Your Downtown Dental Clinic
Your Downtown Dental Clinic
Start your journey to a healthier, happier smile.
Central Dental provides comprehensive general dentistry services which focus on cavities, disease prevention, and the health and maintenance of teeth and gums. Our general dentistry services include dental hygiene, dentures, root canals, crowns, fillings and extractions.
If you wear a partial denture or are considering filling the gaps in your mouth where teeth have been extracted, a bridge is a good option in very specific cases.
A bridge is merely a number of crowns that are fixed together with a prosthetic (false) tooth placed in the space to replace one or more teeth. Because it is cemented on, it is not removable and eliminates the need for partial dentures.
The procedure usually involves 2 to 3 visits. The first visit involves the preparation of the teeth on either side of the gap and the taking of impressions of your mouth. The colour and fit of the bridge usually require another 1 to 2 appointments to ensure good function and cosmetics.
If required, we will ask our lab to do an in-office visit or have you go to their nearby location to aid in matching the porcelain to the neighbouring teeth so that the crown looks more natural.
Between appointments, we ensure that the tooth is covered with a temporary crown while our laboratory is preparing your final restoration.
If your tooth has a large filling that is failing, chips and cracks, and/or has had root canal therapy that has left it susceptible to fracture, we may suggest that you have a crown placed. A crown covers the tooth and helps restore it to its original shape and function. Once cemented on, it helps prevent the tooth from further deterioration and subsequent loss.
The procedure usually involves 2 visits. The first involves the preparation of the tooth, and then 1 to 2 weeks later, a second visit for cementation of the final crown.
If required, we ask our lab to do an in-office visit or have you go to their nearby location to aid in matching the porcelain to the neighbouring teeth, so that the crown looks more natural.
Between appointments, we ensure that the tooth is covered with a temporary crown while our laboratory is preparing your final restoration.
Gum disease is one of the most common dental problems adults face, but gum disease can begin at just about any age and most often develops slowly and without causing any pain. Sometimes you may not notice any signs until the disease is serious and you are in danger of losing teeth.
We pride ourselves on our vigilant and proactive treatment of gum disease, because your periodontium (gum and supporting bone surrounding your teeth) is the foundation of great oral health. If left unchecked, advanced gum disease – also known as periodontitis – can lead to bad breath, bleeding, swelling, pain, loose teeth and, ultimately, tooth loss. Since this disease affects most people, to varying degrees, we treat every individual with the level of care they require.
Root canal treatment is a dental procedure used to treat infection at the centre of a tooth (the root canal system). It is also known as ‘endodontics’.
Tooth coloured fillings (composite resin) offer a number of advantages over the older silver amalgam fillings that have been in use for around 200 years. In our experience, they are not only more cosmetically appealing, but can allow the dentist to bond the material to thinned-out weak tooth structure and help prevent the tooth from further breakage. As well, we find that we tend to get less postoperative sensitivity with our technique. In certain cases, porcelain inlays or onlays – or even gold – may be recommended instead of this resin for further strength and wear resistance.
The technique is as follows: decay is removed from the tooth, a lining material is placed to protect the deepest part of the cavity preparation, a bonding agent (or adhesive) is placed in the tooth and then the soft filling material is placed in and shaped to replicate the missing tooth. All this is hardened using a blue spectrum light and then the tooth and filling are further shaped and polished.
At Central Dental Family Dentistry, we use both amalgam and composite resin fillings. Our philosophy towards silver amalgam fillings is straight forward; it is an effective, strong, and long lasting material that has served people well over the years but may have questionable health effects on a very small segment of the population. We do offer this material to our patients when placing new fillings, and we will also remove them from teeth if they have been structurally damaged or have decay under them. If you have any concerns regarding this philosophy towards amalgam fillings, we welcome any discussion on this topic before we begin your treatment.