Do you hide your teeth when you smile? You can have the smile you’ve always wanted in as little as two visits. Discolored, chipped, cracked, or crooked teeth can be restored to allow you to smile with confidence.
A smile makeover may consist of whitening, bonding, veneers, tooth replacement or a partial or full mouth rehabilitation. Whatever your needs are, the doctors at West Family Dentistry have taken hundreds of hours in continuing education, learning the latest techniques to give you the smile you deserve.
Dr. West is currently taking a continuum at the Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies completing courses in occlusion and comprehensive rehabilitation, to use the most current technology to help restore the occlusion (the way the patients teeth come together) back to the physiologic position. Patients that have worn their natural dentition may have a bite that is not ideal. Having a “bad bite” causes stress and pain in the muscles of the head and neck, which can lead to pain in the TMJ, neck pain, migraine headaches, ringing in the ears and other symptoms that patients may not realize can be caused by the way the teeth fit together. Dr. West uses TENS or ultra low frequency electrical stimulation to relax the jaw muscles to relieve muscle spasms and help determine the patients physiologic or neuromuscular bite position. She can measure the patients EMG or muscle activity to determine that the muscles are in a relaxed state in the new bite. The patient is placed in a removable orthotic (similar to an occlusal guard) or a fixed acrylic overlay as a diagnostic tool to see if the new bite position can alleviate the patients symptoms. When the patient is comfortable in the new bite, then the patient may be sent to the orthodontist if they have healthy teeth, or may need to have porcelain restorations placed to improve the smile and place the patients teeth in the new position. Once the teeth are restored, Dr. West will use a T-Scan or computerized bite analysis to help balance the patients occlusion.
