Treatments and Services

Before and After Pictures

See examples of the following services on our Gallery page

Cosmetic

Enhance your self image and gain the confidence that will allow you to take your life, relationship or career to the next level

• Bleaching - Having bleaching sensitivity? Click here. Whiten dark teeth, take 40 years of stain off in 2 weeks. Many people ask if teeth whitening can adversly effect their teeth. Studies have been done (ref link requires subscription to view article) where people with severe Tetracycline staining have done bleaching every night for 9 months. These studies show that no significant dissolution of enamel occured. Most people will bleach for 2 weeks for about 30 minutes each day. This short length of contact between teeth and bleach is insignificant when compared to the long 6 to 9 month overnight bleachings done in these studies.
• Invisalign - clear braces to straighten crooked teeth, improve bite, decrease wear, close unsightly spaces
• Replace missing teeth - Many options to do this: implants, bridge, partial denture metal, partial denture plastic
• New Crowns or Veneers - Correct minor gaps and tooth positions; cover ugly dark or broken teeth
• Replace Crowns/Veneers - replace old style metal/porcelain crowns with modern all porcelain crowns for a more natural looking smile
• Onlays/inlays - replace old silver fillings (that unfortunately expand more than natural tooth structure when in contact with hot food or drink, and therefore cause the tooth to break down over time) with all porcelain restorations that expand like teeth and don't cause your teeth to break down and turn dark over time

Life Improvement Services

Dental treatments that can improve health and well being

• Snoring & Sleep Apnea - night time device that will resposition your jaw to decrease snoring and sleep apnea by opening the airway. Start getting to level four sleep cycle and feel refreshed in the morning again
• Night Guard - decrease or eliminate TMJ problems, tight jaw, popping of jaw, morning stiffness in jaw
• Bad breath (Halitosis) - receive treatments and/or medications to eliminate the causes of bad breath and never worry about talking close to people again
• Pain reduction and removal - many problems of the mouth and jaw can cause severe pain in the mouth, but also pain in other areas such as head aches, stiff necks and shoulders
• Bleeding gums - find out the cause and cure for this too frequent proem

Preventative Services

An ounce of prevention...

• Sealants - many insurances cover sealants on children 100% Why? Because they do such a great job of reducing cavities and therefore reducing what they have to pay out on fillings. Put that research and intelligence to use for your children and help them use sealants to avoid future decay
• Onlays - silver fillings expand 200% more than natural tooth structure does with hot food and drink. Over time this causes the teeth to break down and fracture. These fractures can create the need for teeth to get root canals, periodontal surgeries and sometimes even tooth removal. Avoid these negative results of silver fillings and replace that metal with strong, white porecelain
• Laser cavity detection - why wait for the cavity to get so big it can be seen on an xray or start to hurt when you can use the advanced technology of a laser cavity detector to find the cavity when it is small. We can even remove many of these cavities without needles or numbing if we catch them before they get deep into dentin where the nerves are
• Cancer screening - we screen ALL patients at EVERY checkup for all types of oral cancers
• Regular cleanings - avoid gum disease or bone loss by staying on top of your cleanings and not allowing the bacteria in your mouth that causes gum disease and bone loss to get out of control
• Digital Xrays - digital xrays have 90% less radiation than regular xrays. We make sure we use technology to enhance your health. WE can use these films to check for cavities, but also various diseases and cancers of the bone and tissues of the head and neck

Regular Clinical Services

• White Fillings
• Dentures
• Crowns
• Root Canals
• Cleanings
• Xrays
• and many others, just contact our office if you have questions.

Fluoride

Fluoride information has moved to its own page.

Sealants

A sealant is like a cavity in that we put a composite resin in the tooth. The main differences are that sealants start out more liquid and they are done for preventative reasons rather than for repair. Teeth have grooves in the chewings surfaces. Many times they are much smaller at the bottom than the size of a tooth brush bristle (see the top left portion of the image below). So even if you clean your teeth well, you will not be able to clean the bottom of those skinny grooves. This leaves bacteria and sugars down there to turn into a cavity. To prevent this we place sealants.



In the image above, you can see the four steps of the sealant process. The first (top left) shows how a tooth brush bristle will not be able to get down and clean out the lower portion of this molars central fissure. We clean these out with a special liquid tooth surface cleaner. Once cleaned and rinsed we place the sealant material. Because it is so liquid it flows down into the bottom of the grooves. We shine a light on the liquid filling so that it turns hard. In the end you are left with a normal shaped tooth, but no deep grooves left to turn into cavities. At Snoqualmie Falls Dental we guarantee the sealants will stay in for at least two years or we will replace them for free!

Bleaching Sensitivity

Having sensitivity with your bleaching? Try the following. They are given in order of effectiveness.

- Make sure you are not putting too much bleach in the trays. This causes excessive bleach to come out of the trays and onto your gums.
- Spread your bleaching out over time. Rather than bleach every day for two weeks, bleach every other day for four weeks or every third day. Your bleaching effectiveness will not decrease.
- Buy some antisensitivity toothpaste, such as Sensodyne. The first benefit comes from just brushing with the sensitivity toothpaste. The second benefit can come from placing some of the toothpaste in your whitening trays. Then put the trays in your mouth as if you were doing whitening with the toothpaste and leave it in there for an hour or two. This will make a big difference for you. Rinse and place whitening gel in trays and do days whitening treatment immediately.
- If the over the counter sensitivity toothpaste is not strong enough, you can purchase a prescription strength through our office. Call or drop by when we are open to pick it up.

Thanks

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Please report any problems or broken links on this webpage to Dr. Calderwood via email drcweb@snoqualmie888falls888dental.com (remove the 8's when copying the email to the left, typing it with the 8's here helps avoid spam bots that search web pages for emails to spam. Sorry for the hassle).