Dental whitening

There are, nowadays, several dental whitening techniques. After having used them all (including those using light as UVA and LASER in order to accelerate the process), we reached the conclusion that the technique we are using is the one providing the best results. Although the LASER technique is more rapid, it does not produce more whitening. It has instead important side effects, as the dreaded dental sensitivity, which we completely eliminated.

This is the way we do the whitening at Omega Clinic:

First, the dentist will thoroughly examine the patient, in order to detect any dental problem: cavities, fissures or any defective treatments. A dental cleaning is always done before the whitening procedure.
The following step is the taking impressions of the teeth which will be used to reproduce them in a plaster cast.



After this model a couple of fine plastic trays are made, which must perfectly fit the teeth to be whitened. The correct manufacturing of the trays is essential for a good result.



Once the trays ready, we proceed to do the whitening session at the clinic. This is the phase controlled by the dentist, in which the trays filled with a concentrated whitening gel is applied after the gums are carefully protected. This is important if one is to avoid damaging of the soft tissues and the consequent pain. The application lasts about 30 minutes and a whitening effect is obvious immediately after.
A whitening kit containing a less concentrated gel is handed out to the patient afterwards, to be applied at home, together with the corresponding written instructions.
A few days of treatment (a couple of hours daily while reading a magazine, watching TV or sleeping) will obtain spectacular results. And with no dental sensitivity afterwards.





Our technique uses more time but obtains excellent results, which are more persistent and without side effects. The patient can keep the trays and repeat the treatment later at a lower cost. In this way this technique assures long-term persistence of the whitening effect. Obviously, the result is more or less stable depending upon the tooth staining type of substances one consumes: coffee, tee or tobacco.

Before:


After:

Afraid of needles?

Piercing of the tongue and lips is frequently found in younger patients visiting the dentist’s office. Fashion vanquishes anything, even the natural fear towards the penetration of one’s soft tissues with sharp objects of considerable diameter.





Strangely enough, many of these patients still complain about being afraid of medical needles or of being pricked by them when anaesthesia is performed, and visit the dentist only when forced by an emergency situation.
It is important to underscore that many times the emergency situation is created precisely by the presence of the piercing.
Frequently enough, we see damage inflicted by the constant trauma produced by the piercing’s labial or lingual ball upon the teeth. Bone tissue and gum tissue loss are frequent around the teeth’s roots (especially seen at the level of the front lower teeth).
In this picture one can see how the root of an inferior incisor tooth has been uncovered and appears bared and surrounded by a painful inflammatory tissue, a situation difficult to correct.





We therefore want to send a warning against piercing, which can produce permanent damage leading even to the premature loss of one of several otherwise healthy teeth.

Complete dentures

Full dentures are still a good option for a significant group of patients. It is an affordable solution for those who have lost not only all teeth, but also bony mass which once acted as a support for lips and cheeks.

Lack of teeth leads to progressive loss of maxillary and mandibular bone, and this gives an aged look to the patient’s face, independently of his or her age.



Patients unable to afford a complete rehabilitation with implants can benefit of highly aesthetic complete dentures. Designed with functional as well as aesthetic criteria, they can recover the vitality and freshness of the facial expression. The complete denture must be designed in accordance with the facial characteristics of each particular patient.

And who can say, once all functional and aesthetic criteria taken into account, that the user of a complete denture hasn’t a wonderful smile?

The rubber dam

At Omega Clinic we use on a daily base the so called “rubber dam”. Most of our new patients don’t know about it, in spite the fact that its use is mandatory in dentistry.
Its function is to insulate the teeth being treated from the surrounding oral environment – saliva, tongue, cheek. In this way it provides a comfortable and above all dry work field, without the moist that could jeopardize the treatment.

Although nowadays no self demanding dentist can renounce using it, the rubber dam is not new: it was invented in 1864 by New York dentist Dr. Sandford C Barnum.
It consists of a thin sheet of latex (vinyl in latex allergy cases) fixed around one or several teeth by clamps. It’s placement takes a few minutes.

Why is the use of a rubber dam so important? Two examples:

Fillings: The use of the rubber dam is essential in order to avoid the failing of the aesthetic composite fillings, as the composite layer technique requires an environment free of moist, hard to obtain in any other way.



Root canal treatment: Without the rubber dam, the saliva contaminates the dental canal system and the treatment almost certainly fails.
As a plus, the rubber dam avoids potentially serious accidents as the swallowing or even worse, lung aspiration of the tiny instruments used during the treatment.
Using the rubber dam also avoids the nasty sensation of liquid accumulating at the back of the throat, and the constant need to swallow. The patient feels much more relaxed and secure.

In short, the rubber dam is the ideal complement if one wants to achieve excellence in ones treatments and to keep the patient safe from potentially serious accidents.
It’s understandable many of our patients’ reaction: “What a big idea! Is it something new?
Well, as new as the washing machine (XIX century), and I would say at least as useful!

The video will help you to better understand it’s use and it’s function.

Inflammatory dental cyst

Often enough, after a routine radiographic check-up we find an inflammatory lesion called a “cyst” or a “granuloma” surrounding one or several teeth. The cyst slowly destroys the bone in the vicinity of the tooth’s roots. The patient seldom feels any pain, but if let untreated, the cyst keeps growing slowly and leads to abscesses (big collections of infected pus) or fistulae (abnormal opening ways through which the pus discharges into the mouth causing foul taste and breath). These openings are sometimes seen as little lumps over the gum at the level of the tooth’s root.



In Magdalena’s case we found such a cyst without her knowing anything about its existence. She told us though that for many years she visited many dental offices and had many treatments but nobody ever told her that she had a cyst, which doubtlessly has been evolving for a long time.
In the radiography the cyst appears as a darker spot surrounding the dental root’s points. We drew its outline in the right image as to help you spotting it better. Click on the image to expand it.



What is the treatment? As the cause is the infection of the dental pulp (“nerve”) all along the canal system of the tooth’s root, the treatment is what we call Root Canal Treatment. In the image we can see the result as a whiter filling within the canals.

After finishing the Root Canal Treatment, we take a final control radiography as to be able to radiographically follow the healing of the cyst at the future check-ups. The cyst should disappear and be replaced by healthy bone.
Here you can see the three months check-up radiography (to the right) compared whit the control (immediately after) one (to the left). An obvious improvement is seen in this short span of time, taking into account that complete healing requires at least 6 months, as the bone formation is a slow process.




Again, the outline will help you to appreciate the decrease in the cyst’s dimensions. We can conclude that the treatment is giving good results. We make sure in this way that the cyst is completely disappearing and the healing is complete.



See also What is Root Canal Treatment?