Guiding You to a New Smile

Complete Dental Implant Care

Dental implants are now the preferred and longest-lasting method of replacing missing teeth for patients young and old. Unlike dentures, a dental implant is a permanent solution that remains in your mouth and closely resembles your real teeth. Dental implants also provide stable roots for dentures, crowns, and bridges.

Many North Dakota dental offices refer their patients out for the implant post-placement and only then place the restoration tooth on the post. At A Lifetime of Smiles, however, we place the implant post and place the tooth restoration on top of the post. We’re trained in both phases of implant dentistry, which saves you the inconvenience of going to multiple offices for implant treatment. Contact us today to find out if you are a candidate for dental implants!

Dental crowns, sometimes called caps, cover teeth to restore them to their appropriate shape and size after large fillings, fractures, or weakening forces such as intense grinding. In all these cases, crowns not only cover teeth but provide added support. They can also be used to attach bridges, cover dental implants, restore severely discolored or misshapen teeth, and even as a preventive measure to protect a tooth in danger of breaking.

Crowns can be made of all-porcelain (ceramic) material, porcelain fused to metal, gold alloys, or base metal alloys. Because they mimic the appearance of natural teeth, our patients tend to prefer porcelain crowns. We’ll be happy to discuss your options with you, so please contact us today.

The inside of your tooth contains soft tissue with nerves and blood vessels running from the root to the crown. A crack, deep cavity, or other injuries to the tooth can cause the nerve to become damaged or diseased, allowing bacteria to enter the tooth and kill the living tissue. Without treatment, the resulting infection can cause pain, swelling and abscesses, loss of the diseased tooth, and eventually damage to the surrounding bone. With endodontic treatment, also called root canal therapy, we carefully remove the diseased tissue and nerve from the tooth and gently clean and seal the root canal to protect it from bacteria. If necessary, medication or an antibiotic can also be used to control the spread of bacteria and stop the infection. Finally, a crown is placed over the reshaped tooth to restore and strengthen it.

Relief from the pain of an infected tooth is an immediate advantage to root canal therapy. Long-term benefits include saving your natural tooth and avoiding damage to the surrounding bone. Additionally, with continued dental care and good oral hygiene after root canal therapy, the restored tooth should last you many years.