Frequently Asked Questions
Dental assessments provide your dental practitioner with an opportunity to clean your teeth and detect problems as early as possible. A simple filling at the right time or identifying a cavity early could spare you from needing a root canal or tooth extraction later down the track.
We recommend for patients to receive a dental assessment on a regular six monthly basis. This ensures that you receive a professional clean to effectively remove plaque build-up so that oral hygiene is maintained. It also gives our dentists more time to identify any problems before they escalate into bigger issues.
A typical dental appointment involves a careful inspection of your mouth, teeth, gums and oral tissue. Your dentist will be looking for any signs of tooth decay and cavities, loose or broken teeth, damaged tooth fillings or gum disease. This is why a regular dental visit is a necessary part of preventive dental care coupled with flossing, brushing and a healthy diet.
Please visit our services page for further information.
This is a good question, which we hear daily. The brand of the toothbrush is not nearly as critical as the type of bristle, the size and shape of the head and how frequently you replace your brush.
- We recommend a soft bristled brush with a small head. The soft bristles are most important for the health of your gums. A small head allows you to get around each tooth more completely and is less likely to injure your gums.Daily frequency of brushing and replacement with a new brush are much more important issues than the brand you choose.
- We recommend replacing your brush at least once a month.
- My employees and I all brush, on average, 3 times a day. We brush first thing in the morning, after each meal and at the end of the day. If you are not able to do this because of your busy schedule, we recommend brushing twice a day.
General dentistry focuses on maintaining or restoring your oral hygiene through prevention, diagnosis and treating oral diseases.
Cosmetic treatments focus solely on the appearance of your teeth and smile.
Chipped, cracked or discoloured teeth, bleeding gums, bad breath and tooth or jaw pain are all indicators of unhealthy teeth. We highly recommend you arrange a dental assessment with us so we can address the cause.
Silver amalgam fillings, which are composed of 50% mercury and 50% silver alloy, eventually need to be replaced. It may surprise you to know that the average life span of a silver filling is twelve years. Your dentist can tell you when they appear to NEED to be replaced due to leakage, breakdown or recurrent decay. If your concern is strictly COSMETIC, there are many new methods available to replace the fillings with beautiful, functional long lasting restorations. Such things as white filling materials (composites), porcelain inlays, crowns and veneers may be used to give you the smile you are seeking.
A composite veneer is a dental restoration added to the front of your tooth to reshape ot correct discolouration, misalignment, chips or cracks. Unlike porcelain veneers, which are single-crafted veneers that is bonded to your tooth, composite veneers are added to the tooth in layers. Each layer is hardened with light before the next is applied. When the final shape and colour is achieved, the veneers are polished to give a natural look. They are less expensive that porcelain veneers or crowns and can be applied in one visit.
Porcelain veneers are thin shells of tooth-coloured material that are bonded to the front surface of your teeth. They are made if a translucent porcelain material and are a great way to improve the look, shape and colour of your teeth. They are an alternative to composite veneers that are stronger and will wear better.
Inlays, onlays and overlays are types of restorative prosthesis that fall somewhere between fillings and dental crowns. In other words these microdentures are used to restore cavities that are too large for fillings but can be managed without installing crowns. This is a conservative treatment and preferred over crowns as they help to preserve more of the natural tooth structure.
A crown is a cap, commonly made from porcelain or ceramic, which is used to rebuild and strengthen a weak or broken tooth. Crowns can also be used to improve your smile by changing the shape and colour of your existing teeth. Crowns are commonly used to replace a piece of tooth that has chipped off, recreating the aesthetics of a complete tooth.
You are correct. There are many products and techniques available. Some work great and some don’t work at all. The various over the counter products give the least predictable results and may cause increased sensitivity due to the abrasive ingredients in the product. To get a really great result you should probably use one of the products sold through dental practices which utilize custom made trays for home application of a bleaching gel. We recommend a carbamide peroxidebased gel such as Polanight whitening gel. Besides giving a great result, this product has overcome the sensitivity problem seen with some of the other products . For more instant results, we would advise you to have an “insurgery” treatment first at the practice and this comes with the free trays and gels that you can continue to use at home. Or you can just purchase the trays and gels purely for home treatment. Please speak to our helpful receptionists for further information and appointments
We accept all health funds at our practice. However we are preferred providers for HBF, HCF and NIB which means that our dental practice may allow its health fund members to access exclusive benefits dependant on your level of cover.
We offer a variety of payment options to pay for your dental treatment including cash, EFTPOS and cheques. We also offer the option of payment plans through Afterpay and ZipPay.
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