Dental Implants Preserve Your Teeth and Secure Dentures

November 15, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

Hi, I’m Dr. Antolak at thegentledentist.com. We’re in Shebly Township, Michigan, (586) 247-3500 is our phone number. What I’d like to do is talk to you a little bit about dental implants. Dental implants are an unbelievable way of preserving teeth, securing dentures, and a great way to help to give you something that you lost, namely your teeth.

I’ve been personally placing dental implants for about the last nine or ten years. Dental implants are something I knew at that point in time something that was really valuable. Patients needed to have exposure to using them, and implementing them.

So, what we did was place dental implants and restored them with crowns. We replace teeth that have been missing, lost, and if root canal teeth have failed. We take the tooth out, and put in a dental implant.

Within the last few years, mini implants have really been taken on strong. As you can see, the picture I have here, you can see the difference in the size of a traditional implant, which is on the right hand side. And then, on the left hand side, a couple of smaller size implants; those are called mini-implants.

Basically the definition of a mini-implant is three millimeters in diameter or smaller, and a standard implant is greater than three millimeters. So, you see on your left hand side, it is about five millimeters in diameter. The other two that you see, are three millimeters in diameter. You’ll notice that the tops of the ones that are three millimeters in diameter have a different attachment. So those can go into the jawbone.

Depending on the case and the situation, dentures are made to have little snaps that go inside the dentures, and they snap over the top of either one of those two mini-implants.

The benefit of the mini implant is that it’s more conservative. In other words, for patients who can’t afford the full size dental implant, or if they have more medical issues where they can’t actually go through more advanced surgeries, the mini implant is a great alternative.

By having the mini-implant, it keeps lower dentures down secure into the jaw bone. It keeps it secure over the ridge so that the teeth don’t move around. One of the biggest problems with lower dentures especially is that they move around a lot.

You can never bite down predictably with a full denture. So these mini implants being there allow you to bite down with confidence. You’re going be able to bite down a lot harder and therefore chew the foods you want to chew, not the foods you actually have to eat like the soft foods or the mushy foods. We can also do the same thing and put them on the upper dentures too, so either way they work great.

If you’re interested in having some kind of an implant to either help support your denture or missing tooth, please give us a call. Our phone # is (586) 247-3500 and our website is thegentledentist.com. Thank you, and have a blessed day.

Filed Under: Dental Implants, General Dentistry Tagged With: , ,

Silver Amalgam Fillings vs. Composite Material

November 14, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

Hi, this is Dr. Antolak from thegentledentist.com in Shelby Township, Michigan. (586) 247-3500 is our phone number. I’d like to just discuss something that’s a little bit on the controversial side of dentistry, and that is the difference between silver amalgam fillings, which contains about 50% mercury and the tooth colored composite material which are a plastic material.

Dental amalgam has been used for over the last 100 years. It is a very effective way of restoring teeth. It contains about 50% mercury, and that mercury is when it’s mixed up and then placed in the teeth. It creates an alloy, so it becomes part of an amalgamation, or an alloyed material then it hardens up. Most everybody’s who’s listening to this now has dental amalgam in their mouths. It’s been used for years very effectively.

The disadvantage of amalgam is that dental amalgam #1 contains mercury. We all know the effect that mercury has on our brains, and on the developing body. This is kind of controversial, because we know that in the Scandinavian countries, amalgam is completely banned. The American Dental Association in our country said it’s okay to use. The FDA was on the fence not knowing what to say about it. But the amazing part is, is that we are required by law that if we place dental amalgam, that the scraps that are left over have to be disposed of in a certain way. This is because they wouldn’t want it to get in our water systems. Now, does that make sense to you?

Say it’s okay to keep it in your mouths, where the mercury vapors continually are evaporating. You know the vapor state is the dangerous part, but yet they say that it’s safe there, and it’s not safe to throw away in the trash, or put in our water systems. Now, I’m not condoning putting it in our water systems, that’s pollution. We have what’s called a mercury separator in our dental office in Shelby Township, Michigan. We take any of the amalgam stuff that goes into our suction unit, and that all gets disposed of properly, like I’m describing. But I’m just saying the position doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me as far as being safe in the mouth, but yet being unsafe in other environments.

Another problem with dental amalgam is that dental amalgam does not bond teeth together. Over time, it actually starts expanding. During that expansion process, teeth will actually start to become fractured. We’ll see cracks in teeth that will take place from the dental amalgam.

On the other side is composite resin. First of all, it’s kind of the doughy material, and we can place it and bond it right onto the tooth structure. It helps to bond the weaker parts of the tooth together. Dental composite is a plastic material, so it hardens up right away with our little ultraviolet light that we use that will help to set the reaction. The thing about it, is that it helps to bond the teeth together.

Now, there are some questions about if, composite materials will, over time, reach other certain materials. The studies are a little inconclusive with that, but we believe that they’re very safe.

There’s a third option, and it’s called glass ionomer. Glass ionomer is a type of material that is a very positive material. It’s good for people who have dry mouths, and are really prone to having dental decay.

There are a number of different options out there. Unfortunately, insurance companies want to pay for the cheapest alternative. That means that dental amalgam for the back teeth, they’re gonna pay you for that, and only that.

It’s much faster of a technique. It’s much more technique sensitive. The teeth can be wet; you can still put amalgam in there. When you look at composite, or even the glass ionomer, the teeth cannot be wet. They have to be treated a certain way. The technique takes a lot longer, therefore the fee is a little higher with the composites compared to the dental amalgam.

Do you want something that has mercury in it? I don’t know, it’s your own decision. Also, the aesthetics of it is when you smile, you show a bunch of black teeth, and it doesn’t look so great. Comparing that to having the tooth colored, where people think it’s all natural; it looks natural, it looks nice, and it’s bonded together. That’s my choice. That’s what I have in my mouth. That’s what I have in my children’s mouth, and what I have in my wife’s mouth.

If there’s any questions about this, I’d be more than happy to answer them for you. My phone number is 586-247-3500, and we are the thegentledentist.com. Thank you.

Filed Under: General Dentistry Tagged With: , , ,

Tour of The Gentle Dentist’s Dental Office in Shelby Township, Michigan

October 12, 2011 by · Leave a Comment


Hi, I’m Dr. Robert Antolak at www.thegentledentist.com, located out in Shelby Township, Michigan. And I’d like to show you our dental office in Shelby Township, Michigan. So, why don’t you come on in, we’ll show you.

First thing you’re going to do when you come into the office, you’re going to see our little screen here. We have some video of things going on for dental patient education.

Come right on in here. We’ll show you. Okay. As you can see in our office, that we have a very comfortable location. When you basically come down and sit down, you’re going to  feel like you’re at home. You’re going to  feel like you’re in your own dining room or living room. And, it’ll feel very comfortable. We have, the same video going on up here. You’re welcome to some coffee, or any types of refreshments all the time. We have water and refreshments like that.

As a new dental  patient, or even when you’re coming back in on a routine basis. Since we are a paperless dental  office you’re going to have computers that you’re going to use to sign into our office. And so, when you do become a dental patient, you’re going to fill out information online, for your health history. And then when you come in we have a  tablet PC computer right here. That you are going to look in, and you are going to fill out your information and then all that information will be used, you can validate it, what you filled online, you can validate it here and then you are just going to basically sign off on what you did. We are a green office. And so that way, you can continue to, use your things and it works really well for us.

I’d like to introduce you to some of our staff and this is Pam.

Hi, my name is Pam, as doctor just said. And, I, take care of the account finances here. So if anybody needs payment arrangements, I’m the gal that you speak to. I also do doctor’s marketing for the practice. And I’m also the office manager here. Welcome to our Shelby dental office. We’d love to have you.

And right here we have Jessica.

Hello, I’m Jessica. I’m the patient coordinator, so I make appointments for you when you call, and also I am the dental hygienist, so you may see me when you come in to get a teeth cleaning. Welcome to our Shelby dental office.

That’s great. Okay, why don’t you come on in, and we’ll show you the office. We’ll give you a little tour and show you the rest of our office. Right here we have Dana.

Hi, I’m Dana. I’m the dental insurance coordinator. I will answer any insurance questions that you may have, and welcome to our Shelby dental office.

Terrific. So when you come into the dental office, you can see that we don’t have any charts, per se. Everything is on our computer and therefore, you have privacy with that. It’s also very secure, in case there’s any type of fire. If we had charts, that information would not be secure. But we have backups that we constantly do. Also, with, with the digital aspect of it. If we need to refer you to a specialist, we can just email those pictures, those x-rays, photographs, charts to an existing, referral source. And it’s safely done with HIPAA compliance.

So, when you come into the dental office you’ll see we have right here this is our consultation room that we sit down and discuss treatment plans with our dental patients. Iit’s a very comfortable area to do that. And then as we come in the back we have, before and after photos of dental patients that we have treated in the past and with those patients you can see they have the before pictures on the bottom and the after pictures on top.

So as you come in we have five treatment rooms here. There are actually three that I use, and then I have two for our hygienists so come in right here, and this is Margie. Tell us about you, Margie.

Hello. Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to the office. I’m the dental hygienist here, or I should say one of them, and this is one of our dental patients here. So welcome, and hope to see you come to our Shelby dental office soon.

Thank you very much.

You’re welcome.

Each room is set up so that we have two monitors  in each room so that way you can see patient education. And then we have, digital X-rays, and this will show our Digital paner-X, for example, this is actually my son’s picture here. And this is a digital paner-X that comes up. And we can always manipulate those images to show our patients. And, so things become relevant. And with photographs, we can also show photographs for you on the screen so you can become involved with your treatment. Exactly what I see you’re able to see and then it will make a lot more sense to you when we do present that information to you.

Okay right across the hall over here, this is our sterilization room. And, these are our two lovely dental assistant’s. And so this is Nicole.

And this is Nellie.

So what are you 2 doing?

We are just getting ready for our day to see our dental patients.

Okay. This is where we sterilize all of our instruments. We use an autoclave. She can show them that, Nicole. We have an autoclave where we sterilize all of our dental instruments, so, you can be assured of its safety and the way that it’s treated. We want to treat you like we treat one of our own family members.

Thank-you. And so we have two other additional treatment rooms here and they’re all basically set up the same so that it’s very replicable.

As we come back here I have my personal office here and this is where we manage our portable dental services, out of this one facility here.

As we continue to come back this is actually an area that we use as a business office, right here. And it’s also an area where we can discuss cases with our dental patients. As you continue to come back to our dental office this is our digital panoramic x-ray and the nice thing of that is that the x-ray that I showed you of my son. But what’s nice about this is it has a reduction of about only one fifth of the radiation that traditional film x-rays take. This is a very, very beneficial for that purpose. It takes 10 seconds and we can get a great image of your whole mouth, including your jaw joints, including your teeth, including any pathology or any problems that may developed from that. So it’s very helpful.

This is also an area that take photographs . When a patient comes in we take portrait pictures of them and they’re able to see a before and after photo looks like. This is our little video, our little dental studio here, where we take pictures. And right off from that is our restroom here.

So, we’d love to have you come into our Shelby dental office. I know that you’ll be delighted to be here. It’s very comfortable here. And we get many compliments of  not only the environment and the comfortable nature of the environment but also of our most important thing, which is our dental team So, we’d like to welcome you here, give us a call at 586-247-3500. And, we’d love to see you. Thank you. God bless.

Filed Under: General Dentistry Tagged With: , , ,
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