Dental Implants – Complex Dentistry
An Article by Dr. Charles Martin
You Need to Know the Difference Between Check-up
And Complex Dentistry And Here’s Why.
An excerpt from This Won’t Hurt a Bit! The Smart Consumer’s Guide to Dentistry,
by Charles W. Martin, DDS
Comprehensive care is really all about the type of care that you’d like to have anyway. It is the approach of examining, diagnosing and treating your mouth as a whole, not just as a single tooth or a single problem. It is your best assurance of getting the complete care that ensures you keep your teeth for a lifetime.
Your Chronological Age and Your Dental Age
You can divide a person’s dental age into three categories which may be similar to the person’s chronological age or may be entirely different. In chronological age, we grow from being a child, to a teenager, to a young adult to an adult to an older adult to a senior to an elder.
The dental ages are youth, adult and elder.
I owe the following word illustrations to Dr. L.D. Pankey, founder of the L. D. Pankey Institute for Dental Education, a post-graduate facility for practicing clinicians in advanced care techniques. He used these descriptions to explain needed care to patients so that they could understand it. I use it here to help you do the same.
Dental “youth” is characterized by no or minimal care other than regular maintenance care. A person with this dental age may have had orthodontic treatment, a few restorations (what lay people call fillings), dental sealants, tooth whitening and wisdom teeth removal. You see this mostly in young adults and teenagers who take care of their teeth and see the dentist on a regular basis.
Dental “adult” is characterized by more problems and treatment. More restorations may have been performed. A tooth may have been lost and replaced with a dental implant or dental bridge. This dental age may have had some gum disease therapy, a root canal or two, some crowns. Cosmetic treatment using porcelain veneers or crowns may have been done.
Incomplete care, partial care or piece-meal patchwork can lead to the next category:
Dental “Elder” is characterized by the loss of all teeth and being forced to chew on the gums using removable dentures. THIS IS NOT WHERE YOU WANT TO BE. The older one becomes chronologically, the more difficult this dental age can be. Often having a dry mouth from medications can make wearing removable dentures very uncomfortable and painful.
