About Dentistry

If you should choose to join us as a patient, we hope that you will find your visits to our office some of the most exciting and interactive dental/medical visits of your life. It is important to us that every patient fully understand our treatment approach and feel comfortable with the choices given in the treatment plan. We hope that you find the information provided below useful and applicable to the decision making process.

Some doctors and teaching institutions take a more aggressive approach to their work for a variety of reasons. Teaching institutions are able to provide their services at far less cost and are trying to educate their students as to the most ideal approach in the delivery of dental care. They have the resources to expend tremendous time and effort to maintain as ideal a dentition as possible. For the resource of this type, most patients are willing to waive a great deal of the responsibility in determining the direction of their dental care. Aggressive treatment in the private sector is only effective if the patient and the doctor share the same concerns about the dentition. All too often, the dentist loses track of the fact that his or her patient’s mouth is attached to a living, breathing human being with different needs and aspirations. If a private dentist is unable to transcend their own wants and needs, all too often the motivating factor is the all-mighty dollar.

Some may ask whether we take on a Holistic approach to dentistry, but we prefer to describe our office as conservative. Our goal is to develop an interactive relationship with our patients. We like to explain the various treatment plans that are possible for our patients, inform them about the pros and cons for each option, and finally give our patients the freedom to choose the plan of action that makes them feel the most comfortable. We also stress the importance of nutrition, vitamin supplements, and recommend our patients cease the practice of harmful oral habits (e.g. smoking, grinding, nail-biting) in order to improve oral hygiene.

Many of the patients that seek care in our practice do so because they have heard that I am a “holistic” treater. If “holistic” refers to the fact that:

-- we address our patients’ needs above our own
-- we tailor our patients’ treatment to their specific and immediate needs
-- we require our patients’ participation in the maintenance in the work delivered to them or their children
-- we interact extensively with our patients’ other health care practitioners
-- and finally, that we are far less concerned with the quantity of work delivered, but rather the wellness of our patients,
then I suppose the term applies.

Although radiographs are very important for a thorough
examination, we have chosen to be conservative and
believe that it is necessary to take radiographs at a 4 to 5
year interval. We strongly believe that radiographs are
very important for proper diagnosis of decay, growths,
abscesses, bone loss, etc.

Dentistry is in a period of Renaissance and we believe our patients should be well informed about the various materials that are available for restoration: gold, composite, and amalgam. Each material has positive and negative attributes, and we want our patients to be familiar with what they are. We have current articles available at our office if you would like further information.

-- The gold restorative material is a High Noble Alloy composed of gold, palladium, and platium. It is a long lasting inert metal which is a preferable restorative material for those with chemical sensitivities. The process of completing a gold restoration consists of two office appointments. The first appointment consists of preparation of the tooth and placement of a temporary filling while the second appointment consists of the permanent placement of the laboratory made gold restoration. Although gold is known to be the best restorative material, it is the most expensive ranging from $300.00 - $600.00.

-- The composite restorative material is composed of glass beads and acrylic bonded to the tooth with a resin. This material is mainly used for decay near the gum line and on anterior teeth. This material is advantageous because it can be matched exactly to the shade of the tooth. On the other hand, sensitivity can be expected for several days because of the acid etchant that is used to prepare the tooth for bonding. Also, the life expectancy of a composite filling ranges from 5-7 years because of wear. This material is less expensive than gold but slightly more expensive than amalgam ranging from $75.00 - $95.00. For further information on the bodily effects of dental bonding/sealants, an article entitled, “Estrogenic agents leach from dental sealant” is available at our office.

-- The amalgam restorative material is composed of silver, copper, tin and mercury. Because this is a metal filling, the life expectancy is long lasting like a gold filling. We understand that many are concerned about the effects of mercury in the body, so we also make informational articles available to our patients which hopefully help them to come to their own conclusions and to make a decision on the type of material that is right for them.
Many years ago, dentists would mix the amalgam material by hand without using a fixed, or controlled, amount of mercury. In order to prevent the unsafe, overabundance of mercury in amalgam, the material is now encapsulated, in regulated doses of mercury. We do not recommend the removal of large quantities of amalgam because the teeth may become sensitive and may require additional work (e.g. sedation, root canal therapy). If patients want this service performed, it is done as per the patients’ request.

Some new and unique ideas have come in the area of dentistry which include the use of vitamins to maintain the tissue strength and thereby improve the outcome of periodontal therapy. Herbal preparations including the use of garlic in fighting oral viral lesions is finally now under study, but has been used dentally for hundreds of years. There are alternative pain therapeutics that can help patients eliminate a great deal of their post operative discomfort, and most recently, a study was completed by members of the Academy of General Dentistry surrounding the use of baking soda and hydrogen peroxide in the maintenance of healthy tissue. This old standby proved to be a very effective means of controlling bacterial growth and odor.

The digestion of food begins in the mouth. Ineffective mastication (or chewing) of that food puts an undo stress on the remaining digestive system. We receive many question from practitioners involved in digestive tract distress as to whether their patients might be helped via dentistry. Another question that is frequently asked centers around halitosis, or bad breath. It is my belief that even though there are a growing number of dental practitioners selling bad breath monitors and treatments, the majority of cases are greatly helped by establishing a more healthy bacterial flora in the nasal cavities and by correcting digestive disorders. If any of my readers would have further questions about this, I hope you would drop me a line.

Please feel free to ask us questions about anything that seems unclear or something that is of particular interest to you. We encourage all of our patients to actively participate in the decision making process of treatment plans in order to make a choice that suits their needs.