Tooth decay, also known as dental caries or cavities, is the breakdown of teeth due to acids made by bacteria. The cavities may be a number of different colors from yellow to black. Symptoms may include pain and difficulty with eating. Complications may include inflammation of the tissue around the tooth, tooth loss, and infection or abscess formation.
Aesthetic dentistry is generally used to refer to any dental work that improves the appearance (though not necessarily the functionality) of teeth, gums and/or bite. It primarily focuses on improvement in dental aesthetics in color, position, shape, size, alignment and overall smile appearance.
A smile design is a dental procedure which artistically creates straighter, whiter and beautiful natural looking smiles. Smile designs can do wonders to fully restore your dental health and appearance regardless of the original state of your existing teeth.
A dental extraction (also referred to as tooth extraction, exodontia, exodontics, or informally, tooth pulling) is the removal of teeth from the dental alveolus (socket) in the alveolar bone. Extractions are performed for a wide variety of reasons, but most commonly to remove teeth which have become unrestorable through tooth decay, periodontal disease, or dental trauma, especially when they are associated with toothache. Sometimes impacted wisdom teeth (wisdom teeth that are stuck and unable to grow normally into the mouth) cause recurrent infections of the gum (pericoronitis), and may be removed when other treatments have failed. In orthodontics if the teeth are crowded, sound teeth may be extracted (often premolars) to create space so the rest of the teeth can be straightened.
Root canal is a treatment to repair and save a badly damaged or infected tooth instead of removing it. The term “root canal” comes from cleaning of the canals inside a tooth’s root. Many years ago, root canal treatments often were painful. With dental advances and local anesthetics, most people have little, if any, pain with a root canal. In fact, it’s probably more painful living with a decayed tooth. Root canal alternatives include extracting the damaged tooth and replacing it with a dental implant, bridge or removable partial denture.
A crown is basically a manufactured tooth. Crowns and bridges are a fixed solution to missing or damaged teeth. This restorative procedure uses prosthetic devices to return your smile to its natural state. A crown is used when the tooth structure is damaged or fractured. A bridge is used when one or more teeth are missing.
A denture is a removable replacement for missing teeth and surrounding tissues. Two types of dentures are available — complete and partial dentures. Complete dentures are used when all the teeth are missing, while partial dentures are used when some natural teeth remain.
A post and core crown is a type of dental restoration required where there is an insufficient amount of sound tooth structure remaining to retain a crown. A post is cemented into a prepared root canal, which retains a core restoration, which retains the final crown.
