Micro Dentistry

Micro dentistry is the process of very conservative restoration of decayed teeth to keep you teeth strong and healthy for your lifetime. The costs are reduced, the time at the dentist is reduced and the comfort is increased greatly when micro dentistry is used.

It begins with finding decay as early as possible. This is when the decay is still very small and easily treatable. We need to remove only a very small amount of tooth structure and then place as small a filling as we can. This can often be done without any shot and numbness.

When a filling is small it will last longer and not weaken the tooth. In addition the color match is perfect and the filling is invisible. Tiny specially designed diamond burs remove only the decay which no longer has nerve fibers. Sometimes we use micro air abrasion (see above) for the decay removal.

At times a newspecialpreperation can repair the damaged tooth with no addition treatment needed. These agents can restore the enamel to its original hardness and decay resistance. This is called remineralization. Only available in the last year it looks very promising.

All of this is a very precise procedure and needs to be done with strong lighting and magnification. After the decay removal we then place a very fluid penetrating filling material that can now be bonded into the place where the decay was. This strengthens the tooth since it is binding everything together. When necessary, bonded fillings can be repaired by fusing new resin filling material to the old. Complete removal of the filling is often not necessary which again saves tooth structure.

Back in the days when silver- mercury fillings were placed, the tooth was condemned to a future major procedures or loss. Silver mercury fillings weaken the tooth each time they are replaced. More and more tooth is removed until only an egg shell is left and the situation becomes weak and hopeless. The replacement of silver-mercury fillings is needed approximately every 10 to 15 years. Unfortunately silver-mercury is still done in many dental offices today. We are a mercury free office for many important reasons.

When as little tooth as possible is removed there are many advantage for the preservation of your teeth. We believe that micro dentistry should be standard procedure now. It is the best that our modern technology has to offer. Here in our state of the art Encino dental office we have used micro-dentistry in very select cases and are now ready to give it much more frequent use in many situations.

9/21/2010