This patient’s lower teeth were worn down from years of grinding and clenching. We discussed crowning all the lower teeth, but I wanted to try bonding composite to the tops of the teeth to build them back up. He will eventually wear this away, but it’s easy for me to add to and re-bond the teeth as he wears them down over the years. I also made him a nightguard to wear when he sleeps to protect the teeth.
The first two patients I saw today chipped the same front right central incisor biting into a chicken bone. The third one chipped her lower right incisor biting into a sandwich. The last patient grinds his teeth and fractured the edge off his upper left central incisor. I restored each these teeth in about a half hour, for each one, with bonded ceramic composite restorations. Here are the before and after photos taken 30 minutes apart.
Here’s a New Year’s Resolution You can Smile About! Ten Steps to Happy Teeth and a Happy You:
This patient was hit in the mouth with a tennis racquet and broke his front tooth. The tooth also required a root canal, and periodontal crown lengthening surgery. I placed a temporary crown on the tooth for 2 months while the gums healed and did a computerized custom shade match to obtain a perfect color match.
This patient had decay on her back upper first molar. I cleaned out the decay and placed a beautiful ceramic composite restoration. Here’s the before and after pictures. Looks great!
For this patient today, I removed 2 porcelain fused to metal crowns that she recently had done in El Salvador, cleaned up the decay underneath, polished her other teeth, and placed 2 beautiful new zirconia crowns. She was so happy and has a beautiful smile for Christmas :-)))
This patient today broke off his upper lateral incisor. We discussed the different restorative options. I told him I would try to save the root and build a tooth back up for him and place a crown. The tooth had a root canal many years ago. I drilled out the canal and cemented a titanium post inside the canal and build the tooth up. I prepared the tooth and made and cemented a zirconium crown over the build-up.
This patient had a non-restorable decayed upper first molar tooth. I recommended a bridge since his adjacent teeth already had crowns on them. We extracted the infected molar and placed a temporary bridge. Following healing I prepared the adjacent teeth and fabricated and cemented a fixed 3 unit zirconia porcelain bridge. Here’s the before and after pictures.
