General dentistry and hygiene
Dental examinations and routine check-ups
Following an initial consultation, we will carry out a thorough dental examination to:
- determine whether there are any existing or potential problems with your teeth or gums
- examine the tissues supporting your teeth
- examine the appropriate lymph and salivary glands and your tongue
- take digital X-rays if needed
We may also use an intra-oral camera to help you see your teeth and gums, helping you increase your understanding of your oral health.
Hygiene treatments
With more adult teeth being lost due to gum disease rather than tooth decay, regular dental hygiene treatment is essential to keeping your gums and teeth healthy. Our dentist will:
- carry out an initial dental hygiene examination
- carry out a thorough scaling of your teeth to remove any plaque or tartar build-up in those areas brushing cannot reach
- perform a clean and polish to remove any superficial stains on your teeth
- offer tailored advice on how to maintain good dental health and demonstrate techniques you can use at home
Tooth Coloured Fillings
For many years amalgam alloy was the standard filling material providing dark, unsightly restorations. Despite excellent longevity these restorations have continued to cause concern amongst the public because of their mercury content.
Fortunately technology and materials science have come a long way since then and amalgam use has been eradicated from many practices. Gunyah Dental is amalgam-free.
We use a number of tooth-coloured filling materials to repair teeth and are able to bond or glue teeth back together and replace missing parts of damaged teeth without removing any more precious tooth structure than is absolutely necessary.
To place a tooth-coloured filling, your dentist cleans all decay from the tooth and paints a bonding resin on the inside of the hole. The filling material is put into the hole in thin layers. Each layer is hardened with the help of a special light that your dentist holds over the tooth. When the last layer of the filling is hard, your dentist shapes the filling so it looks and feels natural.
Tooth-coloured composite and glass ionomer filling materials are certainly more attractive than the old amalgam restorations but tend not to be quite as strong. They can break more easily and recurrent decay can be more of a problem than with alternative restorations. In many cases CEREC inlays and onlays offer a well-fitting, stronger, longer lasting reparative solution to tooth decay or similar damage than tooth coloured fillings and your dentist will discuss this with you at the treatment planning stage.
We also offer same-day emergency dental appointments, so if you’re in pain or injured then contact us straight away.