Dental care has changed dramatically from the days of custom rigged ivory dentures. It is not just about orthodontics and dealing with cavities anymore. There is a whole spectrum of new procedures to choose from.
Dentists can now restore your teeth, so they look better than ever and fix problems that were once considered impossible to solve. Today, there is a wide array of dental treatments available to solve any oral problem.
In this guide, we’ll explore some of the most common types of dental procedures.
Table of Contents
The Three Types of Dentistry
The first type of treatment is restorative care, which focuses on damaged teeth, like fillings or root canals. These procedures help people’s teeth look better and feel natural again after accidents or other issues.
Additional treatments can involve dealing with injuries to the mouth, including fractures. Restorative care also includes general cosmetics such as teeth whitening or orthodontics that correct teeth alignment.
The next type of treatment is preventative care. This includes going to appointments regularly and having a professional clean your teeth which reduces the chance of cavities and other problems. It also keeps the enamel healthy, which protects it from daily wear and tear things like drinking acidic drinks or eating a lot of sugary foods can cause.
For preventative care, you should use toothpaste with fluoride every day and floss each night to remove plaque buildup that causes problems such as gingivitis or gum disease. These things are important for everyone, including children, because it creates good oral health.
The last dentistry is cosmetic dentistry, which involves different processes. Some of these may include teeth whitening and gingival flap surgery where part of the gumline is lowered so that there can be access to remove tartar that has built up underneath the top layer of gum tissue.
This reduces the risk of developing chronic periodontal disease, which can lead to tooth loss if not dealt with early. Let’s take a closer look at the different types of dental treatments.
Different Types of Dental Treatments
Regardless of your oral problem, your professional local dentist or orthodontist could have it fixed in no time. Here are some of the most common dental treatments.
Root Canal
One of the most popular treatments today is root canal dental treatment. When cavities get in touch with the nerves responsible for sending and receiving signals from the brain, they disable communication and prevent you from detecting heat and pain. This essentially allows bacteria to grow inside your tooth.
If left untreated long enough, these infections might spread all over your jaw, making a root canal treatment necessary. A dentist drills out the infected pulp containing nerve endings and fills the empty space inside the tooth with filling material known as gutta-percha. The dentist then places a crown on top to protect the canal from future infections while also restoring its normal function.
Crowns and Bridges
Your teeth play several vital roles apart from chewing food. They also support your lips and cheeks, help you speak correctly by hitting consonant spots inside your mouth, provide jaw stability, and much more. If you were to lose one or more of your teeth, your dentist would recommend getting bridges.
Bridges are fixed partial dentures used to replace one or more teeth as long as there are functioning teeth on both sides of the missing teeth. Crowns, on the other hand, also known as caps, cover teeth by replacing the enamel. They are contoured to the natural teeth and restore function to damaged teeth.
Fillings
Fillings are one of the most common dental treatments out there. Dental fillings are artificial materials used to fill gaps or holes of damaged, decayed, and bokeh teeth. The reshape, restore, and stabilize a damaged tooth and make chewing much easier.
They also prevent further damage to the teeth. There is a wide array of filling materials available, and you can decide to go with a white composite resin or a silver amalgam.
Teeth Whitening
Anyone can agree that teeth stains are a huge turn-off. They can erode so much more than just your teeth, like your self-esteem, as you won’t be able to smile in front of people. Stained teeth can also cause you a wide array of problems, like gingivitis and cavities.
They can make you look much older than you really are and reflect badly on the rest of your body. Studies have shown that people who smile often appear younger and more attractive. Case in point, teeth whitening would be an excellent dental treatment for you if you have stained teeth.
There are many ways to get this done, but most include the use of specialized chemicals based on hydrogen peroxide or carbamide peroxide.
These are designed to remove the outer layer of your teeth and expose the whiter new layer underneath. They can be applied professionally at a dental clinic, or you can get teeth whitening products from pharmacies or cosmetic stores.
Dentures
Like bridges, dentures restore functionality to your mouth by replacing missing teeth and filling up any empty space. There are several types of dentures, with the most common ones being partial and permanent dentures.
Partial dentures replace some of the missing teeth, and you can take them out whenever you want. On the other hand, permanent dentures are fixed to the jaw and don’t come off.
Different Dental Treatment Types
These are some of the most common types of dental treatments. The dentist will advise on the most suitable one depending on your oral problems and what you’re struggling with.
Still, regardless of what it is, you can be sure there is a dental treatment for it. That said, it’s so important to get regular checkups with the best dentist at least twice a year so you can have any problems detected early and treated before they cause permanent damage.
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