Dentists Christchurch - Carlton Dental Care

Carlton Dental Care contact details

Newsletter - issue 8 items (2001)

Have you got a gappy grin? - implants may be a possibility
We now have a kavo diagnodent! - better and earlier detection for some cavities
Healthy teeth for kids - some tips for healthy teeth in kids
Bright white in no time at all - a quick in surgery tooth whitening technique

Have you got a gappy grin?

....or are you unable to eat certain foods because of problems with dentures or bridges? Then implants may be for you.

Implant technology is a rapidly developing field, and is useful in many ways in dentistry. The small titanium screws implanted into the jawbone can be used to anchor single teeth, bridges and even dentures. When several adjacent teeth are missing, every tooth willnot need replacing with an implant, in fact as few as two implants can be used to support an entire lower denture and 4 for an upper. Dentures held by implants will not fall out when you laugh clatter when you talk or cause continual irritation or ulcers.

For implants to be an option patients need to be in good health. Age is not a barrier to using implants, but girls should be a minimum of 17 or 18 and boys a minimum of 20 years old. In rare cases, bone grafting will be used where there is insufficient bone. Insufficient bone may be due to a previous infection or where there has been tooth loss/removal sometime ago resulting in bone resorption. Whereas tooth loss results in bone resorption, implants will stop it. It is extremely unusual to require bone grafting for over dentures.

Where implants are being considered, full mouth xrays will be taken and an oral surgeon may be consulted for assessment. The titanium implant integrates with the bone in the absence of stress, so the healing process usually takes 3-6 months for the lower jaw and 6-9 months for the upper jaw, where the bone is less dense. After the healing is complete teeth modelled on the original ones, can be put onto the implants.

Please come and talk to us if you are interested in an implant, we are happy to answer all your questions and assess your suitablility.

We now have a kavo diagnodent! - cavity detection without xrays.
It sounds like a kind of dinosaur, but this handy piece of equipment should enable better and earlier detection of some cavities, in particular, those in the fissures (on the top surface) of the larger back teeth, where it is difficult for a handpiece to probe.

The cavitiy can be detected and measured from an extremely early stage. This will enable monitoring, preventative therapy or more minimally invasive treatment, as the cavity has been detected while it is smaller.
Dental cavity detection without xrays

How the diagnodent works
The teeth are cleaned, and a tip sending out light waves is run over the teeth. The light reflected back is monitored. When the incident light meets a change in tooth structure, eg a cavity, light of a different wavelength is returned and the machine's beeping becomes louder and more highly pitched. The patient holding a mini screen, with a digital monitor, can look on in horror as the number displayed gets larger!

This is a very safe system, involving no xrays and providing much improved diagnostic accuracy.

Healthy teeth for kids

Dentist & children
Some regional newspapers have recently reported poor and increased rates of tooth decay and fillings in pre school and school children.

So here are some tips for healthy teeth in kids:

If babies take a bottle to bed, only put cooled boiled water in it. Almost every other drink contains some form of sugar.
Plan a healthy diet to include milk, milk products, vegetables and fruit
Reduce snacking
If eating sugary foods, have them at meal times. Donot put lollies in school lunchboxes for morning & afternoon tea
Reduce contact time of sugary goods against teeth eg it may be better to eat chocolate than to suck on a hard boiled sweet.
Brush and floss regularly, electric toothbrushes are worth considering, see the article in our issue 5
Take your child regularly to the dental nurse or dentist.

Bright white in no time at all - quick in surgery tooth whitening
In issue 3 of our newsletter we mentioned tooth whitening at home, using a mouth-guard like tray with bleaching gel which is worn for several hours, usually overnight. We can now offer a much quicker procedure taking approximately half an hour in the surgery The teeth are dried and a resin is put around the gums to protect them. Bleach is painted on the teeth and left for 5 minutes or so. The teeth are then rinsed, if necessary the bleach is reapplied otherwise the resin is peeled off.

The major advantages for this technique, over the previous longer one, are:

it is quick,
the dentist is in charge, (so no effort necessary by the patient)
no need to wear a mouth-guard overnight.
it is great for bleaching individual teeth which have discoloured after root canal treatment, thus possibly avoiding the need for a crown.

Both treatments provide very successful whitening to most teeth. More treatments are currently becoming available, and we will keep you informed so that the choice is yours. For any further information please don’t hesitate to speak to us.