Comprehensive Smile Repair for Crown Point Residents
At Advanced Dental Concepts, we do our utmost to prevent common oral health issues, but when we’re unable to stop these concerns before they start, we make every effort to conserve the maximum amount of healthy dental structure while completely removing decay and damage and fully restoring lost form and function to smiles. We’re able to do this by utilizing the latest dentistry techniques and technologies. If you’re interested in finding out more about restorative dentistry services at Advanced Dental Concepts, we invite you to contact our team to schedule an appointment.
Crowns & Bridges
Dental crowns allow dentists to fully repair and protect damaged teeth. As the name suggests, dental crowns fit over the top of teeth providing improved strength and renewing lost dental structures. We may recommend dental crowns in a variety of situations including:
- To repair damaged or decayed teeth when more conservative fillings, inlays, and onlays will not fully restore the dental structure
- Cosmetic enhancement of teeth that are broken, crooked, malformed, or otherwise flawed
- To protect root canal treated teeth
- Connected to healthy teeth to support a fixed bridge tooth replacement
- Attached to dental implants as part of single tooth or consecutive tooth replacement
Patients who need dental crowns should plan to visit our office two times. During an initial appointment, we remove a small amount of dental structure to accommodate the dental crown. We then capture digital impressions of the prepared tooth that are used by the dental lab to craft a custom crown. Finally, we place a temporary crown to protect the prepared tooth. Once we receive the final restoration from the lab, patients return to exchange their temporary for a custom dental crown.
Tooth-Colored Fillings
In the past, dentists used amalgam, metal filling materials to repair minor dental damage and decay. While these materials offered a durable filling and repaired the form and function of damaged teeth, they also required the removal of healthy tooth structure and were immediately noticeable within the smile. We almost always use tooth-colored, composite resin fillings at Advanced Dental Concepts. Unlike traditional amalgam fillings, composite resin is blended to match the natural shade of the smile. Applied directly to the tooth in a putty-like form, the tooth-colored filling material allows the dentist to restore the damaged part of a tooth without removing healthy dental structure to accommodate the filling. Best of all, the whole process is completed in just one appointment at our office.
Root Canal Therapy
Root canals have a reputation for being painful, but these treatments are actually used to relieve the painful toothache that results from tooth decay or damage that occurs in the innermost layer of the tooth. The soft, inside layer of the tooth is known as the pulp, and all of the tooth’s nerves are housed inside its pulp. When damage or decay accesses the pulp layer, the nerves are directly affected leading to a severe toothache. A root canal removes this damaged pulp tissue, relieving toothaches. The process is fairly straightforward. The dentist drills a small access hole through the top of the tooth to the center. Then, he extracts the pulp and nerve tissue. Next, we refill the damaged tooth with a comparable substance. Finally, we reseal the access hole. In most cases, we’ll recommend the placement of a protective dental crown as well.
Dentures & Partials
If you experience advanced tooth loss, it’s important to seek out tooth replacement right away. For those patients with extensive tooth loss, partial or full dentures may be the best solution. Partial dentures are used to replace a number of teeth along an arch. A gum-colored base is crafted to fill the gaps in patients’ smiles. The base supports the replacement teeth, and is held in place by clasps connecting it to healthy teeth. Full dentures are similarly crafted from a gum colored base that supports a full arch of replacement teeth. However, since there are no remaining teeth to support the denture, the base is crafted to fit snuggly against the gums staying in place through natural suction. We also offer dental implant supported dentures for improved stability.
Tooth Extraction
We’ll do our utmost to help patients preserve their natural dental structures, but there are situations where tooth loss is unavoidable. When this is the case, we offer safe, comfortable tooth extractions in our Crown Point, IN dental office. Some of the common reasons for tooth extraction include:
- Severe decay or damage that destroys too much of the healthy structure to allow for the support of a restoration
- In preparation for orthodontic alignment or the creation and placement of dentures
- The third molars, or wisdom teeth, are often removed to prevent crowding or impaction that may occur when these teeth erupt in the late teens or early twenties