Restoring Function
At Fleetwood Dental, Dr. Michelle M. Lee and our staff are pleased to be able to offer dental services to every age group and every member of your family. Helping you achieve a great smile and protecting your overall oral health is important in our practice. Our doctors and team are always available to answer questions about your dental needs and the services we can provide for your ideal treatment. We offer a wide range of services to meet the needs of your entire family.
Explore our services:
Implants
Dental implants replace teeth that have been missing since birth or have been lost due to gum disease, infection, trauma, or decay. Implants are surgically attached to the jawbone and become a permanent part of your mouth. With implants, patients no longer experience the slipping, moving, and irritation of dentures. Dental implants look, feel, and function like natural teeth; providing you once again with the comforts and confidence that accompanies a beautiful smile. Fleetwood Dental can provide the convenience to our patients by having the expertise to complete a full implant restoration from beginning to end.
Implant-supported Dentures
Implant-supported dentures is a teeth replacement solution that utilizes implants to anchor down a Denture. Implant-supported dentures are typically used for the lower jaw because regular dentures tend to be less secure there. This procedure is excellent for patients that don’t have any teeth, but strong enough bone in the jaw to support implants. An implant-Retained denture has special attachments that snap onto attachments on the implants, reinforcing its placement in the mouth.
Full & Partial Dentures
Periodontal disease, injury and tooth decay can all cause a loss of your natural teeth. However, we can bring back the smile on your face with dentures to restore your missing teeth. Backed by decades of technological innovation and updated materials, dentists can now make them appear more natural and more comfortable for the patient.
It may take some time to adjust to your dentures. Speaking and eating may feel different at first, but these regular activities will resume normally once you are accustomed to your dentures.
Types
- Complete: cover the patient’s entire jaw
- Partial: replace multiple missing teeth with metal framework
Crowns & Bridges
Porcelain Crowns
A crown is a custom-made covering that fits over an original tooth that is either decayed, damaged or cracked. Crowns are made of a variety of different materials such as porcelain, gold, or an “all-ceramic” resin that mimics the color of a natural tooth. Porcelain generally has the most natural appearance, although it is often less durable.
The treatment plan for a patient receiving a crown involves:
- Numbing the tooth to remove the decay in or around it.
- Re-sculpturing the tooth to provide an ideal fit for the crown.
- Making an impression of your teeth in order to create a custom-made crown (usually takes one to two weeks).
- Making a temporary crown out of acrylic resin and fitting it onto the tooth during the interim period when the custom-made crown is being created.
- Applying the custom-made crown (when received from the lab) by removing the temporary crown and fitting the custom-made one onto the tooth.
- After ensuring that the crown has the proper look and fit, the dentist cements it into place.
This process generally consists of a minimum of two to three visits over a three to four week period. Once the procedure is completed, proper dental hygiene, including daily brushing and flossing, is required to maintain healthy, bacteria-free teeth, gums and crowns. This helps in the prevention of gum disease. Given proper care, your crowns can last a lifetime.
Porcelain Bridges
A bridge is a dental device that fills a space that a tooth previously occupied. A bridge may be necessary to prevent shifting of the teeth that can lead to bite problems (occlusion) and/or jaw problems and resultant periodontal disease. Bridges safeguard the integrity of existing teeth and help maintain a healthy, vibrant smile.
Types:
- A fixed bridge: the most popular and consists of a filler tooth that is attached to two crowns, which fit over the existing teeth and hold the bridge in place.
- The “Maryland” bridge: commonly used to replace missing front teeth and consists of a filler that is attached to metal bands that are bonded to the abutment teeth. The metal bands consist of a white-colored composite resin that matches existing tooth color.
- The cantilever bridge: often used when there are teeth on only one side of the span. A typical three-unit cantilever bridge consists of two crowned teeth positioned next to each other on the same side of the missing tooth space. The filler tooth is then connected to the two crowned teeth, which extend into the missing tooth space or end.
Full-mouth Rehabilitation
A Full-Mouth Rehabilitation can address any number of dental concerns addressing the function or appearance of your teeth. At Fleetwood Dental, we aim to bring our patients to optimal dental health - a major pillar in the health of the whole patient. Each patient has different needs, and each path to reconstruction involves unique combinations of our Restoring Functions procedures.
The range of issues that this process can address can include:
- Replace missing teeth
- Repair damaged teeth
- Improve bite occlusion
- Rejuvenate gum health
- Treat periodontal disease
Composite Fillings
The concept of a “filling” is replacing and restoring your tooth structure that is damaged due to decay or fracture with a material. We will replace old, broken-down amalgam/metal fillings that contain traces of mercury with white fillings (composites) to restore your smile and teeth to a more natural look and feel.
With today’s advancements, no longer will you have to suffer the embarrassment of unsightly and unhealthy silver/mercury fillings or metal margins of the past. Eliminate the dark, black appearance in your teeth with new-age, state-of-the-art, tooth-colored resin or porcelain materials using composite bonding.
Bonding is a common solution for:
- Fixing or repairing chipped or cracked teeth
- Reducing unsightly gaps or spaces between teeth
- Hiding discoloration or faded areas on the tooth’s surface
Often, composite bonding is used to improve the appearance of your teeth and enhance your smile. As the name indicates, composite material, either a plastic or resin, is bonded to an existing tooth. Unlike veneers or crowns, composite bonding removes little, if any, of the original tooth.
Composite bonding has many advantages:
- It is a quick process, which typically lasts less than one hour.
- It does not reduce the tooth’s original structure and is relatively inexpensive.
- Composite resins come in many different shades and provide better matching of shades to the natural color of your teeth.
- Composite bonds, however, are not as durable and long-lasting as veneers and crowns and may need to be re-touched or replaced in the future.
Composite bonds stain more easily and therefore require proper care and regular cleaning. In order to ensure the longest possible duration of the bonding, composites should be brushed and flossed daily. Common staining elements include coffee, tea, tobacco, foods and candy.