General Dental

Our knowledge of early methods used in dentistry over time is always evolving with new discoveries. Archaeologists have been chronicling our different methods of coping with dental maladies throughout human history, and it offers us a fascinating timeline.

One common issue has become obvious over this time frame. A tooth that has been lost leaves a socket behind, and our primitive replacements – with a few remarkable exceptions – simply refused to knit to the jawbone properly. We experimented with stone, wood, animal teeth, shells, and bitumen, but it wasn’t until much later that we finally found our saving grace. The answer lay in the remarkable properties of titanium.

Titanium screws now feature in every dental implant that we insert at our North Sydney practice. Their unique quality allows them to not only tolerate an existence within our bodies, but thrive – to the point that they actually encourage bone growth around the screw, through a biological process called biointegration. When inserted in to a socket, any other material will cause the bone to essentially ‘reject’ the substance, and the bone recedes. But with titanium, the bone grows around it, securing it as it does with natural teeth.

The properties of this metal are now not limited to dentistry. They are found throughout the world of implants and reconstructive surgery, and it is owed a great deal of thanks from a wide variety of patients. Dentists in North Sydney, and around the world, owe this substance many thanks for the successful insertion of dental prosthetics.

For more information on dental implants from your North Sydney experts at KB Village Dental, contact us today, and book your appointment.

The humble mouthguard has been around for over a century. Originally developed in Germany, they were intended to prevent lip lacerations among boxers. Their usefulness was quickly found to extend beyond this.

Roughly one-third of all trips to the emergency dentist in North Sydney is the result of a sports injury. Sports, including rugby, aussie rules, cricket and soccer, all involve enough speed and force to cause a wide range of injuries to the face and mouth. Luckily, the humble mouthguard acts as a saving grace for many sportsmen and aspiring sportsmen alike. Properly fitted and worn, a mouthguard provides protection not only to your teeth, but to your mouth, jaw, tongue, and cheeks.

Mouthguards offer impact protection from an elbow, fist, or knee, but also from the ‘snapping’ action of a jaw closing under force. This whiplash action is often enough to cause dental injuries, such as chipped teeth or cracked veneers. There is also some evidence that they can also prevent concussions, by cushioning impacts on the point of the chin.

But to reap these benefits, it is vital that your mouthguard is fitted properly. Ill-fitting mouthguards tend to get jarred loose during impacts, and can interfere with speech and breathing. This can cause the user to become reticent to use them at all. Most can be moulded to your teeth by heating them in boiling water, or by getting your dentist to mould one for you.

In the interest of preserving your teeth, they are a wise investment. As your emergency dentist in North Sydney, we are there to help if you have a dental emergency.

Root canals, in North Sydney and throughout Australia, have somewhat of a fearsome reputation. They are regarded as painful, invasive, and involving a lengthy recovery period. In the days of old, this may have been true, but medical technology moves at a good clip.

The surgery, in essence, is used to save an infected tooth. Once a cavity has allowed ingress for bacteria, the pulp within the tooth can become inflamed. This can cause pain, lead to infected abscesses below your tooth, and can lead to accompanying health problems – particularly among those already suffering from issues with their helath. The inflamed or infected pulp must be removed.

A root canal removes the infected pulp and root of the tooth with an artificial implant. Once the area is numbed, your North Sydney dentist drills down through the tooth, carefully removing the infected organic material. This is then replaced with a rubberish replacement, called gutta-percha, to fill the void.

It is important to note, then, that a root canal from your North Shore dentist doesn’t cause pain. It relieves it, and modern dentistry ensures that you are not subject to discomfort during the process. Numbing and freezing methods are able to make this dental surgery pain-free, and have shortened the recovery period considerably.

Rather than considering removing an infected or abscessed tooth, a root canal can see it maintain its place in line. For more information, contact your North Sydney dentist at KB Village Dental, today.