Dental Implants Save Face

Reproducing the natural look, normal feel and function of your lost teeth may seem difficult to achieve. At Suwanee Dental Care, many people have come to us because they sensed from their own dentists that this was the case. What they were pleased to find out was that there are good alternatives for almost every type of situation that can be successful.

Photo insert: Dr. Bill Williams with fellow Atlanta implant dentist Dr. Bernee Dunson and his wife Hillary at the American Academy of Implant Dentistry annual session in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Dental implants are ideal for replacing missing teeth that have been lost due to dental caries or to periodontal disease. In many cases, the bone can be regenerated and an implant placed in its ideal location to maintain the health and beauty of the mouth. The problem with missing teeth is that it can be detrimental to your body’s overall general health as well as to the structures inside your mouth. It’s a well known fact that tooth loss leads to being a dental cripple with one tenth the biting power and ten times the facial wrinkles compared to people who have their own teeth….or dental implants. In essence, dental implants can help you "save face"!

Just as atrophy occurs with muscle disuse, so atrophy occurs in the jaw bones as teeth are lost. Excessive atrophy leads to excessive aging and weakness of the jaw and facial muscles. One of our goals at Suwanee Dental Care is to educate the patients we have to not lose teeth, to not allow missing teeth to remain in that detrimental state for long and to replace those that are missing with the

best available option, bone-saving and bone-stimulating dental implants (as opposed to dental bridges, partial or full dentures). While those options are better than nothing (toothlessness), they pale in comparison to dental implants for longevity, function, and, most of all, the ability to preserve bone. For those who are missing teeth, dental implants are the absolute superior way to replace them. There is no bridge that is as good as a good dental implant for restoring a single tooth. The successful dental implant, over a lifetime, will be much less expensive to place and maintain than the average dental bridge or partial denture, too.

Many people will look at the initially higher cost of a dental implant, abutment and crown on that implant and consider it too expensive compared to a dental bridge or partial denture. This is actually shortsighted because the complications and remakes of traditional bridges and partials are much higher over time. And, when bridges and partial dentures have to be remade every ten years or so, and when the implant is still functional after the same time span, the cost of the implant begins to look like a total bargain.

Photo insert: Annual session of the AAID in NOLA.

Dental implants have been around for over 50 years as a common part of the dental list of options for patients. While not too many dentists placed them in the early days and many implant systems have been come and gone, what is now used in dental implants by the highly trained dentists such as those at Suwanee Dental Care, are extremely reliable and have a highly favorable track record. Because of this fact, dental implants as an option for our patients, have risen from the bottom of the list in 1975 to the top of the list of options in 2011. We place them confidently and often and can say that they are well tolerated and enjoyed by hundreds of our patients. In fact you have probably met several of our team who have dental implants in their own mouths…Angie our treatment coordinator and myself! I had a dental implant placed to replace a missing permanent tooth in 1986 and it’s as good today as it was back then…perfect in form, function and comfort to this very day.

Sleeping Your Way to a Smile

So you haven't been to the dentist for years... Every time you think about it you feel the sweat start to drip. Don't feel like that anymore!!! IV sedation can be the answer you were searching for.

IV sedation can offer a stress-free way to approach treating any issue that you have with your smile.

With IV sedation patients feel more sedation than other avenues of treatment. IV sedation is better suited to moderate to severe anxiety than pill or oral sedation. The speed of onset is faster. As soon as the IV is started the medication starts working. Patients almost immediately drift to sleep.
The doctor can then adjust dosing and manage the comfort of the patient easily. After the procedure is finished, recovery tends to be quicker than with oral sedation. After waking, patients tend not to remember treatment because the medications given keep patient unaware during the procedure.


Here at Suwanee Dental Care, we are proud to offer you a well-trained staff and environment that put our patients first. Our dedication is to your health and well-being. Come in and speak to our caring doctors and see if IV sedation is the answer you have been waiting for!

Divas and Testimonials We Love

Don't forget to check out the completed Deserving Diva photos at our new web site, AtlantaGentleDental.com. There, you'll see all of our winners including

2010 Diva Heather Trompke

Also, you will find the videos of the before and after smiles, the Diva Party and the Makeover at the Revival Salon.

Then, on this blog, SuwaneeSmiles blog, you will get your first look at our new 2011 Deserving Divas... If you want a much more indepth look at the Divas and what they think about all this hoopla, here is our Deserving Diva blog where they get to put up all their thoughts on being selected as our Divas this year.

We have been building Diva Smiles for a long, long time and I wanted to share with you some nice words from an old friend, somone who first came to be our lovely patient in 1991. She was our very first "Tooth Whitening" patient. It turns out that she had her TMJ, Orthodontic work done in our practice in the early 1990's and got her teeth bleached as she completed her orthodontic treatment using her tooth positioner and some Glyoxide gell. This was before the tooth whitening gels were ever sold in dental practices. She still looks amazing!

http://atlantagentledental.com/diva/

Here's Nancy's letter...

"I first met Dr. Bill Williams in about 1991. My husband, Keith, and I had recently moved to the area, and needed a dentist. I liked Dr. Bill’s ad in the yellow pages, so I made an appointment. At my first visit, I could tell that this was no ordinary dentist.

Dr. Bill and his staff seek to develop a relationship with their patients, and view dental care as a part of each patient’s life. They recognize that a person’s emotional and spiritual well being are important, and must work together with physical well being, which includes good dental health. They also know that having a bright, healthy smile can boost a person’s confidence.

Bill Williams has always been on the cutting edge in dentistry, and truly a pioneer in his field. My husband and I have always been confident that we were getting, literally, the best, most advanced dental care in the world, whether it was routine cleanings, or sophisticated orthodontic or periodontal treatment. We have referred countless friends and family members to his practice.

I am very grateful to Dr. Bill, his wife Sheila, and their staff for the expert and gentle care I have received over the years. I now have the smile I have always dreamed of, and regularly get compliments on my teeth. I give all the credit for that to Dr. Bill, and I thank God for giving Bill Williams such talent, and for leading me to “the world’s greatest dentist” so many years ago."

Nancy Boger

To see many more nice letters we have recieved from our patients, go to our Testimonials page on our new web site, AtlantaGentleDental.com. And, it you wish to send in your own testimonial and have it published on our of our blogs or web pages, just send it to us at andrea@suwaneedental.com

Are you sweating the dentist?

Let's be honest...
There are many many other things in the world more fun than a dental visit.
There are many other things less uncomfortable than a dental visit.


So many people are afraid of the dentist due to previous traumatic experiences, stories told by family or friends, or just sitting in the waiting room hearing scrapping or drilling noises.

I am hear to offer all of you a better alternative... sedation dentistry!!!

It is really one of the best options for those of us who might be putting off improving or giving themselves the health and smile they have been wanting for years.

Now what exactly is sedation dentistry?

Sedation dentistry is process by which a dental professional can calm a patient's anxiety and nerves to administer treatment in various forms. Patients are put into a semi-sleep state where they can follow directions if needed, but are completely calm, dozing, or asleep.

There are two types of sedation that are offered at Suwanee Dental Care. One type is oral sedation or pill sedation. This is when a patient is given medication the night before to help them sleep prior to the appointment and then different medication to take before the appointment. Patients are then monitored (taking your blood pressure, etc) while procedures are done while the patient is completely calm dozing and even sleeping. Patients will then need a ride home and tend to relax the rest of the day.

IV sedation is another option. This means that medication is given to the patient not by pills but an IV. This route offers the most relaxing and sleep inducing procedure. Patients are monitored and procedures are done as in oral sedation. Patient need to have the rest of the day to sleep and relax.

Suwanee Dental Care is the place for you and your health.

Suwanee Dental Care Diva Interview

Orthodontic Day for One Diva

Mistie and I placed braces on Heather today after she had her interview with Atlanta's CBS TV show, Better Mornings Show with host Tracye Hutchins. Heather has a bite problem, called a psuedo-class III, where the lower teeth hit the upper incisors and that causes the lower jaw to come forward abnormally when she closes, making it appear that she has a "bulldog bite" or as some say, a "Jay Leno bite". What she actually has is not an over-sized lower jaw, like Leno, but rather a deflecting contact on her tooth in the front that makes her jaw slide forward and just appear to be an underbite, bulldog bite.

We are correcting that with orthodontics....and it will be amazing to see the difference in just a few months. Imagine, a solution for a lifetime of biting off balance in just three or four months! In the photo to the right you can see us applying the blue gel that etches the surface of the tooth which in turn give us the ability to attach orthodontic brackets to the teeth for a period of time.

We also want to let you know that the Atlanta Channel 46 CBS video TV segment has been put on the calendar to air on Tuesday March 23^rd.

^{If all goes as planned it will air during the Better Mornings Atlanta show from 5am till 7am at about 5:50am. And the last ten minutes of each of the following shows… the 12noon, the 4pm the 6pm and the 11pm as well.}

Later that day there will be a link to the story on our website on this page…

http://www.cbsatlanta.com/gooddeeds/index.html

After we place the brackets on the teeth, aligning the slots of the brackets so that the teeth move in the desired direction once the flexible orthodontic wire is placed in the mouth, her teeth will begin to move to the correct position and her underbite will gradually be corrected as the teeth move through the bone. Orthodontics works because teeth move through bone when small, constant pressure is applied to a tooth. The jaw bone actually is resorbed on one side of the tooth and is laid down on the other side as the tooth

literally migrates through the solid bone.

Because the lower teeth are in front of the upper teeth, we needed to bring the lower teeth back. This involved removing one tooth and making the size of the arch smaller, like having a smaller diameter circle in effect, so that the lower arch can fit inside the normal upper jaw. Make sense? Orthodontics is about spacial relationships, geometry and is one of the main reasons high school students have to know that stuff...in case they one day become dentists!

Deserving Diva Debra Montgomery

Debra, she is a survivor of domestic violence. When she came in today she was sharing more of her story with us and it was just incredible. Left for dead by her husband, she was found by two of her children and rescued by her best friend who continues to this day to be her biggest supporter. He even helped her today, getting her here for her initial dental appointment with us.

Debra has not only survived domestic violence in its worst form but she helps other women conquer and survive their own domestic violence situations. She is everything from a radio personality to a life coach. She was over joyed when we told her that her smile would be restored! She shared with us that her smile was something she lost for a long time but she has found it again and is ready to have the confidence to share it with the world!

What is in store for Debra is a complete mouth rehabilitation. The seriousness of her damage from Domestic Violence and her advanced level of periodontal (gum) disease makes it necessary to remove all of the teeth and to start out fresh again with dental implants and strong, good looking teeth attached to them. Debra has extremely large spaces between each of her teeth and the new look will be dramatic. Her new bite will be stable once in for all....no more loose, mobile teeth. Her breath will be significantly improved as the gum disease is eliminated and therefore she will regain the lost confidence she once had being in small groups and close situations. Her treatment begins this week. We can't wait for you to hear from Debra herself on this blog. I hope you enjoy her story and see how God does answer prayers.