Monthly Archives: September 2016

Attending the Virginia Dental Association Meeting in Norfolk

We attended the Virginia Dental Association Meeting September 15-18th in Norfolk, Virginia and learned about the latest advances in dentistry. I also was able to talk about the future of dentistry with the President of the American Dental Association, Dr. Gary Roberts, and Virginia Dental Association President, and friend, Dr. Vince Dougherty. As  Virginia Dental Association Delegates we voted on issues that effect dentists and dental care in the state of Virginia.

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House of Delegates Meeting
vdavoting
delegate information
vdameeting
taking a break from the meetings
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learning the latest advances in dentistry

Dr. Gentry at ADA meeting

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Battleship USS Wisconsin in Norfolk

What happens when you don’t brush

This is what happens when you don’t brush your teeth and do not see a dentist for 10 years. Most of this 64 year old patient’s teeth looked like these two that I uploaded here. Some are just too decayed and will need to be extracted, these two teeth I was able to restore with bonded ceramic composite restorations. Here’s are his before and after photos.

decaybefore
before-decayed upper central incisor
decayafter
after-restored with composite
moredecay
before-lower bicuspid
afterfilling
after

Immediate partial dentures I did this week

This 68 year old patient broke his 3 front teeth. Unfortunately the teeth were broken below the gumline and non-restorable, and we had to extract them. We placed dental implants at the time of extraction and I made him a temporary partial denture to use for 4 months while he is healing.  After healing and the dental implants have osseointegrated, I will place fixed crowns on top of the implants, and cement them in place.

before
before- broken off front teeth
after
after-with partial denture in
flipper
temporary partial denture

This 65 year old patient broke his front tooth off biting into corn on the cob at his office picnic party. I was able to glue the tooth back in temporarily while I made him a temporary partial denture. We then extracted the remaining root and placed an implant. In a few months after the implant has fully osseointegrated  I will make the permanent fixed cemented implant tooth crown.

before after misssingtooth                  xrayrootbrokentooth brokentooth2    

immediatepartial

Chipped front teeth today

This patient was playing hockey and his left front tooth was fractured by a hockey stick. I restored the tooth in 20 minutes with a ceramic composite bonded restoration. Looks great and he’s happy to get his great smile back.

chipped tooth
chipped front tooth
chippedtoothafter
after cosmetic bonding
greatsmile
awesome smile :-)))

This next patient fractured the her front tooth biting into a hard piece of bread. I quickly repaired this tooth too.

chippedtooth chippedtooth2

This patient chipped his lower tooth when he bit down hard and the tooth fractured against the upper incisor. This was a quick and easy repair.

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before
chip10
after

Implant case of the day

This patient was missing 2 lower right back teeth, and the tooth in between was broken, I restored him with 2 implants and a porcelain crown on the tooth between.

dental implants
2 implants with broken tooth in between
custom abutments
custom abutments placed
porcelain crowns
crowns cemented
crowns
looks great
dental implant parts
crowns, custom abutments and gold screws
implant x-ray
x-ray to check seating of custom abutments
patient
happy patient

Cavities of the day

This 30 year old patient drinks lemon water all day long. She also grinds her teeth. The grinding causes her teeth to crack and the acid from the lemon juice erodes the tooth causing demineralization of enamel allowing tooth decay.

decaybefore
before-deep decay spreading between her teeth
fillingsafter
after-cleaning out the decay and restoring the teeth with ceramic composite restorations
happypatient2
happy (and still numb) patient after

Next, his 23 year old patient had a crack in his back upper molar. The tooth had a 10 year old amalgam restoration in it. The crack allowed decay to spread deep under the old amalgam filling. The tooth was not sensitive and the patient was unaware that he had a cavity. I removed the old filling and cleaned up the decay, placed a fluoride base to protect the pulp and restored the tooth with a beautiful ceramic composite.

consult

decay
cracked decayed molar
decay1
deep decay
decay2
decay removed
decay3
composite restoration placed