Has Your Mouth Health Degraded After Years Of Neglect?

Dental restorations are more effective than you might imagine; give our team a call.

Ideally, all of our Burton patients would have looked after their teeth well from childhood and need little treatment other than perhaps a small filling or two during their lifetime.

In the real world though, this is almost certainly not true for everybody and a few, at least, may have reached a point in their lives where they feel that their tooth health is on a downwards spiral and that it is too late to do anything other than wait for the inevitable tooth loss and the need for a full set of dentures.

Some people in this situation will have neglected their teeth and almost certainly not been to see a dentist for some time. The longer it has been since you saw a dentist, the more likely it is that you may think that you are beyond help.

The fact is that dental care has advanced a lot in the last decade or so and it is now quite possible that we may be able to restore your teeth much more effectively than you might imagine. Even when teeth do need to be extracted, dentists can now offer a wide range of tooth replacement options to get your smile and mouth function back.

Saving your teeth

To allow us to put an action plan into place to save your teeth, you will off course need to make an appointment. It doesn’t matter how long it has been since you last saw a dentist, the team at Mike Allen’s Dental Practice will not ‘judge’ you but will work with you to help you to restore your teeth and general oral health to a much better condition.

The first step is to have an examination. As you may not have seen a dentist for some time, this is likely to involve x-rays so that we can see what is going on below the gum line. Although some problems may be obvious, those such as root canal infections can only be determined through the use of scans and x-rays.

Unless you are in immediate pain, one of the best places to start is with a thorough clean by our hygienist. This should be an ongoing appointment every six months, but by doing this initially we can start to bring the health of the mouth up and potentially make any additional treatments a little bit easier.

Fillings and extractions

The most likely problem that we are likely to find is tooth decay. Depending on the location and extent of the decay, there are various solutions that we can use.

Fillings are used for most cases of tooth decay, and we offer discreet natural coloured fillings to help make them as invisible as possible. These can be used for most cavities but where they are larger or in a place that is likely to have a lot of strain put upon them, a dental crown may be needed instead. The best way can only be decided after we have examined your teeth and discussed the options with you.

Particularly after many years of neglect, there is a likelihood that we will not be able to save every tooth. Badly decayed or damaged teeth and those with a very poor prognosis may need to be extracted. This will always be a last resort, but sometimes there simply are no other options available to us.

When you lose a single tooth, or several teeth

Nobody likes to lose a tooth, but when we do it’s good to know that there are options available to replace them. Although patients are more likely to make this a priority if it is a visible tooth that is missing, the truth is that all missing teeth should be replaced. Failure to do so can result in incorrect bites and movement of other teeth in that area. This can cause a number of problems to build up over time in the future.

There are three main ways in which we can replace missing teeth. There has been some scientific debate on whether teeth can be ‘regrown’ but unfortunately, we are not at that stage yet and the best options currently available are bridges, dentures or dental implants.

Most of our Burton patients will be familiar with what dentures are. We do offer high quality ones, but even these may not be ideal for everyone. Bridges offer more security, but they do mean that other teeth have to be prepared to accept the supporting crowns.

In our professional opinion, dental implants offer the best solution. It may not be the cheapest option but the procedure does offer a long lasting solution that also offers an excellent level of strength and security. Unlike the other two options, they also replace the root section of the missing tooth and not just the visible crown part.

Everybody is different and we offer personalised care for each of our patients, including those who have avoided seeing a dentist for a very long period of time. We take pride in our ability to help you to have a healthy mouth, even in the most challenging of situations.

The first step towards your new improved healthy mouth starts with a ‘phone call to us to make your appointment. You can call Mike Allen’s Dental Practice on 01283 845345.

We look forward to seeing you!