Restorative Dentistry
Vancouver, WA
 You do everything you can to protect the health of your mouth. You brush and floss your teeth every day. You attend regular visits to the office for cleanings and exams. Sometimes, however, despite your best efforts, things can still happen. You may develop tooth decay, or you may experience facial trauma that results in damage to your teeth. Damaged teeth not only affect your smile, but they can also compromise your oral health. At Alder Dental, we can provide restorative dental services, restoring the health of your mouth and preventing serious issues from occurring.
There are numerous types of dental restorations, which are used to perform a variety of different tasks, including filling cavities, fixing damage, covering a tooth following a root canal, or even providing a cosmetic fix. Traditionally, getting a dental restoration takes two visits. During your first visit, your tooth is prepared according to the type of restoration being placed. Molds of your mouth are taken using an impression putty. These molds are sent off to a lab, where your restoration is created. Because it can take a couple of weeks for your restoration to be sent back, so a temporary restoration is placed while you wait. Once your restoration is ready, it is then cemented in place. Developments in dental technology have provided a way to provide you with beautiful restorations without the wait. At Alder Dental, our restorations are made using CEREC.
When damage, whether it’s from a cavity or trauma, extends past the enamel and into the interior layer of your tooth, bacteria can enter. Once inside, the bacteria take up residence inside the canals of the affected tooth and attack the pulp, which houses blood vessels and nerves. This can lead to a painful infection. The only way to remove the infection is with a root canal or endodontic treatment. With this treatment, we drill a small hole into your tooth and remove the pulp. The canals are shaped, cleaned and disinfected. The space within your tooth is filled with a special material and capped with a dental crown.
Dental implants are the latest option available for replacing missing teeth. They consist of small titanium rods, which are surgically implanted into your jawbone, and can be used to replace any number of missing teeth. As you heal, the bone fuses to the rods, essentially turning the implants into “roots” that support your replacement teeth. Implants offer many benefits, but one of the biggest is that the implants stop the bone loss that typically accompanies tooth loss.
Gum disease is a serious, progressive, oral health issue that can ultimately lead to tooth loss. It is caused by plaque and bacteria attacking your gum tissue, causing it to become irritated and inflamed. Gum disease treatment is meant to remove the infection from around your gum line as well as along the roots of your teeth (a procedure known as scaling and root planing), which allows your gums to begin to heal. More advanced stages of gum disease require more involved treatments, including pocket reduction surgery and grafts.
Bridges are designed to replace one to three missing teeth. Frequently made from ceramic, they consist of the replacement tooth (or teeth) set between two dental crowns. The crowns anchor onto your adjacent healthy teeth (abutment teeth), which hold your bridge firmly in place.
Damage to your teeth can compromise their health and integrity, putting the affected teeth at risk for infections and further damage. Crowns are “caps” that cover the entire visible portion of your damaged teeth, protecting them and providing them strength. At Alder Dental, we offer CEREC same day crowns. Using digital impressions of your mouth, a machine mills your crown in our office. This technology ensures a proper fit and avoids the need for a temporary crown.
Dentures have been in use for replacing missing teeth for hundreds of years. Today’s dentures, however, are vastly different from their predecessors (and even vastly different than dentures just a couple of decades ago). Designed to be more natural in appearance and more comfortable, dentures are a removable prosthetic restoration. They consist of acrylic resin replacement teeth set into an acrylic gum colored base. The base is supported by your natural gums. Dentures are available in full (replacing an entire arch of missing teeth) and partial (replacing sections of several missing teeth). Partial dentures are also made with metal clasps, which hook on to your natural teeth to provide more support.
Cavities are small pits that form in your teeth as a result of tooth decay. The longer they go untreated, the larger they become, and the more at risk your teeth become for damage and infection. Fillings effectively stop the damage caused by decay in its tracks. They are made from either amalgam (a mixture of metals suspended in mercury) or composite resin (a mixture of fine glass, plastic, and other materials). Amalgam is exceptionally strong, but composite resin provides an aesthetic fix.
With restorative dentistry, we can restore the health of your mouth (and the appearance of your smile), and help you to maintain it. Call Alder Dental at (360) 831-0831 to learn more and schedule your appointment today. |
