Tag Archive for: veneers

Bioesthetically Preserving A Healthy Bite

A patient recently came into my office with severely worn-down teeth & an overbite. This was caused by several years’ worth of clenching & grinding. I informed her that she essentially had two choices for restorations. Either she can have several veneers for the ‘visible-when-smiling’ teeth in the front, or full crown restorations for just about the entire mouth.

It raises an important question. How does an individual choose the right dentist to treat her? Choosing the right dentist isn’t only about choosing the dentist who gives you the best price or even the whitest teeth on Day 1. It’s the one who takes all things into consideration including the health of your jaw joint. The importance of preserving an already-healthy bite or taking steps to achieve the ideal bite is of vital importance. Bioesthetic methods are low-maintenance, greatly cost-effective, and save a lot of headaches (literally). Because the initial care in case design will lead to longer lasting restorations

For patients whose bite needs slight adjustment, I usually end my treatment by designing a MAGO — a maxillary anterior guided orthotic. A MAGO is quite different than a mouthguard which is usually a rubber based separator that keeps you from grinding your teeth but does nothing for your poor overexerted jaw muscles.  The MAGO, on the other hand, will simultaneously protect the teeth from clenching/grinding at night (when we have the least control over our bruxing habits) and develop a healthy jaw alignment over time if worn consistently.

Dr. Boyajian, Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

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CEREC Dentistry & CEREC Veneers

Veneers, unlike crowns, inlays, or onlays, are used for a more cosmetic purpose. Veneers are not used primarily for cavities, tooth decay, etc. They are excellent remedies to discolored, chipped, worn, and/or mildly uneven teeth. Veneers are very thin and are applied to the tooth’s surface. They can be colorized, slightly textured, sized, angled, and even given a touch of translucency to look exactly like your natural teeth.

CEREC veneers do wonders for worn, tired teeth; they are strong, reliable, long-lasting, and they preserve their beauty. A whole set to drastically improve the attractiveness of your entire smile can be designed, milled, and bonded in a single visit!

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

CEREC Inlays + CEREC Partial Crowns

One of the greatest perks that comes with CEREC technology is the speed at which we can formulate restorations. In comparison to barely twenty years ago, forming a crown or veneer required a painful series of several dental visits. There were molds to be made, pictures to be photographed, temporary crowns to be endured, a perfectly fitted restoration to be slowly developed in a lab, and bonding to be done. CEREC accomplishes all of this in a single visit, in just a few hours!

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

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CEREC One-Visit Holistic Dentistry

CEREC is a state-of-the-art system that allows full restorations of one or more teeth to be made in a single visit to the dentist’s office. Whether it is a crown, inlay, onlay, filling, or veneer, the CAD/CAM technology the CEREC unit uses will design and produce a perfect restoration of the damaged tooth. The replacement material looks like, feels like, and is strong as a real tooth; biocompatibility and aesthetics are well-maintained; and further damage to the tooth is eliminated.

Do you have a need for a crown, or have large cavities? Have you had trouble with previous “restorations”? Do they look awful or keep on falling apart? Look into CEREC dentistry. There’s no better option!

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

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TMJ and Cosmetic Dentistry

Are these two related at all? They are in some ways!

The biggest correlation between the two that comes to mind is TMJ ruining teeth or the alignment of teeth, therefore creating unsightly gaps, crookedness, chips, scratches, wearing, or even tooth loss. Cosmetic dentistry is to the rescue; but if these issues were caused by TMJ, they will continue as they have been and cosmetic repairs, such as implants or veneers, will be at risk for damage. TMJ may take a long time to treat, and it might be more practical to wait to “pretty up” until the root problems are solved.

However, if you have or think you have TMJ, always, always, always consult your dentist or a TMJ specialist before doing ANYTHING. It will save you great amounts of time, money, and hassle. Who knows? Maybe your case isn’t terribly severe and you can get that crooked tooth fixed faster than you anticipated! Yet if cosmetics are on hold because of undergoing surgery, the rewards of a beautiful, functionable smile are wonderful, even if you must wait a bit for the healing process to run its course.

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

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Dental Veneers

Veneers are an interesting option for improving the appearance of your teeth. There are many great advantages about veneers, yet some of their restrictions often cause people to search for other cosmetic enhancement options.

Veneers are almost like artificial teeth worn over your teeth. Hardy materials are customarily molded into the unique, perfect smile for you, and are permanently applied over your teeth. Veneers are permanent because the enamel on your teen must be sanded down in order for the veneers to function properly, and removing them is damaging to your real teeth.

Many advantages come with veneers, though, as their main purpose is to hide imperfections such as crooked, gapped, or discolored teeth. They are made out of a material that doesn’t change color over time and won’t even collect stains from coffee or tobacco. How long they last varies from patient to patient, even though they are made to be very durable and maintain good condition for many years. However, it is still best to ask your dentist how long yours would last if you are considering veneers for yourself.

You will also have to brush and floss regularly even though you have “fake teeth.” Keeping veneers clean helps them last longer. You will have to be careful because some foods aren’t recommended for you to eat if you have veneers, things like nutshells that must be cracked.

Veneers are great! Talk to your dentist for more insight to see if they’re right for you!

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

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Cosmetic and Aesthetic Dental Services

Cosmetic dentistry is different from bioesthetic dentistry, even though some aspects of each are similar (improvement of looks, for example). Bioesthetics concentrates on foundational anatomy of your mouth, with good looks and comfort resulting from treatment, while cosmetics is primarily beautifying the outward appearance of your teeth. Here are the most commonly practiced procedures of cosmetic dentistry: teeth whitening, bonded white fillings (I do not use mercury in any of my dentistry, and we are a mercury-safe office), veneers, porcelain crowns, and dental implants. I will go over each of these in more detail soon.

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

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Why Does My Veneer Keep Falling Off?

This is a true story told to me by a new patient named Stacey.

Stacey is originally from the East Coast and was given my name by a dentist who attended the Pankey Institute, an entity that teaches a sophisticated way to repair mouths.

Anyway, back to my story. Stacey asked me how long a veneer should last. The answer is usually a long time. Some of the first ones I placed almost 25 years ago are still in the mouth and functioning well. Stacey, on the other hand, has had three replacements of her veneer in the last three years. This is obviously far too frequent, especially since she had had to pay each time. To make matters worse, these three replacements did not include the multiple times she had to have them re-cemented them. When I met Stacey today, she was missing her right front tooth. Obviously this was not a pretty sight and she was not happy. I asked her if she wanted to find out WHY and, to her credit, she decided to let us discover the problem and plan the cure.

So this is what we did…

I started with a complete exam. This told me Stacey’s mouth has three problems:

1. She has been grinding her teeth!
2. The way her bite hit was causing all the force of the bite to come down right on the veneers which caused them to break the cement junction!
3. Her teeth are significantly worn down. This changes the the forces and dynamics of her mouth accentuating the harmful forces.

After completing the exam, I placed a temporary bonding on the front teeth. Stacey was ecstatic and I thought, “not bad if I did not say so myself.”

I also made some molds of her teeth to make her a TMJ splint called a MAGO. This appliance is used to help diagnose the true jaw position called CR (Centric Occlusion) and then we can find true, neutral position. Finally, after discovering the CR and the neutral positions, we are ready for the full diagnosis and we can develop the PLAN.

In the meantime, I think the temporary bonding will last through this time, giving Stacey a temporary beautiful smile while we work to give her her permanent, stable one. I will keep you posted.

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

What Makes a Good Dental Restoration?

After we have completed the full exam, a lot of patients are ready to proceed with restorative work. There are a variety of restorations that we do in our practice. These include different types of tooth-colored fillings, bondings, veneers, crowns, bridges, implants and dentures.

The key to a successful restoration is ensuring that whatever is done fits in and supports the overall oral system. On the larger level, this requires proper understanding of function, speech, bite, hygiene and so on and on the more detailed level, precision and attention to detail is key.

Restorative procedures in my office typically last thirty minutes for a single filling to ninety minutes for a crown to three hours for restoring a larger section. The reason they are so time consuming is because I pay a lot of attention to detail in order to ensure the best chance of long-term use and comfort of the finished product.

For example, when I do a filling or crown preparation, I use multiple caries detection techniques. One is caries detector which is 95% accurate in identifying diseased remnants of the cavity. Another is the Diagnodent, a light sensor that detects the off gas put out by bacteria. The third method is the halogen light which raises the visibility of the caries. Combined use of these three tools allows for exceptional precision and success in removing the disease from the site being worked on. When this is done, I am ready to proceed with the actual restoration.

For fillings,  I use the latest generation of sealers and desensitizers which help to virtually eliminate sensitivity by blocking the tubules where the nerves reside and sealing them closed. Next I place the primer which is essentially a very thin filling below the filling. This is an important step because that is the first line of defense to protect against new cavities. After the primer we put in the solid filling material in stages in layers to ensure proper curing. Finally, we are ready for the tooth-colored top coat, which we customize to the natural teeth colorings surrounding and shape to accurately work with the natural bite process.

When the restoration is too large to be completed with a filling, I typically proceed with some type of crown restoration.  I use a Cerec machine to custom mill the restoration. I have chosen this method because it allows for the most conservative type of restoration and the most accurate fit, not to mention that, in most cases, you have your permanent crown the same day, eliminating the need for a second visit.

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com