Cosmetic Dentistry Blog - Dr. Tekin

Art of the Smile is proud to offer our patients Invisalign !

If you still have metal-colored fillings, you may be wondering why you should go to the trouble of having them replaced. Besides improving your appearance (even if you think you fillings don’t show, they do), tooth colored fillings can improve and preserve the health of your teeth.

The mercury in old, metal fillings causes them to expand and contact with changes in temperature. Eating and drinking cause temperature changes in your mouth cause this expansion and contraction.

When your fillings expand and contract they can damage your tooth, causing fractures and/or letting decay get in. They can also make your teeth pain sensitive to heat and cold, even when they don’t cause damage.

Tooth colored fillings actually strengthen your teeth. They do not cause temperature sensitivity and they look and feel just like your natural teeth.

If your experience with dentures is reminiscing about your grandmother’s false teeth, you’re in for a big surprise. Improvements are being made every day, and dentures have come a long way. In fact, you probably know someone who has dentures, but with today’s dentures you cannot even tell they are fake.

In the past, there were two primary problems with dentures – they looked bad and fit even worse. A bad fit means pain and difficulty chewing and speaking. Today’s technology allows us to craft dentures that not only fit precisely but are shaped to match your natural teeth.

The materials we use today look real and alive, matching your natural color and the translucency of real tooth enamel.

Best of all, neuromuscular dentistry has even further perfected the fit of dentures, taking into account the alignment of your bite, so the when you chew or bite down, your dentures meet up properly. Old dentures just didn’t work that way. If your dentures don’t line up perfectly, they can be pushed out of place, make it difficult to bite down properly, and generally create pain. They will wear out faster too.

New dentures are comfortable, beautiful, and long-lasting.

Malocclusion is a misaligned bite. This includes the well-known overbite and underbite, but can manifest in other, less obvious ways, as well. If your teeth don’t fit together properly when you bite down, you have malocclusion.

Malocclusion can cause serious health problems over time, even if the misalignment isn’t visible or noticeably painful. TMD (temporomandibular joint disorder), a neuromuscular problem of the jaw joint, is a very painful condition, and the symptoms are often seen far away from your mouth. The malocclusion causes tension in your jaw muscles first. These muscles work together with other facial muscles and your neck muscles, which work with your shoulder muscles, and so on. The result of tension in your jaw is tension that radiates throughout your body.

Among many possible pains and symptoms, malocclusion can lead to migraine headaches, neck pain, ringing ears, poor posture, and numbness in you hands. These symptoms are often misdiagnosed by doctors and go untreated leaving you in chronic pain.

Malocclusion can lead to chipped, cracked, or broken teeth, and restorations that fail. It can also make chewing difficult, sometimes difficult enough to cause malnutrition.

Neuromuscular dentistry can correct malocclusion, relieving the pain, restoring your health, and preserving your teeth.

Some consider our office difficult to find.   We are in West Buckhead.  Don't let the Howell Mill Rd. address fool you into thinking we are in Midtown or Downtown !!!  We are located at the northmost terminus of Howell Mill Rd.  If you are coming off of I-75, take the West Paces Ferry Rd. exit (exit #255) not Howell Mill Road exit (exit #252) to be closest to our office.

Katie Poloche is an experienced, caring and detail-oriented dental hygienist who has been caring for patients since 2000.  Katie completed her studies at Kennesaw State University and West Central University, graduating as Salutatorian of her graduating class as well as earning the distinction of Thomas P. Hinman Scholar in 1999.  Katie is certified in various fields including but not limited to: LVI, Radiology, Zoom, and Invisalign.  Katie is a team member at Art of the Smile, a dental practice providing state-of-the-art dentistry in a uniquely nontraditional setting which yields a comfortable and non-intimidating environment.  Along with Dr. Brock Tekin, Katie is part of a team that provides high-quality dentistry with outstanding chair-side professionalism.  Visit Katie and Art of the Smile today !

I'm constantly on my iPhone. I love the idea of getting things done even when I'm away from my desk !  If you are a fellow multi-tasker, I'm happy to announce free wireless internet access in the office. So access the net at lightning speed, and stay productive !