Keeping Northeast Ohio’s Smiles Balanced, Healthy and Strong
We talk a lot about comprehensive dentistry – in our office, on our website and in our treatment plans. But what does comprehensive dentistry really mean?
Comprehensive dentistry is a superior way of treating our patients. Less comprehensive dentistry is more of a palliative approach. In other words, it offered relief of symptoms as they arose instead of treating the overall problem that lead to the symptom. For example, old-fashioned dentistry fixed your crown or filled your tooth, but didn’t look at why your crown was breaking or cavities were developing.
We see something like constantly breaking crowns as a symptom of a larger issue. Very likely, your crown is breaking because your bite is not correct. Maybe unbalanced restorations have changed the balance of your bite or your teeth have become shorter and unbalanced by time and wear.
Each time we treat you, we look at how your chewing muscles work, how your jaw joints are functioning and how your teeth come together against each other. We also evaluate the health of your gums and other soft tissue, looking for signs of disease, injury and oral cancer. This is important because, as new studies show, gum disease has been linked to all kinds of problems from heart disease to diabetic concerns and pregnancy issues. We also consider the appearance of your smile as a whole and create restorations that look and feel the way nature intended. Of course we also look at and treat each, individual tooth, but as we do, we are also treating your entire smile by ensuring that individual restorations balance and harmonize in every way with the rest of your mouth.
In short, comprehensive dentistry treats you like a whole human being, not just a single tooth or a mouth. We think it is the best way to help our patients stay healthy and confident and for our dentistry to last. If you’d like to learn more about comprehensive dentistry, give me, Dr. Bryan Stephens a call at 330-867-7741.