You say "Caps", we say "Crowns"
According to the true source of all knowledge, Google, the most searched term involving dentistry is “caps”. That is funny to us dental types because there is no such thing as a cap, other than what you wear on your head or put in your toy pistol to make a bang. On our entire website, the word does not appear, until now I suppose. Dentists talk about and make “crowns” for their patients teeth to rebuild, strengthen, and beautify them. It is one of the most frequently done procedures we do. A filling is just that. It fills a hole in a tooth caused by decay, but it does nothing to make the tooth stronger against the truly huge forces placed on the tooth when chewing and biting. A crown covers the tooth completely, in most cases today, and makes it able to bear up under those forces and restore the tooth to function as if it were new. This is especially important for a tooth which has had a root canal, as the tooth can become dry and brittle and break under stress if not protected with a crown.
Making a crown is a more complicated procedure than doing a filling, usually taking two appointments separated by several days. It costs more, too, because of the time, materials, and laboratory expenses involved in preparing the tooth, making the mold, placing the temporary, building the crown at the lab, and finally, cementing the crown on the tooth. In the past few years there has been an explosion in the number of types of crowns available, and it can be a little confusing to the patient to try to figure out what they want and what their dentist is recommending. So let me attempt to sort this out for you.
The most basic crown is an all-metal crown. It is made either of gold or of an alloy of what are called non-precious metals. This type of crown is extremely strong, works great, holds up well for decades, and is hardly ever done anymore. Why, you ask? Well, it doesn’t look like a tooth, and today the emphasis seems to be more on cosmetics than function. So, many years ago, the porcelain crown was invented to restore not only the function of the tooth, but also the look to give us the beauty of a pearly white smile. Now, here’s where it gets complicated.
Most porcelain crowns are still made today of a metal base with porcelain fused or baked over the metal to hide it and make the tooth look natural. These crowns are commonly called PVCs or PFMs. One brand using gold as the metal base is Captek.
It is strong, durable, and holds up well, but can chip and possibly show the metal underneath. This doesn’t happen very often, but it can and does happen, plus some people have allergies to the metals used. So, science comes to the rescue, and the all-porcelain crown has been developed. It has no metal whatsoever, but some of the strength and durability are reduced because the metal base is not used.
Still, there is a shift away from the use of metals to the all-porcelain crown. The new materials used include zirconia used in Lava, Brux-Zir, and some e-Max crowns, leucite used in Empress crowns, aluminum oxide used in Procera crowns, lithium disilicate used in other e-Max crowns, and polymer used in Belleglass crowns.
Wait, this is starting to sound like a chemistry class. Let’s just say that some of these new crowns are best-suited for front teeth, some for back teeth, but they all look great. Ask your dentist at any of our Southern Dental offices for more information on any of these crowns. The doctor can help you choose the best material for your particular need and budget. So, whether you call them caps or crowns doesn’t really matter because the results are the same. We want you to have the smile you’ve always wanted.
Our New Pasadena Location
There's something new in the Southern Dental system, and I want all of my readers to know about it. We have opened a brand new office to serve our great patients in the Pasadena/Deer Park/La Porte area and we are excited. Getting something new is always a pleasure, but when we can share it with our current patients and invite new people in the area to become our patients, well, it just doesn't get much better than that. We are located at 7219 Fairmont Parkway, Suite 100 in Pasadena, close to the intersection of Fairmont Parkway and Red Bluff Road. This new office is convenient to the East Sam Houston Tollway and the shops and restaurants all along Fairmont Parkway.
I visited the office a few days ago and found the access easy and the parking plentiful. For our patients from the old office, you will love these features. I took some pictures (digital, of course - see last blog entry) to show you what we have created. The warm earth tones of the interior are accompanied by warm smiles from our staff when you come by. The beiges and browns are a new color scheme for our offices and I think you will like them as much as I do. The entire staff from our previous office in Pasadena has moved into the new office and are ready to show you their hospitality. We have installed a full digital x-ray system for your convenience and our accuracy in the diagnosis of your dental condition. As always, the doctors are doing check ups, crowns, bridges, cosmetic fillings, dentures, and partials. They are treating gum disease in concert with the dental hygienist to help our patients keep their pearly-whites as long as possible. If you have a dental emergency, our doctors will make every effort to see you the same day you call. Our front office staff is dedicated to making your visit a rewarding experience from beginning to end.
All of us at Southern Dental are proud of the latest star in our galaxy, so we welcome you to come to see us at the new Pasadena office at your earliest convenience. It will be our pleasure to make you part of our Southern Dental family.
Digital Dentistry and Your Next Checkup!
The last time I blogged I asked you to remember that all parts of us are connected to each other. Now, I want to ask you to remember something else… the good old days. If you’re really young, you won’t be able to remember what I’m talking about, but you still will understand. Some of us haven’t made the switch yet, but most of us have. It requires buying new equipment, but it has eliminated many other expenses. Purists and professionals swear by the old technology, but hardly anyone else does. One huge corporation has fallen on hard times in the space of ten years due to this new development. Can you guess who this is? It’s Kodak. The topic is photography.
In the good old days, Kodak sold millions of rolls of film for our cameras. They sold cameras, too, and the paper and chemicals needed to develop and print the pictures we took. You would buy the film, load the camera, take your pictures, unload the camera, take the film to the drugstore, wait a week, then pick up your pictures. You would never know how they would turn out until you saw them. Each print cost money to produce, so sometimes you might be very careful about how many pictures you took, and possibly be disappointed when you saw how they turned out. Oops, it’s too dark or Oops, the picture is blurry or Oops, my subject’s eyes are closed. Then, you would proudly show the good ones to your family or friends in all their glorious index card size. Maybe one really good one would be worth “blowing up”, so you would take the negative back to the drugstore, etc, etc, etc, and if you wanted to send copies to Grandma, same thing. These were the good old days?
Taking a picture at the dental office, an X-ray, happens just about the same way. We have used special film that is sensitive to the X-rays that is developed using chemicals in a film processor. The resulting pictures are good, but quite small, cannot be seen until developed, cannot be sent to another doctor or insurance company without making copies, and cost money for each picture taken. Until recently, that is. The same digital revolution in photography has happened to dental X-rays or radiography. The world is going digital, and Southern Dental is going digital, too.
Three of our offices, Spring Branch, Deerbrook, and our new Pasadena location are using digital X-rays. The remaining offices will be equipped with digital soon, phasing in the new technology over the next two years. The advantages of digital over conventional are many. The amount of radiation used is reduced by as much as 90%, the picture is available immediately, and it can be viewed on a computer monitor much larger than any regular film to allow a more detailed image for the doctor to read. Digital X-rays can be copied and e-mailed to other doctors and insurance companies in seconds.
So, we welcome you to our offices for a check-up. We will take your picture, well at least we’ll take pictures of your teeth. These will be digital pictures at Spring Branch, Deerbrook, and Pasadena, with our other offices to follow in the future. These are exciting times for dentistry. Even more is coming. Stay tuned.
Teeth and Gums Connected to the rest of your body!
I have a news flash for all my interested readers. Your teeth and gums are connected to the rest of your body! Of course, we all know this, but as I look through my dental journals and web articles, the ways our dental health can affect other systems in our bodies is BIG. It all seems to do with inflammation, the way the body responds to harmful irritants. You know, redness, soreness, swelling, and sometimes fever. There is a lot of research going on these days looking for evidence of this connection between inflamed gums and a variety of other diseases. The results are showing that if we keep our gums healthy we can also help to keep the rest of us healthy, too. Let me give you just a few examples and I’m sure you will be phoning Southern Dental for a cleaning appointment right away.
Researchers have found that people with gum disease are almost twice as likely to suffer from coronary artery disease, which can lead to heart attacks and strokes. Diabetic patients are more likely to develop gum disease, which in turn can increase blood sugar and diabetic complications. This suggests that treating gum inflammation can improve the management of diabetes.
The development of certain cancers, including pancreatic, lung, kidney, and prostate may be more likely in people with gum disease. More research needs to be done here, but the risk factor seems to go up due to inflammation.
At Southern Dental, we are serious about treating gum disease. In its early phase, it may only be gingivitis, and the treatment usually is limited to a cleaning or prophylaxis which we call a prophy. If the condition is more advanced it is called periodontitis, and the treatment will probably include our Soft Tissue Management (STM) program. This is a multi-step course of cleanings that is a non-surgical treatment designed to clean the teeth and root surfaces, removing plaque and tartar which contain millions of bacteria, the cause of gum inflammation. We also want to help you help yourself with your home care, since it’s not just what we do for you in the office that counts, but what you do for yourself at home, too.
So, if your gums are sore or puffy or bleed when you brush your teeth, you might be putting the rest of you at risk for even more serious problems. The dentists and hygienists at our offices will be happy to explain your gum condition with you when you come in for a check-up. Remember, it’s all connected. “Your gum bone connected to your heart bone“…OK, enough.
Blog
Hi and welcome to the Southern Dental blog. In the coming weeks I hope to make this blog interesting and fun to read, something that can entertain and inform my readers about Southern Dental, the wide world of teeth, and how dentistry is evolving in the 21st century. As for now, let me get this part over with…Brush and floss only the teeth you plan to keep, smile and the whole world smiles with you, visit your neighborhood Southern Dental office at least every six months, eat and drink healthy. That concludes the lesson of the day.
If you have looked at other parts of our website, you know that Southern Dental has been providing affordable dental care in Houston for a long time. We try our best to make you feel comfortable and that we care about you. If you have never been to one of our nine offices, please come by and give us a chance to share our friendship with you. Life is much better when you feel good about yourself. You should feel like smiling and I invite you to come and see our smiles. We will be happy to see you.
More later.
