The Progression Of Smile Restoration: From Fillings To Implants

Dentist Blog

As hard as you try, you probably won't be able to hold onto your natural teeth forever. There is only so much restoration and salvation work a dentist can do before a tooth is completely gone. If you want to know how you got from fillings to dental implants, here is the usual timeline.

Dental Fillings

The first step in losing your teeth almost always starts with cavities and dental fillings. You may get cavities and fillings as young as 4 or as old as 54 (and older) depending on how well your parents help you take care of your baby teeth and how well you take care of your adult teeth. When caught early, you just have all of these tiny little fillings. As you get older, or as you miss regular check-ups, the cavities get bigger. The fillings get bigger too, sometimes replacing a large portion of the tooth.

Dental Crowns

Dental crowns are often the next step in trying to preserve the life and health of a tooth. At this point, the tooth is mostly filling, the filling has fallen out and will not stay, or the tooth has lost another chunk of itself. The dentist can still rescue the tooth by crowning it, so long as there is enough tooth above the gum line to which a crown can adhere.

Root Canals

Root canals can happen before or after you get a dental crown. They are often the result of ignoring your dental appointments and letting oral hygiene go. They are also the result of the remaining part of a tooth going bad under its crown. The dentist will still try to save the tooth. If the tooth is crowned, they will remove the crown, do the root canal, and then install a new crown to protect the repaired tooth.

Dental Implants

Now that you know how you got to this point, it should come as no surprise when your dentist tells you that you either have to pull the bad or dead tooth, or risk major infection and additional loss of teeth. Pulling the tooth leaves a gap, of course. To restore your smile, you can choose a partial denture or a dental implant for a singleton tooth, and additional implants for more than one tooth that has to be removed. Hopefully, once you get to this point, you are far past retirement age and not a youngster with bad teeth in need of faux replacements.

Schedule a consultation at a clinic like Airport Road Dental Associates if you're concerned about your teeth.

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14 July 2017

Give Yourself the Gift of a Beautiful Smile

If you are someone who hesitates to open your mouth when you smile because you are embarrassed about your teeth, you should know that there are a number of cosmetic techniques that can give you a beautiful smile you will be proud to show to the world. As a cosmetic dentist, I have seen many clients transform their lives simply by fixing their smiles. This blog is meant to encourage people to find out about the possibilities in cosmetic dentistry so they can feel good about their smiles. A beautiful, confident smile really can change your life. I would love to show you how.