Everything else, under the same roof
Everything else your teeth need
Eight things we do besides straightening teeth. What each one is for, in a line - and underneath, what actually happens, for anyone who wants to know before they sit down.
On this page
- Root canal treatment
- Crowns, bridges and implants
- Gum therapy
- Laser treatment
- Children
- Smile makeover
- Oral surgery
At a glance
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Root canal treatment
Saving a badly decayed or abscessed tooth instead of taking it out.
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Crowns and bridges
Rebuilding a broken tooth, or spanning the gap where one has gone.
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Implants and dentures
A fixed replacement rooted in the jaw, or a denture where one will not hold.
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Gum therapy
Bleeding, receding or inflamed gums, treated before they cost you teeth.
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Laser treatment
Soft-tissue work with less bleeding and a quicker recovery.
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Children
Sealants, fluoride, space maintainers and habit-breaking.
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Smile makeover
Veneers, white fillings and whitening, planned as one result.
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Oral surgery
Wisdom teeth, extractions, and jaw surgery with the hospital team.
Root canal treatment
A root canal treatment saves a tooth whose pulp, the living tissue inside it, has been infected or damaged, instead of taking the tooth out. It is the procedure patients fear most and understand least, so here it is in four stages.
01 Accessing the pulp
A small opening is made in the tooth so that the infected or damaged pulp can be reached.
02 Cleaning and shaping
The pulp is removed, and the space inside is cleaned and shaped ready for the filling.
03 Filling the canal
The canal is filled with a biocompatible material, usually gutta-percha, which seals it against bacteria.
04 Sealing the tooth
A permanent filling or a crown goes on top, restoring the tooth.
Before
After
Crowns, bridges and implants
Crowns
A full cover placed over a tooth that is cracked, broken or heavily filled, to protect it against fracture. Some people call them caps.
We fit all-ceramic crowns, all-zirconium crowns and metal crowns.
Bridges
A bridge replaces a missing tooth by anchoring to the teeth beside it. It is the alternative to an implant for a patient who would rather not have surgery.
Implants
A titanium rod placed into the jawbone in place of a missing tooth, carrying one false tooth or several, long term. The bone is examined first, and that examination is what decides whether an implant will hold.
Dentures
Where an implant or a bridge is not the answer, dentures replace missing teeth. We fit flexible dentures, metal dentures and immediate dentures.
A full-mouth rehabilitation on implants, start to finish →I visited after a very long time.From their records maintenance, I was shocked to know that two teeth bridge fixed by Dr. Srinivas in 2005 are now also in very good condition.
Komal, verified patient
Gum therapy
Scaling
After an examination, tartar, plaque and biofilm are removed from the tooth surface and from below the gum line, by hand, ultrasonically, or both.
Reshaping the gum
Where a smile shows more gum than the patient wants, the tissue is sculpted with a soft tissue laser, and where necessary the bone underneath is reduced too, which is called crown lengthening. More tooth shows, and less gum.
Before
After
Laser treatment
Tongue tie
A small procedure to release excess frenum tissue under the tongue, which restricts how freely it moves. It also keeps a gap between the front teeth from reopening after braces.
Mucocele removal
A new lump in the mouth is often a mucocele, a harmless cyst. It is still worth having looked at.
Reshaping the gum
The soft tissue laser is also what we use to sculpt gum contour, described in the section above.
Children
Preventing decay
Fluoride varnish adds protection on top of brushing rather than instead of it. Sealants keep food and bacteria out of the grooves in the biting surface, where decay usually starts, and go on the permanent molars as soon as they come through.
Stopping a habit early
Appliances that stop thumb sucking and tongue thrusting, both of which affect how a child’s face grows if they carry on.
Holding a space
Space maintainers hold, or win back, the room a tooth still to come through needs, so it arrives in the right place.
Smile makeover
Veneers
Veneers are thin custom-made shells of tooth-coloured material that cover the front face of a tooth. They are used for staining, chips, gaps and mild misalignment.
White fillings
A white composite filling looks natural, bonds well to what is left of the tooth, and is done in one visit. A larger cavity takes an inlay or onlay instead, and two visits, because a technician makes it in the laboratory.
Whitening
Bleaching lightens the colour the teeth already are, by several shades. It will not make them brilliant white.
Dimple creation
A minor procedure under local anaesthetic, as a day case. The result is usually permanent, and the position and the size are the patient’s choice.
Six smile makeover records →Oral surgery
Some jaw work belongs in an operating theatre rather than a dental chair.
Impacted wisdom teeth
A wisdom tooth often has to come out for want of room at the back of the mouth, or because it is only partly through and trapping food against the molar in front. It is not always necessary, which is exactly why it is worth a consultation rather than a guess.
Extractions
A tooth comes out for gum disease that has damaged the bone under it, decay that has killed the nerve, or a break beyond repair. Teeth are also removed to reduce crowding.
Orthognathic surgery
Where the jaw itself is out of position, it is repositioned surgically, with orthodontic treatment before and after.
Not sure which of these you need
That is what a consultation is for. Monday to Saturday, 10:00 to 13:30 and 16:00 to 20:30.