You are eating dinner and suddenly you are holding half of one of your teeth in your hand. Weakened by a fracture or a large filling, the tooth is now in obvious need of repair. Dr. Gilleland may suggest a crown, an artificial replacement of the upper part of the tooth, to restore the function and look of the damaged one. Crowns can be made from several different kinds of materials, and based on location, esthetics, and cost, the right one to repair your damaged tooth can be selected.

You have one or more missing teeth due to decay or an accident. This loss changes the look of your smile, your bite, and puts stress on surrounding teeth to compensate for the lost tooth. One option Dr. Gilleland may suggest for replacing the lost tooth is with a bridge. The missing tooth is replaced with an artificial tooth connected between two crowns (caps) which are permanently cemented or bonded on the adjacent teeth.

It may be hard to smile, even if you want to, when your teeth are uneven, chipped or discolored. If this is your problem, porcelain veneers could be the solution. Although no cosmetic dentistry procedure can take the place of good oral and periodontal hygiene, porcelain veneers applied over your natural teeth can easily brighten your smile and your self-esteem.

Mouth guards are flexible plastic appliances worn to protect the teeth, lips, cheeks, tongue and jaw. They are used during activities that can damage the teeth, most often during contact sports and surprisingly during sleep. Properly fitting mouth guards can also help reduce the risk of head, neck and brain injury by absorbing and dispersing some of the shock caused by blows to the chin. Considering that the mouth is the most commonly injured part of the body during contact sports, mouth guards should be an essential component in most physical activities. Night guards are specially designed mouth guards worn to protect the teeth from grinding (bruxing) or clenching of the jaw during sleep. If you’re considering using a mouth guard, the following information will provide you with a good introduction to the appliance. For more detailed information about how this appliance may help you, we recommend that you consult Dr. Gilleland with experience in fitting mouth guards.

Your dentist has a variety of methods for restoring a bright white smile, including porcelain veneers, composite bonding, implants and whitening, also known as bleaching. However, of all the advances made in dentistry to enhance the appearance of the teeth, whitening is the easiest and least invasive, and effective for 3 out of 4 cases. The procedure is safe, easy to use, and more affordable than ever before. Because of these reasons and more, whitening has become very popular.

Whether missing one tooth or all their teeth, more and more people are replacing the loss with dental implants. Having a more natural feel than traditional bridges or dentures, most implant procedures involve placing metal anchors into the bone of the jaw, allowing the anchor and bone to fuse, placing an extension or abutment in the anchor, and fixing a prosthetic tooth, or crown on the extension, After undergoing this multi-step process, many patients find they have better feeling, better looking and more stable solution to their tooth loss than more traditional dental reconstructive approaches.

More conservative than a crown, inlays and onlays are two methods of restoring normal tooth structure after decay or other damage. Inlays and onlays are known as indirect fillings because unlike a standard filling that is done in a dentist’s office, both are made in a laboratory and cemented or bonded to the surface of the tooth during a second visit to the dentist. And unlike standard fillings, inlays and onlays do not weaken the tooth structure, but actually strengthen it. After the procedure the tooth can bear up to 50-75% more chewing force.