Dr. Beth Driesja Vander Schaaf, DDS

Dental bridges are a “permanent “solution for a missing tooth. One needs an anchor tooth on either side of a missing tooth/space. While I use the word, permanent, a dental success is five years. When I’ve answered other questions for patients, I have referenced dental assistance payment plans, a.k.a. dental insurance, most “insurance” plans are on board with replacing bridges as often as every five years. Know what your replacement interval is for your specific plan. A dental success for our patients is to keep a conventional, three unit cemented bridge for 10 years minimum.

Hello, it’s pretty universal that every 2 to 5 years dentures need to be relined and every 5 to 10 years they need to be completely remade. If you have immediate dentures made meaning you take out your teeth and get your dentures the same day (after fitting appointments to plan for your surgery day) they will need to be relined, or totally remade by six months typically.

Thankfully, most root canals are comfortable during treatment and after however, we still get some tough sick teeth that need non-surgical root canal treatment. Yes it’s possible to have sensitivity early on after root canal treatment. We ask our patients to “participate in your care” and please report any symptoms directly us/to your doctor. They know how’s your tooth looked pre-treatment and can advise you specifically.

Yes, partial dentures are safe. They are the quickest and most economical answer for replacing (some) missing teeth in an arch. An arch equals all the upper teeth or all the lower teeth.

Receding gums is a big issue that affect millions. The number one thing someone can do to help protect their own gums is use an electric toothbrush. It sounds simple, and it is- Using a manual, toothbrush if brushing incorrectly can strip your gums. I like the Oral-B electric toothbrush, the best. Using an electric toothbrush properly is another discussion which we are always happy to have with our patients. The second best preventive item to choose to help prevent recession is to use a properly made hard upper occlusal guard nightly. This protects all the teeth so that all the back teeth support each other as one unit so to speak and there is a mutually protective, occlusion or bite. Said another way, the occlusal guard is made basically to have the best orthodontic result. We spend a lot of time chasing recession with sealants, fillings, and other medicaments that you will do yourself a huge favor by choosing these easily obtainable preventive choices.

We do different types of partial dentures. We’re very fortunate to have choices in this category now. The older style metal partials still are the most durable and can be realigned to fit the shrinking gum tissue every 2 to 5 years. So a typical metal based partial can last up to 10 years. If you choose to have an all acrylic partial made which a huge section of our patients do because they are typically more aesthetic, plan to have these replaced by five years. Most cannot be relined. They need to be totally replaced. In our insurance driven world, most dental assistant payment plans, which we substitute the word dental insurance, (which is not correct), it is typical that they will pay for a replacement every five years.