We recommend that patients visit our office at least twice each year to ensure their optimal oral health and to help avoid serious and costly future problems. In addition to cleaning and polishing all the visible and hidden surfaces of your teeth, we also check for many potential problems. Tooth decay, oral cancer and periodontal (gum) disease are just a few examples of problems that can have serious consequences if left undetected. In certain cases, we may even recommend 3 or 4 visits per year in order to properly treat conditions that require more regular attention.

Maintaining a regular appointment schedule with your dentist isn’t just good for your teeth, it’s an important part of your overall health.

Almost half the population of adults in North America suffers at least occasionally from bad breath (halitosis). There are many causes of bad breath, including certain foods, smoking, alcohol, hormonal changes or simply being hungry, however, the most common cause of bad breath is bacteria in the mouth and on the back of the tongue. These bacteria produce a volatile sulfur compound, which in turn produces a smell similar to “rotten eggs”. The treatment for this type of halitosis usually begins with establishing exceptional hygiene of the mouth. The dentist or dental hygienist will check for gum disease and, if necessary, prepare a detailed treatment plan. Flossing and tongue cleaning should also become an important part of daily home care and part of your regular tooth brushing routine.

We believe that a child should have his or her first dental appointment around the time of the first birthday. Recent studies have shown that by the age of three, a child is already at risk of having cavities which can be caused by something as innocent as fruit leather snacks or putting a baby to sleep with a bottle of juice or milk. Along with taking our first look at your child’s oral condition, this first appointment is also largely focused on the parents and helping them to establish a good oral hygiene program and diet for the child.

It is a known fact that a child’s baby teeth (or primary teeth) are vital to the long-term health of their permanent adult teeth. The early loss of baby teeth can cause serious problems, including poorly spaced and crooked adult teeth. As a result, it is just as important to care for a child’s baby teeth as it is to care for the adult teeth that follow.

The first step is to phone the dental office to have the area examined. If your child has never been to the dentist before, it is often best to limit the appointment to just an examination and x-ray in order to build trust with the child. Because children tend to have short attention spans and an inability to sit still for long periods of time, bringing the child back for a second appointment where treatment is done usually works well. Even though this results in 2 appointments, the child comes away with a more positive view of the dental office, which results in much happier dental appointments for the following years.

However, when a child comes for a filling or extraction appointment, we ask the parents to wait in the reception area for the duration of the appointment. Over the years we have found that the child will place complete trust in the dentist when the parent stays in the waiting room. When the parent is present in the operatory during the filling or extraction, the child tends to trust only the parent and not the dentist. This usually results in the child wanting to sit up and cling to the parent during the procedure. It often prevents the dental procedure from being completed, and ends up with the child having more fears of dental appointments.

We appreciate that you place your children into our care and, as most of us who work here are also parents, we desire for your children to have a positive experience in our office. Most children have fun and look forward to their dental appointments. Your support and trust in us are sincerely appreciated.

A crown is a covering that is made for a tooth when the tooth is either badly broken down or is about to fracture in a way that would make it very difficult to restore with a traditional filling. Some people call them “caps”, but the proper term is crown.

Crowns are placed for functional reasons on:

• teeth with large fillings and minimal tooth structure
• teeth with cracks
• teeth with corners broken off
• teeth with large cavities
• teeth with root canals

Crowns are placed for cosmetic reasons on:

• teeth that are poorly shaped or deeply stained
• teeth that are mildly crooked and there is a desire for straightening without braces
• teeth that have spaces or gaps in between them and there is a desire to change how the smile looks

At Windsor Park Dental Office we use CAD/CAM technology to make CEREC crowns for the majority of our crowns. This means you will have an all porcelain, metal free crown made during one appointment of approximately 2 hours duration. There is no need to send a mold to the dental lab, nor any need to wear a temporary plastic crown for 7 – 14 days while your porcelain crown is being made. There is no need to miss work for that second appointment of cementing your new crown into place, nor the need to get “freezing” a second time. Our clients really like the fact that when they go home with their CEREC crown in place, their procedure is done and they are ready to get on with their busy lives.

If there are limiting factors to the tooth needing a crown that prevent a CEREC one appointment crown from being made, a crown can still be made within the 2 appointment framework. We will be happy to discuss your options with you.

A significant percentage of adults suffer from some level of fear of dental treatment. You can take solace in the fact that you are not alone! Given the importance of maintaining healthy teeth and gums to your overall health, it is imperative that you find a way to deal with these fears.

At Windsor Park Dental Office we will listen to you because we want to understand and help our patients reduce their anxiety. Here are a few things that we can offer:

• Ask us for a blanket during your procedure. We have a number of soft fleece blankets to help you feel warm, cozy or even less “exposed” during your appointment. You may be surprised at how much these help.
• We also have small pillows for your use to help support your neck or back if you find that our chairs don’t support you in the right places.
• We will offer you our safety sunglasses to wear to keep the bright light out of your eyes and let you rest assured that your eyes have a protective covering.
• Bring your iPod or portable music device with headphones. If you can distract yourself with your favorite music, you may find the appointment easier to get through than you imagined. The headphones or ear buds will also help to block out the noise of the dental office.

High-speed collisions that occur during sports like hockey, football, soccer and basketball can cause serious tooth damage. A professionally fitted mouth guard is the best defense for any athlete.

At Windsor Park Dental Office, we have different options for sports mouth guards. We can provide a custom made mouth guard to fit perfectly against the wearer’s teeth. These provide an excellent level of protection for contact sports. We also carry a line of UNDERARMOUR mouth guards which can be custom molded to adapt to the changing teeth needs of younger and adolescent patients, or just to provide a lower cost sports guard with excellent protection to our adult clientele. We also sell the Moldable Armourbite Mouthpiece by UNDERARMOUR for non-contact sports. These are designed to enhance performance without the bulk of a full sports mouth guard.

Please feel free to discuss your needs and we will help you select the appropriate mouth guard.

We gladly accept Cash, Debit, Visa or Master Card. We do not accept payment from insurance companies, however we will give you cost estimates for each procedure and fill out your insurance forms for submission. We ask for payment in full at the time of the appointment and we will also electronically submit your insurance claim forms to the companies that subscribe to this service. In many cases this results in reimbursement within a few days!