Tag Archive for: cavities

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Icon Dental Treatment

There’s a very new kind of treatment recently released for early-stage cavities. This treatment is fabulous in that it uses no drilling or anesthesia for halting and even reversing growing pre-cavities. If you happen to discover white spots on your teeth, see the dentist. A white spot is actually an indication of enamel weakness and where a cavity will eventually develop. Icon gets rid of these, not only restoring the enamel, but also the tooth’s consistent pearly-whiteness.

The treatment is a quick step-by-step process where the tooth and damaged area are cleaned and kept dry (easy for me with my handy-dandy ozonating machine); a series of Icon’s special gels are applied, each left to sit for a designated activation & infiltration time, then carefully cleaned off; the teeth are polished; and that’s it! The entire process can be as short as 15 minutes with absolutely no painful drilling or invasive removal of natural materials. Immediately after the procedure, dramatic cosmetic improvements will be noticeable.

Check out Icon’s demonstration on YouTube… and if you are one of those individuals who are dentist-phobics, don’t be alarmed. None of this feels as weird as it looks, by far. If you still can’t get past the atmosphere of the place and letting someone prod around your mouth, I have that covered too.

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

P.S. By the way, “caries” are going to be mentioned a lot in the video. Caries is just another name — the sciencey, dental-world name — for cavities. Enjoy!

You, Your Bite and Occlusal Disease

Occlusal disease is the fancy name for “bite disease”. What? How does one’s bite become diseased, you ask? Well, there are three types of bad things that can happen to your teeth: decay (cavities), gum disease, and bite disease. We’ve discussed the first two, so here goes occlusal (bite) disease.

Occlusal disease is the condition where your bite — the way your teeth come down onto each other — is uneven, crooked, or misaligned. You may not be able to bite down all the way or chew thoroughly, and your jaw muscles must work harder for these simple tasks. Because of the unevenness, some teeth are worn down faster than others, and further wearing, breaking, or chipping of teeth may occur. The extra work on the jaw muscles also causes pain all around the jaw, mouth, head, and neck. “Aging” teeth may not be aging at all — the wear and tear is because of a bite problem long left untreated. It’s a mess!

Occlusal disease is often hard to spot. Unlike cavities or gum disease, it’s not always visually apparent. What may appear to be a randomly broken tooth could be a more severe underlying problem… and fixing just that one tooth is not going to help if the whole jaw is misaligned.

Dentists trained at The Pankey Institute develop the eyes for recognizing bite problems, making it less of a mystery to solve if one finds himself suffering the symptoms. Much research goes into fixing the problem; casts and models of your teeth are made so the dentist can see where the problem lies and how it can be adjusted (bite analysis). Occlusal disease also ties directly into bioesthetic dentistry and treating TMJ disorders. A simple, non-surgical tweaking of the muscles (most often used with a MAGO, or mouthguard-looking splint that helps “train” the muscles to realign in the correct positions) may very well be the solution to chewing food without harming your skull, and preserving functional, straight teeth well into your later years.

 

How Ozone Therapy Lessens Dental Pain

If you have been treated with ozone therapy before, possibly during your own root canal or periodontitis treatment, did you notice any difference in how painful the process was… or wasn’t?  Ozone actually contains pain-alleviating properties; so instead of a chemical sterilizer (which might cause additional pain to the procedure, or even spark an allergic reaction in the patient), ozone actually gives a slight soothing, clean feeling to the area because of its natural healing qualities. This makes ozone therapy ideal for treating painful afflictions such as canker sores, abscesses, and other disease/wounds. Quick healing ensues, which saves yet another need for prolonged painkiller use!

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

Cavities, Acid, and Ozone

I’ve explained how we use ozone in our dentistry in previous posts. After all this talk of nasty acid-making bacteria wreaking havoc on teeth, it becomes essential — for my ozone-using practice — to bring the greatness of O3 into the picture!

Ozone eliminates bacteria, and is, therefore, the perfect solution to cleaning an infected tooth. What’s even better, is that ozone treatment will just come in the form of ozonated water or an ozone gas. Continual application of ozone to the surgical site promotes sterility, while also speeding up the process and recovery. Ozone therapy does not cause any negative side effects or allergic reactions in patients. It simply allows the natural immune system to fight off infection.

Using ozone for cavity treatment makes the filling or restoring process much easier and smoother. Guaranteeing sterility to avoid worse problems later is crucial during any serious dental work, and ozone does the job well.

Dr. Boyajian, Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

CEREC Inlays and CEREC Partial Crowns

The CEREC process for designing inlays and onlays is similar to the designing of a crown, only the function is different.

CEREC inlays are the superior versions of composite plastic cavity fillings; superior due to the strength and aesthetics that the ceramic brings. Inlays milled from this ceramic material last far longer than any other cavity solution. They also behave most similarly to natural tooth enamel, in both appearance and feel.

Onlays (a.k.a. partial crowns) are the remedy to extensive cavity damage, covering a larger area of the tooth. In past cases, the weaker disposition of composite — or the porcelain restorations that contained metal — would require a full crown to be designed in order to maintain the tooth’s strength. Because CEREC onlays are so strong, one that is well-built will do everything it needs to do, causing minimal extra tooth damage and eliminating the need for a full crown.

Best of all, CEREC high quality porcelain inlays and onlays can be done in one visit, just like their plastic counterfeits… I mean counterparts.

Dr. Boyajian, Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

Ozone: A Solution for Cavities

Prevention is definitely your best bet for avoiding cavities… but what if it’s too late for you? What if the cavities have already formed, or you thought your mouth’s health was top-notch and sneaky cavities still wormed their way through your teeth? We’ve already discussed a little bit about fillings, but if the damage requires more than a small composite filling, a larger, stronger restoration is needed.

This is where the CEREC system comes in handy. A crown, inlay, or onlay will be formed for the damaged area out of a strong ceramic material. This ceramic behaves similarly to natural tooth enamel, therefore maintaining (or, in this case, restoring) a tooth’s natural strength and durability. It is also minimally invasive, meaning far less of the healthy tooth is “shaved down” to fit something such as a toxic and malleable amalgam restoration. Results are both functional and beautiful.

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

Cavities Prevention

So what is the best “remedy” for these little monsters in your mouth? You guessed it — prevention! Taking precautions seriously is always the best way to avoid any kind of disease or infection.

Keep your teeth clean! Brush at least twice daily and be sure to floss thoroughly. Brush every single surface of your teeth that you can possibly reach. Flossing cleans out the old food particles and plaque from the places a toothbrush can’t reach.

Eat well! Nutrition largely impacts the overall health of your mouth and determines which bacteria dominate the environment in your mouth: the health-promoting, good bacteria, or the acid-producing, bad bacteria. Avoid refined sugars, refined flours, and heavily processed foods.

Visit the dentist regularly! Be sure to have regular cleanings and thorough inspections of what’s going on with your teeth. Be open to new suggestions and forming better habits. Take care of yourself.

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

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Dangers of Leaving Cavities Too Long

So what happens to cavities if you just leave them there? Well, cavities in their early stages cannot be felt by the person, but they can be spotted visually by the dentist. It’s a fairly uncomplicated fix at this point — a filling and regular cleanings to prevent further damage. But if the cavity has worn its way through to the dentin, the tooth is noticeably sensitive to heat, cold, or touch. At this point, a barrier must be laid over the damaged dentin, and then filling material to cover and seal the opening. If a cavity is yet still left untreated, the tooth’s nerve and pulp become infected and immense pain is experienced. A full root canal is required to clean out and seal off the tooth, along with reconstruction and reinforcement to rebuild the tooth’s strength, and a crown to replace the tooth loss.

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

How Cavities Begin

“Cavity.” The word does not sound as menacing as “rotting enamel” or even “tooth decay”, but that’s exactly what cavities are. Unfortunately, cavities are so common amongst individuals ranging from young children to the elderly, that everyone dismisses them as normal and easily repaired.

But is there something we aren’t considering? We were made with teeth, and we need them to chew and digest our food to survive… so something is wrong if they are showing signs of decay!

Cavities form from acid-producing bacteria and their acidic waste caused by sugars that they consume. Plaque, the substance left behind by these bacteria, accumulates all around the tooth, down along the gum line, and in all the cracks ‘n’ crannies (large or microscopic) that compose of the enamel crown. Tooth enamel is made mostly of calcium, and this acidic plaque nesting against it causes it to literally rot and wear away. When the decay forms a breakthrough — a completely hole through the enamel — it is now a cavity and must be filled before the vulnerable dentin & pulp inside becomes infected.

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

Safe Mercury Removal

Most of the public has been told that the metal filling up their cavities is silver. Most American dentists either are not informed or choose to ignore the fact that a high amount of mercury is contained in amalgam, and continues to release mercury vapor even after the filling has hardened.

Mercury is one of the most toxic substances known to man, and the reality of how many people contain it in their mouths is even more frightening. Any disturbance, such as chewing, brushing, or even licking the fillings absentmindedly releases harmful amounts of Hg atoms that envelop themselves into the innermost tissues of your body, particularly the digestive system, the liver, the lungs, and the brain. Many people are allergic to mercury, and live with serious allergic reactions to the fillings in their mouths, hardly aware that the fillings themselves are the cause of their distress. Many diagnosed “diseases” or “disorders” were never healed, because the root problem was never identified or acknowledged.

It is vital that amalgam be removed from a patient’s mouth as soon as possible. We are a mercury-free practice, taking every safety measure possible to prevent the patient and the doctor from inhaling mercury vapor through amalgam filling removals. A mercury detoxification process is strongly recommended after amalgam has been removed from a patient. For one who has had amalgam fillings removed, we have many resources and guidelines about how to get started with this.

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com