Pediatric Dental Care

As a parent, you may wonder when to bring your child to the dentist. Keep in mind, good dental habits start young. According to The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, children should visit the dentist for the first time by the age of one or shortly after their first tooth erupts. After you bring your child in for their initial appointment, checkups are recommended every six months.

 

Our dentists at Cadena Dentistry have experience working with patients of all ages including children. Seeing the dentist from a young age is important for a number of reasons including those listed below.

• Identify Problems Early: Even young children can develop cavities, which need to be treated.
• Acclimation: Bringing your child to the dentist when they are young helps gets them used to the routine of a dental visit. This helps decrease fear and anxiety as your child gets older.
• Preventive Services: Dental sealants are an example of preventative services, which can be used to prevent cavities in children.
• Develop Good Habits: Along with helping children get acclimated, starting dental visits young helps children develop good dental habits, which can last a lifetime.

Our team here at Cadena Dentistry offers a variety of dental services for the entire family including restorative, endodontics and orthodontics. For more information on any of our services or to schedule an appointment, please call our office at 830-775-3322. 

Extractions

Your third and final molars to emerge are your wisdom teeth, which usually come in when you are between 17 and 25 years old. While many people do not experience problems with these new teeth, many others find that theirs must be removed. If your mouth does not have enough room for these molars to come in, a wisdom tooth extraction is necessary, and at our office in Del Rio, TX, Dr. Louis Cadena can determine whether a wisdom tooth extraction is the best course of action for you.

 

Wisdom teeth are usually removed because they become impacted, which means that the tooth does not have enough room to come in straight through the gums and instead emerges at an angle. This can cause pain, damage to the jaw and a more crooked smile. Additionally, the site of impaction can become a bacterial hotspot since impacted wisdom teeth are hard to clean.

 

Wisdom teeth extractions can range from removing a single tooth to removing all four teeth at once. Dr. Cadena will let you know what he thinks is best for you. For the procedure, he will use either a local anesthetic to numb the area or a general anesthetic to sedate you while the teeth are extracted. The tooth will then be accessed through an incision in the gums and wiggled until it is loose enough to be lifted out. If the tooth is too deeply embedded to be removed this way, it will be broken up into pieces before being removed.

Night Guards

At our practice in Del Rio, TX, we see many patients who suffer from bruxism, a condition marked by teeth grinding or excessive clenching. Some of these people grind their teeth or clench their jaw consciously throughout the day, but an even greater number do so at night while sleeping. Many of our patients who grind at night do not even realize that they do it until the results of the behavior give the condition away. If you grind your teeth, you will often experience damage to your enamel, as well as jaw pain, headaches and gum irritation. To protect your teeth, you must seek treatment, and Cadena Dentistry, we find that night guards are the best way to prevent bruxism’s negative effects.

 

Similar to those worn by athletes, night guards provide a barrier between your top and bottom teeth when you sleep. By reducing wear to your teeth and making it harder for you to grind, your teeth will be healthier and you will feel better overall. We custom fit these night guards to make them as comfortable as possible. To fit you with a night guard, we will take an impression of your teeth to send to our dental lab for fabrication. Night guards created in a lab are very durable and can last for up to 10 years.

 

If you find yourself frequently waking up with headaches or pain in your jaw, it is very possible that you grind in your sleep. Often those who do not treat their bruxism end up with TMD, and they can even change the appearance of their face.

To diagnose and treat your night grinding, call 830-775-3322 to schedule an appointment with Dr. Louis Cadena. For more information, visitwww.cadenadentistry.com.  

Mini Dental Implants

While dental implants are a great solution for replacing missing teeth, at Cadena Dentistry, we use mini dental implants as an effective alternative in situations where regular implants cannot be used, such as in narrow spaces. Roughly half the size in diameter as conventional implants, mini implants are often used to replace smaller teeth in the mouth, as well as serve as a base for dentures.

 

Because mini implants are so small, often no incision is needed to place them in the gums. They can usually be inserted by Dr. Louis Cadena through the gum and into the bone directly, which eliminates much of the recovery time and allows the restoration to be placed immediately or shortly after. Like regular implants, mini implants are made of titanium. However, they are one solid piece, which give them roughly the same strength as a regular implant, which is made of an implant and a separate abutment that is added after installation.

 

When used for dentures, four to six mini implants are placed along the gum line, and an entire set of uppers or lowers can be attached directly to the gums, which is advantageous to the patient since, unlike adhesive, implants do not shift or slip. This makes dentures more comfortable while eating, speaking and smiling.

 

If you want to know if implants or mini implants are the right solution for your missing teeth, call 830-775-3322 to schedule an appointment. For more information our Del Rio, TX dental practice, visit www.cadenadentistry.com.