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Boston Teeth Associates Dental Service

At Boston Teeth Associates, we know that a healthy, beautiful smile can boost your confidence and give you a sense of well-being. We also understand that your time and convenience is very important. This is why we offer comprehensive dental care including dental implantation, periodontal care, Invisalign, cosmetic and restorative dentistry all in one convenient location.

Browse through the current list of services or contact us at any time to learn more about what we offer.

Posterior Restorations
Crowns
Composite
Amalgams
Posterior Restorations:

You may consider several types of restorations for the molars and pre-molars, called collectively posterior teeth because they lay posterior to the canine (eye-tooth) considered the cornerstone of your smile. Contrary to belief, your smile to the world does show your "posterior teeth" especially from the profile (side mostly visible to those around us), when considering prosthetic rehabilitation, consider your smile with a mental picture of a three-way mirror.

Crowns, Onlays and Veneers:

Crowns – These are prosthetic restorations that protect, anchor and may change the shape of a weakened tooth. Crowns are also made of several materials depending of the needs of the tooth to be restored, these prosthetics have two defining features: a substructure of great rigidity and 380 degrees of coverage. Options of materials depend on function and aesthetics we can mimic translucency, opacity, all colorations, markings or shapes, luster, we may even mask defects. Crowns are not only the most reinforced of the restorations but are also very versatile and in many cases in which the lesion site is too wet or deep into the gum line the only aesthetic restoration is a crown. Options vary so greatly that we could dedicate our site solely to crowns, but the individual applications are best discussed in the light of your actual clinical needs. We often recommend crowning a tooth that had a root canal treatment, why, well I often explain to my patients with analogies. For example think of a branch cut fresh from the trunk, being green with sap keeps it nourished and flexible, therefore harder to break and easier to bent. But once dried due to the lack of sap nourishment the branch “fractures” breaks easily. Now once a tooth has a compromised nourishment system (a.k.a “nerve”), even if the infection problem has been solved with a root canal treatment, the tooth begins to “Dry Out” leading to fractures sooner or later.

Onlays – These are posterior restorations that may be bonded or cemented and vary in materials from metallic (gold alloys) to porcelain and resin-composites. They are also referred to as “three quarter crowns” they encompass the most versatile of the supra-gingival (above the gum-line) restorations. They can be made to fit inside large lesions or old fillings that have weakened the tooth or replace only the sections that where fractured “broken” with out having to undermined further the tooth or reduce the circumference of it in order to “Brace” the tooth to protect it. Onlays can be made to exactly match your natural dentition making them undetectable and bonded to a seamless perfection. They are made of materials comparable to the natural enamel in strength once bonded, and even more resistant to wear, but as with natural enamel they are still to be cared for in order to avoid fracturing. That is no, rocks, sticks and beer bottle caps...

Veneers – Veneers are a thin layer of restorative material placed over a tooth surface, either to improve the aesthetics of a tooth, or to protect a damaged tooth surface. There are two main types of material used to fabricate a veneer, composite and dental porcelain. Veneers can be used to restore a single tooth that may have been fractured or discolored, or multiple teeth to create a "Hollywood" type of makeover. Many people have small teeth resulting in spaces that may not be easily closed by orthodontics. Some people have worn away the edges of their teeth resulting in a prematurely aged appearance, while others may have mispositioned teeth that appear crooked. Multiple veneers can close these spaces, lengthen teeth that have been shortened by wear, provide a uniform color, shape, and symmetry, and make the teeth appear straight.

Composites (tooth colored fillings):

Great advances have been reached with the new tooth colored materials, great color stability, wide range and most important great strength comparable to that of natural enamel. One less obvious advantage to the tooth colored restorations is the “bonding technique” this allows us to “bond” the material to healthy tooth structure, using conservative preparations that only take diseased structure and avoids undermining sound healthy structure for the sake of mechanical retention of a filling as is the case with amalgams (silver alloy restorations) Not all lesions are good candidates for “bonding” there is an inherited disadvantage to areas that can not be isolated from the moisture in the oral cavity or surrounding tissue, we can help you determine which areas are good for bonding and which could be restored with other types of tooth colored restorations.

Amalgams (silver alloy restoration):

Silver alloy restorations are the oldest and therefore the most used of dental materials. They are thought to be originated by the ancient Egyptians; they are less expensive because they require less time to make than most other restorations and are retained inside the tooth by mechanical retention only. They have the advantage to work reliably in smaller and wet sites, like along the junction of the gums and the tooth can be polished to a shine and their “rust” is a weak anti-bacterial. Silver restorations even after polishing tend to tarnish, also being a metallic alloy they react to heat and cold producing expansion and contraction that may lead to loosening of the filling and in the case of large mechanically undermined fillings even fracturing of the tooth. Silver tarnish may produce tattooing of the gums. An alloy by definition is a “solution of metals” the only metal liquid at room temperature is Mercury, leaving no other alternative for a soft alloy to be used, but this solution has been greatly improved by adding several “absorbent” metals to reduce the free Mercury.

Note:

Currently we do not recommend Amalgam (silver) restorations over other materials available. Regardless of insurance preference for a lesser quality restoration we can offer you a better substitute that for little to no difference in price could save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars, and at the same time preventing: fractured teeth, root canals and premature replacements of your current restoration.

 

 

 


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