The Best Dentistry Is the Least Dentistry How You Benefit from Our Minimally Invasive Approach

Most people don’t realize that whenever a tooth is worked on, it undergoes some trauma.  Drilling, for instance, can irritate the living tissues within the tooth. Heat from the drilling can be damaging. Even repeated injections of anesthetic can lead to inflammation, infection, or nerve damage in the tissues around the tooth. 

With repeated procedures, the small traumas can add up, increasing the risk that you’ll eventually lose the tooth. That’s why we say that the best dentistry is the least dentistry. 

Still, there are times when treatment needs to be done. Decay develops. Infections set in. Accidents happen. Oral-systemic burdens such as mercury fillings, infected root canals, and osteonecrotic lesions in the jaw (unhealed bone) must be addressed.

The important thing is that we go with the least invasive treatment possible to get the positive results you need. 

So when we notice decay developing, for instance, we don’t rush in to drill-and-fill. If the decay hasn’t broken through the enamel, we may be able to treat it non-invasively with ozone and improvements with nutrition and hygiene. When a restoration is needed, we opt for what allows you to retain the most natural tooth structure possible. 

Consequently, after we safely remove old mercury amalgam fillings (following the SMART protocol), we don’t just default to crowns to replace them. A crown is the largest single-tooth restoration possible, covering the whole visible part of the tooth. A great deal of drilling and shaping must be done to prepare the tooth to support the restoration. 

In many cases, an inlay or onlay may be the better choice. 

An inlay is used to fill a cavity that’s located within the cusps or bumps of a tooth. Think of it as a filling that’s custom-made to fit precisely into the prepared tooth like a puzzle piece. If a larger area is involved, an onlay can be placed instead. This type of restoration covers at least one of the cusps, so the whole chewing surface is covered.

Unlike regular fillings, inlays and onlays are bonded to your teeth, and while they can be made with composite, the best results come when they’re fabricated from ceramic. This makes them stronger and more durable than standard fillings.  

And thanks to the CEREC unit in our office, we can fabricate them ourselves and place them in a single visit. No more waiting for the lab to return the finished dental work!

Our commitment to minimally invasive dentistry in all areas of our practice is just one more thing that makes us stand apart. It’s part of our commitment to helping you keep as much of your natural dentition as possible. 

Nothing is better than your natural smile, after all.