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!
Tag Archives: dentist
Dental care during the holidays
It’s true that sugar does cause cavities, but it’s not the sugar directly. The naturally occurring streptococcus bacteria that live in our mouths consume the sugar, ferment it, and produce acid such as lactic acid. It is these acids that cause demineralization of the teeth and the formation of cavities. So it’s actually the acid from the bacteria in plaque in our mouth that eats holes in our teeth and causes cavities.
What’s Worse Pie or Mints?
Here’s the interesting part, it’s not the total amount of sugar we eat, but the total amount of time the sugar is in contact with our teeth. It’s preferable to have a piece of pumpkin pie with a scoop of ice cream for Thanksgiving dessert, than to sip on a soda all afternoon. It is better to have a few sugar cookies, or slice of Christmas apple pie, than to repeatedly sip coffee with sugar all morning long. One Altoids mint or cough drop per hour throughout the day is 10 times more cavity producing than one big piece of cake for dessert, even though the cake has much more sugar and calories.
Brush & Floss
The repeated cycles of eating sugar and acid formation is the key to the problem. It’s the frequency, or the amount of time the sugar is in the mouth, not the total amount of sugar. So enjoy a few nice (and quick) holiday desserts, just please make sure to brush and floss after every meal and visit your dentist regularly.
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Crown case of the day
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 :-)))
Best of Arlington
Crown, and post and core case of the day
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.
Bridge case of the day
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.
Implant/crown case of the day
Chipped tooth of the day
This patient chipped her front tooth on the top of a metal water bottle. I repaired the tooth with a ceramic composite bonding in 10 minutes.
Crown case of the day
This patient was concerned with her decayed upper right lateral incisor. I was able to remove the decay on that tooth and the adjacent one without a root canal, build-up the tooth, and restore the tooth with a beautiful zirconia crown. Here’s the before and after pictures.
Implant case of the day
This patient had a fractured upper first bicuspid tooth that needed to be extracted. I restored her tooth with a Zimmer Biomet 3i Encode screw retained dental implant. Here are my clinical photos of the crown delivery today.
