Our team wants to help your entire family maintain your best smiles, enjoying good oral health and a smile free of cavities, stains, and more. To do so, we offer an array of dental procedures. In today’s blog, your Lake Orion, MI, family dentist talks about our approach to general dentistry and discusses the treatments we offer to help you maintain good oral health and often avoid issues that could cause discomfort and threaten smile stability!
Starting With Your Checkup and Cleaning
General dentistry allows us to monitor your smile and catch issues that could cause serious trouble for your smile down the road. Which is why we recommend a checkup visit every six months, so we can use digital x-rays and more to take a close look for signs of developing cavities, gingivitis, or even gum disease, so we can then address them before they threaten your comfort and smile stability. We also screen for oral cancer and watch for issues like TMJ disorder and bruxism (teeth grinding). These visits also help kids too. In the same sitting, we will clean the teeth to remove the buildup of plaque and tartar that could otherwise threaten your smile.
Appliances for Bruxism and TMJ Disorder
Bruxism, or chronic teeth grinding, can wear down and damage your teeth. TMJ disorder can impact how you open and close your mouth. This could be caused by high stress levels in your life, missing teeth, misalignment, injuries to the face or jaw, or issues with the growth and development of your smile. Symptoms include toothaches and sensitivity, headaches and migraines, jaw and facial pain, and aches in the neck and shoulders. Popping or clicking in the jaw could develop too. To address these issues with general dentistry, our team could create a custom oral appliance that is worn as you sleep. Fitting like a mouthguard, this shifts the jaw to ease pressure and stop symptoms. This also places a barrier between the upper and lower sets of teeth to prevent further damage from grinding or clenching.
Botox Injections
Did you know that general dentistry could also include Botox? Administered through injections to specific areas of the face and jaw, Botox can interrupt signals between muscles to prevent contractions, easing the discomfort of TMJ disorder and bruxism. Of course, this also helps limit the appearance of aging, fighting fine lines and wrinkles. The effects last about six months on average, so we can administer these as part of your six-month visits. This treatment improves both oral health concerns and cosmetic benefits too, and could be done as part of a smile makeover if you’re taking on your cosmetic imperfections!
Metal-Free Fillings and Crowns
With general dentistry, we also address common issues like tooth decay, infection, and damaged teeth. We do so with restorations. Instead of creating them from metal, we opt for metal-free materials that are biocompatible and bond with the teeth. These can also be shaded to blend with your smile and offer a lifelike appearance. With composite resin, we offer metal-free dental fillings that look natural and take only one visit to place. The same material can also be used in dental bonding procedures to mask common cosmetic imperfections in a single visit too.
If you have more severe damage, decay, or infection, then we could recommend a metal-free dental crown, which covers the tooth. The crown looks natural and can blend with the smile, while also absorbing daily bite forces and pressures with ease, so you enjoy better oral health and results that make you feel confident. These crowns take only one visit to complete, and can also be used to improve bite function and balance, and also address missing teeth by securing bridges in place or restoring a single tooth dental implant.
If you have any questions about our approach to general dentistry, or if you would like to schedule an initial checkup and cleaning for you or a member of your family, then contact our team today to learn more.
TALK TO YOUR LAKE ORION, MI, DENTIST ABOUT GENERAL DENTISTRY
We offer general dentistry to help kids and adults alike enjoy good oral health, so you can all smile with confidence and avoid discomfort or gaps in your smile. Now is a great time to schedule a visit, so you can start your spring on the road toward a brighter and more beautiful smile, avoiding discomfort and other uncomfortable symptoms. Find out more about our general dental procedures today by contacting Lake Orion Family Dentistry at (248)693-6213! We look forward to seeing you and starting you on the path to your best smile!
