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Fillings Get Smaller… and Smaller.
By Judith Sloan
We all remember going to the dentist, opening wide,
and listening with held breath while he examined our
teeth for decay. “Please, no cavities,” we prayed.
With his prickly instrument in hand, our dentist
probed every tooth, looking for “soft” spots where
decay had invaded our once hard, pristine dental
enamel. And when the point found its quarry, a tiny
spot of decay, he would nod and say, “We’ve got a
small one here. We’ll watch to see if it grows into
something.”
No longer. Fast-forward to 2004, and the prickly
instrument takes a back seat to a high-tech laser
probe (http://www.washdent.com/services.html) that
lands a preemptive strike in the battle against
decay.
Make way for “Minimally Invasive Dentistry.”
(http://www.washdent.com/services.html) The mouthful
of words means simply that dentists no longer allow
dots of decay to advance into large craters. Armed
with the ultimate in high-tech sleuthing, they now
set out to find decay—at the earliest possible
moment.
“Now we can absolutely eliminate many large fillings
that lead to cracked teeth, crowns and other more
invasive treatment,” says Dr. Daniel J. Deutsch
(http://www.washdent.com/deutsch.html), of the
Washington Center for Dentistry in Washington, DC.
(http://www.washdent.com)
Here’s how it works: The dental decay finder touches
the surface of every tooth, each time flashing a
digital score that reports the presence of decay.
A tooth that scores above a certain number—has at
least the tiniest dot of decay.
And getting at the teeny offending area involves
another technological wonder. A gentle dental
“sandblaster” uses tiny particles to whisk away
decay in layers. The area gets filled in with a
tooth-colored liquid that hardens in seconds under a
special light.
Patients walk out of the office with tiny fillings.
“And the best part,” says Dr. Deutsch, “is they have
treatment with no needle and no drill!” |
TitlTeeth
Fillings Getting Smaller