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We have recently implemented CAESY (Clinically Advanced Education SYstem), the world's premier multimedia patient education program. This puts hundreds of multimedia presentations on dental health, conditions and procedures on the monitor in front of you in each of our operatories.
We have one primary goal in installing this system—to help you better understand your dental health and our recommended courses of treatment. The video and animation provided in a multimedia-based system goes much further in helping you understand dental issues than our verbal descriptions alone can.
Procedures can also be printed so that you can review them at home.
The primary goal of the first visit is for us to get to know each other.
You are entrusting us with your dental care so it is important for you to know who we are, what our approach to dental care is, how we operate, and the services we provide.
From our point of view, we need to educate ourselves about you and your dental history as much as we can. We need to be aware of your needs and preferences in a dental practitioner as well as the care and procedures you have received so far.
We will also begin to document your care with us, supplemented with available information from your previous practitioners. During the first visit we give you a thorough check up and x-rays. (Unless recent x-rays are available from a previous practitioner at the time of the appointment.)
Primary teeth begin to appear at about 6 to 10 months of age. Usually, the central incisors come in first followed by the incisors on either side, and so forth back to the molars. By about the age of three most of the primary teeth should be in, 20 in total.
Primary teeth are “placeholders” for the adult teeth during early childhood, and guide the permanent teeth into place during late childhood and the teen years.
Primary teeth also play a strong role in the development of speech and chewing.
Between the ages of 7 and about 12, the primary teeth fall out as the permanent teeth begin to come in. The incisors are usually the first to fall out and be replaced, and the last to come in are the 3rd molars or wisdom teeth. The 20 primary teeth are replaced and supplemented to provide a full set of 32 adult teeth.
These are your very front teeth and are the sharpest. Their job is to cut food and move it inward into the mouth.
Canine teeth are in the corners of the mouth and designed for grabbing and tearing food.
These are located between the canine teeth and the molars, and have a flat chewing surface for crushing food.
Molars are your back teeth on the inside of your mouth. Like the premolars they have flat chewing surfaces for grinding and chewing up food. The last or 3rd molars are often called wisdom teeth since they are the smartest teeth in your mouth.
The part of a tooth that sits above the gum line, it provides the chewing surfaces that we use to process our food.
The root is about twice the length of the crown, and lies below the gum level serving to anchor the tooth.
A tooth is made up of four layers, or tissue types.
The hard protective outer shell of the tooth. It protects the tooth from the forces involved with chewing and eating.
Dentin is a yellow bone-like material that supports the enamel and carries some of the nerve.
The pulp is a soft tissue at the center of the tools that contains blood and lymph vessels and nerves.
Most of the root of the jaw is covered by the centum. It helps to attach the tooth to the bones in your jaw. A cushioning layer called the Periodontal Ligament sits between the cementum and the jawbone. It helps to connect the two.