Overcoming Dental Phobia With Dr. Vinograd
“Hi, I just want to say that I’ve always had a fear of going to the dentist, and I found a dentist that took that fear away – and that was Dr. Vinograd. I’m so glad that I found him, because he made me feel like there was nothing wrong with going to a dentist. He made me feel relaxed, and I was always afraid to be numb – and he taught me that I don’t need to be numb. He just made me feel so relaxed, and I just want to tell everyone that has had that fear, and doesn’t go to the dentist because of that fear, to come see Dr. Vinograd – he is the best. And I also would like to add, his office staff, his assistants, everyone here treats you like a Queen. So I feel like a Queen – the new me now. No more fear of dentists, because I have found Dr. Vinograd – and I will never leave him.”
Podcast: Dentures & Denture Alternatives
Hello. This is Daniel Vinograd, biological dentist in San Diego, California. Today, I’d like to talk a little bit about dentures and denture alternatives.
If you really think about what dentures are, you will probably describe them as a couple of plastic pieces pounding against each other trying to mash food together. This concept is a little bit unusual and dated, but it’s certainly better than not having anything at all.
The truth however is that a lot of people resign themselves to wearing dentures. They do have some teeth to show for it, but the mastication is quite reduced, the quality of their life is not great. Feelings of being old and unattractive are often voiced by many denture wearers.
There are a lot of issues with sore spots with bone being reabsorbed resulting in dentures that do not fit as they should, needing realignments. And ultimately, the bone will tend to reabsorb to the point where the dentures are hard to really keep in place – not a good way to live.
Now, a lot of people feel that once they’re in dentures, they are destined to always be in dentures. A lot of them have gone through a lot of dental work, a lot of suffering and they slowly, but surely have lost their teeth. A lot of our grandparents used to wear them and so we became comfortable with the idea that dentures are a natural part of getting old. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Modern dentistry can provide today so many different alternatives to dentures that can dramatically improve the quality of a person’s life and all of them are really based on the use of implants. Implants, even 20 or 30 years ago were not really considered to be mainstream dentistry. I remember placing some of the first implants amongst my peers. A lot of colleagues did not look favorably upon this kind of a procedure.
Today, dental implants have progressed to the point that if properly done and properly integrated, their success rate is better than 95% and they can actually be used to replace dentures or in conjunction with dentures.
There are actually a number of ways in which we can use the implants to improve the quality of life of a denture where first, we can actually use two or four implants and place the denture fitted with a couple of female pieces that attach to its male counterparts (male counterparts being part of the implants). So in essence, the dentures are actually buttoned firmly to the implants. It actually is a tremendous improvement on just having two dentures that are just flopping around.
The second way in which implants can be used to get rid of dentures altogether is placing as many implants as there are bones available and placing individual crowns and bridges to replace the teeth that were once lost.
And finally, there’s another popular way of replacing your teeth by placing anywhere from four to six implants and then permanently cementing them to a full set of teeth. This would actually be affixed, not a removal or restoration, which acts pretty much like a long, solid bridge. The advantage of this last one is that you really don’t need as many implants as you would if you were to restore your mouth with individual implants or small bridges.
Now, what are the considerations for a dental implants? What are the requirements? Mostly, it’s just about having healthy bones, which much of the population has, but also and very importantly, enough bone to be an implant to be placed. There are a number of different dental implants in the market and when the first modern generation of implants first came out and were being placed, they were quite long. They were 18-20mm., which are really quite invasive. They require quite a bit of bone and usually, that amount of bone was not available.
In the last decade or so, dental implants have gotten smaller. As a matter of fact, there is a lot of research that has been published that shows that well-designed smaller implants actually integrate better and have equal or longer longevity than their longer counterparts. So today, most of the implants are in the 10-15 mm range, which is still large and somewhat invasive, not compared to what they used to be, but still require quite a bit of bone for adequate placement.
In my office, we use bicon implants, which are actually not only much shorter, but really well-designed. They provide a large surface that bone can integrate to. In fact, as I’ve said, the scientific research that have been published demonstrating this sort of implants integrate better than their longer implants.
The dental implants I place are about 6 mm, which is considerably less than other implants being placed today. It actually makes a huge difference in my ability to place them without being so invasive, without needing so much bone. That often translates into a shorter recuperation time.
Also, they are often less costly simply because when we don’t have enough bone to place the larger implants, it have to require some bone grafting into the area or sometimes, nerves need to be repositioned or sinuses need to be lifted to create the space required by those longer implants. Those are all invasive and costly procedures as you can imagine. So the ability to place 6 mm implants allows us to have tremendous versatility, keeping the costs lower and allowing us to place those implants in areas where a regular implant simply could not be easily placed.
Once you have your implants in place and you’re rehabilitated with strong, beautiful teeth, you’re going to experience a staggering difference. I know patients talk about the fact that they could not have imagined how much their lives have improved by actually having fixed, beautiful teeth they could smile at you with.
I hope this was helpful. Until next time. Again, Dr. Daniel Vinograd, San Diego. All the best.
Actual Patient Review For Dr. Vinograd (San Diego Dentist)
“Hi, my name is Becky, I just finished seeing Dr. Vinograd. He just did my veneers and I’m incredibly happy with them. The way they treated me was excellent – I love coming here to see everybody, and the results were amazing. They make feel feel incredibly comfortable every time I come here, and I would very highly recommend them for everything from a filling, a cavity, a cleaning, or veneers.. anything! They do really great work, and they make sure that you are comfortable and happy.”
2014 Free Teeth Cleanings – Gum Disease Awareness Week
“Along with non-toxic dentistry, and helping fearful patients, the awareness and prevention of Gum Disease is a priority in our practice. We invite you to sign up for a free cleaning during our awareness week.†– Dr. Daniel Vinograd, DDS
To schedule your free cleaning in our San Diego office, call (619) 550-4904
How To Brush Your Teeth & Gums Properly
Transcription:
Dr. Vinograd – “There is a space between the gums and teeth that is traditionally one or two millimeters deep, however, once the sulcus start getting deeper, it’s very difficault to get in there and remove bacteria. So it is a good practice to get the bristles of the toothbrush in that space between the tooth and the gums. So I usually advise my patients to break this up into two different sessions – the first session is actually addressing your gums, and the sulcus between the tooth and the gum. And you do that by either a very soft, manual or even electrical toothbrush with soft bristles.
The idea is basically to get those bristles to really penetrate the space between the tooth and the gum. I usually ask the patients not to use toothpaste for this part of the procedure because when you use toothpaste you brush very quickly, and in order for this procedure to be effective, we have to get in there and really clean those spaces out. So if you have a really mild toothpaste, or want to use one of the toothpaste recipes we have online, you can do that – for this part of the procedure, you want a toothpaste that will not have an abrasive element.
If you are not going to use a toothpaste, that is fine, just soak your toothbrush in water, and then youre going to take the toothbrush and place it on the space right between the tooth and the gum at 45 degrees. So lowers are going to be 45 degrees downward, and the upper teeth are going to be 45 degrees upward. So these are the bristles that you actually want to penetrate the space between the tooth and the gum. So it would look something like this – we would start back here, the bristles right in the space between the gums, and then spend a good 20 seconds just dislodging that bacteria from the space. We would  continue to move forward, 20 seconds on each spot, all the way around the outside – and then actually do the same on the inside, which is 45 degrees down into the sulcus, and again vibrate gently. This is not a procedure that has to be rough or harsh. So we’re going to do the inside, and when we’re done  then we go with the uppers, obviously 45 degrees up – and again all of the outside, and all of the inside.
Once you have performed this part of the treatment, you can now either use the same or even a little harder toothbrush with your toothpaste, and begin to brush your teeth. After that you want to floss them as well – and in addition to this, you can use a waterpik with plain water, or with ozonated water to be more effective in reducing the pathogenic bacteria.”