Expert Care For Your Tooth Infection

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El Paso, TX, Tooth Infection

What should you do if you wake up with a toothache that will not go away on its own? If it has been more than a day, call your dentist right away! A toothache is a common symptom of a severe infection that without treatment, could spread to other parts of your body. This is because bacterial deposits take hold in your tooth’s inner chamber. If material from your infection breaks off, it can enter the bloodstream and quickly travel. By scheduling an emergency dental visit, we can take X-rays of your problem tooth to determine if foreign material is present. If this is the case, we will suggest an immediate root canal to clear all bacteria and resolve your pain. Because this treatment permanently alters the structure of your tooth, we will design a custom dental crown that returns your tooth’s strength and appearance following your root canal.

At Sunny Smiles Family Dentistry, we are standing by to help you treat any sudden emergencies. When you have a toothache, waiting for it to heal on its own can be a risky proposition. By heading to our office, we can inspect your tooth and provide expert guidance on relieving your pain. While you may be disappointed to hear you need a root canal, you should know that this treatment should be no more uncomfortable than a standard filling or dental crown. We apply local anesthetics that numb the affected area throughout the entire procedure.

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filed under: Emergency Dentistry

A Custom Guard Can Relieve TMD Symptoms

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El Paso, TX, TMJ Disorder

Over the years, protecting your smile can take additional effort due to certain conditions that can develop. By maintaining a healthy relationship with your dentist, you can often identify active threats and receive treatment before they get out of hand. While cleanings and exams help prevent cavities and gum disease from plaque and tartar deposits, sometimes more complex oral disorders can occur. A gum infection can destabilize teeth and lead to significant dental loss for example. But what can you do to identify conditions that take hold while you are asleep? If you wake in the morning with a consistent ache through your jaw, head, and shoulder muscles, you may suffer from a condition known as temporomandibular joint disorder or TMD. Without treatment, TMD can lead to difficulty properly articulating your jaw open and shut. This problem is associated with a bad bite, leading to accelerated wear and tear on your teeth’s surfaces and an increased risk for decay and infection. After helping get your TMD under control, we could help you explore functional and cosmetic treatments to restore your smile’s appearance.

At Sunny Smiles Family Dentistry, we provide a nonsurgical treatment for TMD through the use of oral appliance therapy. By taking custom measurements of your teeth and surrounding oral structures, we create a mouthguard that fits neatly on each row of teeth. By wearing your guard before bed, you gently slide your jaw into a more comfortable position, relieving tension on the joints of your jaw. Because your teeth are covered, this treatment also stops any grinding damage associated with your disorder.

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filed under: TMJ Disorder

Restore Your Tooth With An Implant Prosthetic

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El Paso, TX, Dental Implant

Have you lost one of your teeth recently? If so, you know how sudden the change can affect your smile and bite. While the esthetic impact of tooth loss is apparent, you quickly learn how your smile’s function becomes compromised. Simple abilities like enjoying your favorite foods can become difficult as you avoid harming the sensitive open socket in your jaw. Because we rely on our teeth to form speech, the sound of your voice can alter strangely. Without a replacement, neighboring teeth begin to drift out of position, increasing problems with dental misalignment. This can increase your risk for decay and infection as certain teeth wear away from disproportionate bite force. Fortunately, we can restore your smile with the aid of a dental implant prosthetic.

At Sunny Smiles Family Dentistry, we offer restorative treatments to repair smiles after tooth loss. When designing a custom prosthetic, we take careful measurements of your oral structures to ensure a comfortable fit that complements the natural members of your smile. This means selecting the shape and color of your replacement tooth to look at home in your bite. By returning stimulation to your jawbone under the socket, a dental implant can help maintain the shape of your face.

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filed under: Dental Implants

Removing Discoloration From Your Smile

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El Paso, TX, Cosmetic Dentist

Is your smile the same bright white shade it appeared in years past? If discoloration or stains are beginning to build on the surface of your teeth, cosmetic dentistry could provide options for returning the color you desire. By scheduling a consult with your dentist, we can evaluate your teeth to determine the nature of your imperfections. If we find that stains live within the enamel itself, we can offer a professional whitening treatment that lifts foreign material with the aid of a bleaching agent and powerful light. While over-the-counter solutions may seem convenient, professional whitening has the strength necessary to perform this service in under an hour. If we see that your discoloration is due to damage to the enamel itself, you may respond better to the placement of porcelain veneers. These cosmetic restorations simply sit in front of your natural teeth to provide a look you design with us. Whichever treatment best suits your situation, we will help you tackle your dental stains!

At Sunny Smiles Family Dentistry, we are happy to serve El Paso residents who have concerns with their smile’s appearance. In addition to our preventive and restorative treatments, cosmetic dentistry allows you to realize a smile that matches how you feel about yourself. When you are proud of your smile’s look, you can regain the confidence that can be lacking when imperfections build on the surface of your teeth.

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filed under: Cosmetic Dentistry

Wearing A Mouthguard To Treat TMJ Disorder

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El Paso, TX, TMJ Disorder

As we age, protecting our smile from wear and tear becomes more and more important. What steps can you take to preserve as much healthy material as possible? By brushing and flossing your teeth each day, you prevent the accumulation of harmful dental plaque that occurs from the combination of oral bacteria and food debris. When you attend regular checkups and exams, we help remove deposits you cannot remove on your own. This also helps protect your smile from the ravaging effects of gum disease, the number one cause of tooth loss among adults. But what if a certain threat strikes while you are sleeping? If you wake each morning with pain in muscles near your jaw, you may have a condition known as TMD or temporomandibular joint disorder. With no treatment, TMD makes opening and closing your jaw rather difficult. You may experience excruciating pain as well. Because TMD is associated with bruxism, or constant grinding of the teeth, treating your condition can help preserve your smile. Fortunately, we can provide a non-surgical intervention with the creation of a custom oral mouthguard.

At Sunny Smiles Family Dentistry, we know that successful treatment for TMJ disorder can greatly improve your quality of life. When are more fully able to articulate your jaw’s range of motion, you wake feeling more refreshed. Wearing a custom mouthguard at night can free you up to more easily enjoy meals and speak as well.

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filed under: TMJ Disorder

Dental Implants Restore Your Smile Permanently

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El Paso, TX, Dental Implants

If you have recently lost one of your teeth, you understand how disruptive it can become immediately. While the esthetic effect of tooth loss is apparent, the loss of function your bite experiences may be even worse. This is because your smile relies on every single tooth to operate fully. When a single tooth is missing, the neighboring teeth can begin to drift out of position and toward the open gap. This increases your level of bite misalignment, increasing the likelihood of tooth decay, gum disease, and other oral threats. When certain teeth take a disproportionate amount of force from your bite, they wear down the enamel, exposing sensitive inner material to bacteria that live in your mouth. By damaging other teeth, you become at risk of losing additional teeth. Fortunately, a dental implant could provide a permanent replacement tooth with the aid of a post inserted directly into your jawbone.

At Sunny Smiles Family Dentistry, we offer restorative treatments to combat dental loss with prosthodontics that return form and function. This means designing an implant that replicates your natural tooth’s appearance while restoring the strength of its bite. To determine if you are healthy enough for this procedure, we will take X-ray scans of the jawbone to evaluate its density. If you qualify, we can schedule an implant procedure shortly.

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filed under: Dental Implants

Removing Your Tooth Infection

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El Paso, TX, Tooth Infection

If you experience a pain in one of your teeth that will not resolve after a day or so, let us know! This symptom may indicate a serious infection that without treatment, risks spreading to other parts of your body. When bacteria in your tooth’s inner chamber enter the bloodstream, they spread the infection in short order. However by identifying foreign material with an X-ray, we can determine if you require a root canal to remove all infected material. Because this procedure permanently alters the surface of your tooth, we can also design a custom dental crown to restore your tooth’s function and appearance above your gumline.

At Sunny Smiles Family Dentistry, we provide emergency services to repair teeth when you sustain injuries and infections. While no one looks forward to a root canal procedure, this treatment is relatively painless, leading to desirable relief of your infection symptoms. Think of this treatment as the first step in restoring your healthy tooth. With the aid of local anesthetics, we can numb the affected area or provide a stronger form of sedation when you have increased anxiety

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filed under: Cavities/Tooth Decay

Brighten Your Smile With Professional Whitening

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El Paso, TX, Professional Whitening

Is your smile as bright as you would like it to be? If your smile has begun to dull or take on stains and blemishes, we could help explore cosmetic treatments to return to its original shade. When imperfections build within your enamel, a bleaching agent can strip foreign material to reveal the white layer below. While store-bought bleaching treatments may seem convenient, our professional service is custom-dialed in to help achieve the specific color you desire. By taking care to apply your whitening session, we help avoid painful interactions with your gums. If we discover that your discoloration problems are due to the loss of your enamel, we can also explore renewing your shade with the placement of porcelain veneers.

At Sunny Smiles Family Dentistry, we believe confidence in your smile can enhance your overall well-being. This means that our cosmetic services seek to lift your mood by returning your jow in showing your smile to others. Don’t let yellowing or staining get you down! A professional whitening session can lift multiple shades in as little as an hour. To accommodate your schedule, we provide this service both in-office as well as with a take-home kit for your personal use. Enjoy applying your touchups after the initial treatment session!

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filed under: Cosmetic Dentistry

Looking Forward To Your Next Dental Checkup

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El Paso, TX, Dental Checkup

How do you keep your smile as healthy as can be? Brushing and flossing each morning and evening provide the basis for your oral care. These daily activities remove food debris and plaque buildup that can stain your teeth and lead to active concerns. However, you also require regular dental checkups to ensure that your smile is free from tooth decay and gum disease. These biannual meetings create the opportunity to create a dental record that alerts us when sudden changes appear in your oral structures. Because we see you so frequently, we can react early in a smile threat’s development, leading to a more conservative treatment. This could mean placing a dental filling rather than waiting for a more painful symptom of decay that requires a more involved procedure. If it has been longer than you would like to admit since your last cleaning, we would like to remind you it is never too late to get back on track!

At Sunny Smiles Family Dentistry, we encourage a preventive attitude toward your oral care. This means combining healthy at-home habits with regular cleanings and exams to prevent smile threats before they take place. Routine checkups also allow us to treat problems such as cavities in the same visit instead of waiting for their symptoms to advance. If you would like to pursue a cosmetic or restorative procedure, we can discuss them at your checkup as well.

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filed under: General Dentistry