Our Services
Our goal at Lake Michigan Dental is to support your smile for a lifetime, from child-friendly dental hygiene and education to adult maintenance, preservation and restoration. With the advances in modern dental materials and techniques, we have more ways than ever to create natural-looking smiles and improve or prevent missing, worn, damaged or decayed teeth. Some of these treatment options include tooth-colored fillings, porcelain crowns, bridges and onlays. We offer a full range of cosmetic services as well. In our restorative and cosmetic work, several factors influence the selection of the right treatment option to support your healthy smile. Considerations include your oral health and the chewing load restorative work will bear. Our dental professionals will discuss which component materials are best suited to your particular case and what the best solutions are in terms of longevity, economy, and the number of visits required.
Select an item from our list of services to read a brief description or follow links to additional resources.
- Composite tooth colored filling
- Oral Cancer screening
- Bite Splint therapy
- Porcelain veneers
- Porcelain crowns and bridges
- Bonding
- Dentures
- Sleep Apnea Snoring Appliance
- Periodontal Therapy
- Bridges to replace missing teeth
- Whitening
- Full Cosmetic Services
Composite Tooth-Colored Fillings:
Composite fillings provide good durability and resistance to fracture in small-to-mid size restorations that need to withstand moderate chewing pressure. The material is created from a mixture of glass or quartz filler in a resin medium. Less tooth structure is removed when the dentist prepares the tooth, and this may result in a smaller filling than that of an amalgam. Composites can also be "bonded" or adhesively held in a cavity, which may allow us to make a more conservative repair to the tooth. Composite fillings take a little longer to place than amalgam, which make them a moderate cost option.
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Oral Cancer Screening:
In America, Oral Cancer kills more people each year than skin and cervical cancer combined. At Lake Michigan Dental, we perform oral cancer screening utilizing visual inspection and manual palpation. In addition we have the latest technology in oral cancer detection, the VELscope. It utilizes fluorescing light to detect oral cancer before it is a visible or palpable lesion.
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Bite Splint Therapy:
We offer different types of splint therapy for different conditions. A splint is a device used to support, protect, or immobilize oral structures that have been loosened, replanted, fractured or traumatized. It also refers to devices used in the treatment of temporomandibular joint disorders and night time grinding. Through proper evaluation and fitting, your dentist can help alleviate misalignment of your bite and subsequently correct TMJ problems.
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Porcelain Veneers:
Veneers are thin custom-made shells designed to cover the front side of teeth. Made of tooth-colored porcelain, veneers are used to treat spaces between teeth and teeth that are chipped or worn, permanently stained, poorly shaped or slightly crooked. They are usually completed over two dental appointments.
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Porcelain Crowns and Bridges:
There are two types of porcelain crowns and bridges for consideration in restorative dental work: all porcelain and porcelain fused to metal structure. Each has its advantages. The primary benefits of a porcelain crown or bridge is that the color and translucency most closely mimics natural tooth appearance and are highly resistant to wear. For people sensitive to metal, all-porcelain options are more biologically compatible. Metal understructures, however, provide a highly reliable seal. Talk to your dentist about the options that suit your needs.
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Bonding:
Bonding is also an option for patients with teeth that are chipped, broken, cracked, stained, or have spaces between them. With bonding, tooth-colored acrylic resins are applied, or bonded, to the tooth surface. Bonding is usually completed in one dental appointment. Unlike veneers, bonding needs to be periodically touched up.
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Dentures:
If you’ve lost all of your natural teeth, whether from periodontal disease, tooth decay or injury, complete dentures can replace your missing teeth and your smile. Replacing missing teeth will benefit your appearance and your health. Without support from the denture, facial muscles sag, making a person look older. There are various types of complete dentures. A conventional full denture is made and placed in the patient’s mouth after the remaining teeth are removed and tissues have healed, which may take several months. An immediate complete denture is inserted as soon as the remaining teeth are removed. The dentist takes measurements and makes models of the patient’s jaws during a preliminary visit. With immediate dentures, the denture wearer does not have to be without teeth during the healing period.
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Sleep Apnea Snoring Appliance:
In this potentially serious sleep disorder, breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep.The type that your dentist can treat is called obstructive sleep apnea, the more common form that occurs when throat muscles relax. Oral devices fitted by your dentist are designed to open your throat by bringing your jaw forward, which can sometimes relieve snoring and mild obstructive sleep apnea. You may need to try different devices before finding one that works for you. Once you find the right fit, you'll still need to follow up with your dentist at least every six months during the first year and then at least once a year after that to ensure that the fit is still good and to reassess your signs and symptoms. In cases that do not respond to these devices, patients may need to consider using a CPAP, a more cumbersome mechanical appliance used to treat more severe cases of sleep apnea.
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Periodontal Therapy:
Periodontal (Gum) disease is an infection of the tissues that support your teeth. Your gum tissue is not attached to the teeth as high as it may seem. There is a very shallow v-shaped crevice called a sulcus between the tooth and gums. Periodontal diseases attack just below the gum line in the sulcus, where they cause the attachment of the tooth and its supporting tissues to break down. As the tissues are damaged, the sulcus develops into a pocket: generally, the more severe the disease, the greater the depth of the pocket. Your dental team can reverse the risks of periodontal disease by performing deep root planing (cleaning) of the area between the pocket and the tooth roots, causing the pocket to tighten and seal against prolonged infection. Treatment of periodontal disease has been shown to reduce the risk of cardiac disease in clinical studies by decreasing the inflammation caused by bacterial infection. Periodontal therapy can also save teeth from extraction due to decay and loosening.
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Bridges to Replace Missing Teeth:
Whether you've lost teeth due to an accident or decay, there are several remedies to restore your smile and alleviate the stress in your bite that results from missing teeth. Whether permanent or removable, bridges help maintain the shape of your face, as well as alleviating the stress in your bite by replacing missing teeth. Depending on the location in your mouth and the extent of the work, the restoration can be made from gold, alloys, porcelain or a combination of these materials that is bonded onto surrounding teeth for support. Another option in some cases is an implant bridge, which attaches artificial teeth directly to the jaw or under the gum tissue. Depending on which type of bridge your dentist recommends, its success depends on its foundation. So it's very important to keep your remaining teeth healthy and strong.
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Implants to Replace Missing Teeth:
For some people, dental implants offer a smile that looks and feels very natural. Surgically placed below the gums over a series of appointments, implants fuse to the jawbone and serve as a base for individual replacement teeth, bridges or a denture. Implants offer stability because they fuse to your bone. Integration of the implants into your jaw also helps your replacement teeth feel more natural and some people also find the secure fit more comfortable than conventional substitutes. Candidates for dental implants need to have healthy gums and adequate bone to support the implant. A thorough evaluation by your dentist will help determine whether you are a good candidate for dental implants.
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Whitening:
The first step in considering whitening procedures is to discuss with our dental professionals which treatment would be effective for you. Whiteners may not correct all types of discoloration. Likewise, bleaching may not enhance your smile if you have had bonding or tooth-colored fillings placed in your front teeth that were originally matched to your existing tooth. In these cases, you may want to investigate other options, like porcelain veneers or dental bonding.
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Full Cosmetic Services:
In addition to bonding, porcelain crowns and bridges, and implants, and veneers, there are a variety of procedures available today to boost your smile to radiant confidence. For example, enamel shaping remains a popular method for modifying teeth to improve their appearance by removing or contouring enamel. The process, which often is combined with bonding, usually is quick and comfortable and the results can be seen immediately. Other options include the straightening power of Invisalign, a brand of translucent orthodontic therapy. May adults have restored years of misalignment using this custom fitted and easy-to-use product. Ask your dentist what's involved in transforming your smile!
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Additional Resources:
Some of the information supplied on this page originates from the American Dental Association, which offers an excellent resource for dental term definitions, discussions of treatment options, dental health and education information, and reports on the latest research in the dental field. For in depth public resources on these and many other dental issues and procedures, please visit: www.ada.org online. Please also discuss any questions you have about our services and treatment options during your next visit. Patient education is part of our mission at Lake Michigan Dental!
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