Hard raw-foods diet leads to fractured fillings; gold chewing surface sustains bite

Conservative dentistry and naturally sustaining lifestyles go together, and as such, many of the people attracted to our practice focus on their nutrition and overall health.  This patient eats a strict raw-foods diet, including very hard foods like raw carrots and almonds.  Though amalgam filling material has a compressive strength (aka, ability to resist biting…

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Early decay visible with enhanced Digital X-rays

Conventional film X-rays would require chemical processing and did not have the capability of changing contrast and gain. With digital X-rays, we can see the earliest of decays, and thus treat decay conservatively. This patient was seen in our hygiene department for routine cleaning and check-up.  The ultra low-radiation exposures did not initially show the…

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Decay under amalgam filling is typical

General dentistry in the United States has been trending toward the discontinued use of silver-mercury alloy fillings, aka, amalgams. My own preference for tooth-colored resins is for several reasons, the most obvious being that as an aesthetic dentist, I like teeth to look like teeth.  Additionally, resin is not affected by temperature the way metallic…

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Managing gum recession and tooth mobility with T-scan and equilibration

Periodontal disease affects approximately 80% of adults in the USA and can show up differently across the spectrum. This patient had very little active infection evident, yet a very high susceptibility to losing the tooth attachment to the jaw bone.   Visually, the teeth are very clean and the gums are a healthy light pink…

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