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General Treatment

Restorative Fillings | Root Canals | Tooth Extractions | Crowns & Bridges

 

A wide range of dental services are provided in our practice. This flexibility saves you time and usually keeps your total dental care within one practice. Our emphasis is on total care for our patients. Total care begins with regular hygiene visits, regular checkups and continued home oral health routines.

Although our scope of service is broad, we do refer to an excellent team of specialists when treatment needed is more complex. We want you to be confident with our referral. Please know that clear communication with the referral doctor before and after your treatment is our goal. For example, we do not extract impacted wisdom teeth but would refer you to one of the oral surgeons we work with on a regular basis.


Restorative Fillings

Restorative fillings are needed when teeth have decayed or fractured. The grooves and depressions on the chewing surfaces of the back teeth and the areas between the teeth (interproximal) are prone to decay or cavities. Dentists remove the decay and fill the tooth using a variety of filling materials to return the tooth to a healthy state.

The most common restorative material is tooth-colored composite resin that can restore lost tooth structure to a natural appearance. These fillings are bonded to the tooth to repair chips, fractured areas and replace decayed tooth structure.

Silver fillings may still be used to restore decay in the back of the mouth, especially if a patient has extensive decay and many restorative needs. These restorations are less expensive, less esthetic and do contain mercury. Study after study has shown that because the mercury is bound to the silver it is inert and harmless to your health. In the summer of 2009, after extensive review of years of research, the FDA reaffirmed the safety and efficacy of silver fillings.

We always discuss your treatment options with you and respect your decision on the type of restoration you choose for your health and life-style.

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Root Canals

A root canal is a procedure that removes diseased pulp from the central part of the tooth, reshapes the canal and replaces it with a strengthening filler.

If decay is left long enough, it will burrow into the deeper reaches of the tooth, causing extensive damage to tooth structure. The tooth may become infected or abscessed. When this severe damage occurs, dentists can perform a root canal (or endodontics) to clear-up the infection and preserve the tooth.

Procedure:

  • The patient's tooth is numbed.
  • A dental dam is used to isolate the tooth.
  • The tooth is opened to allow for removal of infected or dead dental pulp.
  • The tooth is comprehensively cleaned, including chambers and canals.
  • With special instruments, the doctor reshapes the canals.
  • The tooth is filled again with cutting edge biocompatible filling material.
  • A temporary covering is used to cover the access opening.
  • Patients MUST have a permanent restoration of the tooth soon after root canal treatment.

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Tooth Extractions

The doctors at ADT Dental perform routine and simple extractions for a variety of reasons: deciduous or baby teeth, for orthodontic treatment, non-restorable teeth, or teeth affected by advanced periodontal disease.

Your third molars are commonly called "wisdom teeth." Usually appearing in the late teens or early twenties, third molars often lack the proper space in the jaw to erupt fully or even at all. This common condition is called impaction. When any tooth lacks the space to come through or simply develops in the wrong place of your jaw, problems can arise. Damage to adjacent teeth, infection in surrounding gum tissue and crowding of other teeth can occur when third molars are not removed.

In certain cases when left under the bone, impacted wisdom teeth can develop  a sac around it that  fills with a fluid. This cyst, or abscess if it becomes infected, can cause serious damage to the underlying bone, surrounding teeth and tissues.

To potentially stave off these conditions, an extraction of one or more wisdom teeth may be advised. It is our policy to recommend you to an oral surgeon for the removal of impacted teeth.

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Crowns & Bridges

Crowns
A crown is a permanent covering that fits over a tooth that had been damaged by decay or stress fracture. Crowns are made of a variety of different materials such as porcelain, gold, acrylic resin or a mix of these materials. Porcelain generally has the most natural appearance, although it is sometimes less durable.

The treatment plan for a patient receiving a crown involves:

  1. Numbing the tooth to remove the decay in or around it.
  2. Re-sculpturing the tooth to provide an ideal fit for the crown.
  3. Taking an impression of your teeth in order to create a custom-made crown
  4. Making a temporary crown out of acrylic resin and fitting it onto the tooth during the interim period while the permanent custom-made crown is being created.
  5. Applying the permanent crown (when received from the lab) by removing the temporary crown and fitting the permanent one onto the tooth.
  6. After ensuring that the crown has the proper look and fit, the dentist cements it into place.

This process generally consists of two visits completed within two weeks.  Once the procedure is completed, proper dental hygiene, including daily brushing and flossing, is required to maintain healthy,gum tissue and teeth.  This helps in the prevention of gum disease and prolongs the life of the crown.


Bridges
A bridge is a dental device that fills a space that a tooth previously occupied. A bridge may be necessary to prevent:

  • Shifting of the teeth that can lead to bite problems and periodontal disease.
  • Bridges safeguard the integrity of existing teeth and help maintain a healthy, vibrant smile.


There are three main types of bridges, namely:

  • Fixed bridge- this is the most popular and consists of a filler tooth that is attached to two crowns, which fit over the existing teeth and hold the bridge in place.
  • The “Maryland” bridge is commonly used to replace missing front teeth and consists of a filler tooth that is attached to flat metal bands that are bonded to the back  of the abutment teeth. The metal bands are coated in a tooth-colored composite resin .
  • The Cantilever bridge is often used when there are teeth on only one side of the span. A typical three-unit cantilever bridge consists of two crowned teeth positioned next to each other on the same side of the missing tooth space. The filler tooth is then connected to the two crowned teeth, which extend into the missing tooth space.

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2232 Hennepin Ave. South, Minneapolis, MN 55405
612.377.6108