According to research from the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, 69% of adults over the age of 35 have lost at least one permanent tooth. By age 74, over 26% of people have lost all of their teeth. The road to advanced tooth loss can begin with a single missing tooth. At Grinnell Street Dental, we offer durable and esthetically pleasing dental replacements using implants. In today’s blog, your Sheridan dentist, Dr. Donald Coon, answers common questions about implant procedures.
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Sheridan Dentist: Learn More About Dental Crowns with a Fun Quiz
When you suffer from advanced tooth decay or have broken a tooth, a dental crown may be recommended. A crown can restore your tooth, ensuring the health and stability of your smile. In today’s blog, your Sheridan dentist, Dr. Donald Coon, uses a fun and informative quiz to explain how our special CEREC crowns can be created and placed in a single visit.
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Sheridan WY Dentist Explains Why Professionals Should Consider Adult Braces
When it comes to maintaining professionalism at a job, image and confidence are major factors. Thus, professionals may be hesitant about straightening their teeth, even if they are unhappy with the alignment of them. The potential for embarrassment is simply too great when it comes to metal wires and brackets. There is, however, another option. Adult braces from your Sheridan WY dentist, Dr. Coon, are clear and discrete. Read below to learn more about them and why they are a must for professionals. (more…)
Sheridan WY Dentist Looks at Three Benefits of Clear Braces
Is the potential embarrassment of wearing wires and brackets keeping you from pursuing your dream of straighter teeth? If so, you may be interested to learn that there is a method of teeth straightening that does away with wires and brackets altogether. To learn more about these wireless clear braces, read below as your Sheridan WY dentist, Dr. Coon, discusses three of their many benefits. (more…)
Sheridan Dentists Discuss How Dental Bridges Complete Your Smile
Is your smile missing something? Losing a tooth is no trivial matter, and replacing it is vital to preserving the health, function, and beauty of your smile. Without all of your teeth, your bite can lose its balance, wearing down the teeth that take the brunt of your bite’s uneven pressure. With a custom-designed dental bridge from your Sheridan dentists, however, you can effectively replace a single lost tooth, or several consecutive lost teeth, to complete your smile once again.
What is a Dental Bridge?
Traditional dental bridges consist of two crowns that border the appropriate amount of replacement teeth, usually crafted from durable dental porcelain that’s tinted and layered to mimic your natural teeth’s color and light-reflection properties. The outer crowns are secured to the remaining teeth on either side of the gap, which are called abutment teeth and are slightly modified to accommodate the dental crowns. After a thorough examination to assess the conditions of your tooth loss, Dr. Coon may recommend implant-supported dental bridges, which rest on one or more prosthetic tooth roots that are surgically inserted into your jawbone. (more…)
How Would You Like a Metal-Free Dental Filling?
If you’ve had a cavity treated in the past, then there’s a good chance that you received a dental filling to restore your tooth after the infection was excavated. For the past century, metal amalgam has been the dental filling material of choice, and has served as a strong and durable restoration for countless patients who’ve suffered tooth decay. Today, your Sheridan dentists discuss the next step in the evolution of cavity treatment—metal-free dental fillings, consisting of innovative, discrete white composite resin.
The Beauty of White Dental Fillings
Metal amalgam fillings have been successful for so long because they’re strong and durable; however, as metal, they can often shine conspicuously when you speak and smile, diminishing your smile’s brilliance. Instead, Dr. Coon may recommend a filling made of white composite resin, also known as a white dental filling. As the name suggests, white composite resin is tinted to match your natural tooth structure, creating a virtually undetectable dental filling to restore your tooth. In addition, composite resin isn’t subject to the properties of metal, such as expanding and contracting with changes in temperature (which can damage your tooth and expose it to reinfection). (more…)
Sheridan Dentists Explain the Science Behind Invisalign Clear Braces
The obvious effects of crooked teeth can significantly diminish your confidence, but if your goal is to improve your smile, then metal braces may not seem very appealing. Nevertheless, straightening your teeth is important for more reasons than just your cosmetic sensibilities; crooked teeth can also inhibit your mouth’s proper function and facilitate poor dental health. Luckily, you don’t have to temporarily sacrifice your confidence even further just to have a straighter smile. With Invisalign clear braces from your Sheridan dentists, you can enjoy the benefits of straightening your teeth without the conspicuousness of traditional metal braces.
A New Approach to Adult Orthodontics
Your teeth can grow crooked for a number of reasons, and straightening them means forcibly moving crooked teeth into their desired, more effective positions. Traditionally, metal braces can accomplish this movement by applying tension through wires that connect to brackets on your teeth. While highly effective, the apparatus may leave much to be desired for image-conscious older teens and adults. With impressive innovation, Invisalign clear braces redesign the approach to straightening teeth by eschewing brackets and wires, instead using a series of aligners that gently force your teeth into position following a doctor-prescribed schedule of movements. (more…)
Sheridan Dentists—The Dangerous Gum Disease Molecule
The beginnings of most dental diseases, including destructive gum disease, can often be traced to the excessive buildup of dental plaque, which contains myriad kinds of oral bacteria that can prove harmful to your teeth and oral tissues. By understanding these microorganisms and the processes that make them dangerous, you can better prepare yourself to protect your smile from most dental issues. By examining these mechanisms, however, experts have also learned that the progression of dental diseases can also prove dangerous to your systemic wellbeing. Today, your Sheridan dentists explore one notorious oral bacterium—Porphyromonas gingivalis—and how it can contribute to gum disease and an increased risk to your cardiovascular health.
Introducing Porphyromonas gingivalis
Porphyromonas gingivalis is a significant contributor to dental plaque, along with over 600 other different kinds of oral bacteria. To survive, P. gingivalis manipulates your immune system’s defenses, specifically inflammation, and causes excessive swelling of your gum tissues. Bacterial irritation can cause your gums to recede from your teeth, creating pockets for more germs to accumulate, and inflammation can exacerbate the damage, leading to the onset of gum disease and the destruction of the gums and jawbone that support your teeth. (more…)
Sheridan Dentists’ Guide to Cavity Prevention & Treatment
Do you know the best way to treat a cavity? Technically, there are a few choices that can effectively treat tooth decay and repair your tooth from the damage of cavities, depending on the severity your condition. However, preventing tooth decay in the first place, or treating it early enough to prevent cavities, is the best way to protect your smile. Your Sheridan dentists explain the tenets of effective cavity prevention, as well as how to successfully treat cavities should your preventive measures fail.
Preventing Cavities
Tooth decay is a progressive disease, and though you may not notice it yourself until cavities form and toothaches occur, the process begins long before then. The protective layer around your teeth, called enamel, is your body’s strongest and most mineralized substance. Some oral bacteria, which form dental plaque and adhere to your tooth enamel, consume sugars and carbs from your meals and convert them into acid, which the bacteria excrete onto your tooth enamel. (more…)
Besides Brushing & Flossing, What Else Constitutes Good Oral Hygiene?
Hopefully, you already carefully brush and floss your teeth at least twice a day (once before bedtime, preferably). If so, then you’re well on your way to achieving an excellent oral hygiene routine. However, there’s more to a clean and healthy smile than just a toothbrush and floss. Your Sheridan dentists explain why taking care of your eating habits is equally important to your continued good oral hygiene.
Watch your eating habits
“Sugar causes cavities” has been repeated so often that it can almost be considered clichéd. Nevertheless, it’s true, and there’s more to the story. Other fermentable carbohydrates, as well as sugar, feed certain oral bacteria, which convert them into acid. Though bacteria-produced acid dissipates after a few minutes, it weakens your enamel while it remains in your mouth, depleting your teeth of essential minerals. The more often you eat or snack throughout the day, the more often your teeth are exposed to enamel-destroying acid and the more likely you are to develop tooth decay. Limit your snacking habits, and if you can’t brush your teeth after eating, try rinsing your mouth with water to neutralize acid and rinse out oral bacteria and food debris. (more…)
