Your smile is your most valuable accessory! But if you’re not happy with your teeth or mouth, your smile may look less than enthusiastic. The team at our Maple Ridge dental office can help you get your confident smile back.
Veneers
To brighten your smile, close spaces, make teeth appear straighter, or repair chips or worn surfaces, veneers are often suggested. Veneers are porcelain facings (about 1 mm thick) that are bonded to the front surfaces of your teeth and they provide a natural-looking tooth face to correct minor cosmetic concerns.
Whitening (or Bleaching)
When your teeth have been stained by coffee, tea, red wine, or other foods and beverages, teeth whitening can help brighten your tooth enamel, dramatically brightening your smile. We use Zoom!® products, a safe, effective treatment. With the custom trays we make for you and easy-to-use gels, you can whiten your teeth in the comfort of your own home.
Crowns (or Caps)
If your tooth was damaged in an accident or weakened over time by decay or grinding, crowns (or caps) are a treatment option to strengthen a single tooth. They are often the strongest, long-term solution to keep your tooth looking good and functioning well. Crowns may also be used after a root canal to restore the tooth’s form and function and to protect the tooth from breaking.
Crowns require two appointments: the first to prepare the tooth and take a digital scan to send to our dental lab. That day, you will leave our office with a temporary crown. Meanwhile, at the lab, your crown will be fabricated by skilled technicians and returned to our office within about a week. At your second appointment, we will try the crown in and when you and your dentist are both happy with the look and the fit, it will be cemented in.
Dental Bridges
Are you missing teeth? Dental bridges are an effective way of filling in a gap after the loss of a tooth (or multiple teeth). Bridges help you eat and talk properly and keep remaining teeth from shifting. Bridges are often made from a durable white metal, zirconia, or porcelain fused to metal, to match the color and texture of your natural teeth. Or they can be made from precious metal (gold alloy), which can be a great choice for back teeth.
The teeth on either side of the gap, act as anchoring support for the bridge. At your bridge prep appointment, these teeth are shaved down a small, precise amount to prepare them for anchoring to the bridge. An digital scan of the prepared teeth is sent to a lab, where your custom bridge is made. In the meantime, you will have a temporary bridge, which will fill that area for the 7-10 days while the lab is making your permanent one. During the next appointment, we will put the bridge in place and make sure you’re happy with the look and feel before we bond it in place. Most people find a bridge feels very natural for eating and love the way it fills the gap of missing teeth.
Implants
Another option, and often considered a more superior method, for replacing missing teeth is with dental implants. A dental implant is a strong, titanium-alloy post, that is surgically placed in the jaw bone. This artificial root then acts as an anchor to hold a natural-looking crown. They don’t require shaving of neighbouring teeth (like dental bridges), they don’t slip or rock when you eat or talk (like dentures). Their titanium-alloy composition are biologically compatible and resistant to wear-and-tear, so the longevity of an implant often exceeds a bridge or denture.
Dentures
Another solution for missing teeth are dentures. Dentures are removable, and if necessary, can replace teeth in several areas of one arch. Partial dentures and complete dentures have long been used as an effective way to replace missing teeth. It’s important to note that partial dentures rely on existing natural teeth to hold it in place, so it can contribute to wear on these supporting teeth. To reduce the pressure on your existing natural teeth, the denture can be anchored to a dental implant instead.
