For patients who experience complete tooth loss on their upper or lower dental ridge, a full, custom-designed implant denture is often the a lifeline to restoring their bite function, their smile’s appearance, and a large part of their overall quality of life. Yet, the extent of their tooth loss can sometimes make receiving dental implants an equally extensive process, especially in the process of rebuilding the entire dental ridge. Fortunately, many patients can benefit from the support of dental implants and the full restoration of their dental ridge, all with more minimally invasive treatment than they may expect. With All-on-4 implant dentures, we may be able to support your complete denture on just four strategically placed dental implant posts. (more…)
Why Isn’t Extracting Teeth More Frequently Recommended?
There are many options for addressing a wide range of oral health problems, and most are designed specifically to help you preserve as much of your healthy, natural tooth structure as possible. However, in some cases, extracting a tooth is the preferable solution for your oral health, depending on the severity of your oral health concern. The reason tooth extraction isn’t more frequently recommended is because it involves removing all of your tooth’s structure and, in many cases, replacing it. However, when it is recommended, it’s important to seek treatment to restore your smile as soon as possible. (more…)
What Smile Restoration Means After Tooth Loss
When it comes to restoring a tooth that’s compromised in some way, the goal is to help the tooth regain its function and preserve what remains of its healthy, natural structure. However, when a tooth is lost or extracted, that’s no longer possible, and restoring your smile depends on replacing the tooth in order to restore its proper function. This means the more lifelike your dental prosthesis is, the better job it can do of restoring your smile. That’s also why dental implants often make the ideal solution for replacing one or more lost teeth. (more…)
What It Means When a Wisdom Tooth Gets Impacted
Wisdom tooth impaction isn’t as common as many other oral health concerns, but when it occurs, it can become a serious threat and source of discomfort to your oral health. Unless you’ve already experienced it, the condition may seem like a mystery, and fortunately, there may be a chance that you’ll never have to deal with a problematic wisdom tooth. However, if you do, then it’s important to understand what the condition means, and why extracting impacted wisdom teeth as soon as possible is important to your immediate and long-term oral health. (more…)
How to Recover from the Effects of Tooth Loss
With the right general dental care, your smile can recover from many of the conditions that could impact its health and integrity, including those that have reached a more severe stage. For example, restoring a significantly fractured or broken tooth, successfully stopping and managing gum disease, and more can often help a smile fully or almost fully recover its good health and integrity. Yet, after losing a tooth, there are many different effects the loss can have on your smile and oral health. Recovering from these effects may require replacing more than just the visible part of the tooth, but also its root in order to fully restore the tooth’s vital role in your long-term oral health. (more…)
The Role of Oral Pathology in Your Overall Health
To many people, complex oral health care often means the need for a specific type of oral surgery to address a foundation and/or functional issue with their oral health. This might include severe tooth loss, or damage or malformation of the jawbone. However, specialized oral health care can also involve diagnosing and tracking certain, less subtle changes in your oral health. In some cases, these changes may indicate a much more severe concern, such as periodontitis or oral cancer, and oral pathology could be the key to successfully managing with it. (more…)
Oral Health Concerns that May Need Surgery
Unlike routine general dental care, not everyone will need oral surgery to repair or rebuild their smiles. However, the need for oral surgery is common for certain types of severe oral health concerns, particularly those that cannot be successfully addressed with general or restorative dental procedures. Today, we examine a few oral health concerns that may need surgery to properly address, and how the right surgical treatment can help you fully recover your good oral health, proper bite function, and much more. (more…)
A Few Things Dental Implants Can Help You Avoid
After experiencing tooth loss, you have a lot to consider about the future of your oral health. Therefore, it’s natural to overlook the long-term implications of losing one or more teeth, or what replacing them now will mean for your smile years from now. Some of the greatest advantages of dental implants involve their immediate benefits to the comfort and stability of your restoration. However, many others involve helping you avoid some of the more serious complications to your oral health that can result from tooth loss. (more…)
Do You Have to Replace an Extracted Wisdom Tooth?
If your wisdom teeth, or third molars, become impacted when they try to erupt along your dental ridge, then extracting them might be the only recourse for saving your smile from the consequences. If you do need wisdom tooth extraction, then you may have several questions about the procedure and what it could mean for your oral health. For example, if you know about tooth loss, then you may realize that many extracted teeth should be replaced, and wonder what’s the best option for replacing them. Fortunately, unlike most other teeth, extracting wisdom teeth doesn’t typically require that you replace them afterward. (more…)
How Common Concerns Can Lead to Tooth Loss
Ideally, your healthy and natural teeth could last for life with proper care and maintenance. However, tooth loss remains a concern for many people, and the specific causes of it can vary greatly. Fortunately, many of these concerns can be addressed and managed before they lead to tooth loss, helping many people avoid it and preserve their natural smiles. If it does occur, you also have highly lifelike options for replacing your lost teeth and rebuilding your smile, such as a custom restoration supported by dental implants. (more…)
Dr. Rogers was published in CDA’s November Issue. Click above to see his article (pg.601).