Still, you are certainly not too old to seek the orthodontic treatment that you desire. In fact, as an adult, you have access to more advanced and more appealing alternatives to traditional orthodontics. Dr. John M. Hucklebridge, your dentist serving Dallas, offers Invisalign technology to enhance your smile.

The Invisalign method utilizes groundbreaking technology to provide the most discreet and most hygienic orthodontic treatment available. A customized series of clear, removable aligners are the secret to achieving your new smile.

After obtaining dental impressions of your top and bottom teeth, Dr. Hucklebridge will communicate with the specialists at the Invisalign headquarters to develop your orthodontic treatment plan. Three dimensional models of your teeth will be used to fabricate a complete series of aligners, according to the length and complexity of your treatment estimate.

Prior to receiving your first set of aligners, you will be able to view the digital progression of your treatment with your dentist. Once they are received, each set of aligners will be worn both day and night for approximately two weeks, before you are advised to proceed to the next set. As each set is slightly different, your teeth will be gently guided into the appropriate position.

During this time, your aligners can be removed for eating, brushing, and flossing. Invisalign aligners are fabricated from a very strong, but amazingly thin polymer that becomes virtually invisible when placed over the teeth. For adults, this is an especially important advantage since it allows you to maintain a more mature and professional appearance for the duration of the treatment.

If you have wondered how orthodontic treatment would fit into your adult lifestyle, call the office of Dr. Hucklebridge for your appointment today to learn more about Invisalign.

With a strong emphasis on preventing dental disease, and an abundance of available educational information, Dr. Hucklebridge may be your best healthcare resource. Today, it is reasonable to expect to maintain a healthy smile throughout your lifetime. There is no reason to expect tooth loss to be a part of your destiny.

For adults, brushing and flossing after meals should still be an integral part of your daily routine. Foods that may collect around the gumline and between the teeth can contribute to gum disease and cavities. Mature adults should also monitor their diets for foods and drinks that can increase the risk for tooth decay and tooth sensitivity.

As you age, protecting your enamel can be a daily challenge. Acidic beverages such as fruit juices and red wines can erode the enamel. Even digestive conditions like acid reflux and GERD have been linked to weakened enamel.

A lifetime of aggressive brushing causes damage that can be identified in the form of abrasive lesions and gum recession. When clenching and grinding of the teeth have been an issue, fractured enamel near the gumline and flattened teeth can lead to tooth sensitivity.

Often, the status of your overall health can influence your risk for gum disease. Uncontrolled cardiovascular disease and diabetes can contribute to advanced periodontal disease. Complex dental restorations such as bridges and partials can increase your risk for gum disease if food tends to become caught between the teeth.

Many of the dental conditions that arise in the retirement years are a result of the cumulative effect of the dental care that you have received throughout your lifetime. If you desire to maintain healthy teeth and gums in this phase of your life, please schedule your next visit right away.

The teeth are not the smile’s sole component, however. Other elements, such as the alignment of the jaw and the shape of the lips, factor in, as well. Soft tissues are important, too. Indeed, the gums play an essential role in the smile’s appearance, serving as the frame that emphasizes the main part of the picture.

A gumline that is uneven or too high or too low can have a negative impact on the smile, even when the teeth are in the proper alignment.

Dr. John M. Hucklebridge, your Dallas cosmetic dentist, can help the gums enhance the smile through a procedure known as tissue resculpting. The procedure can be performed right in the office using a local anesthetic.

In performing a tissue resculpting, Dr. Hucklebridge can alter the shape of the gumline, making it even and bringing it into the proper proportions. This goal is achieved by either removing excess gum tissue or by performing a gum graft, taking tissue from elsewhere in the mouth and placing it along the gumline as a supplement for areas with a shortage of gum tissue.

Tissue resculpting can be used to address inconsistencies that arose from congenital or genetic roots, or it may be used to give a boost to gums that have receded due to periodontal disease.

In many cases, tissue resculpting alone is sufficient to improve the smile’s aesthetics. However, in certain patients, an overgrowth of bone can be a complicating factor, causing an unwanted regrowth of gum tissue following the treatment. These patients may also need to have a crown lengthening, in which some of the excess bone is removed along with the gum tissue in order to achieve permanent results.

Contact Plano Smile Studio at 972.398.2550 to see if your uneven or prominent gums can be improved through tissue resculpting.

One method your dentist will use to treat periodontal disease is root planing and scaling. This non-invasive procedure removes plaque and calculus (tartar) from the teeth and the roots, clearing away the bacteria that cause the inflammation associated with gum disease.

Rough tooth roots, which allow bacteria to collect under the gums, also are smoothed down, providing a less hospitable environment for those bacteria. Your dentist may also refer to root planing and scaling as a deep cleaning.

Root planing and scaling is appropriate for patients with pockets in their gum tissue. Those pockets develop as plaque and bacteria collect along the gumline and attack the tissue. The root planing and scaling intervention, which may be accompanied by a topical antibiotic treatment, helps to reduce the size of those pockets.

After a root planing and scaling procedure, patients should plan to visit the dentist regularly for maintenance treatments. Those patients may be able to avoid a progression of their periodontal disease that might require surgery. Depending on the extent of your case, your dentist may recommend follow-up cleanings every three months rather than every six, which is the standard interval.

Getting treatment for periodontal disease helps to preserve your oral health. When left unchecked, periodontal disease can cause gums to recede and eventually lead to the loss of tooth and bone.

Controlling periodontal disease isn’t just about achieving optimal oral health, though. Periodontal disease has been connected to several systemic conditions, like heart disease and diabetes, so root planing and scaling is actually helping to boost a patient’s overall health.

Get your gums checked on a regular basis, and when your dentist identifies a problem, schedule an appointment for treatment like root planing and scaling so that you won’t have to face surgery later.

Dental bonding is one of the simplest and most economical restorations available. The process begins with a small amount of composite resin, which is made of plastic materials. That resin is then hardened or “bonded” to the tooth using a special light.

Chips and cracks in the teeth can be concealed through bonding. A cosmetic dentist may also rely on bonding to fill in gaps or alter the shape of an unusual tooth. Bonding can even be used to repair tooth decay or protect dental roots exposed by receding gums.

To prepare the teeth for dental bonding, the cosmetic dentist will first roughen the tooth and apply a conditioning liquid that helps the resin stick to the tooth. Then, the dentist selects a shade of resin that blends in with the patient’s smile and massages it into the desired shape.

This procedure can be completed quickly. In most cases, bonding is finished within an hour or so. Bonding doesn’t require an outside laboratory to craft the restorations, so it can be done in a single office visit.

The resin is not as strong as enamel, so bonding may not be appropriate for tooth surfaces that are exposed to significant chewing forces.  It’s important to talk with your cosmetic dentist to determine which options will meet your particular needs.

Nonetheless, if you properly care for your teeth, your dental bonding can last for up to a decade before it needs to be replaced. If you avoid bad habits like biting your fingernails or chewing hard objects, you’ll help to extend the life of your dental bonding.

Dental bonding is particularly appealing to patients who hope to preserve as much of their natural tooth material as possible. Other tooth restorations, such as veneers and crowns, often require the patient to sacrifice healthy enamel, but that step is unnecessary with bonding.

To learn more about dental bonding and to schedule your consultation, please contact Plano Smile Studio at 972.398.2550.

In reality, they can. Dental implants do a much better job of preserving neighboring biological teeth than other tooth replacement alternatives, which are primarily designed to address cosmetic rather than structural concerns.

Dallas patients quickly discover that dental implants have minimal impact on the teeth adjacent to the implant site. A fixed permanent bridge requires healthy enamel of adjoining teeth to be shaved down to accommodate crowns that hold the replacement tooth in place. Dental implants, on the other hand, anchor a prosthetic tooth with no involvement of the remaining teeth.

Furthermore, dental implants offer a layer of protection against the jawbone atrophy that plagues patients when the roots of the natural teeth are absent. In placing dental implants, Dr. John M. Hucklebridge, your implant dentist serving Dallas TX, is essentially replicating the roots of missing teeth.

In this way, dental implants help to stabilize the jaw. When missing teeth’s roots are not replaced and the jawbone is allowed to erode, that process can jeopardize the other teeth, putting the patient at risk for losing more teeth.

The structure of dental implants maintains the tooth’s chewing function, meaning that it absorbs the same forces as a natural tooth would. Those forces continue to be distributed proportionately among all of the teeth, rather than putting extra pressure on a few of them, further safeguarding a patient’s natural teeth.

Because dental implants fit into the smile like natural teeth, they can be maintained in the same fashion. There’s no need to mess with extra equipment to floss, and it’s easier to keep those replacement teeth clean and clear of bacteria that can cause periodontal disease and tooth decay.

If you’ve already lost one tooth and hope to avoid further damage to the others, ask Dr. Hucklebridge about dental implants. They may be the right solution in your case.

Before placing dental implants, however, the implant dentist must be sure that the patient is an appropriate candidate and that all conditions necessary for the implant’s success are met.

When certain conditions are present in the mouth, additional treatment may be needed prior to implant placement. In particular, receding gums, which occur when the tissue moves toward the tooth’s root, may be cause for concern to your Plano implant dentist.

At a certain point, the gums will recede so much that the underlying bone begins to show through. In these cases, the titanium screw that is the dental implant may be visible, too, undermining the goal of a tooth replacement method that results in a re-creation of the natural tooth.

Additionally, gum recession can eventually lead to bone loss when left untreated. This could cause implant failure.

Fortunately, receding gums can be treated. A surgical procedure commonly known as a gum graft can correct this condition. In performing a gum graft, the oral surgeon removes a piece of soft tissue from the roof of the mouth and transplants it into the site of recession. Abnormally thin gums may also need to be grafted to ensure that the implant is not visible through the gum, even if the gum line is in the proper position.

If you’ve had an intervention to reverse gum recession, it’s important to take steps to prevent the condition from recurring after the implants have been placed. Maintain a good oral hygiene routine, keep your semiannual dentist appointments and quit smoking to increase your chances of implant success.

Patients who have noticed that their gums are receding should inform the implant dentist in advance of implant placement to determine the best course of action.

For more information and to schedule a consultation, please contact Plano Smile Studio at 972-398-2550.

Tooth loss and the introduction of dental implants may be the best example of these advancements. In most cases, dental implants have surpassed traditional dentures, bridges, and partials as the recommended method of tooth replacement. Your dentist may recommend dental implants in Plano if you are missing one or more natural teeth and are healthy enough to undergo minimally invasive surgery.

For patients who missing all of the upper or lower teeth, or those patients who are unhappy with their existing denture, adding dental implants can be life-changing.

Your implant dentist may recommend using dental implants to stabilize your denture and preserve your bone structure. By anchoring your denture to the jaw bone, a stable foundation for biting, chewing, and speaking can be achieved. This new foundation is strong enough to endure the forces of chewing without the risk of irritation to the soft tissues of the gums. Patients who choose the implant-retained denture also enjoy the relief of knowing that there is never a need for denture glues and adhesives. The denture will never slip out of place or shift uncomfortably.

Bone loss, the unfortunate side effect of tooth loss, can also be addressed with the addition of dental implants. Since traditional dentures are designed to rest on top of the gum tissue, the underlying bone does not receive the appropriate stimulation and the bone begins to deteriorate. This deterioration affects the fit of the denture as well as the shape of the face and mouth. Dental implants are designed to actually bond, or integrate, with the bone. This relationship provides the stimulation necessary to prevent future bone loss.

Using dental implants to retain dentures has increased the level of comfort and satisfaction for millions of patients with missing teeth. If you are no longer satisfied with the limitations of traditional dentures, schedule your consultation with Dr. John M. Hucklebridge to discuss the beauty of implant-retained dentures today.

The most common cause of intrinsic tooth discoloration is exposure to the antibiotic tetracycline during tooth development. Children who were exposed to the antibiotic tetracycline while the permanent teeth were developing can typically be identified by the appearance of bluish-gray tinted enamel.

Another common cause of intrinsic tooth discoloration is trauma or injury. When the nerve of the tooth is damaged as a result of an injury, the shade of the tooth can often become dark gray or brown. This type of injury may not result in tooth loss, but the resulting shade of the tooth is generally a source of concern for most patients.

Fortunately, there are a variety of options for improving the appearance of intrinsically stained teeth. your cosmetic dentist may recommend teeth whitening as a conservative solution. Using a concentrated, professional-strength whitening solution, enamel can be lightened to a more natural shade. Professional whitening allows your cosmetic dentist to focus the whitening efforts on the affected teeth to achieve the most natural results. Teeth whitening is safe and effective, bleaching away the impurities that cause discoloration, while preserving the integrity of the enamel.

To address tooth discoloration that is difficult or impossible to remove, your cosmetic dentist may suggest porcelain veneers. Veneers are a beautiful solution for concealing stain that could not otherwise be removed. Following a minimal amount of preparation, the veneers are permanently bonded to the front surfaces of the front teeth, and shaded to blend naturally with the adjacent teeth. Since veneers are customized for each patient, they present the opportunity to change other esthetic details such as the shape, size, and position of the affected teeth.

To learn more about how cosmetic dental solutions can be used to improve the appearance of your smile, call Plano Smile Studio for your appointment today.

By discussing your daily homecare habits with Dr. John M. Hucklebridge, your Plano TX dentist, it is possible to identify the condition and seek the appropriate treatment.

Dry mouth, or xerostomia, is a decrease in the average amount of saliva present in the mouth. Saliva is the body’s natural defense against the acids that cause tooth decay. When the mouth is exceptionally dry, the increased risk for tooth decay can be significant.

Patients who notice that the mouth tends to be dry may find themselves frequently reaching for a drink during the day, waking up for a drink during the night, or sucking on mints and candies constantly. These patients may also notice that the gums tend to be inflamed, leading to bleeding during brushing and flossing.

Some common causes of dry mouth include:

• Medications. Allergy medications, sleeping aids, pain relievers and other medications can cause a significant degree of xerostomia. Hundreds of these medications list dry mouth as a possible side effect, and millions of patients require these medications on a long-term basis.
• Mouthbreathing. Sleeping with the mouth open or snoring can lead to severe irritation of the soft tissues of the mouth. Your dentist may detect inflammation, bleeding, or redness of the gum tissue surrounding the front teeth as an indicator to your condition.
• Health conditions. Sjogren’s syndrome, diabetes, and Parkinson’s disease are among a number of health conditions known to contribute to dry mouth symptoms.
• Cancer treatments. Radiation therapy to the head or neck and chemotherapy can severely affect the availability of saliva. These treatments can cause damage to the salivary glands, decreasing the quality and quantity of the saliva.

After identifying xerostomia, your dentist may advise you to drink as much water as possible, while avoiding juices, soft drinks, and candy. More frequent brushing and flossing may be helpful, as well as prescription and over the counter saliva substitutes.

For your health, don’t ignore your dry mouth symptoms. To learn more about xerostomia, call the office of Dr. Hucklebridge at 972-398-2550 and schedule your appointment today.