Golden Opportunities

Aging can be good for cheese and wine. Too bad it doesn’t work the same magic on our teeth as we mellow with the years. Here to show how mellow yellow and other age-related dental problems can be erased is Dr. Steven Marsh.

Question: Why and how do teeth change as we get older?

Answer: Some of the changes are just your average wear and tear on the teeth. We’ve discussed that before. Teeth may also shift as we get older, either crowding or spreading apart.
Many issues that arise as we age have to do with care issues. You have to remember to brush and floss after every meal. Food p articles can lead to tooth decay and periodontal disease, both of which can cause you to need filling or to lose teeth. You may also want to consider regular fluoride treatments. There is a gel we can prescribe for patients to use at home called Prevident.
Medical conditions such as diabetes can cause dry mouth, as can high blood pressure medication. Reduction of saliva can lead to more tooth decay. Saliva acts as a buffer to decay and also washes away food particles.
Accidents also occur which can damage or chip teeth.

Question: You have some examples of teeth suffering aging issues, and then how to correct them. Let’s look at the first one.

Answer: Here is a patient who had lost some of his teeth on the side, which had caused some shifting.

You can see from the front view that he had a space between his front teeth as well.

And you can see the overall changes made in his smile. Before and after face

Question: You have another example.

Answer: Yes, this man came to us after an accident. He had slipped on ice in his driveway and fell, chipping one of his front teeth and fracturing the teeth around it. Four veneers were used.

Question: Our third example is related to the second. Can you tell us about that?

Answer: This is the brother-in-law of the patient before. When he saw what could be done, he decided to have his teeth made over—all the way from Florida!
As you can see, he had a lot of old silver fillings from previous tooth decay. We cleared them out and replaced them with tooth-colored fillings.

From the front you can see that there was general wear and tear on the teeth, and some discoloration that we whitened and rebuilt.

And again, you can see the over all change.

Yes, aging is inevitable. But we can correct the damage that aging does to our teeth. For more information, give Dr. Marsh’s office a call.