General Dentistry
Smile Inn Dentistry can provide you and your family with a comprehensive choice of general dental treatments. These are custom-designed procedures to treat most common dental problems, restoring and preserving your natural teeth whenever possible. Our general dental services include:
• Dental fillings
• Root canal treatment
• Dentures
• Wisdom tooth removal
• Tooth removal
Teeth can become damaged by infection or trauma. Infectious bacteria in the mouth can erode a tooth, causing a cavity. Trauma can result in a tooth becoming chipped or cracked.
Healthy teeth are covered with a protective layer of tooth enamel, but if the enamel is damaged in any way, it exposes the dentine underneath. Dentine is much softer and is easily infected and destroyed by bacteria naturally present in the mouth. Eventually, the destruction creates a cavity that must be cleaned and filled to restore the tooth.
A dental filling can restore a damaged tooth’s strength and structure, and its appearance so you can bite and chew food comfortably and smile confidently.
Before preparing your tooth, we first numb it using a local anaesthetic to ensure you feel comfortable. When preparing the cavity we use a sandblaster to ensure we only remove unhealthy tooth structure while increasing the bond between the filling and the tooth. Cavities are filled with tooth-coloured fillings made from composite resin. These are nearly invisible and durable and are made from a highly biocompatible material that preserves healthy tooth structure.
Composite resin fillings are ideal for mending small to medium-sized cavities or damage to front teeth. Our dentist will select the exact shade of resin to blend in with your tooth and can mend the tooth while you sit comfortably in the dental chair.
Every tooth has a pulp chamber right at its centre, housing the dental pulp, a collection of tissues including the tooth nerve, connective tissues and blood vessels. Sometimes the dental pulp can become infected because of tooth decay or becomes inflamed if the tooth takes a hard knock. An inflamed or infected tooth nerve can cause severe toothache. Root canal therapy is a treatment that can save and preserve severely infected or inflamed teeth, eliminating the pain.
The procedure removes the dental pulp and tissues that extend into the root canals in the tooth roots. Afterwards, the pulp chamber is disinfected and filled to prevent further infection. We usually restore teeth with a dental crown, covering the entire tooth, protecting it and restoring its appearance and strength.
It should feel no worse when you have root canal treatment than having an ordinary filling, although the procedure is far more intricate and will take longer. We will often use a microscope during this treatment to ensure all the infected tissues are removed thoroughly. You will not feel any discomfort during treatment as we use local anaesthetic, and the tooth should be much more comfortable afterwards.
If you are missing one or more teeth, one way to replace them is with dentures. A full denture can replace a complete arch of teeth, while partial dentures can replace one or more missing teeth situated in the same arch but not necessarily side-by-side.
A denture consists of a gum coloured acrylic base that sits directly on your gums and supports the denture teeth. Usually, partial dentures have clasps that fit around your natural teeth and are strengthened with a lightweight cobalt chrome frame.
Modern dentures look natural and are fabricated from lifelike materials, and we collaborate closely with our dental laboratory to help ensure you receive the very best results. When custom designing dentures for our patients, we take enormous care, choosing a gum coloured base in exactly the right shade, and that we select denture teeth that are precisely the right size, shape, and shade to complement your appearance.
Every denture is made to provide the correct support for your cheeks and lips, and our full dentures restore the proper facial dimensions. If you currently wear older and worn full dentures, these can be prematurely ageing. You will most likely notice a real difference in your appearance when you receive your new dentures.
When making your denture, we take precise measurements and impressions of your mouth to create a comfortably fitting denture. It can take a while to become accustomed to wearing a new denture, so we might need to make some adjustments after the first week or so to ensure it fits perfectly.
Wisdom teeth generally erupt during the late teens or early 20s and can create problems when there isn’t enough room for them to erupt fully. They are the last teeth to come through, and often the jaw is too small to accommodate them comfortably.
We monitor the position of wisdom teeth that have yet to erupt carefully, using digital dental x-rays. If there is no hope that a wisdom tooth can erupt fully, we will suggest removing it. Wisdom teeth can often become impacted, meaning they become stuck underneath the adjacent tooth and only erupt partially or may even come through sideways.
Often, wisdom teeth can be removed using a local anaesthetic, and we take great care to ensure you feel comfortable during this treatment. If your wisdom tooth removal is more complicated, we may choose to refer you to a local oral surgeon who routinely completes this treatment and who we fully trust to take good care of you.
When you visit Smile Inn Dentistry, you can rest assured we will do everything possible to protect and preserve your natural teeth. Removing a tooth is always our last treatment choice but is sometimes unavoidable.
Teeth can become too severely infected or damaged to restore successfully. For example, we may need to remove a significantly infected tooth to clear up the infection. A tooth that has cracked vertically down through its root may also be beyond saving. Sometimes teeth can loosen because of advanced gum disease, where the bone and gum around the tooth have become destroyed.
Even losing a single tooth can adversely affect your dental health as your teeth are designed to work together. Leaving a gap allows the remaining teeth to move out of place, potentially affecting your bite. Before we remove your tooth, we can discuss suitable ways to replace them, including a dental bridge, dentures, or dental implants.
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info@smileinndentistry.com.au
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