Our office believes strongly in giving back to the community. Recently, I was contacted by the Superintendent at the Graham School in Hastings-On-Hudson regarding a young man that was ready to go off to college and had some confidence issues that resulted from some intrinsic staining in his front teeth that he had ever since the teeth erupted, possibly due to a childhood illness or some antibiotics he was given at an early age. Using Ultradents’ Opalustre enamel microabrasion paste, we were able to painlessly remove a significant portion of the stain without compromising the integrity of the enamel. His big smile afterward was all the compensation we received, but it was more than enough.
Broken cusps on teeth with large, silver amalgam fillings are one of the most common emergencies we see in our office. Even though we haven’t placed an amalgam restoration in 16+ years, many of them exist in our patients mouths and many dentists still place amalgams today. Amalgams do not bond to the remaining tooth and therefore, a large amalgam places a lot of stress on the cusps and remaining walls of the teeth when we chew. For that reason, we strongly prefer bonded composite resin restorations, which help to prevent these kind of fractures, and also release fluoride into the tooth walls making them less likely to decay in the future.
Today’s patient had a typical fracture after biting on a hard candy and the sharp edge was cutting her tongue. Using our in-office cad/cam milling machine, in less than 2 hours we removed the old amalgam and bonded in a super strong inlay/onlay restoration, conserving almost all of her natural tooth structure. This restoration is kinder than a full crown restoration, requiring almost no tooth drilling in this case other than removal of the amalgam, and thanks to our amazing E4D machine, no impressions for labwork were necessary and she went home with her permanent restoration the same day!
This patient came in requiring immediate attention for a broken upper molar; the sharp edge was cutting her tongue, and the exposed tooth structure was causing sensitivity. One of the options considered was a crown, but this would have required removal of significant healthy tooth structure and would be a more expensive solution than the one achieved here. We removed the existing old, silver fillings and some decay, bonded and placed a composite (tooth colored) restoration using a matrix band to contain the new filling, and then polished the restoration and discharged the patient, all in about 30 minutes (and painlessly with the help of a light dose of anesthetic). If you look carefully, you will see a fracture line at the back wall of the tooth that will hopefully be prevented from getting worse with the composite filling. The top of the crack is still visible, even in the new, finished restoration.
Pre-treatment photo showing four badly discolored composite or plastic laminates on upper four front teeth.
The treatment involved removing the old composite veneers and replacing them with 4 new porcelain veneers. The porcelain will not fade or yellow with time, and is a virtually indestructable material. The treatment was accomplished in only two visits.
Pre-treatment photo of four badly discolored and chipped composite veneers.
Finished case of four porcelain veneers (laminates) on the upper four front teeth.
This case involves the use of porcelain fused to metal crowns to solve the problem of severely worn teeth caused by a grinding habit. Due to the small size of the teeth, as a result of this patient’s grinding, crowns were necessary to make the teeth larger and to resist the strong biting force this patient generates on her front teeth.
Post-treatment photo of four crowns.
A staff member at our office desired a whiter smile. As you can see, she had a nice smile to start with, but what an amazing difference after our 1 hour Zoom bleaching treatment. Using customized trays for just a few nights every 6 months after treatment, she can expect her new white smile to stay awesome for many years.
