We’ve been very busy this month implementing our Go Green initiative across Sussex, which BBC News South came along to film, which aims to reduce the use of approximately 100 million plastic cups being thrown out by dentists every year. We at The Implant Centre have abolished our use of single use plastic cups over the past year and are now down to just one paper cup per surgical patient. In a bid to get other practices across the county to join us, we ordered 250,000 paper cups and we have so far hand delivered 150,000 of them to practices in Sussex. The response has been really positive with many practices on board. The dental community seems really ready to make change, with a little encouragement from us, and hopefully we’ll start to see faster change throughout the country in the coming year. Demand that your dentist uses paper cups if you are offered a plastic one!
DENTAL IMPLANTS OR VENEERS?
With the bombardment from social media and press, patients often become confused as to how celebrities have achieved their perfect smile. Many celebs search for the brighter, whiter smile (that to be fair we all like to see) but it can be so white that it is not possible to produce on natural teeth. This demand can draw them into the world of veneer dentistry, immensely popular in the USA and becoming increasingly popular over here, where dentists tend to be a little more cautious.
The ideal improvement for most people’s smiles is some gentle tooth whitening, which is harmless. If the teeth are crooked then sometimes orthodontic treatment may suffice, so the teeth can be aligned to a better position and then whitened. Sometimes chipped or worn teeth may need building up with some white composite filling material – again a nice and relatively harmless and reversible treatment.
Unfortunately this will not always bring teeth up to the glistening, unnatural, ultra-white that we see on Instagram – where the photos will mainly have been doctored of course which can lead to the desire for veneers……
Veneers, when done to the highest standard, will allow for a fantastic transformation of peoples smiles. Unfortunately they can also be completed where not only do they look so unnatural, screamingly white and a universal bland colour, that they are also extremely damaging to the teeth. The cutting back of the teeth can lead to irreversible damage and so ‘death’ of the pulp inside the tooth, this then demands root canal treatments, so weakening the tooth further. Sometimes the fit of the veneer to the tooth is poor, so leaving ledges allowing for accumulation of plaque that is hard to clean away despite patients best efforts. This will lead to decay in a very susceptible and hard to treat position on the tooth, or to gum disease which can be very hard to treat.
If, or rather when, veneers need replacing they can sometimes be replaced with new ones, or this may lead onto having to have the tooth crowned – further damaging the tooth as more tooth structure has to be cut away. Often this is the final step towards loss of the tooth, and this is where implants come in.
Dental implants are the only long term solution for a tooth lost from this above process. They are only needed when teeth are going to be lost as no further dentistry is possible, or sensible, but they then give an entirely new ‘fresh start’. At The Implant Centre we hear the above story again and again, and when we look back with patients they can remember the decision they made, often at a relatively young age, to have the cosmetic changes that veneers offered.
This all sounds negative of course, and don’t get me wrong, veneers are a fabulous way to transform a smile where there is no alternative, and high quality care with excellent patient maintenance and they will have many years’ service. Unfortunately we are seeing more and more damaging dental treatment, often of poor quality, being carried out when not absolutely necessary. This short term fix can set people onto the path to eventual loss of the tooth and need to seek dental implants. The future will be a vast swathe of people needing implants I am sure.
PATIENT OF THE MONTH
Denice had always looked after her mouth – she had regularly gone to her dentist and saw their hygienist every three months, and she was careful to clean her teeth very thoroughly both morning and night.
Despite all of this effort, she knew that she was losing the battle, as her teeth were gradually being lost due to gum disease. Her dentist had told her that this was largely a genetic problem – she was just more susceptible than most people to the disease – but that did not make it any easier for Denice as, one by one, her unsightly teeth became lose and were lost.
She hated the thought of ending up with loose dentures, so her dentist suggested that Denice come to The Implant Centre. Denice will always be susceptible to gum disease in the future, but the amazing implant bridge that we made allows her to clean her implants very effectively each day, whilst also providing the clinicians at The Implant Centre easy access to examine them regularly to ensure they remain healthy. Her gum disease had ruined both her confidence and her smile but, with the help of our fantastic team at The Implant Centre, Denice is able to eat whatever she wants and to show off that sensational smile once again.
