Dental Care

A bridge is a fixed replacement for a missing tooth or teeth and is made by shaping and taking moulds of surrounding teeth, which will eventually support the bridge. Unlike dentures, which can be removed, Bridges will be fixed in your mouth.

It’s fairly common to break or chip a tooth, but sometimes if you or your child has had a serious accident you can knock a tooth out. If you or your child’s tooth has been knocked out or is badly broken and causing pain, contact us as soon as possible for advice.

If an adult tooth is knocked out, try putting it back in place. Do NOT try to re-insert a baby tooth.

If you can’t put an adult tooth back into position

If you can’t put an adult tooth back into position, place it in a container of cold milk and contact us or your usual dental practice. You may be able to see a dentist straight away or you may be directed to an urgent care dental service.

If you’re not a patient of ours, or don’t have a regular dentist, we will do out best to see you or you can contact NHS 111 for advice on where to get urgent care.

Summary

If the tooth is just chipped and NOT causing pain or trauma to the mouth, simply make a normal appointment to have it smoothed down or filled. No great harm will come to the tooth if it is not repaired straight away. If the break is large and cannot be repaired with a filling, then other options will be discussed, e.g. a Crown.

A crown is a type of cap that completely covers a real tooth. It is fixed in your mouth and can be fitted where a tooth has broken, decayed or been damaged. Crowns can also make a tooth look better. To fit a crown, the tooth will need to be drilled down little so it’s like a peg onto which the crown will be fixed.

More commonly known as false teeth, dentures are fitted in place of natural teeth. A full set is used to replace all your teeth and a part set can be used to replace one or more missing teeth. Dentures are custom-made using impressions (mouldings) of your mouth and are usually made from metal or plastic. Although we at Orchard House do not directly provide them, we can assess your needs and provide a prescription to a Clinical Denture Technician we work closely with, who can make bespoke dentures to suit.

They’re removable and need to be removed regularly and soaked in a cleaning solution.

Dentures, an Alternative Solution
Dentures are an alternative to other treatment options, and are important if you lose your natural teeth as losing your teeth makes it difficult to chew your food, which will adversely affect your diet and may also cause your facial muscles to sag.

Implants are a fixed alternative to removable dentures. They may be the only option if the loss of teeth has caused the mouth to shrink so that it can no longer support dentures, or if the space between teeth is too great to support Bridgework. You can use implants to replace just a single tooth or several teeth.

To fit an implant, titanium ‘screws’ are drilled into the jawbone to support a crown, bridge or denture. Implants are usually only available privately and can be very expensive. They’re sometimes available on the NHS for patients whose face and teeth have been damaged, such as people who’ve had mouth cancer or an accident that’s knocked a tooth out.

We can refer to a number of colleagues around the local area that can assess and provide dental implants.

RCT (also called endodontics) tackles infection at the centre or tip of a tooth (the root canal system). It’s also got a bad rap!

When the blood or nerve supply of the tooth has become infected, if root canal treatment is not carried out, the infection can spread, lead to an abscess and the tooth may need to be taken out.

During Treatment

During treatment, all the infection is removed from inside the root canal system. The canal is filled and the tooth is sealed to stop it from becoming infected again. RCT may require 2 or even 3 visits depending on the tooth and amount of infection.

Because RCT also remove the pulp, the teeth involved can no longer function as living things. Over time, this deficit causes them to lose strength and become likely to fracture.

After performing RCT

After performing RCT, we apply permanent fillings to protect the treated teeth from bacteria and to strengthen them in the process. For many root canal procedures, however, fitting crowns over the filled teeth is necessary because of the high risk of fracture without the extra protection crowns provide.

Horror stories you may have heard, are usually exaggerated. To you, the procedure is largely like a regular filling, it just takes longer to do and requires Special Equipment. We will always discuss options first, and in trick cases we may include a referral to a Specialist who carries out RCT.

This is when your teeth are professionally cleaned and involves carefully removing the deposits that build up on the teeth (tartar).

Teeth whitening involves bleaching your teeth to make them a lighter colour. The treatment can’t make your teeth brilliant white, but it can lighten the existing colour by several shades.

Home Teeth Whitening

Home teeth whitening involves a couple of appointments in house, then sessions at home wearing a mouthguard containing whitening gel. The whole process takes a few weeks, plus you can just purchase more gel as needed to maintain the shade of your teeth.

Laser Whitening
Another procedure often called laser whitening or power whitening is offered at Orchard House and takes about an 1.5hrs. For adults we offer Phillips ‘Zoom®’. You simply attend your appointment, sit in the chair, relax or listen to music while we do all the work. The result is instant, lightens by a number of shades and is in most cases, completely free of sensitivity.

Safe Whitening

Safe Tooth Whitening treatment can deliver a brilliant, long-lasting result. Your whitening treatment will be tailored to suit your individual needs and wants, with monitoring during and after the procedure; ensuring that any adverse side effects are minimised and the overall tooth whitening is as brilliant as you had hoped.

Book an exam to find out how brightly you could be smiling.

Veneers are new facings for teeth that can be used to improve the appearance or shape of a discoloured tooth, or where there are numerous fillings. To fit a veneer, the front surface of the tooth is drilled away a little, although this is not always necessary.

An impression is taken, and a thin layer of porcelain or composite is bonded to the front of the tooth (similar to how a false fingernail is applied).

Fillings are used to repair a hole or chip in a tooth, possibly caused by decay. The most common type of filling is metal called an Amalgam, and is made from a mixture of metals including mercury, silver, tin, copper and zinc.

What are white fillings made of?

White fillings made from a resin composite and obviously give a better looking result, although depending on size or location, may not possible. In these cases other cosmetic treatments can be used, e.g. a Crown or Veneers.

The wisdom teeth grow at the back of your gums and normally are the last teeth to come through, usually in your late teens or early twenties. Most people have four wisdom teeth, one in each corner.

Wisdom teeth can sometimes emerge at an angle or get stuck and only emerge partially. Teeth that grow through in this way are known as either impacted or partially erupted

If in these cases they cause repeated problems, often they need to be removed surgically, and in some cases can be done on the NHS. Dependent on x-rays we may perform the procedure or may refer you to a Dentist with a Special Interest (DwSI) or to a hospital’s oral and maxillofacial unit.

Wisdom Tooth Removal Costs

You will usually have to pay a charge of £51.30 (NHS band 2) for wisdom tooth removal at a 'DwSI'. If it necessary to refer to a hospital for NHS treatment, you will not have to pay a charge.

We can also refer you privately for treatment if you wish.