Dental Information

Patient Home Care Following Crown or Bridge Appointment

If you have had Novocaine, please be careful not to bite your tongue or the inside of your cheeks. Avoid eating chewy foods until the numbness has worn off.

It is important that the temporary crown (or bridge) stay in place until the permanent crown is inserted. If the temporary crown becomes dislodged or feels uncomfortable, please call us so that we may see you as soon as possible. Do not attempt to "glue" the temporary crown back in yourself or "go without it" as the teeth may become sensitive or shift slightly preventing insertion of the permanent crown.

Avoid chewing anything very hard or sticky on the temporary crown. Examples to avoid:

Crusty, hard breads
Sticky or hard candy
Gum

To prevent pulling temporary crown off, avoid flossing, but do brush carefully and thoroughly. It is important to brush and keep gum tissue as clean as possible.

Remember, we are happy to see you to check the temporary crown if you have a question prior to insertion of the permanent crown.

Post Operative Instructions for Periontal Scaling and Root Planning

If you are having root planning, it is the first step in the treatment and prevention of periodontal disease.

You can use warm salt-water rinses alternating with peroxide rinses (Peroxyl) to give relief from any soreness and to help keep the area clean and free of any loose debris.

Anti-inflammatory medications such as ibuprofens (Advil, Aleve and Motrin) are excellent, as is Tylenol for relief of mild discomfort.

The success of your treatment depends on keeping a schedule of frequent cleaning appointments and maintaining your home care during and after your root planning procedure.

We will check the health of your tissues by reprobing the pocket depths after your root planning. We will then put you on a three-month recall to prevent the reocurrence of periodontal disease.

Home Care Advice Following Oral Surgery

Healing: Do not disturb the wound by touching it with fingers, toothpick, or tongue. Irritation, bleeding and infection could result. The blood clot, which forms over the area, should not be disturbed.

Bleeding: Immediately after extraction bite hard and steadily on a piece of gauze to exert pressure on the area for at least 30 minutes to 1 hour (changing gauze every 5-10 minutes or when needed). Remove gauze after 1 hour, if bleeding continues, place another piece of rolled gauze or a wet tea bag over extraction area and continue to bite hard and steadily for another 15 minutes to ½ hour. Some slight oozing of blood from extraction site is not unusual for first few hours.

Do not rinse mouth with water. It is important not to rinse clot out of the extraction site. If you have any doubt about clot holding, call for us to see you.

Rinsing: No rinsing on the day of surgery, but the day after surgery you should rinse with a warm salt water solution 3 times per day for 5 days. 1 teaspoon salt in 8 oz. warm (not hot) water.

Rinse gently so as to avoid disturbing the blood clot. Rinsing helps relieve soreness and flushes away food particles from the extraction site.

Bonded Fillings

We use the latest in filling materials available to restore your teeth. These are tooth-colored bonded composite fillings.

The following are advantages of these newest bonded materials:

Requires less tooth preparation (drilling)
Only removes decayed areas (minimal removal of healthy tooth structure)
Sometimes can be done without anesthesia
Because the filling bonds to the tooth and there is less tooth structure removed, the tooth is less likely to fracture than with silver amalgam
Closely matches natural tooth shades (almost invisible)

This state of the art procedure provides you with the most conservative technique and strongest tooth-colored material to restore decayed areas of your teeth.

Although some insurance may not fully cover these restorations, the materials are a better alternative to the mercury-containing silver fillings (amalgams).