Digital Radiography

Have you ever tried to look at one of your dental x-rays that was about an inch square? Talk about squinting your eyes! Our digital x-rays allow our patients to see their own x-rays on a high definition screen, and the image is often big enough to see a problem across the room. To the left, you see a tooth that developed an abscess. The root fracture that caused the problem is very evident on the image.When you have an x-ray taken at Dr. Daniel’s office, you can see it on a high definition computer screen. The image is blown up so you, the patient, can see it without squinting which is usually the case with x-ray film.Digital x-rays are easy to print if you need to take a copy with you to a specialist such as an orthodontist.Also, we can email your x-rays provided the recipient has the software to open the files.

If you have any questions about the x-ray images you see, please feel free to ask us any questions you may have.

“The Wand”

Injections Using “The Wand”
It’s a matter of record that many patients avoid dental work and end up losing teeth for one simple reason—they fear an injection.Research has shown that most of the discomfort from an injection is due to excessive flow rates. In other words, anesthetic being pushed in too rapidly is painful.”The Wand” is a computer controlled dental injection that has a slow and steady flow rate that is virtually painless.Many patients who visit Dr. Daniel for the first time wonder where the syringe is, only to find out there are none in the office. In fact, Dr. Daniel was on the cover of the Milestone Scientific annual report as one of the nation’s first users when The Wand was first introduced.

Surgical Microscope

The current standard of care dictates that certain procedures, such as molar root canals, be performed with a surgical microscope. This enables the doctor to see things like accessory canals, root fractures, and faulty margins of restorations that the naked eye would miss.  Dr. Daniel uses a surgical microscope for cosmetic bonding, crown and bridge work, root canals, implant procedures, and fillings.

Dental Implant Placement

Components of a Dental ImplantThe implant fixture is the cylinder shaped titanium portion that is surgically placed in bone.The abutment is the “post” that is screwed into the implant fixture. The abutment can be made of either titanium or zirconium.The crown is the part that fits over the abutment and looks like a natural tooth.

 

Step 1: A patient presents to Dr. Daniel with a missing tooth that he wants replaced with a dental implant. An alginate impression is made of the area surrounding the missing tooth.

An alginate impression

Step 2: A dental lab makes a barium sulfate splint which has a prosthetic tooth made of barium sulfate in the space where an implant tooth is desired.

Step 3: With the barium sulfate splint in place, a CT is made.

Step 4: Dr. Daniel determines from the CT the best position to place the dental implant. Dr. Daniel emails this data to Materialise Dental and ships a plaster cast of the jaw and surrounding teeth.

Notice in the three dimensional picture in purple, the end of the implant will be placed in the confines of maxillary bone. If the implant had perorated the bone going toward the nose, it would show up in this view.

Step 5: Materialise Dental fabricates a surgical guide for this patient which will align the implant placement during surgery.

Step 6: The implant is placed using the surgical guide.

Step 7: After healing, a final impression is made for the abutment and crown.

Step 8: The abutment is screwed into the implant fixture and the permanent crown is cemented in place.

Simplant Software for Dental Implants

In the section on dental implants we talked about using three dimensional CT images to determine the best position to place a dental implant. The software Dr. Daniel uses is called Simplant by Materialise Dental.Simplant enables the user to determine where vital structures are that should be avoided such as arteries, veins, nerves, and the maxillary sinus.The image below shows how a dental implant is aligned to avoid the maxillary sinus.

This image shows an implant that was placed so it would not impinge on the neurovascular bundle that houses the inferior alveolar nerve, artery, and vein.