Commonly Combined Treatments for Full Mouth Reconstruction

Commonly Combined Treatments for Full Mouth Reconstruction

Restoring someone’s entire smile depends on several different health, functional, and aesthetic factors. At Sachem Dental Group in Long Island, our unique treatment process usually combines a variety of different restorative techniques to achieve the best overall results for the individual at hand. 

Since various treatments bring unique benefits with them, it’s quite common to take a tooth-by-tooth approach when it comes to planning a full mouth reconstruction case. Anything from a routine restoration to a more complex aesthetic treatment might be recommended, depending on what we’re trying to achieve. 

Of course, the combination of treatments that you and our Suffolk County dentists decide on will also need to take things like timelines and budget into account. If you need fast results that are as affordable as possible, your recommended restorations will be different than someone who has months to invest in the future of their smile. 

Common Dental Treatments to Combine

Here’s a list of some of the different treatments we commonly use alongside of one another during traditional full mouth reconstruction therapy in Suffolk County:

White Composite Fillings — Tooth colored fillings are less invasive than traditional amalgam (silver) restorations. Plus, we can bond them to the front of teeth in areas where a routine filling can’t be placed. Composite is available in a variety of colors, making it simple to match to the tooth around it. 

Bonding — Cosmetic bonding uses tooth colored filling material to recreate areas with small chips or gaps. Usually, no drilling or anesthetic is necessary!

Ceramic Inlays and Onlays — “Three-quarter crowns” are lab made fillings that offer better reinforcement than a large traditional filling but are less invasive to your overall tooth structure than a full crown. They offer a happy medium for instances where there’s a moderate level of tooth damage but still plenty of enamel left to preserve. 

Porcelain Crowns — For severely worn teeth or areas with broken down old fillings, a full coverage crown (”cap”) can keep your tooth functioning without detracting from the overall appearance of your smile. Crowns are also used on top of dental implants to replace single missing teeth. 

Dental Bridges — A bridge is ideal for multiple tooth replacement when our patients don’t want to wear a removable partial denture. A bridge can support one or two false crowns to fill in a gap or be anchored on top of dental implants to restore as many as 3-4 teeth at once time. 

Dental Implants — When you need to replace missing teeth, dental implants offer the best return on investment. They’re capable of supporting anything from a crown to a bridge or denture. 

The best thing about dental implants is that they’re noninvasive to other teeth and are designed to mimic the function of an anatomical tooth. We can use them for single tooth replacement or complete smile rehabilitation. 

Bite Splints — After you’ve invested in restorative treatment — or if you’re someone who tends to clench and grind your teeth a lot — you’ll want to protect the smile you’ve worked so hard to achieve. A custom mouth splint/bite splint/mouth guard is a device that prevents your teeth from fully engaging and grinding against one another. You wear the appliance when you sleep, or during the day if you have a particularly stressful lifestyle. Wearing one regularly will help you get the most out of your new crowns, veneers, or other restorations without them chipping prematurely. 

Occlusal Adjustments — The way your teeth bite together affects the pressure on your enamel and dental restorations. Our Long Island dentists can use special resources to measure how heavily your teeth bite against one another to determine if there are some spots that are heavier than others, then adjust them accordingly. Why does it matter? Because uneven biting patterns can alter your TMJ function and natural tooth wear. 

Orthodontic Therapy — Malocclusions (crooked and misaligned teeth) can cause your teeth and restorations to wear down irregularly. Crooked bites can also lead to TMJ disorder. 

Depending on the extent of your malocclusion, we might recommend completing orthodontic treatment as part of your comprehensive reconstruction plan. Yes, adult braces in Suffolk County are available! 

TMJ Treatments — Temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD/TMJD/TMJ disorder) is a painful condition that can lead to flattened, worn out, or broken teeth. Most people notice it because of a limited range of motion in their TMJ or because of jaw pain and headaches throughout the day. If you have TMJ disorder, we’ll want to address the cause so that any new dental restorations aren’t damaged. 

Root Canals (Endodontics) — An active dental abscess is the result of a dying, traumatized, or bacterial infection in the nerve of a tooth. The only way to prevent the abscess from returning (and the tooth from dissolving from the inside) is to remove the nerve tissues and fill the hollow chamber. We call this process a root canal or endodontic therapy.  

Periodontal Therapy — No matter what we place on the top of your tooth, not having a healthy foundation around the roots can lead to eventual tooth loss. Gum disease is often diagnosed because of bleeding, swollen tissues, gum recession, and tooth mobility. 

A series of periodontal therapy appointments or “deep cleanings” can help to get active infection under control so that you don’t have to worry about unnecessary tooth loss. 

Gum or Bone Grafting — Trauma, tooth loss, and gum disease can all lead to issues like gum and bone loss. Although receding gums are a cosmetic concern, they can also raise your risk of tooth loss, sensitivity, and failed implant therapy. 

Placing a graft can add to your bone or gum tissue, stabilizing the area so that it’s healthy enough to preserve natural teeth and support new restorations. 

Get a Customized Care Plan

For an honest, experienced opinion on the best combination of treatments for your smile makeover, contact Sachem Dental Group in Suffolk County. Our Long Island office is a multi-specialty general dentistry practice that provides a variety of services under one roof.