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Talking About Diagnostic Tests For Medical Care
4 Ways To Streamline Your Dental Procedures
Nanja Bongers
Having dental work performed rarely makes anyone's list of favorite activities -- but if you've been putting off that much-needed restoration or repair work because you hate lengthy or multiple sessions in the dentist's chair, you could be sacrificing both your looks and your oral health. Fortunately, modern dentistry offers some enormous conveniences for helping certain common procedures fly by. Here are four smart strategies for streamlining your dental experience.
1. Choose "All on 4" Dental Implants
Dental implants are the state of the art for anyone seeking tooth replacement. Surgical implantation helps to preserve your jawbone density, keeps your new teeth completely secure, and allows you to continue a normal routine of brushing and flossing. But if you need to replace an entire upper and/or lower row of teeth, you may dread the prospect of undergoing all that surgery, not to mention the average price of $4,250 for each implant and crown. The good news is that you can spend a fraction the time and money and still enjoy the amazing benefits of this form of tooth restoration by selecting an "all on 4" dental implantation system.
All on 4 implantation involves anchoring an entire bridge or denture plate to four implant "roots" installed at strategic load-bearing points on the jawbone. This approach is not only extremely cost effective compared to multiple single-tooth implants, but it can also give you a mouthful of new "teeth" in only one dental session.
2. Schedule Same-Day Crowns
Dental crowns are sometimes necessary to reinforce damaged or weakened teeth; they can also turn broken, jagged teeth into straight, perfect-looking ones. The big downside of a crown has always been the annoyingly long process of preparation, fabrication and adjustment. Having impressions made of your teeth, waiting for the dental lab to create crowns from those impressions, receiving the crowns from the lab and then correcting small flaws in the fit can involve numerous dental visits over many weeks. But you can collapse that timeline into a single appointment if your dentist offers same-day crowns.
Same-day crowns are made possible by sophisticated 3D computer modeling tools and programs. Once your tooth is prepared for a crown, a laser scans the prepared tooth and relays a precise image of it to the dentist's computer. A virtual model of the crown is then created so a computerized milling device can fabricate your new, perfectly-fitting crown on the spot.
3. Seek Out Single-Session Root Canals
Root canal therapy has traditionally been an inconvenient service to schedule. Patients would have an initial appointment in which the infected tooth was examined, cleaned out and treated with disinfectant, followed by a second session for the remainder of the procedure. Difficult root canals involving severely infected or damaged teeth (especially those with several roots) may still require this traditional method. Ever since the 1990s, however, it's been possible to get less complicated root canals done in a single session. Top off the root canal with a same-day crown, and you've made the process as streamlined as possible with no sacrifice in the quality of dental care.
4. Ask for Sedation
Even if you're not pressed for time, the sheer perceived length of a dental procedure can make that time in the dentist's chair a maddening experience. Some people just aren't comfortable sitting still in a medical environment for extended periods -- to the point where they end up neglecting serious dental problems. If you want your dental appointment to fly by as quickly and effortlessly as possible, at least from your perspective, don't hesitate to ask for sedation.
Dental sedation may take the form of "laughing gas" (the lightest, shortest-lasting variety), oral medication that you take beforehand or even IV sedation for a fast-acting effect, precisely-controlled effect. Even in a relaxed trance state, you should still be able to answer the dentist's questions and obey instructions. Before you know it, the procedure is done and you're ready to go home -- but if you had anything more than laughing gas, make sure someone else is driving.
Today's dental offerings can make those necessary visits feel quicker and easier than ever, so don't dawdle when it comes to getting that all-important care. Talk to your dentist about these and other options! For more information, contact a company like Bruce Mathes DDS.
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