For extensive cavities or weakened teeth, you may need a crown, a custom cover that replaces the entire natural crown of the tooth. The dentist drills the entire carious area and enough of the rest of the tooth to ensure a good fit. Second, your dentist will use a dental drill or laser to remove tooth decay. The dentist not only removes cavities, but shapes the tooth to prepare it for filling.
Depending on the filling material your dentist uses, you can use a gel to prepare the area for the filling. First, the dentist injects a local anesthetic to numb the area near the decayed tooth or teeth being treated. The anesthetic also numbs the gums and jaw around the teeth. The dentist then uses a drill to remove decay from the affected tooth.
If the dentist detects tooth decay early, fluoride treatment can restore tooth enamel and prevent further decay. The type of treatment your teeth undergo will depend on the state they are in when we see it. Smaller cavities can be treated with dental fillings, which are discrete restorations that we apply directly to areas where cavities have become a problem. If a cavity is too large to restore with a filling, we'll need to wear a dental crown.
A crown covers a tooth: More coverage requires more preparatory work, but provides more support. In the event that a tooth decay has caused an infection, we will need to provide root canal therapy. Consequently, the dentist needs to eliminate tooth decay as soon as possible to prevent the progression of the decay. However, even if your dentist gives you this news, there are ways to treat a cavity and prevent new ones from forming.
We believe in offering all patients a comprehensive approach to dental care, protecting smiles with preventive dentistry, and improving the beauty of their smiles with cosmetic and restorative care. There is some pain related to the procedure, however, most dentists use local anesthetics to numb the affected areas of the mouth and gums and ensure that pain is minimal. Going regularly will help your dentist detect these problems sooner, allowing you to make the necessary changes to your oral hygiene and save you money in the long run. While everyone, including dentists, is likely to experience tooth decay at some point in their lives, it's important to do everything you can to avoid them.
Older people often do a lot of dental work because they didn't get fluoride or good oral care as children. When tooth decay causes nerve death, the dentist will perform root canal treatment to save the tooth. Because of their extensive oral health education and exact knowledge of the problems that dental and gum decay can cause, dentists tend to be more careful with their oral hygiene than average Americans. Preventive measures, such as regular dental visits and a well-informed dental hygiene routine that fits your needs, are the best way to avoid cavities; with just a little extra effort, your health and wallet will be better.
The sooner a cavity is detected, the easier it will be for your dentist to repair it, so be sure to visit your dentist regularly. Unfortunately, by the time you feel you need to see a dentist about oral health problems, several cavities may be present, which means you'll need more services to fully recover a healthy mouth. At this point, the only way to repair tooth decay is for the dentist to remove the tooth and replace it with an implant or bridge.
