My Dentist USA Home
Finance Your Procedure
Colorado Cosmetic Dentists
Philosophy Education Patient Photos Articles Testimonials Procedures FAQ Contact July 4, 2009

Cosmetic Dentistry Frequently Asked Questions
Provided by Dr. Gordon West of Boulder


Click to learn more about:
Click here to contact Dr. West

Teeth Whitening


Teeth whitening is one of the easiest and most common cosmetic dentistry treatments. Beautiful, white teeth can become discolored with time and lose their original lustre. Teeth whitening can brighten your smile and restore the beautiful white appearance of your teeth. Dr. West offers you a choice of two tooth whitening options to give you a bright, attractive smile.

DEEP BLEACHING TEETH WHITENING

Rod Kurthy developed this technique for teeth whitening, the most effective system for teeth bleaching on the market. This tooth whitening technique consists of two treatments in our Lafayette office and 14 nights wearing tooth bleaching trays. Every tooth whitening treatment is preceded with the application of desensitizing gel, making this the most pain-free way to whiten your teeth. If you have tried bleaching systems in the past that did not work, come talk to Dr. West about this teeth whitening method.

OPALESCENCE TAKE HOME TRAYS

This is a less expensive option for the patient who is looking to whiten their teeth a few shades and not have to spend time with in-office treatments. This teeth whitening system requires the creation of take home teeth whitening trays and daily application of whitening solution for an hour. Usually results are excellent following 7 to 10 tooth whitening applications.


Click here to email Dr. West

Return to top

Porcelain Veneers


Porcelain Veneers

Dental veneers are extremely thin (.3-1mm) pieces of porcelain bonded to the enamel of anterior teeth. We use porcelain veneers to repair problems that affect your smile such as:

- covering dark teeth
- fixing alignment issues
- repairing chipped or broken teeth
- closing gaps between teeth
- cosmetically enhancing someone's smile.

An excellent ceramist can match a single tooth in a person's smile and have it be virtually undetectable as shown above. These porcelain veneers are bonded to enamel with strengths exceeding the bond between enamel and dentin.


Click here to email Dr. West

Return to top

Prepless Dental Veneers


Prepless Dental Veneers are the answer for a patient who wants their teeth cosmetically enhanced without removing any tooth structure. These dental veneers can be done without anesthetic and are 100% reversible. Patients who have had orthodontics completed and have spaces, small teeth in a smile, peg laterals, or mild discolorations are excellent candidates for the prepless veneer.


Click here to email Dr. West

Return to top

Dental Implants


Benefits of Dental Implants
  • Highly Successful - The success rate for dental implants is in the 90% range - most of the time at 98%
  • Long Lasting - A bridge might last 7-12 years, but an implant can last a lifetime
  • More Natural - Dental implants will feel like you are getting your own tooth back
  • Aestheticly Pleasing - Enjoy a beautiful smile as implant dentistry restores the look of healthy, natural teeth
  • Allow You to Eat What You Want - Dental implants are like natural teeth because they are anchored firmly in your jaw -- eat your favorite foods in comfort and confidence
  • Preserve Facial Appearance - Implant dentistry preserves the underlying bone structure and facial appearance after you lose a tooth
  • Easier to Maintain - It is easier to clean a dental implant and it cannot decay
  • Saves Healthy Teeth - Two healthy teeth adjacent to a missing tooth must often be ground down to anchor a bridge, but dental implants often preserve them untouched
  • More Comfort for Removable Dentures - Implant dentistry can secure a removable denture for better function and comfort



Click here to email Dr. West

Return to top

Sedation Dentistry


What is Sedation Dentistry?

Sedation dentistry is the answer both patient and practitioner have been looking for to bring together what dentistry can provide for patients concerned abut visiting the dentist to receive needed treatment. Studies show that 30% of the population avoids the dentist due to fear. Dental sedation provides a safe and comfortable experience for them to get the care they need and want. Sedation dentistry treatment can be customized to the patient's anxiety level and medical history allowing them an incredibly comfortable, relaxing and safe experience.

What Patients are Appropriate for Sedation Dentistry?

Patients with anxiety. With conscious oral sedation, the patient will seldom remember much about the procedure. Their anxiety often falls to a very low level and can actually become a relaxed dental patient.

Patients who have put off needed treatment, or who abandoned treatment plans

Patients who suffer from acute or chronic jaw soreness. These patients can comfortably be treated for several hours. The sedation medication has a muscle relaxation property. By using dental sedation in combination with frequent resting time, even these patients can have extensive treatment completed in one visit comfortably and they experience little to no jaw soreness post-operatively.

Patients who have a gag reflex. Many patients may have avoided the dentist for years due to embarrassment, but with sedation dentistry they can have their perio, restorative and cosmetic dentistry work done, sometimes in the same appointment.

Patients with physical limitations such as back or neck problems. Dental sedation helps to relax patients who may have chronic back or neck problems. These patients can comfortably sit in the chair for lengthy procedures and usually experience little or no post-operative back or neck soreness.

How Safe is Dental Sedation?

There has never been a documented report of an adult death due to the use of the conscious oral sedation using DOCS protocols. DOCS members alone have completed an estimated 1,000,000 successful dental sedation procedures over the past six years. One reason for our outstanding record is that we monitor patients' vital signs using a pulse oximeter/blood pressure monitor. This monitor will measure blood pressure every five minutes and continuously measure pulse rate and blood oxygen before, during and after a sedation procedure.

Side Effects?

After sedation dentistry, you may not remember much of the appointment and will likely experience less soreness following treatment. Dry mouth and hiccups are also common side effects with dental sedation.


Click here to email Dr. West

Return to top

Laser Dentistry


Laser dentistry is designed to make treatment much more comfortable for the patient and allow for earlier detection of dental decay. Treatment in our Boulder County office can often be done pain-free and reduces the need for anethesia and sutures. Laser dentistry also eliminates bleeding and allows for faster healing. Following are two lasers used in our dental office for different purposes.

CO2 LASER

The CO2 laser is the best laser on the market for many soft tissue applications. Some of the dentistry applications include periodontal therapy, cosmetic gingival recontouring, distal wedge, frenectomy, and gingival depigmentation.

In order to provide a consistant laser interaction with soft tissues, stable energy and consistant peak power must be achieved. The Spectra Denta Laser accomplishes this through a built in Digital Feedback system. The precise control over how much energy is applied to tissues allows penetration of only.1mm reducing the collateral damage to virtually zero.

DIAGNODENT

The diagnodent is one of the best new pieces of technology in laser dentistry over the past 10 years. This laser helps the dentist find decay at an earlier stage. Why is this important? Early cavity detection will lead to a conservative restoration, leaving behind more natural tooth structure and a filling that will last longer. Ultimately, you will have a much less chance of sensitivity and a tooth that is more resistant to future problems.


Click here to email Dr. West

Return to top

TMJ Treatment


The TMJ is a joint that slides and rotates just in front of your ear, consisting of a temporal bone, mandible, ligaments, muscles, disc, retrodiscal attachment tissues, synovium, articular cartilage, and a capsule. Chewing muscles connect the jaw to the skull, allowing you to move your jaw forward, sideways, and open and close. All of these movements are protected with a properly functioning TMJ assembly. When the TMJ is not functioning properly, a condition know as Temporomandibular Disfunction (TMD) is diagnosed. Some common symptoms a person with TMD will experience are:

1. pain and soreness in your jaw joint and muscles of your face along with neck, shoulder or back pain

2. headaches, pain behind your eyes

3. noises in your joint such as clicking or popping sounds

4. difficulty opening and closing your jaw or chewing your food

5. your teeth not feeling like they fit together properly

6. difficulty opening your mouth wide

7. ringing in your ears, dizziness

8. grinding your teeth

9. awakening in the morning with soreness in your jaw or muscles of your face

10. sleep problems

What causes TMD?

Normal function for a person's TMJ and musculature include chewing, swallowing, speech and communication. Any activity a person's jaw does outside these normal tasks would be considered what we call parafunction. This would include clenching, grinding (night bruxism) or using your teeth for anything outside the normal function realm. These excessive habits tire the jaw muscles and lead to discomfort, such as headaches or neck pain. Additionally, parafunction can lead to worn or sensitive teeth, traumatized TMJ, muscle soreness, jaw discomfort when eating and temporal headaches. When a person exceeds the TMJ's ability to withstand compressive forces, breakdown will occur. Through time, as a person's TMJ is chronically overloaded, the disc that is superimposed between the mandible and the temporal bone begins to dislocate in an anterior direction. This will correlate with a popping sound as the mandible moves off and on the disc. An extremely important anatomical change occurs during this process, the disc will flatten, becoming more and more susceptible to dislocation. As the disc moves forward, the mandible moves back into an area dominated by blood vessels and nerves. Eventually the disc will permanently dislocate forward, leaving the jaw positioned within the nerve endings, pain is the result.

What is the Best TMJ Treatment?

The goal of treatment for a person suffering with TMD is primarily to get the patient out of TMJ pain and prevent further breakdown of the TMJ and related structures. This is accomplished with fabrication of an orthotic (a lower splint the repositions the jaw away from the neural plexus and creates room to potentially move the disc back into place). The orthotic will break the pain cycle and position the mandible such that the musculature and TMJ can work in harmony. Once a stable position is achieved and the jaw does not pop or hurt, an analysis of how the teeth come together is performed. The goal is to have the patient's teeth come together the same way the splint had the jaw positioned, this is usually accomplished with reshaping teeth, orthodontics or gnathodontic jaw surgery. Orthotic therapy can take anywhere from 3 months to 3 years depending on the severity of joint and bone breakdown.


Click here to email Dr. West

Return to top

Periodontal Treatment


Periodontal disease is an infection of the teeth, gums,and the bone that surrounds the teeth. Most people who have periodontal disease aren't even aware of it. It's rarely painful, especially in the early stages. The main cause of periodontal disease is the accumulation of calculus and biofilm both on the tooth and embedded into the gum tissue. A biofilm is a colony of pathogenic bacteria, unlike an individual bacteria, a colony is very resistant to brushing and flossing and can only be managed by your dental professional. Calculus shows up on x-ray films as a small white lump on the sides of the teeth. Bacteria that cause periodontal disease thrive here. Bacteria produce toxins, and it's these toxins, combined with your own body's reaction to them, that irreversibly destroy bone around your teeth. Periodontal disease has been linked to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, low birth weight babies, and preterm births.

Some of the warning signs of periodontal disease are:

1. persistant bad breath

2. bleeding gums when brushing or flossing

3. soft, swollen gums pulling away from the tooth

4. changes in the spaces between your teeth, which reflects changes in the underlying bone.

5. loose teeth

Keep in mind, however, that you can have periodontal disease and experience none of these symptoms. Your dentist will be able to determine if you have periodontal disease by measuring the crevise between the tooth and gum, called the sulcus. Sulcus measurements are usually 2-3 millimeters when the gum tissue is healthy, when it is deeper then 4 millimeters we call this a periodontal pocket which are excellent hiding places for plaque and bacteria and the start of periodontal disease.

How Does A Dentist Find Periodontal Disease?

1. perio probe readings greater than three millimeters

2. bleeding upon probing the gums

3. swollen and red gums, especially between the teeth

4. bone loss or calculus on your x-rays

Periodontal Treatment

The beginning of treatment of periodontal disease consists of cleaning the tooth surface, removing all plaque and tartar leaving a smooth surface, for patient comfort this is usually done under local anesthetic. Step two consists of cleaning the gum tissue of the biofilm embedded into the perio pocket (picture to the right). This can be accomplished using a couple different techniques. The CO2 laser is a very effective tool to eliminate the "red complex". Sometime we place localized antibiotics directly into the effected areas, this product is called arrestin. If the entire mouth is affected, we will sometimes place the patient on a systemic antibiotic using information from DNA testing to find out exactly what bacteria has colonized in the perio pocket. The disease will never get better if the red complex is not addressed. More frequent periodontal maintanance visits are required to make sure the disease does not get worse.


Click here to email Dr. West

Return to top
  
Gordon West, DDS, PC
Aesthetic & General Dentistry

Office Address:

1140 West South Boulder Rd
Suite 201
Lafayette, CO 80026
My Dentist USA is sponsored and made possible by the Cosmetic Dentists featured on this website.
MyDentistUSA.com is solely a provider of information. If information provided is used by the Internet user, said use is at that person's sole risk and discretion.
Please read the full Privacy Policy & Terms and Conditions. By entering the website, you are agreeing to be bound by these Terms & Conditions.
© 2008 NKP Medical Marketing, Inc. · 10220 Culver Blvd · Suite 208 · Culver City, CA 90232