Monthly Archives: April 2017

Immediate complete denture case

This patient had a heart attack and some other health issues and wasn’t taking very good care of his teeth.  He came to me with tooth pain and wanted me to help.  Since his remaining teeth were in poor condition, I recommended to extract his remaining teeth and make complete upper and lower dentures.

immediate-denture-before
before
immediate-denture
after
denture-patient
happy patient

x-ray

Bone graft of the day

This patient broke off his upper right first bicuspid tooth to the gum line. I extracted the root and placed a bone graft to preserve the alveolar ridge. Following healing we will place an implant, or I might make a fixed bridge for the missing tooth space. He is using a flipper partial denture now during the healing phase so he can smile and have a tooth.

broken tooth 3

broken tooth 2
broken tooth
broken tooth
x-ray of root
extraction socket
socket following extraction
bone graft
bone graft placed
membrane
collagen bioplug and sutures
bonegraft
extracted roots

Anti-Snoring device that I make for patients

The dangers of snoring
More than 80 million North Americans snore. Taking into account the snorer’s spouse and children, as many as 160 million people are negatively affected by snoring. And snoring doesn’t merely interrupt your sleep cycle. The struggle for breath can result in soaring blood pressure, which can damage the walls of the carotid arteries and increase the risk of stroke. At certain levels of severity, complete blockage of the airway space by the soft tissues and the tongue can occur. If this period of asphyxiation lasts longer than 10 seconds, it is called Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), a medical condition with serious long-term effects.

What causes snoring?
During sleep, muscles and soft tissues in the throat and mouth relax, shrinking the airway. This increases the velocity of airflow during breathing. As the velocity of required air is increased, soft tissues like the soft palate and uvula vibrate. The vibrations of these tissues result in “noisy breathing” or snoring.

Surgical techniques used to remove respiration-impairing structures have shown only moderate success rates (20 to 40 percent). For the majority of snorers, the most affordable, non-invasive, comfortable and effective snoring solution remains a dentist-prescribed, oral snoring preventative device such as Silent Nite.

snoring prevention appliance

How Dr. Gentry can help you with a Silent Nite Slide-Link appliance
Silent Nite sl is a custom-fabricated dental device that moves the lower jaw into a forward position, increasing space in the airway tube and reducing air velocity and soft tissue vibration. Special connectors are attached to transparent flexible upper and lower forms. The forms are custom laminated with heat and pressure to the dentist’s model of the mouth. The fit is excellent and comfortable, permitting small movements of the jaw (TMJ) and allowing uninhibited oral breathing.

snoring appliance
Patient wearing the anti-snoring appliance
snoring appliance instructions
Instructions and connectors to vary jaw position

This video is actually for dentists, and explains all about the anti-snoring device.

Crown case of the day

This patient wanted me to give him a beautiful white smile. I placed porcelain crowns on his upper front teeth 3 years ago and he returned now to do the lower teeth. Here are the pictures:

before
before
after-upper teeth
after completing upper 6 front teeth
after-upper crowns 1 year later
3 years later, he’s ready to fix up the lower teeth
crowns cemented
lower 8 porcelain crowns cemented
porcelain crowns
looks fantastic!!!  going to do the back teeth next year

all done