Dental restoration is necessary when your teeth become decayed, damaged, or lost entirely. Dr. Petroff and our dedicated team of dental professionals are experienced in restoring smiles of all ages. Our restorative dental treatments can rehabilitate the function and aesthetics of your smile, mouth, and face. This can make simple things like eating and smiling pleasant so you can enjoy the power of your beautiful smile.
Once we’ve diagnosed your problem, Dr. Petroff will talk to you about a treatment plan. If you have tooth decay or cavities, we’ll fill them. But we can fill them with materials that look and feel just like your natural teeth, and are healthier for you, too.
During every regular dental examination, Dr. Petroff evaluates the dental and medical history of each patient and designs a plan to restore their mouth to optimal health. Many times there is more than one option available to help you achieve your dental goals. When possible, Dr. Petroff gives each patient several treatment plan options and explains the risks and benefits of each plan. She spends time helping her patients decide on a treatment plan that best fits their needs and expectations.
Whether it’s a simple one-visit treatment, or you need more involved therapies requiring multiple visits, the difference at the dental office of Dr. Heather Petroff in Broadview Heights is our advanced techniques, tools, and treatments. They help us treat you with the highest quality care, as quickly as the process allows, as pain-free as possible, and with the most enduring and attractive results.
Fillings
The most common restorative procedure completed in a dental office is a filling. Fillings are performed to remove a decayed portion of your tooth, but they can also be used to repair damaged, chipped, broken, or worn teeth. Dr. Petroff uses the safest, most modern dental technologies available when placing fillings.
We use color-matched composite resins, or white fillings, to repair cavities. Composite fillings minimize the amount of tooth structured removed, resulting in smaller fillings with a natural feeling and look in the mouth. The composite material bonds to tooth structure, providing additional strength. The shade or color of the composite fillings are closely matched to the color of existing teeth, so no one will ever know you have a filling.
Porcelain Inlays/Onlays
Minor cavities can be filled with a composite resin, or white filling. But if the decay is more severe, there may not have enough of the tooth left to support a filling. If this is the case, but you still have enough tooth left that you don’t need a crown, then Dr. Petroff can restore the tooth with a porcelain dental inlay or onlay.
Inlays and onlays cover more of the tooth’s surface, and it will take two visits to complete them. The difference between an inlay and an onlay is in how much of the tooth each one covers. An inlay covers the top of your tooth up to the cusps, the rounded edges on your tooth. An onlay is used to cover more of the tooth and extends beyond the cusps.
At the first visit, Dr. Petroff will first clear the tooth of decay, then make impressions of your teeth to send to a dental laboratory. Before you leave your first appointment, she’ll put a temporary inlay or filling in the tooth. When the inlay or onlay is ready, you’ll come back for your second visit, where she removes the temporary filling, and then cements the inlay/onlay onto your tooth.
Crowns/Bridges
Crowns are a great solution for restoring your tooth to its appropriate shape and size. A crown covers the visible portion of your natural tooth all the way down to the gum line and may be recommended for several reasons. If you have a large filling that needs to be repaired or replaced, or if your tooth is weak or fractured, a porcelain crown might be your best option.
Your crown is fabricated out of porcelain at a dental lab after Dr. Petroff makes an impression of the tooth. A natural looking porcelain crown will not only restore your tooth to it’s appropriate shape and size, but it will also provide the added support necessary and aid in disbursing forces placed on your opposing teeth.
Dentures and Partials
Dentures and partials replace missing teeth and can be taken in and out of your mouth. They give you the ability to chew your food and give you a natural appearance. Wearing a denture to replace missing teeth provides support for the lips and cheeks and corrects the collapsed appearance that results from the loss of teeth.
Dentures take some getting used to, and will never feel exactly the same as your natural teeth. Another popular option that we offer our patients is an implant-retained denture. An implant-retained denture has special attachments that snap onto the implants in your bone, holding your denture firmly in place.
Partial dentures are another alternative for our patients who are missing one or more teeth. A partial is a dental prosthesis with an artificial tooth or teeth that can be removed from the mouth. Artificial teeth are placed on a molded base to which clasps are added. The clasps and base stabilize the partial, helping to hold the teeth in place. Over time, dentures and partials may need to be adjusted or replaced as they show signs of age and wear, or become loose.
Oral Surgery
Dr. Petroff performs minor tooth extractions in our office. But if you need major tooth extraction, such as wisdom teeth or a bony impacted tooth (when the tooth hasn’t pushed through the gum), we will coordinate your treatment with an oral surgeon.
The oral surgeon will give you local or general anesthesia, then make an incision in your gum. The surgeon will remove the tooth and its pulp, and then close the gum with stitches. The incision will be packed with gauze to stop any bleeding.
You’ll want to rest for the remainder of the day of your surgery and can go back to your normal activities the next day. You should wait a few days to let the incisions heal before doing anything strenuous.
Technology
Dr. Petroff’s commitment to using whatever tools and technology will improve her patient’s’ care and comfort now includes our 3M(™) digital scanner. The digital scanner is a small wand that takes digital impressions of your teeth to send to a dental lab. It’s used for anything that we make impressions for—crowns and bridges, veneers, and dental implants as examples. The scanner create detailed, 3D images that can be transmitted to our dental labs, rather than sending molded impressions of your teeth. And for our patients, it means no more clunky trays with molding material.