The Secret to Keeping Your Teeth
"The Pyramid of No Dental Problems" is the roadmap we use to help our patients keep their teeth. It also does more. It helps them avoid dental problems.
The Pyramid has five levels.
Each level is a category of health.
The healthier you are in each category, the more problems you avoid!
#1
It all starts here: Healthy Gums
The old adage "Only brush the teeth you want to keep" is true. Especially when it comes to the gums. If the gums aren't healthy, you are going to lose your teeth. No matter how well you are doing in the rest of the pyramid.
#2
Free from Chemical Breakdown: No Cavities, No Erosion
Teeth are strong. But they do have one weakness: acid. Acids in the mouth vary in strength as well as their source. Acid can come from bacteria. Acid can come from food. Acid can even come from our own bodies. Without the chance to remineralize, the tooth can and will start to dissolve. If acid is not kept in check, the acid wins. And the teeth lose.
#3a
Free from Mechanical Breakdown:
A Balanced Bite
If the top teeth don't line up well with the bottom teeth, the bite is un-balanced. This can cause the teeth to wear down. Teeth can also crack and break. They can also become loose or move. Other problems include jaw pain, headaches, and fatigue. Each of these can be annoying at the least, and debilitating in the worst cases. The solution is to balance the bite. Teeth that line up last longer.
#3b
Free from Mechanical Breakdown:
Avoiding Dental Overtreatment
This one may surprise you to see on the web page of a dentist, but dentists are not excluded from the list of things that take away teeth and/or tooth structure. In fact it could be argued that in developed societies, nothing does it faster or as much. While many in the profession try hard to preserve tooth structure, there are several pressures put on dentists to remove more tooth structure (and sometimes even more teeth) than is necessary. The more tooth structure that is removed, the worse off the tooth becomes. The chances of needing more extensive (and expensive) dental treatment increases more and more rapidly until the tooth is lost or deemed non-restorable. This cycle is what we call the "Tooth Cycle of Death" and it is something that we try very hard to avoid.
#4
Optimal Restorations: Biomimetic Dentistry
Traditional dentistry taught us how to either fill in or cover over a problem with the tooth - but we never fixed the tooth. Now with modern materials and advanced techniques (called Biomimetic Dentistry) , all of that has changed. We are able to not only restore a tooth back to its original properties, we can include additional protections for the tooth - making it even less likely to have problems in the future. Dr O'Berry learned these techniques in 2008 and one of the first things he noticed was that the number of patients who needed root canals or had problems with the teeth he worked on, dropped to almost zero. The hope and promise of Biomimetic Dentistry is to stop the "Tooth Cycle of Death" so that once a tooth is restored, the remaining tooth structure is preserved for as long as possible.
#5
Cosmetic
If after everything else is taken care of and you still don't like the way your teeth look, then there are some really fun things that we can do to make it so that the appearance of your teeth aren't a problem for you. In fact we can even make it so that the appearance of your teeth makes your life better. Studies show that people with nicer looking teeth are hired faster and earn more money. We could go on and on about the advantages of nice looking teeth - but just know it can and does make a difference. So if the appearance of your teeth is a concern for you, we would love to help you get the smile you want and the confidence you deserve.
Start living your life without tooth problems!
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