What Is Restorative Dentistry? What You Need To Know

By Author: Thomas Rodriguez
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Restorative dentistry includes dental crowns, bridgework, teeth fillings, air abrasion and micro-dentistry, extractions and removal of teeth, space maintainers, pulpotomy or treatment of the nerve and certain types of cosmetic dentistry.

Dental Crowns:

They are used to cover impaired, fractured and chipped teeth, to safeguard them from further damage and generally to nurse them back to their original health. Crowns are caps that fully cover the damaged teeth. Dentist will normally find crowns that are of as similar a color as the original teeth, so that the crowns do not look artificial and an intrusion in the mouth.

Bridgework:

A dental bridge anchors two teeth that are adjacent to each other and replaces one or more missing teeth. Bridges are normally prepared from very high quality materials and porcelain or an amalgamation of both. However, the material has to be compatible for the tissues and the dentist is the best judge of which material is best for your teeth. Owing to the expensive materials, bridgework can be a little expensive.

Pulpotomy:

This is a ...
... nerve treatment when the tooth decay is extremely high and the pain from the infected tooth is not responding to painkillers or analgesics as the decay is close to touching the pulp or the nerve. The dentist uses a special drill to clean out the infected portion and the top portion of the nerve. Part of the nerve may be required to be removed. Doctors normally put a crown over the remaining part of the tooth.

Silver or White Fillings:

Fillings are normally required to fill cavities that have been caused by tooth decay or caused owing to the infected area being drilled out by the dentist. To fill a cavity, the dentist will clean the inside of the tooth and disinfect it as much as possible. Depending on the patient, the dentist will then, fill them with "amalgam", which is a silver filling or white fillings called "composite."

Extractions:

Extractions can be done for many reasons. When excessive tooth decay renders the tooth totally unserviceable and impossible to restore to health the dentist may advise extraction. Extractions can also be required if the dentist needs space for braces, in children.

Air Abrasion And Micro Dentistry:

This is modern technology where the dentist uses a fine powder called aluminum oxide and under controlled pressure, blasts out small cavities in teeth. Under this method of treating cavities, needles or anesthetic are not required. The other advantage that this method has over conventional dentistry is that the dentist can remove small cavities, without having to remove healthy tooth enamel and also place the white fillings without using a needle.

Space Maintainers:

If a child loses a baby tooth early or if a tooth does not come at all, a space maintainer is used to keep the place safe for the permanent tooth when it does eventually makes it presence. Maintaining the space is very important as lack of space could prevent the tooth from coming - it could also lead to teeth overcrowding which is very difficult to treat. Spacers are only a provisionary measure and temporary and are removed when they have served their purpose of reserving space for the new tooth.