The Advantages:
Stronger Teeth: The bigger a filling the weaker the tooth. MID focuses upon
removing as little tooth structure as possible. MID never removes any more
tooth structure that is absolutely necessary.
More Natural: MID means always using materials to fill or restore a tooth
which resembles natural tooth structure and color and will not wear down
opposing teeth.
Fewer Crowns: MID stresses the use of Inlays and Onlays where possible instead
of crowns. Inlays and Onlays replace a broken portion of the tooth or large
decay, but allows the good tooth structure to remain.
Conservative Gum Care: MID focuses on disease prevention. Ridding the teeth
of disease-causing bacteria and plaque often prevents gum surgery. Decreased
plaque lowers the risk of heart disease and low birth weight for babies.
Fewer Appointments & Less Pain: MID uses technology and materials that
keep the number of necessary appointments to a minimum. Fewer injections and
in many cases, no injections at all.
The Technogies:
Dental Lasers: Promote healing by stimulating cell growth and cell
regeneration, reduce bleeding and act as an anti-inflammatory, reduce pain
and swelling and stimulate nerve function.
Digital X-Rays: Instant & enhanced diagnosis, less radiation, no harmful
chemicals.
Intraoral Cameras: Enhanced diagnosis at 28x. Increased patient
understanding and education.
Laser Decay Detection: Reliable caries diagnosis at a very early stage.
Early detection preserves more tooth structure.
Magnification: Dentists see everything 2-20 power. More accurate diagnosis
and treatment. Better technique = better results.
Air Abrasion: Conserves tooth structure with minimum trauma. Reduces need
for anesthesia, "Drill free". No high speed drill sounds. Increased patient
comfort. Helps filling bond to the teeth better.
Before cleaning your teeth, the laser is used under the gum tissue on a very
low setting. This setting disrupts the cell wall of the bacteria. In effect,
the laser stuns the bacteria so you are not having active bacteria introduced
into your bloodstream. Before the laser was used, we could not control the
bacterial levels in your blood during your teeth cleaning.
The calculus is removed with the help of an ultrasonic scaler. It uses water
and vibration to remove and wash out much of the bacteria and calculus
deposits. Although it is a very effective tool, it can't remove all the
deposits.
After the hard and soft deposits have been removed, a very strong topical
anesthetic cream is placed in the pocket around each tooth. The laser is then
reset to sterilize and remove the lining of the pocket. This allows the
tissue to attach and heal to the tooth starting at the bottom of the pocket.
One millimeter of attachment is usually gained each time we use the laser. We
usually need a minimum of 4 laser treatments as well as the polish
appointment. After the pockets are sterilized, Vitamin E oil is applied to
the tissue and the pockets are irrigated with a betadine solution.
Sometimes the pockets are so deep that the laser treatment needs to have some
help. In those cases with unresolved infection, we place a tetracycline
medication in the pockets.
Three month Supported Periodontal Therapy appointments are almost
always recommended. It takes a few weeks to get the tissue to heal and attach
to the tooth, but it take 6-9 months for the bone to regenerate in the space.
We need to maintain a healthy environment for bone to regenerate in the new
tissue attachment space.
