Colonial Dental Group

Aging affects our teeth and gums, just as it affects every other part of the body. After years of chewing, teeth wear down. They also become more brittle and more susceptible to breakage. Their luster and whiteness fade and turn yellow.

The older we get, the more restorations we are likely to have. Old fillings may become loose, and additional decay can set in near them. The tooth around the filling also may deteriorate, exposing the dentin underneath to further decay. Gum tissue shrinks and recedes from the teeth, exposing more of their roots and loosening them.

Medications or age may cause a decrease in saliva, which is the body's natural way of helping to keep the mouth clean.

What can we do?
It is important for older adults to continue with careful oral hygiene. Floss daily and brush at least twice a day with fluoride toothpaste. Fluoride helps prevent cavities in older people as well as in children. Drinking lots of fluid will help keep the mouth moist. Be sure to see a dentist at least every six months to have them professionally cleaned, to check for early decay, for oral cancer, and for gum recession which may need treating.

If you live in the Chicago area, please contact us at the Colonial Dental Group to schedule a consultation. You might save yourself a great deal of pain, inconvenience and money by catching dental problems early.

Although tooth enamel is a tough mineral casing, it can chip and break through trauma or misuse. Chipped and broken teeth are more susceptible to further damage or infection and should be fixed immediately.

If the chipped teeth are visible when you smile, one excellent solution is to apply porcelain veneers. If the damaged tooth is in the back and out of the smile line, a porcelain crown may be used. Regardless of where the tooth is, a porcelain inlay or onlay could fill the chip invisibly. The choice of solution would depend on the size of the chip as well as the location of the tooth.

Our CEREC technology
The porcelain color is matched to your natural tooth color and the chosen restoration can be placed in one visit. Most cosmetic dentists would need you to come for two visits, but our CEREC technology is a chairside system that digitally images your teeth, designs the needed restoration, and mills the porcelain to make it.

From your dental chair, you can see the computer monitor, and can watch your dentist using the software to plan and shape your veneers, crown, or filling. You will know ahead of time how it will look. Be sure and give this porcelain restoration the same good daily care that you give your natural teeth, and it will serve you for many years.

If you are in the Chicago area and need to fix a chipped or otherwise damaged tooth, please call or email us, and we will set up a consultation for you. We hope to work with you soon.

If you have sometimes gone for long periods without adequately brushing and flossing your teeth, you may have experienced tender gums and associated bleeding. With your tongue, you can also feel the rough film on your teeth we call plaque. Plaque becomes tartar, a hard substance with tiny sharp edges, which cause the bleeding.

This is the first stage of gum disease and is known as gingivitis. Plaque consists of bacteria and their excretions, and left alone, bacteria will thrive and multiply, spreading into every little cozy nook available. This will include the small pockets called the sulcus, between each tooth and its surrounding gum tissue.

This build-up will push the gums away from the base the teeth, making room for even more bacteria to grow. Their excretions are acid and therefore eat into tooth enamel. Inflammation builds up in the surrounding gums. This first stage of gum disease is preventable with adequate oral hygiene.

If not taken care of, gingivitis progresses to the next stage of gum disease, called periodontitis. Now the inflammation turns to infection as it is allowed to build up under the gum line. The gums fall away from the teeth and deteriorate. The longer this condition continues, the more likely it is that teeth will loosen and fall out. Left untreated, the decay and infection will spread through the gums into the jawbone.

If you have been suffering from progressive gum disease, please contact us as soon as possible. Delay in not in your best interests, and we can stop that disease more easily if we start on it sooner rather than later. You can read more on our Gum Treatments page. Please contact our Colonial Dental Group Chicago office today to schedule an initial consultation.

One of the most dreaded procedures of dentistry is commonly referred to as a "root canal." The actual root canal is the interior part of a tooth through which blood vessels and nerves enter it from the body’s circulatory and nervous systems. A tooth may have up to four root canals. The blood vessels and nerves, along with some connective tissue, are known as the tooth pulp. Root canal surgery is part of endodontic therapy, or endodontics.

In past years there was reason to dread a root canal, as dentistry was less effective in blocking pain and took longer to do procedures. At Colonial Dental Group, we place a high priority on your comfort and will use whatever level of anesthetic is required to keep you calm. We also of course have modern equipment and technology to finish procedures speedily.

Endodontic Procedure
Your dentist will usually prescribe a course of antibiotics to be concluded before working on the tooth. The first step is to remove infection and decay from the root canal. If the tooth has decayed from the outside all the way into the root canal, that often means it is too badly damaged to survive with just a filling and must be given a crown.

With the tooth cleaned and ready, your dentist permanently fill the space where tooth structures used to be with a rubber compound called gutta percha. The cleaned remains of the tooth are trimmed down if necessary and shaped to receive a crown.

There may be an interval of several weeks while your crown is made in a dental lab. In that time you will have a temporary filling to protect the tooth. The new porcelain crown is placed over the tooth remains and permanently bonded, so that now you have a strong tooth with a renewed life ahead of it.

It is actually a dead tooth since it no longer receives oxygen and nutrients, and has no nerve. This may make it more fragile, but in adults the tooth pulp is no longer necessary for tooth growth.

Please call or email us to learn more about endodontic therapy. Our office serves the entire Chicago area.

When teeth are lost, it's best to replace them. The traditional method is a dental bridge, which requires the teeth on each side of the socket to be shaved down to accept a crown. Connections between the crowns and the pontic (porcelain tooth) anchor the new tooth. This process is less than ideal on two counts:

• It requires the removal of healthy enamel from the supporting teeth; and
• It does not address the gap inside the jawbone, where the tooth root used to be.

Missing teeth can now be replaced, root and crown, using dental implants. An implant consists of a titanium cylinder that is inserted into the socket the missing tooth used to occupy. Titanium is well received by the body and the bone does not reject it, but grows in around it closely. This secures it permanently to the jawbone in a process called ossification.

After the two or three months required for this bone growth, a small projection is attached to the top of the implant. The gums are allowed to heal around it for a couple of weeks. Then a porcelain crown is bonded to that projection and caps off the implant, creating a new permanent tooth, complete with root.

When considering dental implants, it is important to find a qualified cosmetic dentist with many years of experience. If you live in the Chicago area and would like to learn more about how dental implants can help, please contact us at the Colonial Dental Group to schedule an initial consultation.

A quick and easy alternative to porcelain veneers uses a composite resin in a process called dental bonding. The plastic resin is applied to the tooth in successive layers. After each thin layer, it is hardened using a high-intensity light. Once the layers are built up to the desired volume of material, the cosmetic dentist sculpts it to the desired shape. With dental bonding, the cosmetic dentist can correct anything from minor gaps in the teeth to lengthening short teeth in order to create a superior smile.

The term dental bonding refers both to the procedure and to the substance. The substance is also used for fillings in lieu of metal amalgam. It can be color matched to the surrounding tooth, providing for an almost invisible dental restoration. Bonding material is not as strong as amalgam or porcelain, but is quicker and easier.

For a good professional job of dental bonding, it is important to find a dentist with extensive training and experience. If you live in the Chicago area, and would like to find out more about cosmetic dentistry options, please contact the Colonial Dental Group to set up an initial consultation.

Did you know that something as seemingly harmless as a headache could be an indication of a potentially serious medical condition? The condition is called TMJ or TMD, short for temporomandibular joint disorder. Headaches are just one symptoms of TMD, which is estimated to affects as many as 60 million of Americans. Jaw pain, neck tension, loss of feeling in the hands and arms, and earaches are just a few of the related symptoms.

Thankfully, once the condition is discovered, there are modern treatments designed to offer sufferers relief. Neuromuscular dentistry refers to the ability to diagnose and treat TMD. Experienced neuromuscular dentists have undergone specialized training to be able to identify when a jaw joint problem is affecting a patient's health.

The most important step in alleviating the ill effects of TMD is ensuring an accurate diagnosis. An experienced neuromuscular dentist will use sophisticated jaw tracking equipment to determine the origin of the discomfort. By combining a thorough health history and physical exam with specific neuromuscular diagnostic testing, your doctor should be able to find out what's causing the imbalance and begin a treatment plan. Here are just a few of the diagnostic tools:

• X-rays
• Computerized Mandibular Scanning (CMS)
• Sonography
• MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging)
• Electromyography (studies of muscle function)
• Motion Performance Studies
• Joint Vibration Analysis
• Diagnostic Study Casts of the Mandible
• TENS (Transcutaneous Electro Neural Stimulation)

Sometimes it may be that your tooth height needs to be adjusted. In other cases, physical therapy may be needed. As a last result, surgery can help restore the optimal bite position.

Please contact Colonial Dental Group in Chicago today to schedule your initial appointment.