I recently had a patient ask me about activated charcoal for tooth whitening. I’ve been doing a little research and what I’ve found is there isn’t much scientific research out there! Charcoal is an absorbent and abrasive compound, which would lead me to think that it will remove stains about
Any time the pulp (nerve area) of the tooth is infected or necrotic (dead) for some reason we will recommend doing a root canal (endodontic) therapy. The reason for this is that have an infected or necrotic pulp will lead to
Dental amalgams have been used to restore teeth for over 170 years. A dental amalgam is a mixture of mercury, tin, silver, copper and palladium. The mercury is mixed with the other metals until it reacts and then is placed in the tooth. Though elemental mercury itself is dangerous once
Now for our final material in this series… Resin modified glass ionomers – a reasonable new type of filling, is also tooth colored Upsides: Tooth colored – though do not polish or blend as well as the composites Moisture tolerant – these can be placed in areas where we might
We’ll continue our review of filling materials that I use and what the pros and cons are. Resin based composite – most common “tooth colored” fillings Upsides: The look nicer! We can match these fillings very closely to the shade of your tooth, so that you often cannot even tell
There are 3 main types of materials that I will use to fill teeth, they each have upsides and downsides and I weigh this in my recommendation to you of which type of material to use. Over the next 3 blogs I’ll discuss the pros and cons of each. Amalgam
Generally when we recommend fillings it’s due to decay (though occasionally it is to fill in a chip or notch in your tooth). Decay starts as demineralization, where the acid from the bacteria dissolves the minerals out of your teeth. When this gets more severe the tooth structure becomes soft.
Dental sealants are a coating we put in the deep pits and groves in teeth. These pits and grooves continue into the tooth well past what your eye can see and tooth brush can reach. But those tiny little bacteria can get down into those grooves; they can camp out
There are many parts to a tooth and they all have different functions! Here is a good video explaining the parts (I have no affiliation to colgate I just like the video) plus she has a delightful accent!