going to do the back teeth next year
This patient came in to my office having broke off his upper right front tooth leaving only the root. This was a challenging case because his other upper front teeth had old crowns on them with receded gums. This space was also larger than the width of the other incisors. I would have liked to replace all his old crowns at the same time so I could make everything perfect and even, but he just wanted me to restore only this broken off tooth. It turned out pretty nice. Since he has a low lip line, he only shows half of the upper teeth anyway when he smiles. My implant tooth actually looks better than his other teeth. This is how I did it:
fractured off central incisorx-ray image of rootroot extracted and implant placedcustom abutment screwed into implantimplant crown cementedhappy patientimplant and custom abutmenttorque wrench, crown, screw, custom abutmentcomputer design scans
