Fillings
Oh, those dreaded words: “You have a cavity and need a filling.” We understand how disappointing that can be to hear. Finding out that you need a cavity repaired is never exciting, but we have great news! We do not fix teeth with those ugly, old-fashioned, less-than-healthy metal fillings you used to dislike so much when you were a kid. Why? Not only do we hate making our patients sad, but old-fashioned fillings are also an amalgam made up of metals – including Mercury! Plus, these metals can shift with the temperature changes that happen whenever you drink and eat hot or cold beverages and foods, exposing the inside of your tooth to bacteria. It’s why we so often find more decay under old fillings. Instead, Dr. Ryan and her team use gorgeous, biocompatible, tooth-colored composite material to fill your cavities and beautify your smile. So don’t frown when you hear you need a cavity filling – turn to Kari Ryan Dentistry for tooth-colored fillings that will blend into your smile and keep your teeth safe and strong for years to come.
Dental Crowns
Those who have had it happen know what it’s like: You are munching some popcorn… playing ball with your kids… or even clenching your teeth in your sleep, when you bite down on a kernel, catch a ball in the mouth, break a restoration, and suddenly all you can think about is your broken tooth! It hurts, it looks bad, and it is so rough it irritates your tongue when you talk. Now, you might anticipate a bunch of inconvenience – multiple visits to the dentist, gooey impressions to be taken, strange-looking temporaries to wear until your new crowns are created by a lab. Well not here! Kari Ryan Dentistry knows exactly what it’s like to be busy and not want unforeseen dental problems to cause major disruptions in your schedule. It’s why we have invested in CEREC technology, so you can get your crowns in one visit. That’s right! With CEREC technology we can take digital impressions using a comfortable wand instead of sticky, gag-inducing mold material. These impressions go straight to a program in which Dr. Ryan will design your crown with CAD/CAM technology. The crown is then milled out of pure porcelain right here in our office, shaded and detailed to fit you perfectly, and bonded permanently into place all in one easy visit.
Our crowns are the perfect way to:
- Rebuild broken teeth
- Strengthen weak teeth
- Restore decayed teeth
- Replace extra-large metal fillings
- Seal and protect teeth after a root canal
- Create a brand new tooth for a bridge or an implant
“It’s awesome because patients don’t have to come back for the second appointment, they don’t have to wear a temporary crown; they get the tooth when they leave. It saves time and people love it!” – Dr. Kari Ryan
Porcelain Inlays/Porcelain Onlays
Sometimes we discover a tooth has more damage under an old filling. Other times we find there isn’t quite enough damaged tooth structure to support a composite dental filling, but the damage isn’t quite bad enough to require a full crown. That’s when our porcelain inlays and onlays come into play. Made of porcelain, dental inlays and onlays require less tooth preparation before application and are therefore less invasive. Dental inlays sit inside the points or cusps of your teeth, while onlays cover one or more cusps. Dr. Ryan and her team always prefer to use these instead of outdated metal fillings, because they are far more attractive and contain no mercury. And unlike amalgam fillings, dental inlays and onlays are bonded to teeth instead of forced into them, helping support their strength and integrity. Best of all, we can usually create your porcelain inlay or onlay right here in our office in one visit. Just as when making a crown, we use our CEREC technology to scan, design, and mill your restoration. There’s no need for temporaries or return visits. You’ll leave with a strong, lasting restoration that looks and feels so natural you may forget which tooth was restored!
Bridges
Missing even a few teeth is a miserable experience. It can severely affect your confidence; leave remaining teeth vulnerable to shifting; and create a gap that collects food, feels sensitive, and increase your risk for gum disease. Dental bridges from Kari Ryan Dentistry in Mt. Pleasant can replace your teeth, restore your confidence, and keep you healthy for decades to come. We offer both traditional bridges attached to and supported by abutment teeth, as well as implant-supported bridges. Traditional bridges are made up of one or more crowns, depending on your situation, and bonded to prepared remaining teeth. Implant-retained bridges consist of one or more crowns attached to implant posts, surgically placed into your jaw bone for superior stability and function. Both methods give you back the beauty, comfort, and function of your smile. Since they are custom designed just for you by our artistic dentists, you can be sure that they will look so natural, most people will never know you were missing teeth at all!
Implant
We don’t believe anyone should have to suffer the discomfort or indignities commonly associated with missing teeth. Talk to us about your dental implant options. We can replace one or all of your teeth with gorgeous and natural-feeling dental implants!
Full and Partial Dentures
If you are missing teeth but have been told that you don’t qualify for dental implants or implant-supported partials and dentures, don’t fret. Full and partial dentures from Kari Ryan Dentistry aren’t like denture-mill false teeth. Maybe you think of dentures as the standardized artificial teeth that can slip and pinch. Not ours! The set we make for you are custom-designed to look and feel like your natural teeth. We take everything into account like your:
- Gender
- Face shape
- What you want your smile to look like when they are in place
We even make sure that your tooth replacements balance your bite, helping to relieve the common jaw discomfort and TMJ disorder that dentures can cause. We suggest implant-supported dentures and partials. They replace both the tooth and the root to keep your bone stimulated and your palate uncovered so you look and feel great. Even if you have been told that you don’t qualify for implants because of bone loss, give us a call. We’d love to discuss how implants might be possible through bone augmentation and innovations like All-on-Four implant-retained dentures.
Endodontics
Root canals! Most people are so misinformed about these procedures, they use them as a synonym for the worst kind of misery you can imagine. How many times have we heard someone say, “ I’d rather have a root canal than (insert something dreadful here)”? Enough that we think it needs to be addressed and corrected, that’s for sure! Instead of being the worst dental procedure imaginable, root canals might actually be one of the best! Why? Endodontics is a branch of dentistry that saves teeth from extraction! That’s right – that root canal is designed to save even a dead, infected, or severely damaged tooth so your bone-stimulating tooth roots stay in place and you don’t have to worry about costly tooth replacements. What’s more, endodontic root canals stop your toothache in its tracks. How does it work? Inside your tooth is a network of blood vessels and nerves called pulp that helped feed and support your tooth as it was growing in, but stopped being needed after your dentition was fully developed. This pulp can become infected all the way into your root canals, causing severe pain and leading to all kinds of problems with both your smile and your health. During a root canal, we simply open your tooth, clean out the pulp, sterilize the inside of your tooth, fill everything with special material, and seal it all with a beautiful and supportive crown. Infection is removed or prevented, your pain ended, and your own tooth is saved!
Oral Surgery
When you need oral surgery isn’t it nice to know that you can rely on the comfort and convenience of having your procedure completed with us? Whether you need one or all of your teeth removed, we can help you stay comfortable with a dose of relaxing laughing gas, a comforting blanket and pillow, and your choice of music in noise-canceling headphones. Just lie back, relax, and we will take good care of you. We always recommend socket preservation with a bone graft after oral surgery to improve the appearance of your remaining teeth. This helps to keep them from moving out of pace and keeps your extraction site ready and able to receive a dental implant without complications. If you have been told that you need one or more teeth removed, talk to us today, we will do everything we can to preserve your natural teeth, keep you comfortable during surgery, and make your tooth replacement easy, attractive, and just right for you.
Technology
We really appreciate technology. In our personal lives, it makes doing chores easier, staying in touch more fun, and entertaining ourselves a breeze. That’s great, but what we really get excited about is dental technology. Dentistry is our passion, after all, and making it easier, safer, faster, and more effective for our patients is gets us really enthused! One of the most remarkable dental tech systems we have ever encountered is the CEREC system. CEREC is an acronym for Chairside Economical Restoration of Esthetic Ceramics. It’s a mouthful, but it describes the system perfectly! With CEREC, we can take a precise, digital image of your tooth (instead of needing to take those putty-like impressions that make so many people gag); use digital imaging to design your restoration to perfectly and precisely fit you and every detail of your tooth, and mill it from pure porcelain right here in our office. No temporaries. No rearranging your schedule for repeated visits. Just a healthy smile you can’t wait to show off. Now that’s great technology in our book!
