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.
Tag Archives: northern virginia
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.
Chipped tooth of the day
Filling of The Day
This patient had an old amalgam filling with recurrent decay. I removed the filling and decay and placed a beautiful ceramic composite restoration.
Implant case of the day
Today for this patient I restored her missing lower right molar with a Zimmer-Biomet Encode titanium dental implant with a custom titanium abutment and porcelain crown. Here are the restorative pictures and digital design scans.
Tips for Your Teeth: Halloween Edition
Dr. Gentry’s Tips for Healthy Teeth
- Eat Halloween candy right after meals. The saliva produced during meals will help dilute the acids produced by the mouth bacteria in response to the sugar and the saliva will help rinse away food particles.
- Avoid candy that lasts a long time. It’s the length of time the sugar is in your mouth that is the critical factor. The longer the candy is in the mouth the more damage to the teeth.
- Stay away from sticky candy. The longer the sugary candy is stuck to the teeth the more decay will occur. Stay away from gummy bears, sticky fudge and taffy. Stay away from sour candy. Sour candy is highly acidic leading to erosion of enamel.
- Drink more water. Tap water with fluoride is best. This will help wash away the candy.
- Eat good healthy foods and don’t fill up on sugary candy. You need good nutrition for healthy teeth and gums.
- Stay away from sodas and sports drinks. The frequent contact with the sugary liquid will increase damage to teeth.
- Chewing sugarless gum after eating candy will cause increased saliva production, which will neutralize the acid in the mouth and wash away food.
- Brush as soon as possible after eating. If you ate sour or acidic foods rinse with water a few times first to neutralize the acid so not to push the acid into the enamel. Brush for two minutes.
- Floss! Flossing removes plaque and food stuck between the teeth where the toothbrush can’t reach.
- Visit your dentist regularly to catch dental problems early, and “treat” them before they get really scary. … Remember good oral health is a major contributor to good overall health.
Bridge to replace a missing tooth
For this patient, I replaced his lower right missing bicuspid tooth with a porcelain fused to metal bridge. Normally we would place an implant, however, in this case his mandibular bone was very thin in this area, and the distal tooth was very badly decayed and needed to have a crown. So I recommended a bridge to replace the missing tooth.
This next patient was missing a lower molar and the adjacent teeth were badly broken down. We elected to try to save the remaining teeth and made a porcelain fused to metal bridge to replace the missing molar and restore the adjacent posterior teeth. The other option would have been to extract the 3 broken down teeth and place dental implants to restore the lower left quadrant. Here’s the before picture showing the broken down teeth, and after with the bridge cemented in place.
Crowns of the day
This first patient came to see me for this broken lower molar. He said he had 4 silver amalgam fillings placed in his lower molar over the last 10 years by various dentists and the tooth or filling and kept breaking. I told him he needs a crown. Here’s the pre-treatment x-ray, and photo of the broken tooth before and after removal of the old filling and decay, composite build-up and placement of the porcelain crown.
This next patient broke her molar biting into an almond. I removed the broken part and old amalgam filling and restored this tooth with a crown. Here’s the before and after photos.
This next patient broke her last molar and old amalgam filling biting on hard seed. Here’s this before and after.
Cavities of the day
This first patient had a large deep cavity on the inside (lingual surface) of her upper lateral incisor. The decay extended under the gum-line and the pulp was necrotic. We discussed treatment options and could have extracted the tooth and placed an implant, but I felt we could save this tooth with a root canal and composite build-up.
The next patient had a cavity on his upper molar. I quickly and easily removed the decay and placed a composite restoration.
