Cavities. Most people have heard of them and know they are the common name for tooth decay. In fact, nearly every American adult has at least one cavity.

Most patients also know that cavities are caused from poor oral hygiene and a diet loaded with sugar.

In most cases, the cavities are caught early and a quick, usually painless filling procedure.

Why do dentists care so much about cavities? Is tooth decay really a big dental issue?

The number one goal for each dentist is to maintain the highest oral health for their patients as possible. This includes offering treatment options that protect and strengthen each of the patients’ teeth.

Cavities, or tooth decay, can threaten a patient’s oral health, smile and teeth.

If left untreated, cavities can lead to the following health issues/concerns:

• Toothache and pain when exposed to heat, cold and sweet foods and drinks.
• The tooth may crack, fracture or break.
• Tooth sensitivity to biting and pressure.
• Bad breath and taste in the mouth.
• Possible brown or black spots on the teeth.
• Nerves of the tooth will die, resulting in tooth removal or a root canal.
• Permanent damage to the tooth enamel.
• Loss of teeth.
• Crooked teeth.
• Weakened jaw bone.
• Increases the risks of other medical conditions including stroke, endocarditis, eating disorders and immune system complications.
• Lowered ability to speak clearly.
• Decreased ability to chew efficiently, lessening the body’s absorption of nutrients. A lack of nutrients can put one’s oral and overall health at risk and sensitive or missing teeth can cause discomfort when eating.
• Lowered self-confidence and quality of life. A smile with a gap from a missing tooth can be embarrassing and there are indications that show a link to the frequency of smiling and overall happiness and high-quality well-being.

Once the bacteria enter through the tooth enamel, the damaged caused by a cavity is irreversible. Quick action will be required to prevent the damage to the tooth from worsening.

A cavity may not seem like a big deal at first. However, when it goes untreated, it can cause major oral health and overall health problems and lead to a lower quality of life.

Many patients don’t know that they have a cavity as cavities are painless and often have no noticeable symptoms.

This is why regular, six-month dental visits are an important component of proper oral care and hygiene. During these dental office visits, the dentist will do a comprehensive oral exam that includes x-ray (the only way to spot early cavities).

Getting cavities treated early will help prevent cavities from causing more damage to your teeth and it may also reverse the cavity.

Early treatment through fillings will also spare you from more extensive, expensive, time-consuming and uncomfortable dental procedures and treatments in the future.

Even if you already have fillings, they can break down over time and even become a place for cavities to form making it necessary for the fillings to be removed and replaced.

Just because you don’t feel any pain or discomfort or you don’t notice any unusual discoloration, doesn’t mean you’re cavity-free. Only your dentist will be able to identify and diagnose cavities in the early stages.

Be sure to visit your dentist every six months for a regular dental cleanings, checkups and exams. Contact your dentist today to schedule an appointment if you haven’t done so already.

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Living with missing, gapped or decayed teeth can be limiting, inconvenient, and embarrassing. The innovative cosmetic dentistry can bring back the appearance and function of natural teeth, and can correct almost any deficiency in a person’s smile.

Today, dentistry is more than just pulling a tooth. Cosmetic dentistry is a new area of dentistry, which is different from general dentistry in many ways.

In the traditional dentistry, the dentist focuses on the patient’s dental health as well as general monitoring for possible oral diseases and hygiene, while the cosmetic dentistry focuses on improving the aesthetic appearance of the patient’s teeth, mouth and smile.

Some of the most commonly performed cosmetic procedures include dental implants, tooth-colored restorations, fillings, tooth whitening, veneers, crowns/bridges, braces, dental bonding, gum de-pigmentation, gap closures, lip and cheek injections, orthodontics, and more.

Using one or more of these cosmetic dental procedures, combined with the latest advances in general and cosmetic dentistry, a skilled, experienced cosmetic dentist can transform your ill-shaped teeth and help you achieve a whiter, brighter smile.

Patients with damaged tooth structure now no longer need to rely on unsightly metals to replace decayed teeth. Dentists now use high density, advanced composite resins and porcelain materials for filling up cavities. These modern filling materials mimic the look, feel, and function of natural teeth.

Dental implants are used for substituting missing or broken teeth, dental veneers mask badly shaped, stained teeth and gaps, while tooth whitening helps to improve the color of your teeth and gap closures and bonding techniques can close those embarrassing pockets in between the teeth.

Benefits

A cosmetic dentistry procedure not only enhances your facial aesthetics, it even gives a significant boost your self-esteem, and confidence.

The cosmetic dentistry can have dramatic effects on your overall facial appearance. It can help you:

Enjoy well-aligned teeth without embarrassing braces.
Have beautiful, dazzling, more confident smiles.
Restore decayed or damaged teeth.
Enjoy safe and effective cosmetic dental treatments.
Regain the lost natural beauty of your teeth and smile with dental implant technology.
Boost your self-esteem with new, healthier, pearly whites.
Have virtually pain-free dental work with the latest dental technology and equipment.

Cost

The cosmetic dentistry cost in the Middle East, Western European Countries & United States of America is so high that many dental patients form these regions either choose to hold back their plans to fix their dental issues or seek cost-effective dental treatments abroad.

The cost of dental treatments and surgeries in countries like India, Thailand, Mexico and Costa Rica falls to a fraction of what they cost in the industrialized countries, so it’s quite understandable why more and more Western patients are crossing their national borders to avail cost-effective dental treatments in these low-income, less developed countries.

Since, in most cases, insurance doesn’t cover the costs of cosmetic dentistry, the uninsured, average patients may be incapable of paying out of the pocket for the dental treatment in their home countries.

Cosmetic dentistry prices can vary from procedure to procedure, depending on what kind of implant surgery you undergo as well as what kind of services, in terms of the quality of dental care and standard of the facility, you are getting.

For instance, dental implant cost may vary depending on the type of dental implant, permanent and temporary implants, and the number of teeth that need to be replaced or restored. Likewise, bridge cost also varied based on how many teeth are involved, and the quality chosen by you.

A dental surgeon’s expertise and the location and reputation of the dental facility are other considerations that can increase the price of your cosmetic dentistry procedure.

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Much of today's dental equipment has been refined over the years. The first dental instruments were drills made of flint, wooden sticks beaten to make one end fibrous and soft for scraping teeth, and the like. Evidently, man has been battling tooth decay and oral disease since time immemorial.

We can best show the kinds and use of certain types of dental equipment by illustrating them in use during a visit to the dentist.

Dentistry in the Barbershop?

A lot of people dread a trip to the dentist's office. To them it holds about as much appeal as a medieval torture chamber. They can take solace in the fact that conditions now are much better than they ever were in the Middle Ages. It's hard to imagine anyone going into their local haircutter's nowadays and having their tooth pulled, but that was what happened then for the common folk with unsterilized instruments and no anesthesia.

Nowadays, dentists are much better trained. They or their assistants will often explain to the patient what the dental procedure is and what and where it will be done to allay the patient's fears of the unknown and to also inform them. This begins even before the patient has set foot in the operating room.

Filling a Tooth

Once the patient has sat down in the specially-designed dentist's chair, the assistant will usually prep them, placing a bib or napkin to catch any spills, talking to and reassuring the patient as the dentists readies the necessary tools for the procedure. This can include such instruments as an explorer, a probe designed to do exactly what its name says. If the patient is scheduled for a tooth filling, then the dentist will first apply an anesthetic to deaden the nerves. A topical gel to numb the gums prior to the injection is available too. After the Novocain, the dental procedure will continue with the dentist drilling into the tooth using a diamond-tipped bur to remove as much caries or diseased tooth material as possible. He or she can also use an instrument with a spoon-shaped tip called an excavator to do this task. The drilling will produce a lot of spray and dust, so the assistant will be there to suck all that up with an HVE (high-volume evacuator). The patient will also have a saliva evacuator placed at the floor of the mouth to suck up excess fluid that might pool there.

Once the dentist has removed all the caries, he or she then prepares the filling called the amalgam. This is then stuffed into the cavity and carefully compressed and shaped with a variety of tools such as condensers, burnishers, cleoid / discoids, and Hollenbacks. When everything is done, the dentist will ask the patient to bite down on articulating paper and judge if everything feels okay. If it does, the dentist then flosses and removes any material which might have gotten stuck in between the teeth while he or she was working. With that through, the patient's chair is returned to an upright position, their face is cleaned, and they are asked to rinse their mouth out with some mouthwash, and the napkin is removed. Voila! A stronger and healthier, pain-free tooth in minutes.

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The composite restoration is a fairly common procedure by which worn down, or decayed teeth can be returned to their former healthy state. For this process modern dentists will typically use a sectional matrix system, which contains all the tools necessary to ensure a well fitted, durable tooth restoration.

Before you elect to undergo a composite restoration, it would be wise to enquire as to how your dentist carries out this procedure, and what equipment and materials they plan to employ in the process. After all, with something as important as your teeth it’s best not to take any chances.

Composite restorations have replaced amalgam fillings as the procedure of choice for dental repair, thanks to their ability to strengthen your teeth up to a level comparable with their original state. There are also significant aesthetic advantages to having a composite which blends into the overall appearance of your teeth, rather than a comparably unsightly metal filling. However, this procedure is only as effective as the tools it is being performed with. This is why there is the previously mentioned need to enquire as to whether your dentist has the tools capable of executing a successful composite restoration. For dentists that feel they should be upgrading their equipment for the good of their patients there are a number of online stockists that can handle such requests.

The reason that sectional matrix systems have been proven to be so effective when used for composite restorations is that they include components for each step in the process. For example, a sturdy clamp will effectively separate the teeth, allowing for perfect contacts. The overall shape of the composite and efficacy of the adhesive seal are then aided by using the appropriate matrix and wedge tools. This tends to result in less finishing work being required as it is much easier to craft and apply a perfect composite using the appropriate dental technology.

Along with the tools being used, savvy patients should also enquire as to the nature of the adhesive, as all good dentists will strive to use only the most effective resins for composite restorations. Meanwhile, dentists should remain informed about any future advancement in this developing field.

Because of the development of material science and cariology, it became very easy to obtain successful results with posterior restorations. With patient and dental surgeon both working towards the common goal of healthy, attractive teeth, there should be no shortage of smiles about town!

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You, too, can avoid losing your teeth to decay and rot. Through early detection and immediate treatment of dental caries, your dentist doesn’t have to resort to dental extraction to end the pain. An extraction presents the additional cosmetic problem of fixing your smile; truthfully, a lost tooth is unsightly to behold. Thus, the solution in this case is to clean out the affected teeth and insert white fillings into the cavities to prevent bacteria and tartar deposits from gathering inside these spaces.

How Dental Caries Cause Future Problems for You

Essentially, dental caries consist of tooth decay caused by bacterial infection in teeth. Caries cause cavities to form inside the teeth because the bacteria produce acids that corrode the enamel and penetrate into the dentin layer. This causes sensitivity and pain in the root where a bunch of nerves are located. When neglected or ignored, these dental caries cause an abscess to form inside the root, which could worsen. Remember: treatment for an infected jawbone is more expensive than root canal therapy.

Brushing at least twice a day and flossing at least once a day can prevent bacteria buildup, which leads to tartar deposits and gum infection. Visiting the dentist for a regular dental cleaning is also strongly recommended by dental health experts. However, when bacterial decay has already badly affected your teeth, your next best option is to have the caries removed and seal the cavities they left behind. This procedure calls for white filling to be used as sealant rather than an amalgam of silver or some plain dental cement.

Why White Fillings Are Better Than Silver, Mercury or Plain Cement

Modern technology has made traditional dental fillings unreliable and ineffective as long-term solutions to dental cavities. Silver amalgam fillings are now impractical because they’re usually left inside the tooth un-bonded, which allows them to expand slightly when exposed to heat and to contract a little when exposed to low temperature. Meanwhile, mercury fillings, as many found out, aren’t safe at all. The mercury gradually penetrates the bloodstream and poisons the individual. Dental cement, on one hand, isn’t as durable as the others because it tends to crumble after a while and its bond weakens considerably when exposed to intense heat or cold.

The only reliable choice is to use white fillings, which consist of plastic material that is soft and pliant while it’s used to mold and bond inside the tooth. It only becomes hard as rock when exposed to a concentrated light source. Unlike those materials used traditionally as fillings, this type of dental filling won’t require more than root planning and scaling to clean out the cavities of the teeth. The bonding agent used during the procedure remains stable throughout and won’t weaken the tooth’s internal structure.

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