Dentalnews (en)

The basics of denture materials – tooth materials

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If you are living in an industrial country, do not rack your brain about toothmaterials.

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Terms like noble metal supply, zinc supply, titanium and Co are hyped to squeeze money out of your pocket-denture costs are getting higher unnecessarily.

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All materials, which are used in a patient´s mouth are subject to strict controls and therefore bio compatible. For you, function and aesthetic dentistry is important.

The function should fit-the bite should be ok, as well as the thickness of crowns and bridges. Function does not depend on material, but on other factors. For example, if the dentist chooses the right tooth cut-you get good results with a groove cut, but not with a tangent cut or step cut. Furthermore if the dental impression is performed properly, if the denture was biochemically well concipated and last but not least if the dentist/technician has often worked with the materials.

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If a technician mostly performs gold inlays it is more difficult for him to performm partial dentures and the other way round. A tehnician who has worked his whole life with steel is more competent to perform dentures out of steel instead of titanium.
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Costs do not depend on the material but on aesthetic. It makes a difference whether the technician is performing 10 crowns/dentures a day or just one. Tooth aesthetic is an expensive art.

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Is it possible for patients to check their dentists?

We say: Yes!

How to reveal an unethical dentist?

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Let´s keep the bad tooth, is he getting bad before, we can use it for the dentures.
Ouch: Teeth are not becoming bad! If the dentist argues that way he has no conception of dentistry-more on this in the video dental anomalies and cavity.

The tooth is bad, it has to be extracted!
Ouch: What does that mean? Either the dental care has not been sufficient, or you are not brushing your teeth adequately. Biological systems aren´t bad per se; concept of cause-effect!
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You are suffering from parodontosis and therefore you need to improve your oral hygiene!
Ouch: It is called: Periodontitis, a slight difference with a major importance. Moreover a periodontitis is not treated with oral hygiene, but with periodontal therapy. However, you can increase the change of successful outcome of the periodontal therapy if you improve your oral hygiene.
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I am making a crown with the material XY, it is more expensive, but better!
Ouch: The crown materials have little to do with  money. Moreover, the materials which are licensed in the respective country are tested biologically and therefore considered as “good”. Use this link to get more informations on the factors of prices!
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Cofferdam is not important and can damage the gums!
Ouch: The cofferdam bracket can irritate the gums though this irritation is reversible. Acid/adhesive techniques (e.g. ceramic inlays, plastic fillings) should not be performed without using a coffer dam, as well as root canal treatments.
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A gold inlay is better than a ceramic inlay!
Ouch: A ceramic inlay, if performed accurately, is “tighter” than a gold inlay. However, a gold inlay can last thirty years or longer. It depends on the material which is more commonly used by the dental technician. An experienced dentist or technician, who have worked with gold inlays for many years would use gold inlays. You can  find your perfect dentist on checkdent.com 🙂
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What qualifies as a reliable dentist?
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You´ll receive a written summary before the first medical call.
After the first medical call you get a summary of data, results, diagnosis (via postal mail, e mail). An offer of sanitation is not usual but welcomed, because of costing! A dentist who has nothing to hide gives you all the information for comparison.
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The doctor takes time for the first call!
Gut feeling is essential. Does the doctor recommend expensive treatments, or he talks about more affordable alternatives? Somebody who presents to you all all the available options is interesetd in medicine, and has your best interest at heart,  not just the benefit part of it!
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How trustworthy does the dentist and the presented information feels like?
All medical phenomena obey the concept of cause-effect!
Medical processes such as diseases refer to a cause, which should be discussed understandingly by reliable doctors. The information should be presented to you in a manner easy for you to comprehend!

How to choose a proper filling material? Pain after dental filling-why? Costs of fillings?!

It is common to develop cavities on the posterior teeth due to several reasons.  The size of the teeth; they are bigger and have deep grooves. Another reason is the lack of proper brushing technique,  or inadequate brushing time. It is also important to floss once a day.  More on this, in the video dental anomalies and brushing techniques.

A Distinction is made between fillings.  Different filling materials change more over the years, regardless of your oral hygiene. –

Amalgam, cements and plastics change their physical compound, therefore these materials will get leak in the course of the years. It is not recommended to use three surface composite fillings on posterior teeth. Frequently patients experience pain after these fillings,  caused by a  chemical irritation of the tooth nerve, which  often results in a root canal  treatment!

Basically these fillings last from 2 to 10 years, which depends on:
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• The shape and size of the filling
• The quality of work
• Your oral hygiene
• Your chewing pressure and eating habits

Every filling replacement causes a loss of the tooth surface, which leads to bigger filling every time. Therefore patients  shall invest in lasting treatments such as:
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• gold inlays/onlays
• ceramic inlays/onlays
• titanium inlays/onlays

These filling materials hardly change, providing that your oral hygiene is good, otherwise the gold inlay may  leak. You can preserve lifelong healthy teeth if you change your brushing habits and one dental investment.
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Inform yourself about the different treatment options, which your dentist usually performs, since the best material is nothing without an appropriate processing!
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How to identify leaking fillings?
If there is a black fissure between the filling and the tooth there is a good possibility the filling might be leaking!

Toothache 1/5

This week we would like to show you how it all began, just like one of those cartoon documentaries on evolution – except that we’re doing the evolution of the tooth!

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You know how some stories are long and need to be told in parts. Well, this is going to be a five-part series, which we personally think is long enough!
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Here is a short preview of all of this week’s episodes

1. Getting my fillings replaced was a good idea, so why do I still have a toothache!
2. One root canal after the other, but the toothache won’t go away?!
3. Maybe you don’t have a toothache, but your face kind of hurts, is this a case of trigeminal neuralgia?!
4. Teeth gone, toothache and desperation still around!
5. The journey’s over, now you’ve made it to this article!

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Getting my fillings replaced was a good idea, so why do I still have a toothache!
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The sun is shining.
You’re finally making money on your own, you have long since left your parents’ house, and you may even have a family of your own. You have everything anybody could ever want – there’s a nice car in the driveway in front of your house, your four children are happily playing in the garden. You and your partner have achieved all your goals, you got your college degree, and then embarked on a great career – you’ve spent 15 years abroad and speak 4 languages.
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We are parents, lovers, adventures and friends in one, the only thing we always forget about is our teeth, until one fine day we decide to replace our old amalgamate fillings by something newer, whiter and more natural, composite fillings (white fillings). For a small sum, say 50-150€ we get our spanking new white fillings.
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Clouds on the horizon
You’re already on your way home when you start feeling pain after getting your fillings – one or more of your teeth start to ache! And when you bite down on something you get some kind of unpleasant „feeling“. Some of us are lucky, and it takes days, weeks, months, or even years until you start having problems with your teeth. Many of us only have problems for a short while but years later they come back in full force, and you have a bumpy ride ahead.
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Toothache – what now – what happened?
Plastics fillings consist of little building blocks, called monomers – kind of like legos. Once the dentist points the strange lamp at the fillings, these  monomers turn to polymers. The light puts the legos together – and the plastic hardens, a process called polymerisation.
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But the plastic can only harden thoroughly if moisture is kept away from the tooth, and this can only be done using a cofferdam. Moreover, the plastic should be applied in thin layers and allowed to harden immediately, otherwise the bottom layers will stay soft. Done properly, this may take up to an hour!
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These fillings should not be used on chewing surfaces either, as the polymers are unstable and monomers can start breaking out of the structure.
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Depending on how the procedure was performed (moist, without layering, deep fillings) loose monomers may be present from the very beginning, and start to break away eventually. These monomers are also “poison” to the dental nerve, which gets damaged and gives you a toothache. This may happen right away, or it might take days, weeks, or months, depending on the depth of the filling, how well the filling was made and the quality of the materials used. Your judgement may also be influenced by your sensitivity to pain.

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Stay tuned for: Once upon a time there was the tooth II

What happens after a root treatment?

You tooth might hurt even after a successful root treatment!
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These pains are not supposed to:

• build up

and supposed to:

• getting less
• take at most 3 days

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Follow this link to get more informations about a proper root canal treatment!

The tooth has to be sealed promptly after a succesful root treatment, e.g. through a crown, an inlay-this depends on the tooth defect.
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It is always about microgaps in dentistry! –

The material in the mouth is extremly stressed (cold/warm/strain/wetness)- small microgaps get formed with conventional filling materials thus a well performed root treatment can be destroyed after years.

Indeed a proper treatment is more expensive at the beginning-in the long run you safe a lot of money!