In practice today the majority of fillings provided for patients are white composite resin.

This material has a number of advantages over the old silver amalgam restorations. It is adhesive and therefore minimally destructive and extremely cosmetic, blending seamlessly into your own tooth colour.

With all these properties our skilful dentists can use it to help restore your teeth to their original colour and shape.

A crown is used to restore a tooth when it is so broken, discoloured or filled that it requires a full coverage cap to provide improved function, strength and aesthetics for the patient.

Many of the crown restorations we carry out are made in all ceramic tooth coloured materials.

All the latest and best materials are used to ensure a high quality result. These materials include 3M ESPEs LAVA® and ivoclar e.max® . These materials have many advantages over more traditional metal based bonded porcelain crowns:

• Better overall look due to light translucency. Natural teeth are partly translucent and with metal based crowns this is lost and crowns can look flat, lifeless and opaque. Ceramic crowns look much more realistic as light is reflected and refracted internally.
• Better marginal appearance due to light transmission. This gets rid of the dark shadow at the gum margin that can be unsightly.
• Good soft tissue tolerance. The gum tissues can often be irritated due to the metal alloys in some crowns and can recede and/or become red and inflamed. Ceramic crowns cause much less irritation.
• Crowns are bonded with the latest resin bonding materials for a long lasting protective and secure bond.

Dental hygiene

At each examination appointment a thorough check will be carried out on the health of your gums and an assessment made on the standard of your dental hygiene.

Scale and polishes can be carried out to remove tartar, calculus and plaque, as well as any extrinsic staining caused by tea, coffee, red wine and smoking. (Intrinsic staining may require tooth whitening to remove).

Instruction may be given on cleaning in-between your teeth with floss or inter-dental brushes and help with general tooth brushing may also be required. This is all with the aim of providing each patient with the knowledge on how to maintain their dental hygiene at the highest standard.

Halitosis

Bad Breath can be very anti-social and of great concern to people who suffer with this problem. Often though, it can be a very quick and easy problem to sort out. Poor oral hygiene and gum disease can often be the cause and within a few short appointments to our practice, bad breath can be eliminated allowing you to smile and chat again with confidence.

Gum Disease

Gum disease can affect both men and women of all ages although generally the older you are, the more likely it is that you will have some form of gum disease.
The teeth are attached to the bone of your jaw by ligaments. When you do not clean your teeth properly, plaque and tartar build up around the neck of the tooth next to the gum. This in turn causes an inflammatory reaction which leads to the destruction of the ligaments. With this, the gums recede and the bone starts to disappear. If this is allowed to happen over a long number of years it can result in the teeth becoming loose and eventually they may need to be extracted.

Gum disease is more common in patients that smoke and diabetics. Often patients are advised to quit smoking to aid the health of their gums.

If gum disease is present our dentists will provide you with treatment aimed at stopping the gum disease progressing and maintaining excellent oral hygiene.

Oral Cancer

At each examination appointment your dentist will carry out a routine check for oral cancer. Patients who smoke and drink heavily are at greater risk from oral cancer. Often patients will be advised to quit smoking and reduce their alcohol intake to reduce this risk.

If a dentist or patient has any concerns a fast track system is in place to refer any patient up to the hospital to be seen by the appropriate consultant.

Fissure Sealants

Fissure sealants have been shown to clinically reduce the amount of occlusal caries in children when applied, especially in those patients at high risk. They are an excellent preventive measure. However, they do not stop decay and if a patient continues to consume a high frequency of sugar in their diet, cavities may result.

Fluoride application

Fluoride can be applied to an area of decay in its earliest stage of development. If left this area may require a treatment. Fluoride can be applied to reverse this early lesion. Fluoride application in conjunction with diet advice, are important in the prevention of tooth decay.

Bridges are used to restore gaps where teeth have been lost. This usually involves crowning a tooth at one side of the gap and sometimes at both sides of the gap. The gap is filled by an artificial tooth bonded to the crowns.

Bridges are fixed restorations and once bonded remain in place. Bridges can be made in all ceramic (LAVA® /PROCERA®/ e.max®) or bonded porcelain.

Zirconia (LAVA® /PROCERA®) and lithium disilicate glass-ceramic (e.max®) are state of the art materials providing premium aesthetics combined with great durability and strength.

All of our dentists agree that it is an excellent choice for patients wishing to achieve an attractive natural smile.

When a tooth has very deep decay, a very deep filling or has undergone trauma the nerve within that tooth can die. This in turn causes inflammation and resulting pain. Root canal treatment is a brilliant way of alleviating this pain and subsequent infection while retaining the tooth in the dental arch.

The nerve that has died is removed and replaced with an inert filling material before a filling or crown is placed to restore the tooth back to its original state. In the majority of cases this procedure is extremely successful, helped by using the latest technologies and equipment in our practice.

Sometimes when a tooth has fractured or is it no longer possible to restore it is necessary to extract the tooth. When this happens our experienced team will aim to provide the highest standard of care to ensure that the extraction is as painless and as quick as possible.

Prior to the extraction being carried out they will be able to offer you an extensive range of options to restore the space so that you can continue having a functional, aesthetic smile.

To replace missing teeth sometimes requires a partial denture. This is usually a removable prosthetic device and can be made in either all acrylic (a plastic type material) or with a metal base (Cobalt Chrome).

• Cobalt Chrome Dentures. The main advantage of this design of denture is that the base plate is much thinner than the acrylic and as a result many patients tolerate them better as they can feel more comfortable. They also allow for improved taste and thermal sensation because they do not cover as much of the palate in the upper arch. They are supported largely by the teeth.
• Acrylic Dentures. These are made in a plastic material and the forces on them are both tooth and soft tissue born. The bases are slightly thicker than cobalt chrome but they are less expensive.