Smile & Tooth Restorations
Smile Restoration Services in watertown, WI
Smile restoration, or a smile makeover, can completely transform your life. Even one missing or damaged tooth can negatively impact your self-confidence and oral function. At Riverside Dental in Watertown, WI, we offer comprehensive smile and tooth restoration services to help you love your smile, reduce the risk of oral health conditions, and improve daily function.
Why Do Teeth Break?
Water fluoridation in the United States has lowered the risk of tooth decay among adults and children by 25%. However, oral health conditions still persist. Up to 80% of adults will have at least one cavity by age 34, and over 40% of people have reported experiencing dental pain within the last 12 months. This data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention highlights the importance of preventative dental care — but also the need for tooth restoration services.
Teeth can weaken due to natural wear and tear, misalignment, tooth grinding (bruxism), drinking a large amount of acidic or sugary drinks, poor oral hygiene, smoking, and injury. Some patients are born with naturally thinner enamel, making their teeth more susceptible to breakage and decay.
In any case, our team aims to provide them with smile support through personalized care. Whether you have one chipped tooth, multiple missing teeth, or need full-mouth restoration, we are here for you.
What Is Tooth Restoration?
From replacing a missing tooth to repairing cracks or chips, our team offers a full range of restorative dental solutions. These can help you:
- Correct misalignment that impacts function and oral health.
- Restore the appearance and function of cracked or chipped teeth.
- Repair damaged or decaying teeth.
- Rejuvenate dated dental restorations that impact your self-confidence.
- Enhance oral function to improve speech and eating.
- Prevent future tooth loss.
When one tooth is damaged, the others become more vulnerable. Restorative dentistry helps patients preserve and protect their smiles through custom treatments such as composite fillings, dental crowns, and dentures.
Unlike traditional amalgam fillings, composite or tooth-colored fillings blend seamlessly into your natural smile. They also have lower safety risks because they do not contain mercury.
These are placed in one appointment and completed like a traditional filling. Your dentist will numb your tooth, remove any present decay, and place the filling. It is normal to experience temperature sensitivity immediately afterward, but this will resolve on its own.
Composite fillings are ideal for:
- Decayed teeth
- Chipped or broken teeth.
- Failed or old metal fillings.
- Worn teeth.
- Teeth with gaps between them.
A crown is a cover for your tooth that protects it from fracture. Crowns can be porcelain and natural-looking, metal, or gold. A crown, or cap, is most often made of porcelain today because of the material’s safety and high durability.
Porcelain dental crowns last between five to 15 years before they need to be replaced. Our team can easily match your crown to suit your tooth’s size, shape, and color, so your cap will blend perfectly into your smile.
You may consider dental crowns to repair:
- Severely decayed or broken teeth
- Significantly chipped or damaged teeth
- Fractured or large fillings
Crowns are also used to protect teeth after a root canal and for cosmetic enhancements.
Full and partial dentures are removable dental appliances that replace multiple or all of your teeth. They are dental prosthetics that can restore facial volume, speech, and chewing abilities that have been severely impacted or lost by missing teeth.
Full or complete dentures are designed to replace an entire arch of teeth on the top or bottom of your mouth. Partial dentures replace several missing teeth in one row. In addition to covering the spaces left by missing teeth, partial dentures also help stop your surrounding teeth from shifting to close in the gap.
Complete dentures come in two varieties:
- Conventional dentures are provided after extractions and full mouth recovery, which typically takes four to six weeks.
- Immediate dentures are placed when a patient’s teeth are removed or if they are already toothless and in good oral health.
With immediate dentures, patients do not have to go toothless during recovery. However, if they had extractions, they would wear a temporary set of dentures for the first six to eight weeks as their gums healed and swelling subsided.
It typically takes several weeks and multiple appointments to get dentures. Our team will first want to address your oral health and underlying issues you may have. Some patients opting for dentures undergo several tooth extractions.
A dental bridge closes a space between two teeth using dental crowns placed on the teeth on either side of the gap. There are different types of bridges available, and your dentist will help you decide on the right one based on your needs and preferences.
Because the bridge is fixed, it does not come out of your mouth. You can wear it for years and experience the freedom of a smile that functions normally and looks completely natural.
Most bridges are placed in two visits, though some patients may require additional appointments. Generally, the process involves preparing the teeth that will receive the crown on the first visit, then placing a temporary bridge over them.
On the next visit, the dentist cements the permanent bridge in place after ensuring that your teeth and gums are healthy and the bridge is the right shape for your mouth. In some cases, a fixed bridge is temporarily cemented to allow for easier adjustment in the future.
Our team works with each patient on a case-by-case basis to help them achieve the best results.
A root canal can save a tooth from decay and even future extraction. By drilling a hole into the infected tooth, your dentist can thoroughly remove infected tissue called pulp, then apply protective filling and sealants. At a follow-up appointment, the tooth will be covered with a crown to protect it from future infection.
Root canals are highly successful and an excellent way to preserve your smile. More importantly, they are performed to protect you from serious infection. Follow-up care and good at-home dental hygiene can increase the chance of maintaining good oral health in the future.
Patients who need a root canal are encouraged to get one as soon as possible. It can make the difference between losing your tooth, suffering from severe infection, periodontitis (advanced gum disease), and coping with ongoing physical pain.
The team at Riverside Dental offers root canals in Watertown, WI, for anyone who is in need of professional care. You can always reach out to us with questions or to schedule an appointment with a member of our team.