Fillings & Crowns

As a person gets older, adult teeth naturally become darker due to mineral changes in the tooth. This is made worse by staining due to coloured food/drink, tobacco and even certain medications.

With a world increasingly focused on beauty and youth, it's no wonder that professionally performed tooth whitening has quickly become one of the safest, most common, anti-ageing cosmetic treatments in the market today.

So join us for a cup of tea to discuss how we can help you find the smile you're looking for. There are various options from crowns, bridges, dental implants to tooth whitening. Patients who have had smile makeovers are usually thrilled with the results saying "It has been a life changing prodedure!". Find out more from other satisfied customers:

Fillings

We use white composite fillings. These are a light cured composite resins. Modern technology allows us to introduce these composites easily into the mouth and cure them with a white light source. These composites are strong, durable and beautifully made in a variety of shades to match your natural tooth colour or colour matched after bleaching. Should you desire bleaching then this should be carried out prior to filling replacement to ensure the best colour match.

Many dentists still advocate the use of mercury based amalgam fillings. As an amalgam free practice we stand on the belief that as mercury is a neuro toxin and known poison it should not be used in the mouth. Where possible we use rubber dam for amalgam removal before placement of the white fillings. Some dentists are also of the belief that amalgams last longer than white fillings; recent research has found this not to be the case. Ridding the body of this unsightly grey metal brings confidence and a great look to your smile.

Crowns

The next stage in a tooth's life is a crown. We use crowns for both structural and aesthetic reasons and they look like teeth! Unsightly, heavily restored teeth with grey, intrinsic, amalgam tattooing or fractured teeth are ideal for crowns. Restoring the bite height, enhancing the smile and improving function can also be achieved using crowns.

After anaesthesia the tooth is prepared. Preparation reduces the overall height and bulk of the tooth and gives us a shoulder around the tooth; this is the finishing line for the technician to work to. Crowns may also have a featheredge, but this is usually when we are using gold. An impression is taken which is sent to the technician. With our policy of metal free where possible, we favour all porcelain crowns. These are either constructed by the technician using a wax template or CAD technology with the crown being milled from a porcelain block. Where cost, preparation difficulty, added strength or splinting is an issue then we can also use bonded crowns. These are gold crowns with a porcelain covering. They are particularly useful in cases where there is inadequate tooth material to cut a shoulder. The gold can be feather edged and the shoulder built into the gold before addition of the porcelain. The crown is returned to us for fitting, bite adjustment and cementation. A temporary crown is placed while the permanent crown is being constructed.

The materials are fantastic, realistic and techniques so good that crowns are of a high quality, resilient and aesthetically pleasing whether all porcelain or bonded and they feel great! The option of crown type will be discussed between you and your dentist.

Inlays

There is a time in a tooth's life when the cavity is too large for a filling but too small to warrant crowning. In these cases we use inlays. This is an indirect technique where we prepare the tooth and then take an impression, this is sent to the Laboratory along with your tooth shade. A temporary filling material is placed for up to two weeks while the inlay is made. The Laboratory fabricates the inlay filling on a plaster replica of your tooth. This ensures the fit, the bite and the contact with adjoining teeth. The inlay is then returned for cementation. It is tried in the mouth, small bite corrections may be made and then the inlay is cemented in place.

We attempt to be metal free in this practice and so our material of choice is porcelain. Many of our patients are intolerant to metal and so this is a good choice for them. Some prefer gold and there are a small number of cases where gold would be preferable. This will be discussed between you and your dentist.

Bridges

Tooth loss leads to unsightly gaps, tipping of teeth and over eruption of opposing teeth. This reduces both form and function and may have a detrimental effect on both your jaw joints and your facial appearance due to height reduction of the bite. It is our belief that missing teeth should be replaced. Many headaches and neck pain could have been avoided by timely intervention and the fabrication of a bridge at the correct height to replace the missing tooth or teeth. Bridges span a gap and are of various types:

Maryland bridge: is a porcelain tooth with wings that are bonded to either one or both teeth adjacent to the gap. This type of bridge has minimal preparation.
Cantilever bridge: One or more teeth adjacent to the gap are prepared as for a crown with an additional tooth constructed by the technician that is free on one side and fixed on the other. This is ideal for fixing a small tooth that is missing to a tooth with long roots or with more than one root.
Fixed bridge: a conventional bridge spanning two points with a pontic in the middle. This is ideal for long spans and also where bite strength is important. The teeth adjacent to the gap are prepared as for crowns. The rest of the procedure is the same as for a conventional crown preparation. Temporary bridges are fitted while the permanent bridge is being constructed. The part of the bridge that sits over your gum should have a natural sluiceway to help keep it clean. However you will need to use super floss to keep it really healthy.

Front Teeth

Crown and bridgework is essentially the same front or back. There is a little more attention paid to below gum preparation of the tooth to maximise aesthetics. However crowns are not the only way of restoring the front teeth especially when it comes to dental cosmetics. A dental make over should utilise the least invasive techniques while still maximizing on aesthetics. For teeth that are crooked, stained, chipped or otherwise unsightly Thineers may be the restoration of choice.

Thineers

Thineers are porcelain facings that are cemented to the teeth. This technique is the most non-invasive technique that we can use for cosmetics in the right patient no drilling or anaesthetic is required. A fantastic product brought to us by our own Costech Laboratory. A category 3, assessment is required prior to placement of these facings. This is to ensure that there are no obvious signs that would contra indicate their use. Grinding teeth, a deep bite, missing back teeth, headaches or neck pain would need to be investigated and treated prior to finalisation using Thineers. Non-traumatic bites are great and we can go ahead straight away in these cases. When this technique first started we were very strict about just who could have it. Now we have a saying. "Take the difficult, make it simple, and treat the simple" So it is an option for everyone but assessment is key to success.

For the lucky people who can have this treatment. We take impressions, send them off to Costech with a shade and the Thineers are made. These are cemented at the second visit. No need for temporaries, as we have done little to no drilling. This is a great cosmetic treatment and in more complex cases a great way to finish the front teeth.

Veneers

It is not always possible to face teeth with Thineers.We go from Thineers at approximately .3mm thick to Veneers at approximately .7mm thick. These are for patients whose teeth need some preparation. Teeth that are chipped and need to be cut back, front teeth that need lengthening, very crooked teeth that need to be drilled to help align them. The technique is relatively simple. The front aspect of the tooth is prepared with a thin shoulder at or below the gum level for the veneer to abut to. Impressions and a shade are taken and the laboratory constructs the veneers. Cementation is the same as for Thineers. Both options give fantastic results. Long-term aesthetics depends on you. Cleaning is of paramount importance especially with Thineers. As they align with the gun the 0.3mm ledge needs to be brushed really well to prevent gum irritation.

At Your Initial Dental Consultation