When was the last time you went to the dentist? Chances are, you had an oral health issue that was either causing unbearable pain or constant discomfort or you experienced an unpleasant, severe injury to the face or mouth that only a dentist could diagnose and treat. Something happened and you finally get to the point where you’re either tired of the pain or you’re freaking out about something that doesn’t look or function normally.

When a dentist has to diagnose and treat or repair a dental injury or disease, it is called restorative dentistry. The dentist, in essence is restoring the look and proper functioning of your mouth, particularly the teeth and gums. Most adult patients go to see their dentist for this type of dentistry as opposed to preventative dentistry. This is often because of patients’ fears of going to the dentist and the potentially higher costs of dental exams, cleaning and work.

Restorative dentistry covers a wide range of dental procedures. Below are some of the more common ones:

• Crowns
• Fillings
• Implants
• Root planing and scaling
• Root canals
• Tooth extraction
• Implants
• Dentures

Sometimes dentists will blend in cosmetic dental services under the umbrella of restorative dentistry, while others have cosmetic and restorative dentistry separate. It is important to note that additional training and certification is required for dentists who perform cosmetic dental procedures. Nevertheless, it can be difficult to draw the line between restorative and cosmetic dental work as both restore one’s beautiful smile and proper teeth functionality. For instance, veneers can reshape crooked or chipped teeth, enhancing their appearance and improve the tooth’s chewing functionality.

Restorative dental procedures can be expensive, depending on what materials are needed and the extent and length of the procedures. Restorative work that involves anesthesia is typically more expensive. Most dental insurance plans cover some of the costs associated with this kind of dental work.

Besides the expenses, restoration dental work can include inconvenient, time- consuming procedures and follow-up visits that can be hard to fit into one’s busy schedule.

Preventative Dentistry

While restorative dentistry treats or is aimed at stopping the progress of current oral health damage, preventative dentistry seeks to stem the development of teeth and gum issues before they appear.

A visit to the dentist every six months is a preventative dental measure that protects the patient from a possibly painful dental issue that calls for expensive and time-consuming restorative dental treatment.

Preventative procedures are routine, quick, inexpensive and don’t require a follow-up appointment, saving the patient time and money. It also spares the patient from the pain and discomfort of teeth and gum problems.

As important and valuable preventative dentistry is, not all patients take advantage of it and only see it as optional. For patients, it can be easy to forgo the six month dental checkup when their teeth and gums look and feel great. Some serious oral health conditions such as oral cancer, have no noticeable symptoms until it progresses past the point of being treatable. Only the trained eye of a dentist can spot such unnoticed warning signs in a routine preventative dental exam.

Restorative dentistry encompasses a wide variety of dental procedures aimed at slowing and reversing damage of teeth, gums and soft tissue of the mouth due to injury, infection, decay or disease. While restorative dental work restores the look and functionality of a patient’s smile, preventative dentistry utilizes proactive procedures to stem the development of oral health conditions. Most patients, however, only see the dentist for restorative dental work to treat a tooth or gum issue. While restorative dentistry repairs one’s smile, it is more expensive and time-consuming than preventative dentistry.

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Dentistry has come a long way in its history and with the fast-paced lifestyle of many Americans today and the reality that many children and adults are afraid of the dentist, dental technology has continued to evolve and improve. Technology in dentistry has made the patient’s dental visit more comfortable and efficient. New dental technology seems to come out each year so as to give dentist a way to better and more accurately diagnose dental issues as give the patient a better dental experience.

If you’re wondering what king of new dental technology is about to roll out or which has already been adopted, you’re in luck. Here is a small list of the latest dental technology:

Digital Dentistry and 3D Printing

With 3D printers becoming smaller and more sophisticated, they are increasingly becoming a part of every dental office. Current 3D printers can produce custom, same-day crowns and implant abutments. New 3D printers will be capable of yielding night guards, bridge models, surgical guides and stone models.

Enhanced Visualization Tools

Issues of the mouth are often hard to see, even by a dentist. Magnification tools are important to any dentist. However, there isn’t a single tool that features multiple magnifications, until now. There is now a visualization tool called OmniOptic by Orascoptic, which gives dentists the ability to change between 2.5 and 5.5 times magnification.

The same company has also come out with Spark, a cordless headlight that can be worn with eyewear or loupes.

Failed Implant and Prosthesis Repair

Dental implants, crowns and dentures can break and fail over time. Usually, these require that the appliance be replaced. With the Locator F-Tx Fixed Attachment System by Zest Dental Solutions can fix failing dental prosthesis saving the patient money and time.

Improved Digital Impressions

Good impressions come from good models and scans which come from great, accurate scans. With the RIO 3 intraoral scanner, dentists can get color or black and white images all with being wireless and cart of pod set up. This scanner not only provides detailed photos with precise coloring and shade measurements but is also enhances the patients’ dental office experience.

Digital cameras also have undergone improvements and now feature preset modes, take vibrant, clear, detailed photos, are user-friendly and are resistant to water and chemicals.

Advanced Lasers

Lasers have become an accurate and safe way to conduct tight dental procedures in the mouth. Lasers have been used to eliminate oral cancer cells to performing precise incisions. With the first dual-wavelength soft tissue diode laser in production, it will be a matter of time before lasers will be able to perform more dental procedures including crown lengthening, exposing unerupted teeth, recover implants and cut out and drain teeth abscesses.

Bluetooth Toothbrushes

As if electronic toothbrushes weren’t enough, “smart” electronic toothbrushes that run on Bluetooth. These toothbrushes include a location sensor, scrubbing sensor, pressure sensor, a mouth map and customized coaching for better dental health care.

Mobile Dental Photography

Everyone knows that Smartphones are more than a phone. The advancements of Smartphones have yielded phones with high-quality cameras. Dentists can use their Smartphones to take photos and upload the photos to a computer or even look at and analyze the image while away from the office.

Improved Cavity Detection

Dental x-rays are a common way to catch cavities early. Some patients don’t like x-ray because of the possible radiation. New cavity detection technology bypasses the radiation of x-ray while providing the same quality and accurate diagnosis. Portable equipment and cameras that utilize infrared light to help dentists to more easily observe and diagnosis dental issues.

Increased Use of Cloud-based Software

Saving important files and valuable, confidential patient information on a computer hard drive is not only outdated, but is less secure. Should something happen to those back-ups, the data is lost forever. Saving this type of information to the cloud grants the dentist easy access to records and file anywhere and at any time. Saving information over the Internet spares the dentist frustration and time looking for information.

Machine Learning Automated Software

It used to be a balancing act in trying to book enough appointments in a day while not getting yourself double-booked. When a patient cancelled, you have to quickly inform another patient about the slot availability. This can be stressful and it can keep you from doing your job. New machine learning, however, can now schedule appointments, detect and quickly fill cancellations in addition to keep schedules full by monitoring the available chair time and scheduling pre-selected patients.

Great Aligner Selection

Who needs metal braces when clear, plastic invisible aligners can do the same thing, only without the embarrassing look or scratched up mouth? More competition in the aligner market will only lead to lower-cost and more effective invisible aligners.

Sleep Issue Diagnoses

With more Americans experiencing sleep disorders such as sleep apnea and Bruxism, it will be more and more common for dentists to provide sleep issue treatment in their offices.

Better Quality Materials for Restorations

The future of restoration materials will likely include some sort of bioactive materials. Right now, some possible, future restoration materials have been found to convert into a chemical called hydroxyapatite which not only binds to the tooth, but it also strengthens the too.

Digital Scanning Devices

A few years ago, the CEREC and E4D digital scanners were all the rage. With the success of digital scanners, more companies are getting into the dental scanning game, including many from Europe. Competition will get fiercer so expect to see digital scanners with more capabilities coming out soon.

Increased IT Security

With the increased incidents of major data breaches in the last few years, it makes sense that more and more dentists will invest in more sophisticated and resistant to hackers in order to protect their patients’ confidential medical history records.

Patients may not enjoy going to the dentist, but if there is something wrong in their mouth and their mouth hurts, they will pay the dentist a visit. Advancements in dental technologies are aimed at helping dentists to better diagnose and treat dental conditions and give dental patients a more pleasant experience.

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Echoes of Kennedy’s Moon Shot

In 2006, a group of scientists, with a bold ambitious plan, and modeled after President Kennedy’s manned lunar mission program, began laying out the foundations for Dentistry’s Holy Grail: whole human teeth regeneration. Like the NASA space program, the scientists come from a variety of backgrounds and implementing stem cell and engineering biology to tackle the enormous complexity of ontogenesis. Some of the processes involved include: bioreactor reactor grafting, regenerated cap-stage tooth organ, organogenesis inducement, and stem cell odontogenic signaling. The scientists envision a 10 year plan, with a target date of 2017.

The Benefits

Not only would this regenerative procedure make a superior alternative to wearing dentures, but also offer an alternative to the currently popular synthetic dental implants. It would replicate a natural tooth in every way, including full immune system involvement, neural excitement, systematic capillary development, and trauma self-repair.

The Progressive Steps

It is believed that a cap stage regenerated tooth should be realized in 2011, followed by animal trials in 2012, human trials in 2014, clinician training in 2015, and finally released to clinical practice by 2017. The cap-stage implant progressive steps would be as follows

1: Adult stem cell harvesting

2: Cellular culture expansion

3: Scaffold cell seeding

4: Cellular signaling to induce odontogenic tissue

5: Ontogenesis gene expression profiling

6: Repeating the above steps to conclude cap-stage cellular expressed gene associated ontogenesis.

Conclusion

Ontogenesis and the technology to grow replacement teeth, would mean the end of life long suffering for denture wearers. Living teeth would be superior and far more preferable to dentures, in the fact that they are responsive to human bites, as well as promoting optimal health for surrounding teeth and gums. In Japan and other countries, successful animal trials on mice with full root development have set the stage for human trials in the very near future, and the prospect for yet, another shining epic achievement for the field of regenerative medicine.

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When a person has cosmetic dentistry procedures it can give you a complete dental makeover. Due to developments in the dentistry field, a cosmetic dentist can do many procedures. These procedures normally involves treating dental problems like teeth that are discolored, gaps between teeth, or damage, missing, chipped, or misshapen teeth. Some of them may not just be cosmetic procedures but also help to treat oral problems. Every cosmetic dentistry procedure has a different price. It varies due to the dentist expertise and the area where the treatment is.

Cosmetic dentistry procedures

• Dental implants-this is a procedure for replacing a natural tooth that has been damaged beyond repair and needs to be taken out

• Dental invisalign-this is a common procedure that is used to repair structural abnormalities in your tooth. They are like having traditional braces but are better.

• Teeth whitening-this is most common cosmetic dentistry procedure patients want and is done to regain the natural shine and color of the tooth. The loss of the shine and natural color can be lost due to eating habits, excessive smoking, aging, etc.

• Dental veneers-the reason that people have this procedure is to repair and beautify uneven alignments or tooth structures, cracks in a tooth, spacing between teeth that is uneven, and tooth enamel that is worn out.

• Dentures-these are generally fixed in order to replace missing teeth or a missing tooth. Dentures normally serve for a lifetime so this is an effective option. In order for them to last a long time, you must follow all the techniques of dental care provided for dentures.

To become a cosmetic dentist you have to graduate from dentist school and successfully pass your licensing examination. Few regions offer specialization in cosmetic dentistry so you once you become a dentist you will need to find alternative fellowship and training opportunities to master the skills you need to work in this field. There are many certifying professional associations and groups of cosmetic dentists that will offer advance training opportunities. This could be an internship or fellowship working for a cosmetic dentist. Cosmetic dentistry is a fast-evolving field so it is very important that you are taking advantage of continuing education classes in order to stay on top of the latest techniques and tools.

The schooling required to become a dentist involves obtaining a four-year degree, preferably in a major related to their field and then there is four years at a dental training school. You need to do well in your undergraduate degree because admission to dental school is based on standardized test scores and academic records. The tests to get your license are very rigorous.

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A denture is a replacement for missing teeth and the connected tissues to those teeth. The denture is removable and is made up of acrylic plastic and sometimes metal materials and porcelain. The replaced teeth have a close resemblance to natural teeth and gum tissue.

One goes for 'complete denture' to replace all the teeth, while partial dentures fill in the missing teeth spaces and also stop other teeth from changing their positions. There are two kinds of complete dentures, the "immediate" and the "conventional" types. In the case of immediate denture, the replaced teeth are done on the same day, soon after the removal of the natural teeth. This kind of denture acts to protect the tissues while lowering the chances of bleeding after tooth extraction. With the conventional kind, a time period of 8 to 12 weeks is passed for the gum healing process to take place before a denture is placed in the gap. The time for replacement may be more and depends on the dentist's recommendations.

People with some natural teeth can go for partial denture. It must however be remembered that replaced teeth are meant for people of any age as one may lose teeth and there may be a need to go for denture.

The process of denture takes about a month and requires few appointments. These include the initial diagnosis, an impression of jaws positions, a prototype to determine the correct color, shape and other details, a final placement of denture before making any little adjustments.

How to care a denture?

Sometimes dentists recommend denture adhesives, mainly for the first time wearers. This adhesive improves the stability and retention of replaced teeth and helps to restore the confidence of the wearer.

The following guidelines if followed improve the denture life.

· Take out the replaced teeth and brush it daily using a denture cleanser.

· Do not use boiling water to sterilize the replaced teeth as the denture material may change its shape.

· In the case of partial denture, the replaced teeth should be removed before going to brush the natural teeth.

· When not in use, the replaced teeth should be soaked in water or a denture cleanser.

· Always keep the dentist in the same place after its removal to avoid its misplacement.

Is it ok to wear your denture at night?

During your sleep it is better to remove the denture and soak it in a cleansing solution. You can also soak it during the day as it is found that soaking for at least eight hours helps the gum tissue to rest and helps in normal stimulation and cleansing by the saliva and tongue. This has a long-term benefit to the gums.

Continue with your dental visit

It is recommended to go for regular dental checkups so that the dentist can examine the presence of any disease or cancer. With the growing age, there may be a need for dental adjustment or remake of the denture. Either you should try to adjust the replaced teeth yourself nor should you make use of denture adhesives for a long time as there are possibilities of denture loss.

Alternatives to dentures

A new alternative to denture is dental implants. These implants are artificial teeth roots that are fixed in the jaw surgically so that a replacement or bridge is held in place. Although expensive, these implants and bridges appear as more "real" teeth. However, it is better to consult your dentist about the kind of replacement you should go for to replace your missing teeth – dentures or implants.

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