Restoring your smile in Catford, Lewisham & South-East London with a full range of beautiful and natural-looking restoration options, including crowns, bridges, veneers and root canal therapy to save your teeth from extraction.
Restorative Dentistry
Crowns
When a tooth has broken down – either through injury or decay – a crown can be placed over the top of it to restore its natural feel and function. Custom-created from your dental impressions, crowns can be milled from a variety of materials, from hard-wearing precious metals (usually reserved for the rear chewing teeth) to cosmetic tooth-coloured resins, porcelain, glass ionomer or composite; your dentist will help you choose the best option for your needs.
Crowns have to be made in a dental lab, using your dental impressions to create an accurate restoration, tailor-made to offer the perfect combination of function and aesthetics. You will be involved in the process from start to finish and the lab will create a restoration that meets you and your dentist’s requirements in terms of shape and shade.
FAQs
How does a crown work?
Created using your dental impressions, a crown both covers up a damaged tooth and restores it to the correct size and shape for your mouth.
How does the dentist attach a crown?
After applying a local anaesthetic, your dentist will file the existing tooth into a shape that the crown can neatly cover. A temporary crown is usually fitted while the custom-fit, permanent crown is being engineered. When this is ready, your dentist will simply glue the crown into place using a dental cement appropriate to the material of the crown.
Is it painful to get a dental crown?
You should not experience pain during or following the installation of a tooth crown. The procedure for placing a dental crown requires a local aesthetic, and if you choose a dentist at the Penerley Road Dental Practice, we make sure your experience is as comfortable and efficient as possible.
How long will a crown last?
Ceramic and porcelain are the two most popular materials for tooth crowns, and both ceramic crowns and porcelain crowns are durable and, if treated properly, long-lasting. The average lifespan of a dental crown is between 5 to 15 years, though some crowns last up to 30 years.
Bridges
An ideal solution for missing teeth, a dental bridge is a fixed prosthetic tooth replacement, supported on either side by crowns. Like crowns, bridges are created to your dentist’s specifications in a dental lab, usually from porcelain or precious metal, and are an excellent fixed alternative to dentures.
Dental bridges come with lots of benefits. They not only provide a permanent way of replacing the gaps caused by missing teeth, but also support your remaining teeth, keeping them in their proper position. Bridges can help prevent the shifting of remaining teeth, as well as decay and periodontal bone loss – all of which can lead to ageing facial sagging. Unlike dentures, a bridge is permanently fixed into place, providing increased support and stability, as well as comfort.
FAQs
What exactly is a dental bridge?
A bridge is a natural-looking, artificial tooth, or series of teeth, that can replace a section of missing teeth. This prosthetic crowns the two teeth either side of the missing teeth, with permanent false teeth effectively ‘bridging the gap’.
What are bridges made of?
Bridges are usually made from a precious metal base. If the bridge will show when you smile, porcelain is then bonded to the base. Sometimes, non-precious metals can be used in the base to reduce the cost.
Will any metal be visible?
Bridges are usually made to have a metal substructure with porcelain bonded to this. Nowadays all porcelain bridges can be custom-designed to allow light to pass through them and hence look more lifelike than porcelain bonded to metal bridges.
How is a bridge fitted?
Your dentist will prepare the teeth either side of the gap and take an impression. The impression goes off to a laboratory where your bridge is made. Your dentist cements your new bridge in place with a special adhesive without the need for a plate or denture.
Are bridges expensive?
Although a bridge may seem expensive, it will last many years. It will also improve your appearance and bite. It’s a long-term investment in your dental health and appearance.
Veneers
Ideal for those who want to make minor changes to their smile, veneers are often considered the go-to treatment for anyone who doesn’t require extensive dental work. Created from eggshell-thin layers of porcelain, which are permanently bonded over your existing teeth, veneers are suited to a surprisingly large variety of aesthetic solutions – hiding chips and gaps, smoothing irregularities, correcting misalignment, and whitening. They can also be used in tandem with other cosmetic treatments, such as dental bridges. At the Penerley Road Dental Practice, our experienced team will be able to talk you through the options, including the cost of veneers and what they can do for your smile.
The porcelain veneer procedure usually requires two or more sessions with your dentist. Firstly, the tooth is prepped: this involves removing a thin layer of enamel, under a local anaesthetic if required, and taking a dental impression, which will be used to fabricate your veneers – a process that usually takes a couple of weeks. When your veneers are ready, they will be bonded and cured using a special light-sensitive resin.
FAQs
Are veneers right for me?
If you have healthy gums and teeth, the chances are veneers will be a quick and simple solution for you. Patients with tooth decay, gum disease and root canal infections will need to have these issues treated prior to considering veneers, and it may be that your dentist recommends alternative treatments in these cases.
Do veneers hurt?
No! Sometimes we might use a local anaesthetic, but it’s not always necessary and applying veneers generally involves minimal discomfort. Your cosmetic dentist will discuss your treatment in depth so you know exactly what to expect.
How long do veneers last?
With proper care, your porcelain veneers can last up to 10 years.
Do veneers stain?
Veneers are less prone to staining than natural teeth, because porcelain is not as porous – but you will need to follow a good oral hygiene routine to maintain your beautiful white smile.
Root Canals
Root canal treatment – not a phrase that fills many with delight, but at the Penerley Road Dental Practice we can confidently tell you that it’s nothing to worry about! Involving the extraction of infected tissue from deep inside the tooth, root canal surgery is the ‘hero’ procedure that rescues teeth from ultimately having to be removed – and it’s now so advanced, dentists consider it to be as routine as carrying out a filling.
Root canal treatment usually requires more than one visit with your family dentist. But the wait will be worth it for the long-term benefits of root canal surgery – statistics show that more than 90% of root canal-treated teeth survive for a further 8-10 years. Our dental team in Catford, Lewisham and Southeast London has a wealth of experience treating root canal patients, with state-of-the-art facilities and pain management techniques making the experience quicker and more comfortable than ever.
FAQs
What symptoms indicate a root canal treatment is required?
The first sign your inner tooth might be infected is a sudden, severe toothache, often accompanied by sensitivity to hot and cold, swelling of the gum and discolouration of the tooth. See your dentist immediately even if the symptoms appear to subside – that’s usually an indication that the sensitive dental pulp has died off. The symptoms will return, more aggressively, as the infection spreads further, under and around the tooth.
Is root canal treatment painful?
Under normal circumstances, root canal treatment is not painful. A local anaesthetic is given to numb the area, and following this you should experience no more pain than with a normal filling.
What does a root canal procedure involve?
After isolating your infected tooth with a rubber dam (this keeps the tooth dry and prevents any chemicals running into your mouth), the dentist will then open up your tooth using a very precise dental drill. The dental pulp is removed with suction, and the root canal thoroughly cleaned, disinfected and then filled with gutta percha. Once you’ve recovered from your root canal treatment, it is likely you’ll need to return to the dentist to have a permanent restoration fitted, as root canal treatment generally leaves the tooth weaker.
How long will my treated tooth survive?
Root canal treatment has an extremely high success rate and you can expect your treated tooth to last up to a decade with good oral hygiene.
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