For teenagers with a missing tooth, however, an implant may not be a good idea, at least until they’ve physically matured. Although their permanent teeth have usually all come in by puberty, the jaws and facial structure continue to develop into early adulthood. An implant placed too early could appear misaligned when the jaw fully matures.

The best approach for teens is a temporary replacement until they’re physically ready for an implant. There are two good options: a removable partial denture (RPD) or a fixed bonded bridge.

Common among adults, an RPD is also a viable replacement for a teenager’s missing tooth. An RPD consists of a prosthetic (false) tooth set in a nylon or acrylic base that resembles gum tissue. Metal clips formed in the RPD fit over adjacent teeth to hold the appliance in place; this also makes it easy to remove for cleaning or sleep time. We typically recommend an acrylic base for teens because it’s easier to adjust if the RPD’s fit becomes loose.

To hold it in place, a traditional bridge uses crowns on either side of the replacement tooth to bond over the natural teeth next to the open socket. Because this requires permanently altering the support teeth, we recommend a bonded bridge that doesn’t.

This modified bridge uses wing-like strips of dental material on the back of the false tooth that project outward. With the tooth in place, we bond the extending portions of these projections to the back of the adjacent teeth, which secures the false tooth in place.

Of the two options, the bonded bridge is more comfortable, buys the most time and looks the most natural. But it will cost more than an RPD. Bite issues, teeth grinding, overall gum health or your child’s level of hygiene conscientiousness could also nix it as a viable option.

Either choice will effectively replace your child’s missing tooth until it’s time for a permanent restoration. We’ll help you weigh all the factors to determine which one is best for your situation.

If you would like more information on restoration options for teens, please contact us or schedule an appointment for a consultation.

“When I was a kid, I had every kind of [treatment]. I had braces, I had headgear, I had rubber bands, and a retainer afterward,” Copperfield said. And then, just when his orthodontic treatment was finally complete, disaster struck. “I was at a mall, running down this concrete alleyway, and there was a little ledge… and I went BOOM!”

Copperfield’s two front teeth were badly injured by the impact. “My front teeth became nice little points,” he said. Yet, although they had lost a great deal of their structure, his dentist was able to restore those damaged teeth in a very natural-looking way. What kind of “magic” did the dentist use?

In Copperfield’s case, the teeth were repaired using crown restorations. Crowns (also called caps) are suitable when a tooth has lost part of its visible structure, but still has healthy roots beneath the gum line. To perform a crown restoration, the first step is to make a precise model of your teeth, often called an impression. This allows a replacement for the visible part of the tooth to be fabricated, and ensures it will fit precisely into your smile. In its exact shape and shade, a well-made crown matches your natural teeth so well that it’s virtually impossible to tell them apart. Subsequently, the crown restoration is permanently attached to the damaged tooth.

There’s a blend of technology and art in making high quality crowns — just as there is in some stage-crafted illusions. But the difference is that the replacement tooth is not just an illusion: It looks, functions and “feels” like your natural teeth… and with proper care it can last for many years to come.  Besides crowns, there are several other types of tooth restorations that are suitable in different situations. We can recommend the right kind of “magic” for you.

If you would like more information about crowns, please contact us or schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can also learn more about this topic by reading the Dear Doctor magazine articles “Crowns & Bridgework” and “Porcelain Crowns & Veneers.”

The good news is a chipped tooth can be restored cosmetically to look just as normal and attractive as your other teeth. Depending on the application there are two different materials we commonly use: porcelains, a type of oven-fired ceramic most often found in veneers or crowns; or composite resins, a mixture of glass and plastic substances we apply in liquid form that hardens in built-up layers on the tooth’s surface to ultimately resemble normal tooth shape and color.

So, which of these two materials is the best option for your tooth? That depends on the extent and location of the tooth damage. Composite resins are most often used for mild to moderate chipping or breaks in the enamel (and somewhat for the underlying dentin) or decayed areas in the front teeth. Porcelain veneers or crowns are better for more extensive damage or discoloration.

Both materials have their advantages and disadvantages. Composite resins can be applied in one office visit, but they require a skillful technique and an artistic eye to achieve a life-like appearance; although their strength has improved over the years, they’re also limited in their durability and longevity compared to porcelain. Porcelain, on the other hand, is quite durable and has an excellent tooth-like appearance; they do, however, require removal of more tooth material than a composite resin to accommodate the new veneer or crown, along with more than one visit and the services of a dental lab to create the restoration.

The best way to find out which option is best for you is to visit us for a thorough dental examination. From there we can review with you our findings, our recommendations and the costs associated with each option. But whichever material we use, porcelain or composite resins, you can look forward to a new smile you’ll be proud to display.

If you would like more information on cosmetic treatments for teeth, please contact us or schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can also learn more about this topic by reading the Dear Doctor magazine article “Artistic Repair of Front Teeth with Composite Resin.”

Consider contacting Mangrove Bay Dentistry in Tampa, FL to find out about ClearCorrect, the alternative to metal braces.

Many people would like to have straighter teeth but just don’t feel comfortable with the idea of metal bands and wires being attached to their teeth, such as is done with traditional braces. However, Dr. Toan Tran may have the perfect option: ClearCorrect clear braces.

How ClearCorrect works is very similar to traditional braces. As with traditional braces, your Tampa dentist will make careful measurements of your mouth and develop an individual treatment plan tailored specifically to your case. Instead of putting bands and wires on your teeth, however, your Tampa dentist is going to have you wear a series of hard clear plastic trays, similar to a sports mouthguard, that are designed to place a mild amount of pressure on your teeth to shift them into proper alignment. Because the trays are made of clear plastic, they are invisible to the world. Also, because ClearCorrect trays are removable, you can continue with your regular oral health routine of brushing and flossing.

Because your ClearCorrect clear braces are designed specifically for you, it is important that you wear them for the time and duration prescribed for optimum results. Cases vary, but patients who use ClearCorrect generally have to wear the trays on average for 12-18 months or more depending on individual needs, and around 23 or 24 hours a day.

ClearCorrect is not for everyone. Generally, ClearCorrect works best for milder bite, occlusion, or spacing issues. If you have a severe underbite, overbite or crossbite or your teeth are profoundly crooked or you have major spacing issues, your Tampa dentist may recommend another option.

To find out more about ClearCorrect, contact Mangrove Bay Dentistry in Tampa, FL at 813-891-9898.

One of the most important aspects of social interaction is smiling, showing others we’re confident and outgoing.  Many people, though, are hesitant to use this important social skill because their teeth are unattractive.

But even the most unattractive teeth can be dramatically transformed through cosmetic dentistry. Here are 5 prominent ways we can restore beauty to your problem teeth.

Enamel shaping. Sometimes teeth can have an irregular shape that makes them stand out like a sore thumb. With this “sculpting” technique, we remove very small amounts of enamel, the outer protective layer of a tooth, which improves the tooth’s overall shape without harming it.

Bonding. Recent developments in acrylics now make it easier to repair chipped, broken or decayed teeth with minimal preparation. The acrylic material can be molded to resemble a natural tooth and colored to precisely match its shade and that of neighboring teeth. It’s then bonded to the tooth with a durability that can last through years of daily biting and chewing.

Veneers. These thin layers of dental porcelain are bonded to teeth to cover minor defects. Otherwise healthy teeth that are slightly chipped, stained or a bit out of alignment can get a more attractive “face” that’s durable and lasting.

Crowns and Bridgework. Sometimes teeth are too heavily decayed or lost altogether to use bonding or veneers. With porcelain dental restorations that have a strong inner core and an outer life-like appearance, we can completely cover an individual damaged tooth with a custom-made crown or replace one or more missing teeth with fixed bridgework.

Dental Implants. Introduced over thirty years ago, implants are a popular tooth replacement choice.  Its inner titanium post is surgically inserted into the jaw where bone cells grow and adhere to it to form a strong, lasting bond. Implants can be used for single teeth or as supports for fixed bridgework or removable dentures.

Regardless of your teeth’s appearance problems, cosmetic dentistry has a solution. The first step is a comprehensive examination — from there we can advise you on the best options for turning your embarrassing smile into a more beautiful and confident one.

If you would like more information on the various techniques for smile transformation, please contact us or schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can also learn more about this topic by reading the Dear Doctor magazine article “Beautiful Smiles by Design.”

What are veneers?

Like the covering used on furniture, dental veneers cover up cosmetic abnormalities that natural teeth can display from accidents, normal wear or daily habits. Generally made of a translucent glass-based porcelain, veneers from your Tampa dentist are thin layers that are affixed to your natural teeth with a bonding cement, creating a natural but totally flawless smile. If you’ve ever paused in line at the grocery store to admire the smiles of celebrities on the cover of magazines, it may surprise you to learn that many of them are wearing the same type of veneers offered by Dr. Tran.

Are veneers right for me?

If your teeth have cosmetic flaws but are otherwise healthy, you’re likely a great candidate for veneers at Mangrove Bay Dentistry! Any decay or other oral health-related issues will need to be addressed prior to placement of your veneers, but a consultation with Dr. Tran will iron out those details. Starting with healthy enamel (the protective outer covering of your teeth) is essential since a small portion of it – about twice the width of an eggshell – will need to be buffed away in order to ensure the best placement of veneers. It’s also important to have realistic goals about what veneers can offer you, as well as an understanding of how to care for them.

Patients who visit Mangrove Bay Dentistry in Tampa, FL are excited by the possibilities that veneers can offer them. If you’d like to learn more, contact us today!

If you think this scenario is far-fetched, guess again. OK, maybe the part about Sue not washing the retainer upon reclaiming it was just a gag (literally and figuratively), but lost retainers are all too common. Unfortunately, they’re also expensive to replace — so they need to be handled with care. What’s the best way to do that? Retainers should be brushed daily with a soft toothbrush and liquid soap (dish soap works well), and then placed immediately back in your mouth or into the case that came with the retainer. When you are eating a meal at a restaurant, do not wrap your retainer in a napkin and leave it on the table — this is a great way to lose it! Instead, take the case with you, and keep the retainer in it while you’re eating. When you get home, brush your teeth and then put the retainer back in your mouth.

If you do lose your retainer though, let us know right away. Retention is the last step of your orthodontic treatment, and it’s extremely important. You’ve worked hard to get a beautiful smile, and no one wants to see that effort wasted. Yet if you neglect to wear your retainer as instructed, your teeth are likely to shift out of position. Why does this happen?

As you’ve seen firsthand, teeth aren’t rigidly fixed in the jaw — they can be moved in response to light and continuous force. That’s what orthodontic appliances do: apply the right amount of force in a carefully controlled manner. But there are other forces at work on your teeth that can move them in less predictable ways. For example, normal biting and chewing can, over time, cause your teeth to shift position. To get teeth to stay where they’ve been moved orthodontically, new bone needs to form around them and anchor them where they are. That will happen over time, but only if they are held in place with a retainer. That’s why it is so important to wear yours as directed — and notify us immediately if it gets lost.

And if ever you do have to dig your retainer out of a dumpster… be sure to wash it before putting in in your mouth!

If you would like more information on retainers, please contact us or schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can learn more in the Dear Doctor magazine articles “The Importance of Orthodontic Retainers” and “Why Orthodontic Retainers?”

A crown is a metal or porcelain artifice that’s bonded permanently over a decayed or damaged tooth. Every crown process begins with preparation of the tooth so the crown will fit over it. Afterward, we make an impression of the prepared tooth digitally or with an elastic material that most often is sent to a dental laboratory to create the new crown.

It’s at this point where crown composition and design can diverge. Most of the first known crowns were made of metal (usually gold or silver), which is still a component in some crowns today. A few decades ago dental porcelain, a form of ceramic that could provide a tooth-like appearance, began to emerge as a crown material. The first types of porcelain could match a real tooth’s color or texture, but were brittle and didn’t hold up well to biting forces. Dentists developed a crown with a metal interior for strength and a fused outside layer of porcelain for appearance.

This hybrid became the crown design of choice up until the last decade. It is being overtaken, though, by all-ceramic crowns made with new forms of more durable porcelain, some strengthened with a material known as Lucite. Today, only about 40% of crowns installed annually are the metal-porcelain hybrid, while all-porcelain crowns are growing in popularity.

Of course, these newer porcelain crowns and the attention to the artistic detail they require are often more expensive than more traditional crowns. If you depend on dental insurance to help with your dental care costs, you may find your policy maximum benefit for these newer type crowns won’t cover the costs.

If you want the most affordable price and are satisfied primarily with restored function, a basic crown is still a viable choice. If, however, you would like a crown that does the most for your smile, you may want to consider one with newer, stronger porcelain and made with greater artistic detail by the dental technician. In either case, the crown you receive will restore lost function and provide some degree of improvement to the appearance of a damaged tooth.

If you would like more information on porcelain crown, please contact us or schedule an appointment for a consultation.

Sound far-fetched? It recently happened to one of the most recognized figures in sports — Tiger Woods. There’s still some uncertainty about exactly how this tooth was taken out: Was it a collision with a cameraman, as Woods’ agent reported… or did Woods already have some problems with the tooth, as others have speculated? We still don’t know for sure, but the big question is: What happens next?

Fortunately, contemporary dentistry offers several good solutions for the problem of missing teeth. Which one is best? It depends on each individual’s particular situation.

Let’s say that the visible part of the tooth (the crown) has been damaged by a dental trauma (such as a collision or a blow to the face), but the tooth still has healthy roots. In this case, it’s often possible to keep the roots and replace the tooth above the gum line with a crown restoration (also called a cap). Crowns are generally made to order in a dental lab, and are placed on a prepared tooth in a procedure that requires two office visits: one to prepare the tooth for restoration and to make a model of the mouth and the second to place the custom-manufactured crown and complete the restoration. However, in some cases, crowns can be made on special machinery right in the dental office, and placed during the same visit.

But what happens if the root isn’t viable — for example, if the tooth is deeply fractured, or completely knocked out and unable to be successfully re-implanted?

In that case, a dental implant is probably the best option for tooth replacement. An implant consists of a screw-like post of titanium metal that is inserted into the jawbone during a minor surgical procedure. Titanium has a unique property: It can fuse with living bone tissue, allowing it to act as a secure anchor for the replacement tooth system. The crown of the implant is similar to the one mentioned above, except that it’s made to attach to the titanium implant instead of the natural tooth.

Dental implants look, function and “feel” just like natural teeth — and with proper care, they can last a lifetime. Although they may be initially expensive, their quality and longevity makes them a good value over the long term. A less-costly alternative is traditional bridgework — but this method requires some dental work on the adjacent, healthy teeth; plus, it isn’t expected to last as long as an implant, and it may make the teeth more prone to problems down the road.

What will the acclaimed golfer do? No doubt Tiger’s dentist will help him make the right tooth-replacement decision.

If you have a gap in your grin — whatever the cause — contact us or schedule an appointment for a consultation, and find out which tooth-replacement system is right for you. You can learn more in the Dear Doctor magazine articles “Dental Implant Surgery” and “Crowns & Bridgework.”

You’re also thinking about buying a whitening product you can use yourself rather than a professional application. But you still want the answers to two questions: are home whitening kits safe? And, are they effective?

By and large the answer to the first question is yes — if you use it as directed. The whitening agents in FDA-approved products are in safe proportions to other ingredients and won’t cause any major health issues. That said, if you go beyond the instructed dosage you could damage your teeth, especially your enamel, and cause long-term problems with your dental care.

In addition, if you (or a family member) are still in your early teens, you may want to wait until you’re older. Although most permanent teeth have come in by puberty, their enamel still needs to mature. The chemicals in a whitening kit could be too strong for their under-developed enamel. It’s best to get our advice on whether your teeth are mature enough for whitening.

As to their effectiveness, home whitening kits should perform as their labeling indicates. But there are some differences in effects between a home kit and a professional application.

Although a home kit usually uses the same whitening agents (like carbamide peroxide), its strength is much lower than a professional treatment — about 10% of volume compared to around 30% in clinical solutions. This means it will take much longer to achieve the desired whitening effect that a professional application can in fewer sessions, and with less precision. In addition, home kits are only effective on surface staining of the enamel — discoloration within a tooth requires treatment by a dentist.

You can get satisfactory results from a home whitening kit. But before you make a purchase, consult with us first — we can advise you on what to look for in your purchase, as well as determine if your teeth can benefit from whitening at home.

If you would like more information on teeth whitening, please contact us or schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can also learn more about this topic by reading the Dear Doctor magazine article “Tooth Whitening Safety Tips.”