Cosmetics dentistry: Tooth Whitening

Radiate confidence and personal power!

We want you to know there's a well known , extremely well-documented scientific phenomenon called attractiveness effect. You know attractive kids have higher grades, and attractive adults get paid more. Now research shows that personality and grooming can boost high school grade point even more than beauty. This makes senses to us. When you look good, you will feel good.

So, here's how cosmetic dentistry can light up your smile.

If you tray to hide your stained, discolored or dull-looking teeth..you might only need a safe and effective dentist supervised whitening treatment to get rid of stains.

In this modern age, you can even do your whitening treatment in your home!

At-Home Supervised Whitening

Pola-Night-Take Home Tooth Whitening Kit

The Pola night treatment is a take home do-it-yourself kit

to be applied to your teeth in the comfort of your own home.

Steps that your dentists and yourself will perform on your teeth:

Initially, your teeth will be professionally cleaned and polished.

1. An impression of your teeth is taken by your dentist.

2. A perfectly formed mouth guard tray is made for you to take home with your own kit of pola night.

3. Brush and floss teeth. Take a syringe out of the kit.

Remove the cap and insert an application tip by twisting it securely onto the syringe.

4. Place a small drop of gel into every compartment of the tray for the undergoing teeth treatment.

5. Make sure the tray is seated in the mouth.

6. Wipe away excess gel in the mouth with finger, tissue or dry soft tooth brush.

Depending on the level of staining on your teeth, and the health of your teeth, your dentist would have supplied you with Pola Day in either 10%, 16% or 22% carbamide proxide gel concentrations.

This percentage will be marked on the box.

Wear the trays in your mouth for below corresponding times to the percentage of  carbamide peroxide in your kit.

10% : 6-8 hours overnight

16% : a) 2 x 40 minutes / day

b) 1 x 90 minutes / day

22% : 1 x 40 minutes / day

7. After treatment, remove tray. Rinse tray and mouth with lukewarm water to avoid sensitivity.

8. Brush teeth. Repeat the procedure for about 5-10 nights/days depending in the level of whiteness you want to achieve.

BEFORE TREATMENT

AFTER TREATMENT

Endodontic Treatment

What is endodontic treatment?

"Endo" is the Greek word for "inside" and "odont" is Greek for "tooth." Endodontic treatment treats the inside of the tooth.
To understand endodontic treatment, it helps to know something about the anatomy of the tooth. Inside the tooth, under the white enamel and a hard layer called the dentin, is a soft tissue called the pulp. The pulp contains blood vessels, nerves, and connective tissue and creates the surrounding hard tissues of the tooth during development.
The pulp extends from the crown of the tooth to the tip of the roots where it connects to the tissues surrounding the root. The pulp is important during a tooth's growth and development. However, once a tooth is fully mature it can survive without the pulp, because the tooth continues to be nourished by the tissues surrounding it.


 

Why would I need an endodontic procedure?

 

Endodontic treatment is necessary when the pulp becomes inflamed or infected. The inflammation or infection can have a variety of causes: deep decay, repeated dental procedures on the tooth, or a crack or chip in the tooth. In addition, a blow to a tooth may cause pulp damage even if the tooth has no visible chips or cracks. If pulp inflammation or infection is left untreated, it can cause pain or lead to an abcess.
Signs of pulp damage include pain, prolonged sensitivity to heat or cold, discoloration of the tooth, swelling and tenderness in the nearby gums. Sometimes, there are no symptoms.

How does endodontic treatment save the tooth?

The endodontist removes the inflamed or infected pulp, carefully cleans and shapes the inside of the tooth, then fills and seals the space. Afterwards, you will return to your dentist, who will place a crown or other restoration on the tooth to protect and restore it to full function. After restoration, the tooth continues to function like any other tooth. For a step-by-step explanation of the procedure, click here.

Procedures :



1) The endodontist examines and x-rays the tooth, then administers local anesthetic. After the tooth is numb, the endodontist places a small protective sheet called a "dental dam" over the area to isolate the tooth and keep it clean and free of saliva during the procedure.

  

 2) The endodontist makes an opening in the crown of the tooth. Very small instruments are used to clean the pulp from the pulp chamber and root canals and to shape the space for filling.

  

 

3) After the space is cleaned and shaped, the endodontist fills the root canals with a biocompatible material, usually a rubber-like material called "gutta-percha." The gutta-percha is placed with an adhesive cement to ensure complete sealing of the root canals. In most cases, a temporary filling is placed to close the opening. The temporary filling will be removed by your dentist before the tooth is restored.

 4) After the final visit with your endodontist, you must return to your dentist to have a crown or other restoration placed on the tooth to protect and restore it to full function.

 

STEM CELL therapy for missing teeth

if you’re missing a tooth, your best option right now is probably an implant. But soon, you might be able to get something that will work better and sound much cooler: a biotooth. Researchers in London have found that with stem cell technology, they can grow immature teeth that similar to those in an embryo. Once implanted in an adult mouth, the teeth can grow into functioning adult teeth with viable roots.

Replacing missing teeth with new bioengineered teeth, grown from stem cells generated from a person's own gum cells, is a future method that could be superior to the currently used implant technology, but for now not all required pieces are in place.New research, published in the Journal of Dental Research and led by Professor Paul Sharpe, an expert in craniofacial development and stem cell biology at King's College London's Dental Institute, describes an important preliminary step towards the development of this method by sourcing the required cells from a patient's own gum.

Research towards producing bioengineered teeth, also called bioteeth, aims to grow new and natural teeth by employing stem cell technology which generates immature teeth (teeth primordia) that mimic those in the embryo. These can be transplanted as small cell pellets into the adult jaw to develop into functional teeth, given the right circumstances, programming and assembly -- all of that difficult to master and not even tested yet -- the researchers say.

Remarkably, despite the very different environments, embryonic teeth primordia were found to develop normally in the adult mouth. Embryonic tooth primordia cells can readily form immature teeth following dissociation into single cell populations and subsequent recombination, but until now the available sources of these cells were impractical to use in a general therapy.

"What is required is the identification of adult sources of human epithelial and mesenchymal [stem] cells that can be obtained in sufficient numbers to make biotooth formation a viable alternative to dental implants," said Sharpe.

This challenge was now solved by the researchers, who successfully isolated adult human gum (gingival) tissue from patients at the Dental Institute at King's College London and used this to get epithlial stem cells, also grewing more of it in the lab. These adult stem cells could then be combined with the embryonic stem cells of mice that form teeth -- called mesenchyme cells, and not yet available as human adult stem cells. By transplanting this combination of cells into mice, the researchers were able to grow hybrid human/mouse teeth containing dentine and enamel, as well as viable roots.

"Epithelial cells derived from adult human gum tissue are capable of responding to tooth inducing signals from embryonic tooth mesenchyme in an appropriate way to contribute to tooth crown and root formation and give rise to relevant differentiated cell types, following in vitro culture," explained Sharpe.

"These easily accessible epithelial cells are thus a realistic source for consideration in human biotooth formation. The next major challenge is to identify a way to culture adult human mesenchymal cells to be tooth-inducing, as at the moment we can only make embryonic mesenchymal cells do this."

Current implant-based methods of whole tooth replacement can occasionally cause problems as the natural root structure cannot be reproduced and as a consequence of the friction from eating and other jaw movement, loss of jaw bone can gradually occur around the implant.

INTRODUCING OUR TEETH

Bright and beautiful teeth are an attractive asset. They provide us with self-confidence, improve our quality of life and allow us to feel more natural. Teeth are vital to our overall health, helping us to bite and chew food. But how much do we know about them? Let us explore a little bit about it.

What are teeth made of?

Tooth anatomy

A tooth is made up of 3 hard tissues and 1 soft tissue.
The hard tissue are : 

1. Enamel - The hardest tissue in our body.
2. Dentin - Hard tissue which is harder than bone but not enamel. It protects the inner part of the tooth, called the pulp.
3. Cementum - Hard tissue which is similar to bone but is avascular (without blood supply). It covers the root of the tooth and periodontal fibres connect the tooth to the jawbone.

The soft tissue of the tooth is pulp where each tooth's blood supply and nerve endings are found.

• The blood supply is what keeps the teeth alive and healthy. 
• The nerve endings send messages to the brain, such as whether you're eating something hot or cold or if you have a decayed or damaged tooth.

Types of teeth

There are four different types of teeth : 

1. Incisors. These are your four front teeth on the top and bottom jaw. They are used for cutting and chopping food.
2. Canine teeth. These are sharp, pointy teeth. You have one on each side of your incisors on your top and bottom jaw, making a total of four. They help to tear food.
3. Premolars. Next to your canine teeth are your premolars (also called bicuspid teeth). You have eight premolars in total, four on your top jaw and four on the bottom. They are bigger and wider than your incisors and canine teeth, and are used for crushing and grinding food.
4. Molars. You have eight molars, four on top and four on the bottom. These are your strongest teeth and work with your tongue to help you swallow food, mashing it up until it's ready to be swallowed safely.

General types of teeth  

A simple look at tooth eruption

Tooth eruption is a process in tooth development in which the teeth enter the mouth and become visible. The first human teeth to appear is primary teeth, also known as baby teeth or milk teeth in a process called "teething". 

Milk teeth

Babies' teeth begin to develop before they are born, but in most cases don't come through until they're between 6 and 12 months old. Most children have a full set of 20 milk or baby teeth by the time they're three years old. When they reach five or six, these teeth will start to fall out, making way for adult teeth.

Baby Eruption Patterns

• Teeth tend to erupt in pairs
• Lower teeth usually erupt before the upper teeth
• Girls generally preceded boys in tooth eruption
• The teeth in both jaws usually erupt in pairs - one on the right and one on the left
• By the time the child reaches the age of two to three years, all the deciduous (baby) teeth should have erupted

Adult teeth

By the age of 12 to 14, most children have lost all their baby teeth and have their adult teeth. There are 32 adult teeth in total, 12 more than in the baby set. The last four of these, called wisdom teeth, usually emerge later than the others, generally between the ages of 17 and 21.

Here's an identification chart of tooth development : 

Teeth

Hi. This is our first post :D
Hmm when speaking about teeth, did you ever know what's the total number of teeth in your mouth? If you don't have any idea on it, just google it out! :P

This was how we felt during our childhood moments ;)