Restorative Dentistry
Dentist Massapequa, NY
 Restorative dentistry serves to repair or replace teeth to enhance oral health and chewing ability. General dentists, also known as family dentists, are responsible for performing restorative dental procedures. At Detailed Dental Care, Dr. Amoia guides and helps patients find the ideal restorations for their dental problems. Examples of these procedures include crowns, bridges, implants, and dentures.
Understanding Restorative Dentistry: Comprehensive Care for Your Smile
Restorative dentistry primarily aims to repair damaged teeth or replace missing ones, ensuring a healthy and functional smile. This involves procedures like fillings, crowns, bridges, dentures, and implants. While restorative dentistry may share similarities with cosmetic dentistry, they are not the same. The focus of restorative dentistry is to enhance oral health and function, while cosmetic dentistry targets the aesthetic appearance of your smile. Certain dental procedures provide both functional and cosmetic benefits. For instance, a dental crown not only restores chewing ability but also enhances the uniformity of your smile. To understand restorative dentistry well, you should know the type of patients that may need such services.
Who Needs Restorative Dentistry?
Many types of conditions may require restoration. It is prudent to visit a dentist for a thorough examination before determining the ideal restoration. However, some conditions necessitating restoration stand out.
Restorative dentistry focuses on strengthening and rejuvenating decayed or damaged teeth, providing long-lasting treatment that closely resembles natural teeth. It is also used to restore smiles for those who have suffered tooth loss. Restorative dentistry offers various solutions, including dental implants, bridges, and dentures, to repair teeth, improve chewing function, and restore facial appearance.
Those with misaligned teeth also need minor restoration. Misaligned teeth can be corrected through restorative dental procedures such as braces or clear aligners. This enhances smile aesthetics, improves bite function, and reduces the risk of temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders. Victims of accidents or trauma people who have experienced dental trauma, such as chipped, knocked-out, or broken teeth, can benefit from restorative dentistry as well.
Dental Fillings: Durable Solutions for Tooth Decay
One of the most popular restorative dentistry treatments is dental fillings. Dental fillings are recommended for individuals with minor cavities caused by tooth decay. Tooth decay is a common dental issue that happens when harmful bacteria consume the sugars in our food, creating acid that harms the tooth enamel. If not treated early, decay can worsen, leading to discomfort and sensitivity. Dental fillings provide a straightforward fix for this. Getting a dental filling starts with the dentist assessing how much decay has occurred. They will use special tools to examine the tooth and gauge the size and depth of the cavity. This helps them choose the right filling material and decide how much tooth structure needs removing.
Dental Crowns: Restoring Strength and Appearance to Damaged Teeth
Dental crowns serve as a form of dental repair to conceal a damaged or decayed tooth or to enhance the appearance of a tooth that is chipped or discolored. The beauty of crowns is that they restore both beauty and the strength of your teeth. If you are thinking about getting a dental crown, there are some key points to consider. Firstly, crowns are a permanent solution, offering lasting dental care. Secondly, these crowns can be made from different materials. Below are the three main types of crowns based on the materials they are made from.
Metal Crowns
Metal crowns are crafted from various metals like gold, silver, or stainless steel and boast strength and durability. However, they are less common nowadays due to their visibility under the gum line. Most patients prefer crowns that appear natural and similar to their teeth.
Porcelain Crowns
Porcelain crowns are the most prevalent, and they are loved for a good reason. They are made of a ceramic material bonded to a metal framework, offering a natural appearance. Even so, they tend to be pricier, especially zirconium dental crowns.
Composite Resin Crowns
Composite resin crowns are also widely used because they are similar in appearance to your teeth. Composite resin crowns are made from a resin material bonded to the tooth and are the most cost-effective. Nonetheless, they lack the durability of metal or porcelain crowns.
Dental Bridges: Bridging the Gap in Your Smile
Dental bridges are prosthetic devices used to replace missing teeth, whether it is one tooth or multiple teeth in a row. Functioning as a literal bridge, this appliance fills the gap in your smile. Dentists customize the bridge to match the color of your natural teeth. There are four main types of bridges, as outlined below:
Traditional Dental Bridge
The traditional dental bridge is widely used and more popular than the other options. It consists of two dental crowns attached to surrounding teeth, with artificial teeth filling the gap. This design offers strength but requires modifying adjacent teeth.
Cantilever Bridge
The cantilever bridge differs from traditional ones in that it uses only a single anchor tooth. It is less common and usually placed toward the front of the mouth due to the strain it may put on a single tooth. While it can save time and money, it is only sometimes suitable.
Maryland Bonded Bridge
The Maryland bonded bridge resembles a traditional bridge but uses a metal or porcelain framework instead of crowns for anchorage. This framework is attached to the back of teeth, avoiding modification of adjacent ones. It is a cost-effective alternative, but its strength depends on the adhesive used and may cause tooth discoloration with metal frameworks.
Implant-Supported Bridge
Implant-supported bridges share the structure of traditional ones but are anchored with dental implants, eliminating the need for adjacent teeth. They are ideal for spanning large gaps with multiple missing teeth, offering strength and durability.
Dental Implants: The Gold Standard for Tooth Replacement
Dental Implants are the ultimate restoration solution for most dental problems. Dental implant surgery involves replacing tooth roots with metal posts and damaged or missing teeth with artificial ones. Implant replacements resemble and function similarly to natural teeth. It is a preferred option over dentures or bridgework and provides a solution when there are not enough natural teeth roots to support dentures or bridgework. Implants offer a good solution to replace multiple tooth loss and even single tooth issues. However, the procedure is more costly than the other restoration options.
At Detailed Dental Care, we have restoration options tailored to offer the optimal benefit to the user. When you come to us with a dental problem, we take a consultative approach to find the most suitable solution. We help you find the right option by providing all the necessary information. If you have suffered tooth loss, call us today at (516) 875-6774 to learn more about your options. |
