From all of us to your family, a sincere Thank You for the opportunity to provide our care to you! May your celebration be sumptuous and filled with love.
Technology in Dentistry
First, please accept my apology for the extended delay in the blog posts. It has been an amazing Summer with our work/family schedules and travels ... But I'm back ! Coming soon to our practice will be the world-renowned digital impression system by 3Shape. This amazing technology will allow us to make "molds" of your teeth by using a handheld scanner. We can all say goodbye to messy gooey impression materials. Best of all, I am excited to be able to help patients who cannot tolerate traditional impression techniques due to severe gag reflex.
Digital scanning will also allow immediate transmission of the preparations to our partner laboratories. This will speed up the return time for our patients' restorations such as crowns, bridges, and implant prosthetics.
In my relentless pursuit of continued advanced training and state of the art techniques, I cannot wait to deliver this new technology to my patients everyday.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLYZTACt5Y0&w=560&h=315]
Anterior Teeth Wear - Treat or Ignore?
Anterior teeth wear usually exhibits a classic pattern where the canines will get ground down first, followed by the front four teeth. It is a challenge to restore and maintain this kind of bite profile. If we go by the belief that enamel is sacred and that we should never grind away teeth to restore them with porcelain, then allowing the teeth to destroy themselves to tiny short stumps goes against this belief.
If we restore early enough and the patient is diligent with night guard wear, then the treatment can be predictable and effective.
Anterior bite problems dictate length, shape, and position of the anterior teeth. Hence, on occasion where dentists and patients may mistakenly violate the mechanical principle of the bite at the expense of esthetics, then one can expect the bite to fight off anything that is in its pathway.
By choosing not to treat an anterior bite case, the teeth will wear themselves away. In the case below we can see the actual opening of the nerve canals on the front teeth. Severe wear cases also leave us with very little tooth structure to work with. Hence, anterior teeth wear should not be ignored.
Smile Make Over for Men
Some of the fun artistic cases for me involve changing the smiles for men. In the case below we used a combination of gum contour, resin bonding on the canines, porcelain veneers on the lateral incisors, and porcelain crowns on the central incisors to change the patient's smile. We replicated details like the patient's natural shade transition and the surface characteristics to make the restorations look as natural as possible. When we try to achieve a natural look, length, shape, contour, are also intentionally made slightly imperfect because in the natural dentition perfect symmetry among the teeth rarely exists.
Actual patient images of Alex Nguyen, DDS are copyrighted and digitally embedded to prevent unauthorized use.
Digital Dentistry is Here !
Digital Dentistry is here for many different types of dental prosthesis. In this case we were able to convert an optical scan of the models of a denture-type prosthesis into 3D Digital images. From there we modified the position of the teeth to enhance both the esthetic and functional components before milling out individual acrylic temporary prosthesis which fit precisely in the patient's mouth. The prosthesis in this case will actually be held in place by dental implants in both the upper and lower arches.
By doing the refinement work digitally, we can eliminate extra appointments time required to perfect the result of all types of prosthesis.
The images below came from an actual case which we will deliver to our patient next week. If you have the need for these types of implant retained prosthesis please contact our office for further information on treatment options.
