Most oral health concerns can have several different extenuating consequences on your oral tissues and structures the more they’re allowed to progress. For certain issues, such as periodontal disease, this progression can and the severity of its consequences lead to more complicated problems, like the loss of one or more teeth. In the process of becoming more severe, such conditions can cause serious harm to the tissues and structures that make up the foundation of your smile. This includes your jawbone structure, and when the consequences are severe enough, rebuilding your smile could require fortifying this structure through jawbone grafting. (more…)
When Your Third Molars Start to Hurt
Third molars, often referred to as your wisdom teeth, are well-known for the troubles that they often cause. For many different reasons, third molars can become impacted before they have a chance to fully erupt at the ends of your dental ridges. When this occurs, the pain that the impacted molars can cause can become increasingly more intense, and so can the overall threat to your long-term oral health. Today, we examine what it means when your third molars start to hurt, and why extracting them may be the only way to address the problem. (more…)
How Many Dental Implants Does Your Denture Need?
Replacing one or multiple lost teeth with a dental implant-supported restoration is often a simpler procedure than patients expect. With the help of advanced oral health technology, the treatment process is more streamlined and comfortable. Also, with more advanced dental implant planning and treatment processes, we can often create optimal support for dental restorations of all sizes to minimize the extent of treatment required to receive your dental implants. For patients who require complete dentures to rebuild an entire dental ridge of teeth, we can often design All-on-4 dentures that can be successfully supported on just four strategically placed dental implant posts. (more…)
3 Reasons the Health and Integrity of Your Jaw Matter
Your jawbone may not always be something you think of when you consider the state of your oral health. More noticeable things, like your teeth and gums, can often take center stage, especially when it comes to routine things like daily dental hygiene practices. However, the health and integrity of your jawbone structure play several important roles in your oral health, and much more. Today, we examine a few important reasons why your jawbone’s integrity matters, and why jawbone surgery may be required to improve it. (more…)
Optimizing Your Bite’s Function with Oral Surgery
Oral surgery encompasses a number of different procedures designed to address severe oral health complications of nearly all types. For example, when wisdom teeth (third molars) become impacted, they can require oral surgery to remove the impacted tooth structure. If a tooth is lost, then surgically implanting a lifelike replacement could be the best way to preserve your smile. In some instances, oral surgery can also provide a solution to complex problems that impact your bite’s ability to function properly. From addressing tooth loss to repairing damage and other concerns with your oral structures, the right personalized oral surgery treatment could be essential to restoring this function. (more…)
Scheduling Bone Grafting Before Dental Implant Placement
Before a patient has their dental implant placed, they will undergo an evaluation. This review is partly intended to find the ideal placement for an implant (or multiple implants). With that said, you are also being evaluated to make sure your placement will be successful. At our Santa Rosa/Rohnert Park, CA oral surgery clinic, we can determine if there are any issues that might impact your treatment and recovery. If you have left tooth loss unresolved for an extended period of time, or if you have relied on a prosthetic that lacked implant support, you may need help dealing with the problem of bone deterioration. To address this, we can recommend a jawbone grafting procedure or sinus lift to ensure that your smile restoration is successful! (more…)
Unhappy With Loose Dentures? Learn How Implants Can Help
While a set of dentures can bring back your complete smile after advanced tooth loss, a prosthetic that is removable can lack practical support. This can lead to frustration over time. After all, your ability to bite and chew will be reduced, and you can find that changes in your jawbone over time make your appliance feel less comfortable. Our oral surgery clinic in the Santa Rosa/Rohnert Park, CA area is prepared to give you a more supportive experience with dentures. We can use dental implants to hold your restoration in place, making it more comfortable and better for your bite. Thanks to All-On-Four, it is actually possible to hold a complete denture in position with as few as four implants, reducing the amount of preparatory work required for your restored smile! (more…)
How to Tell if Your Wisdom Teeth Are Impacted
By the time wisdom tooth impaction becomes a severe problem, the symptoms related to it can be unmistakable. For example, the discomfort in your dental ridge can become severe, and you may feel a part of the wisdom tooth trying to erupt from the gum line (though unsuccessfully). However, when wisdom teeth first become impacted, the problem may not be an obvious one, and failure to notice it could allow the problem to get worse before you address it. Today, we examine a few ways you may be able to tell if your wisdom teeth have become impacted, preferably before the problem becomes much more severe. (more…)
Important Things Dental Implants Can Restore
One of the most important goals of replacing one or more lost teeth is to restore the healthy appearance of your smile. Another is to reestablish your bite’s full ability to function properly. In many cases, traditional tooth replacement options (such as bridges and dentures) can help you accomplish both of these goals with a highly level of cosmetic realism. However, many of the more important roles of your healthy, natural teeth revolve around the roots that support them. When you experience tooth loss, only dental implants can replace these roots, allowing them to restore more of your bite function and oral health than conventional restorations can. (more…)
Is It Actually Possible to Prevent Tooth Loss?
For some people, the fact that tooth loss is preventable can be surprising. It occurs frequently enough that many people can mistake it as something that everyone will eventually have to face. However, the truth is that most cases of tooth loss occur because of an underlying problem that could have been addressed earlier, or prevented altogether, with proper dental care and maintenance. For the majority of tooth loss cases, prevention is highly possible, which means you have a good chance of avoiding it if you haven’t already experienced it. (more…)
Dr. Rogers was published in CDA’s November Issue. Click above to see his article (pg.601).