With Teeth Whitening

You look in the mirror and smile, but the person smiling back just doesn’t seem as young and fresh as she used to be. Maybe the problem is simply that your smile isn’t as bright as it was a few years ago. The truth is a darker smile can make us look years older than we need to. It is surprising but true – and teeth whitening can make an astonishing difference in your appearance.

But whitening your teeth – permanently– just got easier. We use the Opalescence tooth whitening system to bring teeth back to the youthful whiteness they once had. It’s effectiveness and low sensitivity results are outstanding. For more information about how teeth whitening can help you look better and feel more confident, give me, Dr. Bryan Stephens a call at 330-867-7741.

Fairlawn Dental Health

When is the last time you thought about your fillings? When you run your tongue over the fillings in your molars, how do they feel? Are they rough and jagged? Does touching them or chewing cause any kind of twinge or pain? Now look in a mirror and open your mouth. Have your teeth been repaired with dark and aging “silver” fillings? Do the teeth under them look dark?

While they may be called “silver”, those fillings really aren’t silver at all! They are made up of an amalgam or mixture of metals including Mercury. Though there has been some discussion about whether the Mercury in a filling can have adverse effects on your body, we have seen example after example of how they can hurt your teeth. The damage begins as this metal expands and contracts in your tooth – just the way metal shifts when exposed to different temperatures outside your tooth. This movement can cause your teeth to chip and allow bacteria to enter the very cavity the filling was meant to protect. We often take out metal fillings with advanced decay and damage under the filling.

We believe that every restoration we place should be both healthy and beautiful. That is why we only place composite fillings or porcelain inlays, onlays or crowns. If you think you have a cavity, or if you have old metal fillings in your teeth that are bothering you or causing concern, give me, Dr. Bryan Stephens a call at 330-867-7741. We can help get your smile healthier and more beautiful.

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.