Month: March 2018

A family dentist can treat everyone in your family at the same practice. If you have a medium to large sized family with a mix of young children and adults, a family dentist can save time and even make your family’s dental care more affordable and efficient. Northland Dental Centre in London, ON, offers preventive, cosmetic, restorative, and general dentistry services for patients of all ages.

Family Dentistry in London, ON

For busy parents and adults, getting everyone in the family to a different dentist for multiple appointments can be a logistical nightmare, and even result in skipping preventive and necessary dental care, which can put your own and your family’s oral health at risk. One of the advantages of seeing a family dentist is that you can schedule appointments for multiple family members at the same time, even if they require different services. One member of the family may be due for a checkup and dental cleaning, while another undergoes treatment for sleep apnea, root canal therapy, or orthodontic treatment.

Services available at a family dental practice include:

• Dental exam and cleaning
• Cosmetic dental fillings
• Bonding
• Veneers
• Oral cancer screening
• Orthodontic treatment
• Crowns and bridges
• Dental implants
• Root canal therapy
• Sleep apnea treatment
• Gum surgery
• Periodontal disease therapy
• TMD/TMJ treatment

Whether you just need to get everyone in your family to the dentist twice a year for preventive care or specific dental issues, a family dentist offers personalized, comprehensive care.

Find a Family Dentist in London, ON

It has never been easier or more convenient to take control of and invest in your family’s oral health. For more information on the benefits of seeing a family dentist, contact Northland Dental Centre by calling (519) 455-2551 to schedule an appointment with one of our dentists today.

If you press your tongue against your teeth, unless something is badly wrong they won’t budge. In fact, your teeth are subjected to a fair amount of pressure each day as you chew and eat, and yet they remain firmly in place.

But there’s a deeper reality—your teeth do move! No, it’s not a paradox—the gum and bone tissues that hold your teeth in place allow for slight, imperceptible changes in the teeth’s position. Their natural ability to move is also the basis for orthodontics. Here are 3 more facts you may not know about your teeth’s natural ability to move.

Teeth are always on the move. Teeth are held firmly within the jawbone by an elastic gum tissue called the periodontal ligament and a thin layer of bony-like material called cementum. In response to pressure changes, though, the bone dissolves on the side of the teeth in the direction of pressure and then rebuilds behind it, solidifying the teeth’s new position, a process that happens quite slowly and incrementally. And it will happen for most of us—some studies indicate more than 70% of people will see significant changes in their bite as they age.

Orthodontics works with the process. Orthodontic appliances like braces or clear aligners apply targeted pressure in the direction the orthodontist intends the teeth to move—the natural movement process does the rest. In the case of braces, a thin metal wire is laced through brackets bonded to the front of the teeth and then anchored, typically to the back teeth. The orthodontist incrementally tightens the wire against its anchors over time, encouraging tooth movement in response to the pressure. Clear aligners are a series of removable trays worn in succession that gradually accomplish the same outcome.

Watch out for the rebound. That nice, straight smile you’ve gained through orthodontics might not stay that way. That’s because the same mechanism for tooth movement could cause the teeth to move back to their former positions, especially right after treatment. To avoid this outcome, patients need to wear a retainer, an appliance that holds or “retains” the teeth in their new positions. Depending on their individual situations and age, patients may have to wear a retainer for a few months, years or from then on.

If you would like more information on orthodontic treatment, please contact us or schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can also learn more about this topic by reading the Dear Doctor magazine article “The Importance of Orthodontic Retainers.”

Mayim Bialik has spent a good part of her life in front of TV cameras: first as the child star of the hit comedy series Blossom, and more recently as Sheldon Cooper’s love interest — a nerdy neuroscientist — on The Big Bang Theory. (In between, she actually earned a PhD in neuroscience from UCLA…but that’s another story.) As a child, Bialik had a serious overbite — but with all her time on camera, braces were just not an option.

“I never had braces,” she recently told Dear Doctor – Dentistry & Oral Health magazine. “I was on TV at the time, and there weren’t a lot of creative solutions for kids who were on TV.” Instead, her orthodontist managed to straighten her teeth using retainers and headgear worn only at night.

Today, there are several virtually invisible options available to fix orthodontic issues — and you don’t have to be a child star to take advantage of them. In fact, both children and adults can benefit from these unobtrusive appliances.

Tooth colored braces are just like traditional metal braces, with one big difference: The brackets attached to teeth are made from a ceramic material that blends in with the natural color of teeth. All that’s visible is the thin archwire that runs horizontally across the teeth — and from a distance it’s hard to notice. Celebs like Tom Cruise and Faith Hill opted for this type of appliance.

Clear aligners are custom-made plastic trays that fit over the teeth. Each one, worn for about two weeks, moves the teeth just a bit; after several months, you’ll see a big change for the better in your smile. Best of all, clear aligners are virtually impossible to notice while you’re wearing them — which you’ll need to do for 22 hours each day. But you can remove them to eat, or for special occasions. Zac Efron and Katherine Heigl, among others, chose to wear clear aligners.

Lingual braces really are invisible. That’s because they go behind your teeth (on the tongue side), where they can’t be seen; otherwise they are similar to traditional metal braces. Lingual braces are placed on teeth differently, and wearing them often takes some getting used to at first. But those trade-offs are worth it for plenty of people. Which celebs wore lingual braces? Rumor has it that the list includes some top models, a well-known pop singer, and at least one British royal.

So what’s the best way to straighten your teeth and keep the orthodontic appliances unnoticeable? Just ask us! We’d be happy to help you choose the option that’s just right for you. You’ll get an individualized evaluation, a solution that fits your lifestyle — and a great-looking smile!

For more information about hard-to-see (or truly invisible) orthodontics, please contact our office or schedule a consultation. You can read more in the Dear Doctor magazine articles “Orthodontics for the Older Adult” and “Clear Aligners for Teenagers.”