Unique Dental of Worcester

Products And Services

• Snoring Therapy

  Snoring comes from air entering the nose, mouth or throat at an irregular pace and vibrating the soft tissue palates, the hard tissue palates or both. It affects millions of people, men women and boys and girls, and is both cosmetically unpleasant and can cause health problems like sleep interruption and strain on the heart. A very loud snore may be a sign of apnea, which is a condition where air passages are blocked. Snoring is usually caused by: Alcohol Allergies Bulky Throat Tissue Fatigue Hypothyroidism Long Soft Palate Narrow Obesity Obstructed Nasal Airways Poor Muscle Tone in Throat and Tongue Smoking Oral appliance therapy is the most common treatment for severe snoring problems, where an alliance physically holds the airways open during sleep. Other treatment options include surgery, changes in sleeping patterns and lifestyle improvements.

• Sedation Dentistry

  Sedation dentistry is the use of sedation to make a patient comfortable during a dental treatment. It is mostly used during extensive procedures such as fillings, crowns, bridges, root canals, extractions, cosmetic procedures and periodontal treatments. It can also be used for patients with anxiety of dental procedures or who have trouble sitting still. Sedation Dentistry is endorsed by the American Dental Association and is a hallmark of the technological transformations in the dental world that have given patients more comfort and ease. Before using a sedative or anesthetic, it is important to tell your dentist about any medications or medical treatments you are receiving. Before administering any sedative or anesthetic, your dentist will talk to you about the process of sedation and pre- and post-sedation instructions.

• Dental Bonding and Tooth-Colored Fillings

  Bonding is a popular method to fill in or cover up defects in teeth with a white composite resin. An adhesive gel is placed on the tooth, and the resin is molded and sculpted over it, then hardened with UV light and polished. Bonding can be used to fill teeth after the removal of cavities, or to cover stains, cracks, discolorations, chips, or gaps in teeth. It is a technological improvement over highly-visible silver amalgam fillings, and applications usually lasts more than 10 years.

• Dental Bridge

  Dental bridges are a way to replace missing teeth by creating a segment that anchors to two existing teeth to “bridge” the gap between them. Made from porcelain, gold, alloys, or metal, bridges require the two teeth on either side of the missing tooth to be filed down into “abutments” that will hold the bridge in place, much like a pair of crowns with a third tooth joining them from the middle. The bridge itself will be created in a specialized lab while a temporary bridge is put in its place. Once the final bridge is put in place, you will need to eat soft foods for a few days while the bridge settles, but after that it will function and feel normal. If you are missing a tooth, please strongly consider having it replaced. Not only are there aesthetic disadvantage from the missing tooth, but that gap could also harm your mouth and jaw and make it difficult to eat or speak properly.

• Dental Crown

  Sometimes teeth begin to weaken, crack, or visibly decay, but remain well-anchored and firmly in place. Bonding or filling may not be sufficient, and in these cases, a crown is often recommended. With a crown, the original tooth will be filed down to the enamel, left in place, and capped with a crown of porcelain, gold, or porcelain fused with metal. The color is matched to the other teeth, and the crown will appear to be a regular tooth in your smile.

• Periodontal Disease Treatment

  Besides our prolific attention to your teeth and keeping them clean and polished, we also take time to help our patients develop better oral hygiene habits at home. If we detect telltale signs of hygienic shortcomings we will recommend changes to your routine to improve your oral health. We can also suggest preventative measures like dental sealants or nightguards if you’re at risk of TMJ or bruxism. Some gum diseases like gingivitis may need a root scaling or planing procedure to prevent long-term damage like bone loss or tooth loss. Oral Cancer Screenings During a dental exam, your doctor will check your neck and oral tissues for lumps, colored patches, and sore spots to help detect oral cancer while it is easiest to treat. People who smoke and drink regularly are at the highest risk of developing oral cancel. Scaling and Root Planing Scaling and root planing is a non-surgical procedure where plaque and tartar are removed from below the gum line. Special slim tools clean the root surfaces of plaque and tartar and smooth down the surface. This prevents bacteria from getting a foothold in the gums.

• Teeth Whitening

  Modern life offers a number of ways to stain our teeth, including coffee, wine, food and smoking. This can even happen to people who brush regularly. Teeth whitening restores the natural color to the teeth and can even be made whiter than normal. We accomplish this by creating impressions of your teeth and using them to make a set of whitening trays. You can wear these trays for less than an hour a day for a few days and receive a dramatic increase in whiteness to your smile. Please contact us to see if whitening is right for you.

• Dental Veneers

  Veneers are thin ceramic shells that hug the existing tooth to correct the appearance of teeth that are stained, cracked, chipped, improperly spaced or misaligned. First, the client comes in and has their teeth evaluated for the veneers. The traditional process takes up to two weeks to fabricate the veneers and they are placed in a follow up visit. Temporary veneers can be placed during that gap. Ask your dentist for more information about veneers and to learn how they work.

• Dental Implant

  Replace missing teeth with dental implants. These artificial titanium tooth roots offer patients the most natural appearing results. They also preserve the jawbone which can deteriorate from missing teeth.

• Dentures

  Dentures are a removable replacement for missing teeth and can replace both full and partial sets of teeth. For full sets, any remaining teeth are removed. There are two common approaches for full sets: With Conventional Full Dentures, all the teeth are removed, and the tissue is given time to heal. This typically takes several months, and the patient is without teeth during that time. Once the healing is complete, the dentures are created. With Immediate Full Dentures, measurements are performed before the teeth are removed, and dentures are ready immediately afterward. The gum tissue will change shape as it heals, and the dentures will need to be tightened later.

• Tooth Extraction

  The extraction of wisdom teeth is a fairly common procedure. In ancient times, humans would typically lose a few teeth and the remaining teeth would shift to fill in the gap. The wisdom teeth were located in the back of the jaw intended to be deployed in an opening. Modern dentistry has prevented that tooth loss, so a new problem has come out: Mature wisdom teeth with no place to go start trying to breach the surface at an angle or under existing teeth. Wisdom teeth are also vulnerable to infection and may cause pain and swelling. For extraction, an incision is made in the gum and the tooth is pulled out. In some cases the tooth may need to be cut into segments and removed in pieces. Wisdom teeth can be removed individually or all four may be taken out at once. The patient can be placed completely out or have a local anesthetic. Either way, the patient will receive painkillers for after the procedure and will need a ride home.

• Invisalign

  Invisalign is a way to straighten teeth without the wires and brackets of traditional braces. Instead, it uses a series of clear “aligners” that are precisely created for your teeth. Patients fit the aligners over their teeth, wearing them constantly for two weeks. The aligners need to be removed to eat or brush but are left in place the rest of the time while it slowly moves the teeth. Patients will go typically go through 12 to 48 sets of aligners, and the average process time is between 6 and 15 months.

• Braces

  The age of stainless steel braces is beyond us. While we offer transparent Invisalign teeth straighteners, some patients prefer or benefit more from modern bracket and wire braces. The new generation of braces use ceramic brackets, not stainless steel, that blend in more naturally with the tooth color. Advances also allow the teeth to move faster, cutting down on the number of office visits needed to complete a treatment.

• Root Canal Treatment

  Root canal has a notorious reputation as a long, scary procedure. The Alfred Hitchcock of dentistry. Fortunately for the patient, medical technology has made this important procedure much quicker and less painful than it was in the past when it earned its dark reputation. Endodontics are dental procedures that deal with the nerve endings in the root of teeth. Sometimes teeth become infected and those nerves need to be removed to prevent forming an abscess that could lead to loss of parts of the jaw bone. In a root canal, a local anesthetic is applied, and the dentist drills into the tooth, creating an opening that leads to the nerve. The dentist will use this opening to remove infected tissue and will typically replace the tooth with a crown. After the procedure, some pain is normal, but can typically be treated with over the counter medicine.

• Inlays and Onlays

  Inlays and onlays are best thought of as partial crowns. Instead of reducing the tooth to a small foundation for an artificial tooth, like a crown, decayed areas of the tooth are removed. A mold of the tooth is created, and the piece is created in 2 to 3 weeks. Inlays and onlays look natural and work like natural teeth.

• Dental Crown Lengthening

  Sometimes tooth decay appears below the gumline, requiring the removal of some bone and gum tissue. With crown lengthening, part of the gum and bone are moved to allow the dentist to access the part of the tooth in need of help. In addition, crown lengthening is sometimes done to improve the appearance of a “gummy” smile where the flesh hides part of the teeth, making them look short and stubby. By reshaping the gum and bone tissue, the proper amount of the tooth can be made visible to improve the look.

• Gum Grafting

  A soft tissue graft moves gum tissue around or borrows tissue from the roof of the mouth to fix significant gum recessions. When gums recede they may expose the root of a tooth, exposing it’s soft constitution to bacteria and plaque and pain from hot and cold food and drink. Slight gum recessions can be fixed with improved dental hygiene, but more severe gum recessions should be corrected before more serious problems develop.