Here’s another more obvious example. You can see a dark ’shadow’ inside the tooth below. But look at the grooves. There’s not even any obvious staining! Wait until you see how large THIS cavity was!
Here’s a photo of the teeth in the previous blog. These teeth have staining in the grooves, and there is a cavity present. The smallest portion of the cavity is what you see on the surface. The actual cavity travels fairly deep within the structure of these teeth.
Deep grooves in the biting surface of teeth make it almost impossible to keep these areas bacteria free. The bacteria settles into the deepest portion of these fissures and begins to work. It often takes YEARS, but eventually a cavity forms. Here’s a mold of someone’s teeth who has VERY deep grooves. There was simply no way for her to prevent these teeth from getting cavities.
A new high-tech means of detecting these cavities is now available, called the Diagnodent. Click here for a quick look at my web page describing it.
Basically, it uses a laser to determine the density of the INSIDE of the tooth. Since these cavities can’t be seen, and often are not visible on an x-ray, this has become one of our first lines of defense in the new, modern battle with tooth decay.
In the past, as the cavity got larger, it worked it’s way further into the tooth. But as I mentioned before, the largest portion of the cavity remained on the outside of the tooth. As it grew, this would be easily seen by the dentist. He could then take the proper course of action to stop this destructive process, usually with a silver filling.
With the advances we’ve had in dentistry you would think that tooth decay was a thing of the past. Not so fast! Certainly there is less of it than we had a generation ago, but the type of decay, or cavities, that we see now has changed. In the past, a cavity started on the outside surface of the tooth, called the enamel.
As the cavity worked its way into the tooth the largest portion remained toward the outside of the tooth.
The healing cap you see in the previous photo is removed and an impression, or mold is taken. The healing cap is then replaced. A custom post, called an abutment, is made. This fits the implant and surrounding gum tissue. Then a crown is made to fit over the abutment.
After placing the post (called an abutment) and the crown, this is the final result. Look how the crown comes out of the gum tissue like a real tooth. The patient was really excited about the new tooth, and you can see why!
Along with Windows Vista, Microsoft is launching the release of Office 07. Many of us use some of the features of Office including Word, Excel and others. As an alternative, Google has its’ own version. Google’s are all easily sent through e-mail and can be worked online with someone else. Does Microsoft have something to worry about?? Try it here.
Although this doesn’t really apply to a dental office, I thought I’d post about this because it will affect almost all of us. As you know, Microsoft is making a HUGE push to get everyone over to their new Vista software. Here’s a wonderful site that talks about Family Discounts for Vista upgrades. Many people are running more than one computer at home, and likely are using Windows XP. Read about buying multiple copies of Vista….it could save you some money!
