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Quick Straight Teeth Procedure

Posted on June 20, 2018 by - Cosmetic Dental

Quick Straight Teeth fast braces in most cases straightens front teeth in as few as 5 appointments over 4 months.

30 Minute Free Consult

You are given the opportunity for one of our accredited dentists to have a look at your teeth and see if Quick Straight Teeth is suitable for you.  We will discuss the options for your case and treatment costs using Quick Straight Teeth as well as any other options.

View Terms and Conditions.

1 Hour Record Taking

We comprehensively analyse your whole mouth with a full examination, x-rays, photos and impressions to form study models.  Some special orthodontic x-rays (OPG, Lat Ceph) need to be done at a x-ray clinic and you will be given a referral for these.  To reduce your treatment expense, Quick Straight Teeth specialist orthodontists help treatment plan your case and we the general dentists carry out your treatment with their guidance.

1.5 Hour Insertion

Clear ceramic brackets are bonded to your teeth.  A special wire coated in white is attached to the brackets with small elastics.  Your teeth move according to the shape and elasticity of the special wire.

1 Hour Reviews

There may be one or several of these review appointments depending on the complexity of your case.  The movement of your teeth are checked.  The elastics and special wire are removed and replaced with new elastics and a new wire to continue tooth movement.  If your teeth straightening has finished, impressions can be taken to make retainers to hold your teeth straight.

1 Hour Retainer Insertion

The elastics, wire and brackets are removed and the cement cleaned away.  A retainer wire is bonded to the back of the front teeth to hold the teeth in position.  A removable retainer is supplied for wearing at night time to protect your teeth from moving when sleeping.  You can now smile with straight front teeth.

What Are ADIN Implants?

Posted on June 12, 2018 by - Cosmetic Dental

Not all dental implants are made the same.  Dental implants are precision titanium tooth root replacements and need to be designed and manufactured with the utmost care for long term success.  At Central Brisbane Dental, after thorough researching of all the brands available, we choose ADIN dental implants.

ADIN dental implants have been available since 1992.  ADIN is today an international leader in implant design and manufacturing of dental implants and their associated components and equipment.  The company works closely with dentists and dental specialists in private practice, public hospitals and dental schools in leading universities.  They consistently produce high quality, innovative, technologically-advanced dental implant products at a reasonable price.

ADIN prescribes strictly to what they call a “balance of excellence”.  There are many high quality dental implants available on the market.  However, most of these come with a very expensive price tag.  ADIN’s philosophy has been to provide a high quality dental implant at a very reasonable price.  With their dental implants today, they have undoubtedly succeeded in balancing excellence in product with product affordability.  They are still continuing their research every day.  An accurate but well-priced intraoral scanner for implant planning and implant restoration is their latest effort.

An overly complex dental implant system can make an otherwise straight forward procedure a very stressful one.  With some systems, there may be a long list of steps, components and equipment.  ADIN removes the complexity from implant dentistry, with simplified steps, components and equipment.  Dentists and dental specialists alike find their system easy to use.  This can only lead to less risk of complications and higher long term success with use of the ADIN dental implant system.  Like their motto, the ADIN dental implant system and the dental implants themselves truly “leave limits behind”.  There are many factors that determine dental implant success.  With this system, every case has a great chance at success in terms of the implant, components and equipment.

Do I Need A High Fluoride Toothpaste?

Posted on June 3, 2018 by - Preventive Dental

There’s a toothpaste available that is great at preventing tooth decay.  It is anti-bacterial and makes teeth stronger and more resistant to breaking down.  It’s made by leading oral hygiene product brand, Colgate.  However, you’ve probably never heard of it.  It’s called Neutrafluor 5000 Plus.

The name Neutrafluor 5000 Plus is a strange one.  It sounds like a machine or robot name.  It’s not all that enticing coming from a marketing point of view.  However, it’s not meant for marketing.  You cannot find this product on the shelves at your local supermarket or variety store.  It is sold at pharmacies or directly from your dentist only.  It is also more expensive that regular toothpaste.  In fact, it should only be used after assessment and recommendation by your dentist.

The name Neutrafluor 5000 Plus is more for the dentist rather than the patient.  It tells the dentist exactly what is in the product.  Neutrafluor stands for neutral fluoride as opposed to acidulated fluoride.  Fluoride is proven in research to make teeth stronger and more resistant to decay, as well as being anti-bacterial.  Acid roughens tooth structure for the fluoride to absorb better into it.  However, too much acid can wear away the enamel and permanently damage it.  So for products used at home away from your dentist’s direct supervision, a neutral product is much safer than an acidulated one.

The 5000 means 5000 parts per million fluoride or approximately 5 times the amount of fluoride in regular toothpaste.  This higher amount of fluoride is what makes this toothpaste extra good at protecting at risk tooth structure.  However, this higher amount of fluoride also means the toothpaste cannot be used in young children and needs to be recommended by your dentist for your specific needs.  Too much fluoride like too much of anything else can make you sick.  The Plus part of the name is for the other ingredients that make this product into a toothpaste.  These control flavour, consistency, foaming and cleaning properties of the toothpaste.

If you are at higher risk of tooth decay, your dentist may recommend you use Colgate Neutrafluor 5000 Plus toothpaste instead of regular toothpaste.  It may reduce your need for fillings and other dental work.

Dental Implant Options

Posted on May 31, 2018 by - Cosmetic Dental

Dental implants can be used to replace missing teeth.  They can also be used to replace teeth that need to be extracted.  In fact, dental implants can be used to replace a single tooth, multiple teeth or even all the teeth when teeth are missing or need to be extracted.

1. Replacing A Single Tooth

When a single tooth is missing or needs to be extracted, a dental implant can be placed in the jaw bone in that spot.  A crown can then be attached to the dental implant to replace that single tooth.

2. Replacing Multiple Teeth

You may have more than one missing tooth or more than one tooth that needs to be extracted.  Many single dental implants can be placed in the jaw bone at these different positions.  All of these implants can then have crowns attached to them to replace the teeth.

If you have 3 missing teeth or teeth that need to be extracted in a row, dental implants can be placed to support a bridge.  One implant at each end of the long space can be used to attach a 3 tooth bridge.  Several dental implant supported bridges can be used if there are several large spaces in the mouth.

3. Replacing All The Teeth

If all the upper or lower teeth are missing or need to be extracted, dental implants can be used to replace all the teeth.  14 single implants and crowns can get pretty expensive and require a lot of surgery.  Even several 3 tooth bridges is still a lot of money and a lot of surgery.  There is an option called All on 4 where only 4 dental implants are required to hold a full arch bridge to replace all the teeth in the upper or lower parts of the mouth.  For even less expense and surgery, dental implants can also be used to hold in a full denture.  This is usually done if a full denture by itself is a bit loose.

What Is Peri Implantitis?

Posted on May 22, 2018 by - Uncategorized

Don’t think that dental implants are not natural teeth so are not subject to dental problems.  A dental implant itself is artificial, but the jaw bone and gum tissue surrounding the implant is natural living tissue.  There are dental problems that will affect the artificial dental implant and problems that will affect the natural tissues.

Problems with the Dental Implant:

All the artificial components associated with a dental implant can wear and tear and may need to be replaced.  Crowns, bridges and dentures that attach to dental implants may need to be repaired or remade over time. Small internal screws that are used to attach crowns, bridges and dentures may need to be replaced if they break.  A dental implant itself tends to stay locked to the jaw bone once it is firmly attached after surgery to place it.  However, there are a small number of cases of dental implants that don’t integrate well with the jaw bone or the surgery site becomes infected.  These dental implants need to be removed and a new one placed after the jaw bone is cleaned and healing occurs.

Problems with the Surrounding Natural Tissue:

You still need to clean a dental implant as you would a natural tooth.  If the implant and its surrounding tissues are not cleaned properly, you can get a gum disease called peri-implantitis.  Like with normal gum disease affecting the gum and jaw bone that surround natural teeth, the gum and jaw bone surrounding an implant can become inflammed and break down in peri-implantitis.  Severe cases of peri-implantitis can result in failure of the implant similar to loss of the tooth in severe cases of normal gum disease.

Dental implants and the crowns, bridges and dentures that attach to them need to be brushed and flossed.  You need to see the dentist every 6 months to have your dental implants and their crowns, bridges and dentures checked and professionally cleaned.

Why Do I Take A Long Time To Numb Up At The Dentist?

Posted on May 14, 2018 by - General Dental

Is your mouth notoriously difficult to get numb?  Does the dentist have to give you double the amount of local anaesthetic to get you fully numb?  Even then, have you thought that you may still be feeling something in your tooth even though your lips and tongue feel numb and fat?

It is not all in your head.  Some patients’ mouths are simply not easy to numb up.  There are 3 main reasons for this:

  1. Complex Anatomy

Some patients have complex anatomy which makes it difficult for local anaesthetic to reach your nerves.  To numb up the teeth in the lower jaw, local anaesthetic must enter a small in the jaw bone next to the inside of your cheek.  If that small hole is particularly obscured by thick muscle, fatty tissue or mucosa, then you may not get much local anaesthetic numbing up your nerves.  If the hole is angled towards the back of the mouth, again not much local anaesthetic may get to the nerves.  There is usually one big nerve trunk, however some patients may have more than one nerve or multiple branches of the one nerve in the area where we are trying to numb.  One nerve or one nerve branch may be numbed, but other nerves or nerves branches may still provide sensation.

  1. Not Enough Anaesthetic

If not enough local anaesthetic can reach the nerves, then you may not have very profound numbness.  If this is the case, then another dose of the same type of local anaesthetic should provide profound numbness.  If you have profound numbness, you should feel numbness in the teeth, gums and surrounding soft tissues such as the cheek, lips and tongue and have little control over these tissues.

  1. Anaesthetic is Too Weak

If an extra dose still doesn’t give you profound numbness, then a different local anaesthetic may used.  Local anaesthetics work differently.  Two different types may provide much better numbness than a double dose of the same one.  Some local anaesthetics are extra heavy duty.  These may be used in difficult to numb cases, but they do take much longer to wear off.

Do I Have Dry Socket?

Posted on May 9, 2018 by - Preventive Dental

A tooth extraction isn’t the nicest procedure at the best of times.  However, it is usually a necessary procedure to get rid of pain, infection or both.  A dry socket after the extraction just makes the bad situation even worse.

After a tooth is removed, a blood clot forms overt the hole where the tooth used to be.  The blood clot protects the exposed underlying tissue and guides tissue healing.  A dry socket occurs when a proper blood clot does not form or more commonly, is dislodged after it is formed.  The jaw bone that was housing the tooth roots is left exposed and this is very painful.

Normally after tooth removal, most of the pain and swelling subside within 2 to 3 days.  If this does not occur, but rather the symptoms increase, there is a possibility you have a dry socket.  The pain is usually quite severe and may radiate from the tooth socket to the eye, ear, temple and neck on the same side as the tooth removal.  There may be a bad taste and smell from the area.  It may be hard for the average patient to tell, but there will be no blood clot, lack of tissue healing and visible bone exposed when the site is examined.

You will need to go back to the dentist to have the socket cleaned and healing started again with the formation of a new blood clot.  The dentist will flush the socket to remove any irritants and debris.  The socket is packed with a medication which kills infection and helps with pain and tissue healing.  More pain medication and antibiotics may be prescribed.  Home care for the socket such as rinsing it with water salt water and a soft diet need to be continued.

Dry sockets tend to occur more in patients who smoke and drink alcohol after getting the extraction.  Not following the dentist’s after care instructions, especially lack of proper socket cleaning, gives you higher risk of a dry socket.  General poor oral hygiene and untreated gum disease and tooth decay in nearby areas of the mouth are also risk factors.  Interestingly, being on oral contraceptives or hormone replacement therapy gives higher likelihood to dry sockets as well as they affect tissue healing.

How To Avoid Teeth Stains

Posted on April 30, 2018 by - Preventive Dental

Do you know what is staining your teeth?  Coloured foods and drinks obviously can discolour your teeth.  However, it is not as simple as that.  There may be sticky, acidic and dehydrating compounds at play as well.  Let’s have a look at all 4 of these things and their effect on teeth staining:

  1. Coloured Foods and Drinks

The heavily pigmented compounds in foods and drinks are called chromogens.  Chromogens stain tooth structure with their coloured pigments.  Beetroot, berries, curry, soy sauce, red wine, tea and coffee are classic examples of foods and drinks that contain a lot of chromogens and can stain teeth.

  1. Sticky Foods and Drinks

Some foods and drinks also contain tannins which are plant compounds.  Tannins make it easier for chromogens to stick to tooth structure.  So foods and drinks with both strong chromogens and a lot of tannins tend to cause more staining of your teeth.  The reason why berries, red wine and tea are great at staining teeth is because they contain both chromogens and a lot of tannins.

  1. Acidic Foods and Drinks

Foods and drinks that are acidic soften and roughen tooth structure so chromogens more readily attach to it.  Chromogens embedded into the outer layers of eroded tooth are also more difficult to clean off so the colours stay on your teeth for longer.  Wine is particularly acidic.  Red wine having more chromogens stains teeth itself, while white wine erodes tooth structure, allowing chromogens from other foods and drinks to cause staining.

  1. Dehydrating Foods and Drinks

Foods and drinks that contain dehydrating compounds such as caffeine will dry your mouth.  When your mouth is dry, chromogens are not diluted by saliva and the surfaces of your teeth are exposed to more intense colours.  The lack of saliva also means the chromogens are not washed away from your teeth so colours stay on your teeth longer.  The reason why tea and coffee are particularly good at staining teeth is due to a combination of their chromogens and dehydrating effect.

Dental Implant Procedure

Posted on April 27, 2018 by - Cosmetic Dental, Preventive Dental

Replacing a single missing tooth with a dental implant and crown involves diagnosis and thorough treatment planning, a surgical phase and prosthetic phase of treatment.

Diagnosis and Treatment Planning

Before a patient can get a dental implant and crown, they must be thoroughly assessed for suitability.  The patient must be medically and dentally fit and healthy.  Medical conditions and medications may affect proper healing of the jawbone around a dental implant.  Tooth decay and gum disease need to be treated first to limit risk of infection after implant surgery.  The patient must maintain good oral hygiene before and after the implant for success.

Besides a thorough dental examination, impressions of the teeth to form study models, photos and x-rays are analyzed.  In most cases a special 3D scan of your mouth called a Cone Beam CT is required for comprehensive planning of where the implant will go.  As this is a special scan, you will need to go to a nearby x-ray clinic for this.

Surgical Phase

Under local anaesthetic and sedation, the sterile dental implant is inserted into the jawbone.  The gum tissue is firstly opened to reveal the underlying jawbone.  A small precision hole is prepared in the jawbone and the dental implant gently threaded into the prepared hole.  A cover is screwed into the implant to protect it and the gum tissue stitched over or around the cover.

After letting the implant integrate with the jawbone for approximately 3 months, healing of the bone and stability of the dental implant in the bone can be checked.  Sometimes a second surgery is needed to uncover the implant if the gum tissue had to be stitched over the top of the implant.  This second surgery is not needed if the gum tissue was able to be stitched around the implant and its protective cover.  If the bone has healed and the implant has integrated with the jawbone and is stable, the restorative phase can commence.

Restorative Phase

The restorative phase is usually done without the need for local anaesthetic or sedation as everything has healed.  Impressions of the dental implant and the surrounding teeth and gums are taken to form models.  On these models, the dental implant crown is made.  At a second appointment, the crown is attached to the dental implant via a special connector.  The crown replaces the original missing tooth.

Do I Have High Risk Of Tooth Decay?

Posted on April 3, 2018 by - Preventive Dental

Some people have high risk of tooth decay.  Their tooth structure is more prone to breaking down and forming cavities than the average person.  They can get cavities easily even though they may brush and floss twice daily and go to the dentist every 6 months for a checkup and teeth cleaning.  They may have 1 of 3 problems or a combination of all 3:

  1. Weak Enamel
    Some people are born with thinner or more porous enamel.  There are even conditions where some people are born with little or no enamel at all.Some people damage their enamel significantly after being born with healthy teeth.  They may have suffered an accident which damaged their teeth.  They may have a medical condition or taken medications that damaged their teeth.  Some people may not have looked after their teeth very well for a long period of time and their enamel has been damaged irreversibly.Enamel is the strongest part of the tooth.  Without good enamel, your teeth may be more prone to breaking down and forming cavities.
  2. Low Saliva
    Saliva is very important for protecting our teeth.  It is anti-microbial and washes away food and debris.  It puts mineral back on the teeth to strengthen and repair.  It also buffers acids to limit erosion of tooth structure.Reduced saliva can occur due to salivary gland issues, aging, medical conditions and medications.  With low saliva, the teeth lose their natural protection system and can break down faster and be at risk of decay.
  3. Acidic Mouth
    Some people have a more acidic oral environment than others.  This may be due to saliva issues or reflux from the digestive tract.  Reflux may commonly be due to pregnancy, medical conditions and medications.An acidic oral environment dissolves tooth structure and prevents tooth structure repair.  It allows bacteria that cause decay to thrive so there is high risk of tooth decay.