Dental Care

Fillings Get Smaller...and Smaller

By: Judith Sloan

—We all remember going to the dentist, opening wide, andlistening with held breath while he examined our teeth for decay.“Please, no cavities,” we prayed.

With his prickly instrument in hand, our dentist probed everytooth, looking for “soft” spots where decay had invadedour once hard, pristine dental enamel. And when the point found itsquarry, a tiny spot of decay, he would nod and say,“We've got a small one here. We'll watch to seeif it grows into something.”

No longer. Fast-forward to 2004, and the prickly instrumenttakes a back seat to a high-tech laser probe(http://www.washdent.com/services.html) that lands a preemptivestrike in the battle against decay.

Make way for “Minimally Invasive Dentistry.”(http://www.washdent.com/services.html) The mouthful of words meanssimply that dentists no longer allow dots of decay to advance intolarge craters. Armed with the ultimate in high-tech sleuthing, theynow set out to find decay—at the earliest possiblemoment.

“Now we can absolutely eliminate many large fillings thatlead to cracked teeth, crowns and other more invasivetreatment,” says Dr. Daniel J. Deutsch(http://www.washdent.com/deutsch.html), of the Washington Centerfor Dentistry in Washington, DC. (http://www.washdent.com)

Here's how it works: The dental decay finder touches thesurface of every tooth, each time flashing a digital score thatreports the presence of decay.
A tooth that scores above a certain number—has at leastthe tiniest dot of decay.

And getting at the teeny offending area involves anothertechnological wonder. A gentle dental “sandblaster”uses tiny particles to whisk away decay in layers. The area getsfilled in with a tooth-colored liquid that hardens in seconds undera special light.
Patients walk out of the office with tiny fillings.

“And the best part,” says Dr. Deutsch, “isthey have treatment with no needle and no drill!”
Resource

Judith Sloan

Copyright 2004 http://www.washdent.com - Cosmetic Dentistry inWashington D.C.