When we talk about our restorative dental care in La Quinta, CA, we are talking about repairing damaged or broken teeth caused by an accident, injury, or illness, and preserving your remaining natural teeth. The goal of restorative dentistry is to retain your ability to talk, eat, chew, and maintain normal function in your mouth while still giving you the appearance of healthy, natural teeth.
If you have missing or damaged teeth and don’t visit one of our restorative dentists, you risk losing function of your remaining teeth, losing bone mass in your jaw, experiencing shifting of your remaining teeth, and experiencing problems with your bite and your ability to chew and speak naturally.
At Mountainside Dental Group, we use state-of-the-art dental technology to provide exceptional restorative dentistry services throughout the region. If you have any questions or would like to learn more, please don’t hesitate to contact us!
Dentures
We understand that missing teeth can not only cause discomfort in eating and speaking, but also impact your self-confidence. Fitting your mouth with dentures ensures your jaw muscles will continue to work properly and allow you to speak, eat, and smile with comfort.
At Mountainside Dental Group, we offer different types of dentures to fit your oral care needs.
- Full dentures: These dentures are used to replace your entire set of teeth and are best suited if you have lost all or most of your teeth. They sit firmly in your mouth and can cover the roof of your mouth and your gums. Full dentures are customized to fit your mouth and your jaw, which is why we carefully measure and create the perfect ones for you.
- Partial dentures: Partial dentures are used if you have only a few missing teeth. These dentures can attach to your natural teeth and are used to fill the gaps of your missing teeth. Partial dentures can grip your natural teeth with metal clasps, or they may adhere with precision attachments. These dentures can be attached not only to your natural teeth but also to your crowns, which may improve the fit of your partial dentures.
Overdentures
Overdentures are the perfect answer for millions of patients with missing teeth. These prosthetics replace your missing teeth with a removable dental bridge supported by dental implants; this ensures a strong, natural fit.
Overdentures are reliable, stable, and don’t interfere with chewing. Additionally, they can help reduce bone loss because they can easily transfer the sensation of biting into the jawbone. This sensation helps the jaw create new bone, preventing bone loss. Some of the most significant benefits of overdentures include:
- Fast-healing dental treatment
- High level of comfort
- Offers natural appearance
- Offers little to no gum irritation
- Cost-effective dental solution to missing teeth
- No need for denture adhesives
Gum Disease Therapy
Periodontal disease is a serious condition that can lead to tooth loss, respiratory complications, and even heart disease. Fortunately, the condition can be treated in different ways depending on its severity. Generally, the treatments fall into two categories. Nonsurgical treatments are typically reserved for milder cases of periodontal disease. Nonsurgical treatment can include:
- Scaling: Scaling is the process of removing bacterial plaque from the teeth, gums, and under the gum line. It can be performed with a specialized laser or ultrasonic device.
- Root Planing: Periodontal disease can create holes in your teeth that can harbor bacteria. These holes must be planed, or smoothed out, to prevent the possibility of further infection.
- Antibiotic Treatment: Periodontal disease is ultimately an infection. Once your treatment at the dental office is complete, your dentist will prescribe a round of antibiotics so your body can fight off the infection.
Advanced cases may require surgical treatments, like bone grafts, soft tissue grafts, flap surgery (also known as pocket reduction surgery), guided tissue regeneration, and tissue stimulation.
Root Canal Therapy
Many people are unaware of the importance of not only healthy teeth and gums but also healthy roots and root canals. Your mouth contains connective tissue, nerves, and blood vessels that run below your teeth. It is important to keep your root canals healthy, as you may develop inflammation or infections of the root and pulp, causing the need for root canal therapy.
- Symptoms of an infected or inflamed root canal include tooth pain while chewing or consuming cold food, throbbing pain at your tooth, the temperature sensitivity of your tooth, discoloration of your tooth, or sensitive or swollen gums.
To stop the infection from spreading or getting worse, we need to perform a root canal procedure as soon as symptoms arise.
- During the root canal procedure, the doctor will numb your tooth so that you feel as little discomfort as possible.
- The pulp, or nerve of the tooth, is then removed and the canal is cleaned out and shaped so it can be filled. Along with a material to seal the root canal, a medicine may be applied to get rid of any bacteria that may further cause infection.
- After this, your tooth is filled with a temporary filling to prevent any root canal contamination.
- On your second visit, the doctor will remove the temporary filling and fill your tooth with a new permanent filling or dental crown, preventing any future infections and saving your tooth.
