4 Ways To Restore Your Smile | Lexington, KY

We normally hear the word restoration used in the contest of construction.
Your friends may be restoring a room in their home. A business owner may be restoring a building for a new purpose. In some cases, a developer may be restoring an entire city block as part of an effort to revive that area.
Restorative dentistry is intended to revitalize the health of your mouth. In many cases, this makes your mouth look better, too, just like the restoration of a room, building, or block.
Today, we want to tell you about four ways restorative dentistry services that can give you back the full function of your teeth.
If you live in or near Lexington, our team at Beaumont Family Dentistry would love to help you or someone you love get back what you’ve lost.
Crowns
Dental crowns are made to fit over your teeth.
When you have tooth decay, the affected tooth can become damaged, discolored, and unsightly. Another patient may have a filling that needs to be repaired. Other patients may have chipped or cracked teeth that need to be fixed.
Dental crowns can work in each of those cases, and as you’ll see, crowns are often used as part of other restorations.
To prepare the tooth for a dental crown, we first need to remove the portion that is decayed or has been damaged in some other way. We leave the healthy parts of your tooth, which serves as a support for your crown.
That crown is bonded to what is left of your tooth. Our dental crowns are made of porcelain, and unlike some other dentists, we can usually have your crown ready the same day you come for your treatment.
Porcelain is used because it looks like your natural teeth and because it is strong enough to serve as an effective tooth replacement.
With your dental crown, you will be able to continue eating the foods you love, and your smile will look as good as it ever has.
Bridges
Like a transportation bridge spans the gap between two side of a ravine or a waterway, a dental bridge spans a gap inside your mouth.
A dental bridge consists of three or more crowns that have been bonded together. The process for placing a dental bridge is similar to how we place your crowns.
The two crowns on the outside of your dental bridge are known as abutment crowns.
You may need a bridge if you are missing multiple teeth or have multiple teeth that have been damaged by tooth decay or in some other way. If necessary, we will remove the teeth in the middle of the problem area.
We will reshape the two teeth on either end so we can bond the abutment crowns to them. These serve as anchor points for your dental bridge.
The crown or crowns in the middle are bonded to the abutment crowns and to one another.
Just like an individual dental crown, this allows you to bite and chew the foods that you like, and it gives you the appearance of a complete set of teeth.
Dental implants
Sometimes your tooth decay is too severe to save any part of the tooth or teeth that have been affected. When this happens, removing the tooth or teeth is the best option.
In other cases, you may have lost teeth already due to poor oral hygiene or an accident.
These are situations in which dental implants are needed.
Dental implants are a replacement for the roots of your teeth. Like the root, the implant is held in place by your jawbone. Dental implants are titanium cylinders. After they are placed, you bone will bond with the cylinder to keep it secured in your mouth.
For a single tooth replacement, we can bond a dental crown to the end of your dental implant. If you need multiple teeth replaced, we can put on dental bridge instead.
In the most extreme cases, we can place multiple implants in your jaw and attach a full set of dentures to them. We assure you that these are far more secure than other dentures.
Dental implants provide support comparable to your natural roots. So, once again, you regain your bite force and the appearance of a healthy set of teeth.
Root canals
When the inside of your tooth has been damaged, we still may be able to save the outside with a root canal treatment.
In spite of what you may have heard, modern root canal treatments don’t hurt. If you tooth hurts, that may be a sign that you need this treatment, however.
The first step in a root canal is applying a local anesthetic to numb your tooth and the surrounding tissues. If you prefer, we also offer sedation dentistry options to put you in a sleep-like state during your treatment.
After making a small hole in your tooth, the dentist will remove the infected pulp from the inside of your tooth. The dentist then uses a material called gutta-percha to fill in your root canal.
In some cases, we will place a dental crown over you tooth to protect it.
Keep on smiling
Our restorative dentistry will give you something to smile about. Whether you get a dental crown, bridge, or implants or you need a root canal, we can give you back your ability to eat all the foods you enjoy.
And your teeth will look as good as, if not better than, they did before.
To learn more about our restorative dentistry, contact any Beaumont Family Dentistry office or fill out our online form. If you are a new patient, we have a special form for you.