Cosmetic Dentistry

Biocompatible cosmetic dentistry options are available, whether replacing fillings, crowns, teeth or designing your smile with veneers

S. WARD ECCLES, D.D.S.

(925) 447-6428

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Cosmetic Dentistry and Dental Restoration

Basic dental restoration is early intervention. (The smaller the cavity the better for the tooth). If it doesn’t hurt you, then like most people, you assume there’s no urgency to see a cosmetic dentist or a restoration dental expert like Dr. Eccles in Livermore. WRONG! Now is when you need to go! Decayed areas consist of “dead” tooth structure (nerve endings and tooth substance), and no pain messages are sent to the brain. The decay acts as an insulator against cold and sweet.

If you choose to be “normal”, then wait until the tooth begins to say “Hello”. This will occur when the decayed portion breaks inward, exposing fresh nerve endings that are very sensitive to temperature, air, and food. At this point most teeth are still fixable with a composite resin filling that will serve you very well.

If this “Hello” doesn’t alarm you into action, then you can procrastinate more and progress to the painful dental emergency stage with unelicited pain, temperature pain, and sometimes chewing pain. Cosmetic dentist or general dentist will require a lot of work to help you. You could suffer through this stage until the tooth will die and then feel great (no live nerve left inside the tooth) until all the dead nerve tissue inside the tooth starts to seep out through the tip of the root and infect the bone. Then you can add to the above: definite chewing pain, throbbing, and eventually swelling.

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You are now also going to experience a wallet emergency because the cost of treatment escalates significantly to root canal therapy and in many cases, to posts, buildups, and crowns to restore this tooth back to pain-free function.

You could also have the tooth extracted. This creates another pocket book crisis—what to do to fill this space where there was once normal jaw architecture? Leaving the space “as is,” and being guided by “normal thinking”, “If it doesn’t hurt it must be OK”, will allow the adjacent and opposing teeth to drift into the new space and become misaligned. This imbalance affects healthy chewing. It can also cause the jaw joint to be adversely stressed, resulting in popping sounds and or pain.

The fix it options are:

Small removable partial denture that attaches to the two teeth adjacent to the space.
Full arch removable partial denture to include other missing teeth if present. Less work and cost than a fixed bridge.
Fixed bridge where adjacent teeth are crowned and connected to the new replacement tooth.
Maryland Bridge where the replacement tooth is connected to clasps that bond to the adjacent teeth. (Minimal grinding on supporting teeth. Also very conservative and not removable)
Similar to Maryland Bridge but connected with inlays or ¾ crowns.
Implant. Most dentists use titanium. The research shows a very high success rate. Dr. Eccles doesn’t recommend that metal as biocompatible studies and testing along acupuncture meridians show a disturbance to the body by titanium. Zirconium is another option for the implants. Most US surgeons have little experience with zirconium. After the implant (root replacement part) is placed in the bone and the bony interface integrates well, then an abutment (tooth replacement above the gum line) is attached to the implant. A crown can then be attached to the abutment.

As you can see, the better choice is to fix the very small cavity—even if it’s just a provisional treatment to remove the decay and place a temporary filling. Otherwise wait and help pay the doctor’s rent and college education for his kids. Then you pay for extensive, intricate, time-consuming, and costly restorative dentistry.

Dr. Eccles as a cosmetic dentist in Livermore has many years’ experience reconstructing broken and worn down mouths. He prefers to do “only what’s necessary” dentistry—if not early on, then at whatever stage of dental breakdown you find yourself.

Ceramic veneers are a great choice for more visible teeth that have unsightly larger old fillings and or broken areas by preserving more healthy tooth structure. They are also indicated for improving the appearance of minor crooked teeth.

Full dentures do not solve all dental problems. They are a great cosmetic and chewing fix after many years of crooked, decayed, and unsightly teeth. This is especially so when chronically infected gum tissues (Periodontal infection) are present.

There is a major expense for teeth removal and there is discomfort during the healing period. For many it’s been the best choice of their dental life. It is a different experience for each patient.

Where the gum tissue is now covered there will be decreased taste. Some will experience decreased chewing efficiency. The upper has good suction cup effect. The lower denture has to deal with a moving jaw, moving tongue and no suction effect. At the contact area with the underside of the dentures there can be sore spots where there are areas of greater pressure against the gum, due to hard acrylic rubbing/moving against the gum. These areas resolve over time with the gum and jaw adapting to the hard denture base and by sequential reducing and smoothening of those areas and by adjustment where the teeth bite together.

This is an effort to replace and imitate a perfect human design where jaw joint, chewing muscles, and teeth size and shape all come together in harmonious movement.

A dry mouth (can be caused by numerous diseases and medications that may begin with the prefix “anti-“) can complicate this process very much. It may seem like unending sore spots that keep moving around and requiring very many adjustments.

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Whitening Teeth

Internal Tooth Bleaching

When a tooth has been treated with a root canal, it often leaves the tooth discolored. By making a small access hole in the tooth, bleaching solution can be inserted to lighten the tooth from the inside. The bleaching process continues after the initial application. It can take 1-3 booster visits to achieve the desired color.

Sinsational Smile®

20-minute In-Office Session: Sinsational Smile® uses a fast and effective technology with patented pre-filled silicone tray. This allows the jaw to remain relaxed and the person comfortable throughout the 20 minute procedure. This procedure includes the use of an LED accelerating light that helps to activate the gel’s whitening ingredients at a faster rate, resulting in a brighter smile and whiter teeth in less time. As part of the procedure, you’ll also receive a take-home maintenance pen shown below to further extend your new brighter smile!