Tooth Whitening

Tooth whitening is a great way of giving your smile a boost, erasing stains caused by tea, coffee, red wine and smoking and helping you to look younger by making your teeth look whiter and brighter. At Redcliffe Dental Practice, we offer the Zoom! Advanced Power™ in-practice procedure, where your teeth are whitened by an average of eight shades in less than an hour using whitening gel with state-of-the-art light technology. This procedure is one of the latest on the market, and is fast, gentle and very effective.

Bonding
Bonding is used as a relatively simple method of disguising small defects such as chipped or crooked teeth or gaps between teeth.

This involves preparing your teeth with an etching solution, and applying special composite resin materials – very similar to those used for white fillings – to your teeth. We shape the resin to give a natural appearance and bond it into place, leaving you with a new improved smile. Because the procedure involves very little preparation, it does not usually need a local anaesthetic.

Veneers

Veneers Before	Veneers After
This patient has had veneers fitted on their top six teeth, making a huge difference to their smile

Veneers offer a great way of transforming your smile with just one treatment. They are very thin porcelain veneers which are specially adhered to the front of your teeth. Because they cover the whole front surface, they can hide many imperfections, from discoloured, chipped or cracked teeth through to
crooked ones.

The procedure involves preparing your teeth by shaping them and taking a thin layer ( – 1 mm) of enamel from the surface so they don’t look or feel bulky once the veneers are in place.

We take an impression, or mould, of the area, which is then sent to our dental laboratory so the veneers fit well and look and feel natural.

Once ready, the veneers are bonded into place, becoming virtually part of your own teeth and giving you a beautiful, natural-looking smile.

Fillings
Fillings are one of the most basic methods of restoring teeth. They do exactly what their name suggests – they fill a hole in the tooth that has been caused by decay, playing an important role in helping us to keep a tooth for many
more years.

At Redcliffe Dental Practice, we use the most effective, modern, tooth-coloured materials. Unlike the more traditional grey amalgam fillings, the tooth-coloured ones look very natural, so no-one will be able to tell you have them.

We will usually numb the tooth with our WAND system, which delivers anaesthetic in a precise, pain-free manner, and numbs only the area around your teeth rather than a large section of your mouth, making the procedure much more comfortable for you.

When the decay has been removed, the tooth will be filled. For tooth coloured fillings, the material is placed into the hole in layers, with a special light being shone on each layer to speed up the setting process.

We will then shape the filling, so that it looks as realistic as possible, and so it does not interfere with the way your teeth meet when you bite and chew.

Root Canal Treatment
We usually recommend root canal treatment when the pulp of the tooth becomes infected, either through decay or injury. The pulp is the soft bit inside the tooth, and runs right through the root, carrying the nerve supply and nutrients. When it becomes infected, that infection can spread throughout the root canal system of the tooth, and can cause an abscess which is usually extremely painful.

If left untreated the infection can lead to damage around the bone of the tooth, and the tooth is likely to have to be removed.

Root canal treatment can be quite lengthy – because the area we are treating is so small, it takes a great deal of skill and patience. This, combined with the need to let the infected tooth settle down before we complete the treatment, means you are likely to need two or three appointments with us.

During the first visit we will need to remove the infected pulp. We numb the tooth and the surrounding area first so that you do not feel any pain, and then use special tiny tools to take the pulp away. We also shape the root canal so it is easier to fill.

The tooth will need to settle down, so we will give it a temporary filling. Sometimes this filling will include medication to help to destroy any germs and prevent further infection.

On your next visit we will examine the tooth to ensure that the infection has cleared properly, and will replace the temporary filling with a permanent one. Sometimes a filling will be all you will need, but often the root canal treatment weakens the tooth and it will need strengthening with a crown.

Crowns

Crowns Before	Crowns After
Crowns Before	Crowns After
Crowns can make a noticeable difference to your smile

A dental crown fits over the remaining part of a tooth, helping to strengthen it and making it look like a whole, natural tooth once more.

There are a number of reasons why we may recommend them. Your tooth may be very decayed and not strong enough to be filled any more, the top part of the tooth may have been accidentally damaged, or you may need one following root canal treatment. Crowns are also sometimes needed to help support a dental bridge.

At Redcliffe Dental Practice, we can create a crown for you in just one visit, with no impressions needed, no temporary crowns and no return visits.

The procedure is very simple. First we prepare the tooth or teeth, removing decay and other damaged areas. We then paint a thin layer of reflective powder on the tooth, which enables a special camera to scan it, creating a detailed 3D computerized image.

With the help of special software, we then design and produce your new look tooth, often while you watch.

The material used is natural-looking ceramic, which is strong, long lasting and virtually indistinguishable from your natural teeth.

Bridges

Bridges Before	Bridges After
Like crowns, these are long lasting and very realistic

Bridges are a permanent and realistic looking way of filling a gap between teeth caused by one or more missing teeth.

A bridge is a false tooth which is held in place by the teeth next to it. It is usually made of a precious metal base such as gold, with tooth coloured porcelain bonded to any visible areas to make it look natural.

Most often, the two neighbouring teeth – one on each side – will need to have crowns fixed onto them. The two crowns are then joined together by placing the false tooth between them and cementing them in place. This is known as a
fixed bridge.

Creating a fixed bridge is usually a good option if the teeth either side are strong enough to support the bridge, but are already crowned or have had large fillings.

Sometimes adhesive bridges can be constructed. These have a lot less impact on the neighbouring teeth because the latest bonding techniques are used to hold the false tooth in place.

Dentures
Denture wearing is no longer the ordeal it used to be. Modern techniques mean they fit far better than they used to, and look far more realistic too. They are ideally suited to people with a number of missing teeth, or perhaps those on a limited budget. Our choice of dentures now includes the latest flexible and more natural-looking Valplast system. These new plastic dentures are strong, lightweight, practically invisible and completely eliminate the need for unsightly metal clasps.

Patients with a number of missing teeth which cannot be replaced in any other way can opt to have dental implants to hold them in place. This makes the dentures far more secure, and makes it easier to eat and speak with them
in place.

Even if you have lost all your teeth, you will still need to visit us regularly to ensure that your dentures still fit properly, and also so we can check for signs of oral disease, including mouth cancer. You also still need to care for your mouth, brushing your gums, tongue and palate daily as well as cleaning your
dentures thoroughly.

Implants
Click here to see information on this specialist treatment.

Tooth Extractions
Many people have to have a tooth removed at some time in their lives. This can be for a number of reasons. Some people have overcrowded mouths, and have some teeth removed as part of their orthodontic (teeth straightening) treatment. Sometimes teeth become too badly decayed or damaged to be repaired, and need to be extracted. Gum disease can, in its later stages, cause teeth to become so loose that they have to be taken out. And some people have to have their wisdom teeth removed, usually because they are growing in the wrong direction and are causing problems.

The procedure for removing a tooth is relatively simple from a patient’s perspective. We will numb your tooth and the surrounding area with local anaesthetic, so you won’t feel any pain. We will then hold the tooth firmly, and will ease it out. There will be some bleeding, but we will place a gauze pad in the tooth socket to help stop the bleeding. We will generally ask you to bite gently on this padding for about half an hour, after which you can take it out and throw it away.

Mouthguards
Mouthguards are an essential part of a sports kit these days, both for children and adults, particularly for contact sports such as rugby, boxing and martial arts, and those involving moving objects such as hockey, lacrosse and cricket.

We can provide custom-made mouthguards which fit comfortably and snugly, offering the maximum possible protection for your teeth.

We also offer routine dental examinations and hygienist appointments.