Services

     Withers Dental offers numerous different dental services to keep your teeth healthy and your smile looking great. Please read through this page to find a basic description of our services. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

female dentist examining a patient

Basic Cleaning

     Taking care of your teeth with basic cleanings and active dental care can help to prevent many painful and costly problems in the future. It's all about prevention. Brush your teeth often, floss your teeth well, and get your teeth cleaned professionally at the dentist's office at the appropriate intervals.

     Why is it vital to visit the dentist for periodic cleanings? First, that makes it easier for your dentist to ensure the health of your teeth. Cavities can be detected and repaired promptly. Second, and just as importantly, regular cleanings remove plaque and tartar that not only detract from the luster of your teeth but also eat away at your dental health, promoting tooth decay, bad breath and gum disease.

     Even with crowns, bridges and partial dentures the necessity for regular cleanings does not diminish and, if anything, the need is increased. Keeping them in good condition is key to avoiding further procedures.

     Daily brushing and flossing will keep your mouth healthy and make your teeth cleanings easier. Look at the few minutes a day you spend taking care of your teeth as an investment that will keep away time consuming procedures and costly bills in the future. Daily cleanings will also keep your smile beautiful for years to come.

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Deep Cleaning

     Sometimes it is necessary to go beyond the scope of a basic cleaning. Generally, a deep cleaning is necessary when a tooth has deep “pockets”. The “pocket” of a tooth is the space created between the gums and the tooth’s surface.  Healthy teeth generally have a pocket of 2-4 mm. When the gums are insulted by bacteria, the attachment to the tooth retreats, creating deeper pockets. These pockets serve as a safe place for bacteria to live, as they are often out of the reach of your toothbrush. Cleaning these pockets is much more involved than the basic cleaning, and generally requires anesthesia.

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Sealants

     Dental sealants are used to prevent tooth decay. The morphology of the human tooth includes deep, thin crevices that form the grooves that are seen with the naked eye. These grooves are smaller than a single bristle of your toothbrush. This is why dental sealants are a valuable way to prevent what dentists call “pit and fissure” decay. They are thin plastic coatings applied to permanent teeth to seal these crevices. The sealant acts as a barrier to tooth decay by physically preventing oral bacteria from collecting in crevices and creating the acid environment that allows tooth decay to develop. The sealants essentially make your tooth easier for your toothbrush to clean. There is no pain involved in applying dental sealants and the process is relatively quick, often requiring no preparation of the tooth at all. The cost of preventing tooth decay with the use of dental sealants is significantly less than treating oral disease once it has developed.

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Fillings

     The bacteria that live in plaque are always looking for a safer place to live. Nothing provides shelter from toothbrush bristles, floss, and mouth rinses like the inside of your tooth! A "cavity" refers to the cavitation that the bacteria create in a tooth to gain entry. Once inside, the bacteria progress through the enamel into the softer tissue underneath. This process is usually painless until the bacteria have gotten very close to the pulp in the center of the tooth. Because of this, it can go unnoticed by the patient until the tooth badly damaged, and may not be reparable through a simple filling. Cleanings and exams become a critical part in detecting these cavities early so that they can be treated and filled. The treatment of a cavity includes removal of the diseased tissue, and filling the tooth with either a silver amalgam filling, or a tooth colored composite plastic filling. This filling restores the outer surface of the tooth to it's original form, often times making it easier to clean, and thus less susceptible to cavities than it was before.

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Composite Bonding

     Dental bonding is a restoration that uses a material that is specially designed to look just like your natural teeth. Bonding can solve many cosmetic problems such as stained, gapped, chipped or mal-aligned teeth at an affordable price. Composite resin is also often used to fill areas that are affected by decay, making a filling virtually invisible. The color of the bonding material can be adjusted to match a patient’s natural color so it is not noticeable to the naked eye. Bonding is not a permanent solution; depending on a patient’s oral habits it can last up to ten years or more, before requiring a new treatment.

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Implants

     Dental implants are an ideal way to replace missing teeth in most cases. They are the preferred prosthetic for both clinical and cosmetic reasons, one being that they rely on a patient’s actual bone for support. Compared to a dental bridge, the implant is easier to clean, and spares the neighboring teeth from needing crowns and added chewing forces. Dental implants give a stable base, upon which to place a crown and are a proven, long lasting alternative to dentures and dental bridges. Implants bond with the bone as ‘substitute roots’ to form a stable foundation for permanent replacement teeth that look, feel, and function like natural teeth.

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Veneers

     Porcelain laminate veneers, or simply veneers, are custom-made porcelain wafers that are placed over teeth to enhance their appearance and also to repair damage. Veneers can dramatically transform damaged and misshapen teeth into a beautiful smile.

     Veneers can be used to improve a wide variety of cosmetic dental problems. They can be used to whiten discolored teeth or just a single stained tooth when a full whitening procedure is not necessary. They can also be used to close gaps between teeth or straighten a crooked smile without the need for braces. Veneers also can be used to repair chips and imperfections resulting in a more attractive and youthful looking smile. In most cases a minimum of six veneers are needed and are usually placed on the upper six front teeth.

     The initial procedure usually lasts from one to two hours. To begin, a thin amount of enamel is removed from the outer layer of the tooth to ensure that the veneer can be bonded permanently later. Molds or impressions of the mouth are then taken and the shade is matched. Temporary veneers are provided for the patient to wear while the permanent veneers are being made in order to protect the exposed teeth, and maintain an aesthetic quality during the wait. It usually takes about two weeks for the porcelain to be crafted into the final veneers. At this point another quick visit is required in order to fasten the permanent veneers.

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Crowns

     A crown is placed on a tooth to restore contour, shape, and function as well as to help prevent a tooth fracture. Decay, trauma, or an existing restoration can undermine important structural parts of the tooth, putting it at risk for a fracture. A dentist will recommend a crown be placed on a tooth to try to preempt such an incident, as a tooth fracture can be unpredictable, and may happen when your dentist is not readily available. Rather than risk a fracture that will require an emergency root canal, or even an extraction, a dentist will put a crown over a tooth to make it more suitable to withstand the forces of chewing and reduce its risk of fracture. Often times crowns become necessary on teeth that have had multiple fillings, but can also be used to improve the aesthetic qualities, such as shape and color, of the tooth.

When receiving a crown, there are different materials that can be used depending on the patient’s priorities. If strength and longevity are important to the patient, a gold crown is often the best option, as they tend to last the longest, and are able to better withstand every day “wear and tear”. If aesthetics are important, or if the crown is in the anterior section of the mouth, a porcelain crown can be fabricated to look just like the natural tooth. Our office works together with experienced lab technicians to achieve the highest quality product, whatever type of crown you may require.

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Periodontal Treatment/Surgery

     Periodontal surgery is used when there is a problem with the relationship between the gums, bone, and teeth. Periodontal surgery can be used to reduce a pocket next to a certain tooth, to lengthen the area available for a crown to adhere to, or to enhance the aesthetics of one’s smile. Periodontal surgery, when used to improve aesthetics, is often the answer for what people refer to as a “gummy smile”. The gums and bone are what hold the teeth in place, and it is important to keep them healthy. When cleanings and root planning alone do not mend a bad gum to tooth relationship, periodontal surgery is usually the next step in the rehabilitation.

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Oral Surgery

     The scope of oral surgery done at Withers Dental is simple to surgical extractions, and any osseous re-contouring. A tooth can be extracted for many reasons. Sometimes teeth are extracted for cosmetic and orthodontic reasons.  Sometimes a tooth is so overcome with decay that it is beyond saving. If a tooth suffers trauma, or what is called a “vertical fracture”, it will often times need extracting. Extractions are also a common precursor to receiving an implant or to receiving dentures. Sometimes, an implant can be placed at the same time that a tooth is removed. This is called an immediate implant, and when appropriate, can expedite the reception of the final prosthedontic.

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Endodontics

     Root canal therapy is one of the services that we offer at Withers Dental. Root canal therapy is necessary when the nerve inside the tooth is insulted and dies. This results in many different symptoms, most commonly a lingering sensitivity to cold liquids. The treatment includes accessing the root chamber, removal of the nerve, and sealing the root chamber and all the attributing canals.

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Removable Prosthodontics (Dentures)

     Dentures are a way of replacing missing teeth. Dentures can replace a few teeth (partial denture), or they can replace all of the teeth in an arch (full denture). Today’s dentures are highly aesthetic, and are often passed as a full set of natural, healthy teeth. To aid in a patient’s comfort, dentures can now be retained by implants, enhancing the natural look and feel of the prosthesis. Although the number of individuals with dentures is decreasing as oral health awareness improves and implants become the prosthesis of choice, there are still a number of cases where dentures are a perfectly acceptable way to replace missing teeth.

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Tooth Whitening

     At Withers Dental we have a great deal of experience with patients desiring whiter teeth. Despite many new products and techniques now available to whiten teeth, we believe tooth whitening gel applied in a tray is still the best way to achieve predictable and long lasting results. Using this method, most stained teeth can be whitened to the patient’s desired shade, and kept white. Other methods are difficult to control the level of whitening, or do not last as long.

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Invisalign

     Invisalign is the modern alternative to braces. Invisalign uses clear, removable aligners to move teeth. This treatment is especially popular for adults seeking to reverse crowding in their front teeth because Invisalign gives you the ability to move teeth without most people even noticing you're going through treatment. Invisalign is not meant for ALL orthodontic treatments, but in most cases it is the preferred alternative to braces or a retainer.


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