To restore is to bring something back to its previous condition. That is the purpose of restorative dentistry, reinstating your smile’s natural appearance and function when something has gone wrong. Dr. Giulio Spagnuolo and his restorative and dental hygiene team at We Smile Dentistry in London, Ontario, make the experience low stress and efficient.
Restorative dental care to repair damaged teeth
Tooth decay and trauma (chips, fractures, and pieces broken off) are common dental concerns. In many cases, these smaller issues can be restored with tooth-coloured fillings or dental bonding. This procedure is conservative – it preserves healthy tooth structure – and the restoration is sturdy and durable. The material blends with natural dentition and contains no mercury. Filling and bonding are single-visit procedures.
For a larger area of damage, too big to support a filling, Dr. Spagnuolo may recommend an inlay or onlay. These porcelain restorations are cemented in place, strengthening tooth structure. A crown encases the visible portion of a prepared tooth with a cap made of strong dental ceramic material, allowing roots to remain intact. At We Smile Dentistry, you get the convenience of same-day CEREC crowns. The restoration is precision milled from a block of zirconia while you wait. You do not need a temporary crown or to come back for a follow-up appointment.
Full mouth reconstruction is a personalized approach to restore a mouth ravaged by long-term neglect, traumatic injury, chronic bruxism (clenching and grinding), or advanced gum disease. We work with you to understand contributing factors, then explain treatment options that fit your lifestyle, budget, and schedule.
Crafting A CEREC Crown In Real Time
1: Hi, it is Kelly and Dr. Spagnuolo at We Smile Dentistry and we are going to show you how we design a CEREC crown.
2: Hello, we’re going to be designing a couple of crowns for our model patient and we’ll show you how easy this really is. We pick our material that we want to use, and then we click on the teeth that we need to do for the crowns, and if we want to replace things, we can. If we don’t, we just keep going. So, we’ve got a couple of teeth there. The next thing we need to do is we need to take photographs of our model patient. So you can do them in any order you want. I typically will take models of the bite first, and you can hear our wonderful music going. And that’s for the bite. And then, I will take pictures of the opposing jaw because that is required for when the teeth are made so that they fit properly, the crowns to the bite of the person. Now, we’ll take pictures of our prepared teeth and of course this is of the model. This already would have been done. And when you’re working on a live patient, you don’t need this model. And you can see on the screen we’ve got a green little check mark that says the computer is happy with the bite. And so the next thing we do is we hit the magic ‘go’ button, and the computer now will begin the process for the crown. So, the models are made digitally, and this usually takes a minute or two, and then we need to edit and improve things for the patient.
1: How long is this appointment normally?
2: This appointment, usually the first, it’s about two, two-and-a-half hours. Part of the appointment is design, which usually can be anywhere between 10 and 15 minutes. Part of the appointment is preparing the teeth and that’s usually between 30 and 45 minutes. And at the end, the crowns need to be cemented. And in this particular case, CEREC crowns are all porcelain. There’s no metal inside. Now this is the case and we can open things up, close things, and see what’s going on. Now the computer has, needs a little minor improvement over here for where the crown needs to go. So now we can check to see how things have been prepared, and we see everything is in green, so that usually means we’re good to go. We can check the other tooth. Everything is in green, so that’s good to go. We hit our little magic ‘go’ button again.
Now we check to see how the crowns look. We could look at them individually, we could look at them against the top teeth to make sure the teeth are biting down properly. And the other part that we will look at is to see that the crowns need to be able to touch each other, so food doesn’t get jammed in there. And we can also check to make sure that everything is properly fit and for the material, and in this particular case, it is because there’s no indication of errors. And so we are now ready to go to have the crown milled. So, out of a block, it gets milled and that usually takes 10 to 15 minutes per crown.
1: Perfect. Thank you.
Replacing missing teeth
Missing teeth can have a devastating impact on appearance and oral health. We offer several restorative options:
- Dental implants – A long-term tooth replacement choice. Learn more on the dental implants page of this website.
- Dental bridges – Artificial teeth anchored in place with crowns on adjacent teeth.
- False teeth – With various types of dentures available, this remains an affordable solution for many people. Removable partial dentures replace one tooth or several in an arch. Complete dentures are full upper or lower arches, and implant-supported dentures are secure and comfortable.
At We Smile Dentistry in London, ON, we have restorative dentistry services for the entire family. Call (226) 605-0042 to get your smile back into great condition.